Disneyland Theme Parks Reopening Delayed

A few weeks ago, the Disneyland Resort put forth its proposed reopening date for its theme parks – July 17. Disney submitted their plans to the local and Californian governments and unfortunately, I am the bearer of bad news. Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure will now, officially, not be reopening on that date.

According to Disney:

We previously announced a proposed phased reopening of our theme parks for July 17, pending government approvals. We developed enhanced health and safety protocols for both cast and guests at Shanghai Disney Resort, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and the Walt Disney World Resort that have been approved, allow us to reopen in a responsible manner and bring our cast members back to work. 

The state of California has now indicated that it will not issue theme park reopening guidelines until sometime after July 4. Given the time required for us to bring thousands of cast members back to work and restart our business, we have no choice but to delay the reopening of our theme parks and resort hotels until we receive approval from government officials. Once we have a clearer understanding of when guidelines will be released, we expect to be able to communicate a reopening date.

Our Downtown Disney District will reopen on July 9 as previously announced with health and safety protocols for our cast members and guests. The opening of our Downtown Disney District has been previously approved in line with restaurant and retail openings throughout California. The Master Services Union, which represents our retail cast at this location, previously signed an agreement for members to return to work.

In order to reopen our theme parks we need to negotiate agreements with our unions to return employees to work. We have had positive discussions and are very pleased to have signed agreements from 20 union affiliates, including the Master Services Council, which represents more than 11,000 of our cast members. The signed agreement details plans that include enhanced safety protocols that will allow us to responsibly reopen, and get thousands of our cast members back to work.

We thank our cast and guests for their patience during the unprecedented time while we await approval from government officials. 

When Disneyland Resort does get those final approvals, much like Walt Disney World Resort, due to theme park capacity being significantly limited to comply with governmental requirements and promote physical distancing, the Disneyland Resort will manage attendance through the Disney Park Pass reservation system that will require all guests, including Annual Passholders, to obtain a reservation for park entry in advance.

In addition, as of right now, the Walt Disney World Resort is still on track for July 11 and July 15 reopening dates.