On Tuesday morning, California’s Governor Newsom released the guidelines to reopen Disneyland and other California theme parks. This comes 7 months after Disney closed it’s theme parks across the world. Disneyland in California and the Aulani Resort in Hawaii are the only two resorts that have not reopened, even though Downtown Disney has been open since July 9th. Aulani will begin a phased reopening beginning November 1st.
Sleeping Beauty’s Castle at Disneyland Sign outside of the parks informing guests of the parks’ closures
Last month, Disney CEO Bob Chapek, announced that 28,000 Disney employees would be laid off in the US. This prompted unions representing California Disney employees to urge Newsom to open Disneyland.
At a press conference, Newsom stated that there are different tiers that a county could fall under and that Orange County, where Disneyland is located, is in the red tier. In order for it to open, the county needs to be in the orange tier. Then they may open at 25% capacity and it will only be open to locals in the beginning. Masks and social distancing will be mandatory, as well as a screening for Covid-19 symptoms.
While we still don’t have an opening date, Disney will watch for drops in positive Covid cases in hopes that Orange County will drop in tiers. A drop in positive cases brings Disney closer to allowing the park to reopen in phases and slowly allowing more and more guests to attend. To date, no positive Covid cases have been linked to visitors at Disneyworld.
