While Walt Disney World in Florida announced its reopening dates a few weeks ago, as well as the resorts plan for maintaining their guests health and safety during the ongoing pandemic, Disneyland in California had kept mum on when its theme parks would be opening up again. On Tuesday (June 10), however, the Walt Disney Company finally shared the reopening plan for the original Disney theme park in California.
Disneyland will begin a phased reopening on July 17 pending state and local government approvals. July 17 is the 65th anniversary of the opening day of Disneyland park. Before Disneyland's two theme parks—Disneyland and Disney California Adventure—reopening, the Downtown Disney shopping and entertainment district will begin its own phased reopening on July 9.
Disneyland will follow in the footsteps of Walt Disney World in Floria and Shanghai Disneyland in China by adding enhanced safety measures to its parks. The capacity for the parks will be "significantly limited to comply with governmental requirements and promote physical distancing." Guests will also be required to wear marks while visiting Disneyland.
Robert Niles, editor of ThemeParkInsider.com, spoke to CNN Business about some worries he has about Disneyland's reopening. Niles points out that Disneyland is "tiny in physical size compared to the Orlando-area parks," which will make social distancing "much tougher for Disney in California."
Disney CEO Bob Chapek, however, told CNN Business that he believes it's safe for guests to return to the parks despite the ongoing pandemic. "We've done everything we can to open up responsibly," Chapek said. "Taking the guidance of local health officials, state health officials, national health officials, plus our own well-qualified doctors on staff to create an environment to create new operating procedures, to create new policies, to do new training, new standards of hygiene."
Will you be visiting Disneyland when it opens up again on July 17?
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