BREAKING NEWS: California Shares Official Guidelines for Disneyland’s Reopening

In a press conference, California has announced the official guidelines for Disneyland’s reopening! What do you think of the guidelines?

California Guidelines

Dr. Mark Ghaly, California Health and Human Services Secretary, shared the guidelines Disneyland and other California Theme Parks needed to implement in order to reopen.

He mentioned that theme parks are a higher risk setting than outdoor stadiums (which were also included in the briefing today). The factors that make theme parks more risky are:

1. Random large scale mixing
2. Tens of thousands of visitors from a broad geographic base
3. Visiting for a number of days
4. Promotes mixing and congregating
5. Many frequently touched surfaces
6. Significant impact on surrounding sectors

Disneyland Reopening

In the pdf file which can be viewed HERE, theme parks can open when they reach the yellow tier (considered “minimal”).

Operations are permitted for all amusement park operators with the following modifications:

Capacity must be limited to 25% of total facility occupancy based on the design/operating capacity or fire department occupant limit, whichever is fewer.

Capacity on all indoor dining and drinking establishments within the park must be limited to 25%.

Operators must follow the modifications in this guidance and must be prepared for inspections by public health officials to ensure adequate implementation of all required modifications. Operators must address and implement any resulting findings and recommendations.

Other Requirements for Reopening

California will require face coverings for all Cast Members and Guests visiting Disneyland. The only exception is when a person is actively eating or drinking. This is the same as Disney World’s mask policy.

It’s worth noting California appears to be allowing Guests who are exempt from wearing masks into the park, according to verbiage on the briefing. From our interpretation, Disneyland must allow that exemption to those who qualify.

Guests should be temperature and/or symptom screened upon arrival, asked to use hand sanitizer, and must bring and wear a face covering when not eating or drinking if not exempted per the CDPH Face Covering Guidance.

Amusement park operators must cancel reservations for individuals/parties with symptomatic guests and refuse entry.

A reservation system will also be required for Disneyland to reopen. Disneyland will more than likely also use the same Park Pass reservation Disney World uses to manage capacity and limit attendance.

Virtual queue systems were also mentioned in the briefing to ensure capacity limits and physical distancing. Could virtual queues be used in more attractions?

Final Thoughts

The city of Anaheim is currently under a “red” substantial tier. Its positivity rate needs to decrease and stay that way for at least two weeks in order to move down to an “orange” moderate tier.

Then, it needs to move down to a “yellow” minimal tier in order for Disneyland to open.

At best, this could mean Disneyland opens in November or December. At worse, the reopening could be pushed into 2021 based on how many positive cases the city of Anaheim has.

What do you think of the reopening guidelines? Do you think Disneyland will be opening this year? Share your thoughts with us on Facebook.