News, Analysis and Reviews of the Disney Entertainment Business
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This week’s news may be a cause for celebration for some California theme parks, while fostering jealousy at others. Los Angeles County and Orange County will be moving into California's Orange/Tier 3 COVID status. For the eligible theme parks, this means they now have the option to reopen at 25% capacity. Disneyland is located in Orange County, and Universal Studios Hollywood is located in Los Angeles County.
Orange/Tier 3 is labelled “moderate” risk, a less restrictive tier under California's pandemic rules, and while Disneyland and Universal are in that zone, other theme parks such as SeaWorld San Diego and Legoland are still in counties that are labelled “red,” or “substantial” risk, and they currently remain at 15% capacity.
Orange County’s move to the Orange/Tier 3 designation will take place today, March 31, while Los Angeles County will make the change on April 5.
Disneyland and Disney California Adventure were scheduled to open under Red/Tier 2 on April 30 with a 15% attendance capacity. This change would allow them the option to reopen at 25%. Disney is still planning an April 30 opening for both parks.
California theme parks were permitted to begin operations on April 1, but Disney opted for an end of the month reopening. However, the Downtown Disney District is already open, and the sold-out “A Touch of Disney” festival at California Adventure will be underway until April 19.
• Parks must limit visitors to a maximum of 25% capacity.
• Indoor capacity limited to a maximum of 25%.
• Indoor dining limited to a maximum of 25% capacity.
• Walk-up ticket sales allowed. Park operators must collect complete name and contact information (including a phone number) of the ticket purchaser for necessary contact tracing.
(Note that while walk up ticket sales are permissible under California’s guidelines, Disney’s managed attendance system requires that in order to enter a park, guests must have both an advance park reservation and valid admission for the same park on the same date, a procedure similar to what is already in place in Disney World in Florida.)
Additionally, California theme park reopening guidelines limit attendance to California residents only at this time. The standard social distancing and mask requirements remain in effect. Weekly employee COVID testing will also be in place.
For California’s tiered guidelines blueprint, check here.
For details on what’s open and when at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, head to Disney’s website.
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Beth Keating is a regular contributor to DisneyBizJournal.
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It’s been more than ten months since Disneyland closed its gates to guests hoping to ride “Pirates of the Caribbean” or “it’s a small world” in Anaheim. But in the effort to help stem the tide of the pandemic that brought its operations to a standstill, Disneyland will be partnering with Orange County to become the first large COVID-19 vaccination site in the county. Four additional sites are in the process of being finalized.
It’s no surprise that Disneyland was chosen for the task. It’s a sizeable facility, and Disney is certainly no stranger to moving large crowds. The site will become one of five regional “point-of-dispensing” sites, or “Super PODs,” vaccinating thousands of people each day.
Andrew Do, Acting Chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, said in a press release, “The Disneyland Resort, the largest employer in the heart of Orange County, has stepped up to host the county’s first Super POD site – undertaking a monumental task in our vaccination distribution process.”
The goal of Orange County’s “Operation Independence” is to vaccinate all residents by July 4.
In Florida, where Disney World has already served as a COVID-19 testing site at its Maingate Complex, talks are underway to add vaccines to the mix.
“Like hospitals across the state, Disney World has the capacity to store the vaccine with an ultracold freezer,” said state emergency director Jared Moskowitz during a virtual town hall with state Rep Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, last week.
“We have no ultracold freezer storage problems here in the state. There are plenty of hospitals with them. County health departments have them. Some universities have them. Disney World has one,” Moskowitz said, adding his department bought some, too.
For information about the Orange County California COVID-19 vaccination process, as well as who is eligible to receive vaccines and when, access the Orange County Health Care Agency’s website.
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Beth Keating is a regular contributor to DisneyBizJournal.
Please support the efforts of DisneyBizJournal.com to bring news, analysis and commentary on Disney to readers such as yourself. Make a contribution right here via PayPal. Thanks!
When Hong Kong Disneyland reopened on September 25, it meant that Disneyland, including Disney California Adventure, became the last Disney theme park to remain closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, city and business leaders, including Disney, are no longer quietly waiting for California Governor Gavin Newsom to act.
A coalition, known as ReOpen O.C. Now and made up of city leaders in Orange County, is publicly urging action. The group recently released a commercial urging the state to provide an opportunity for local theme parks to reopen.
What’s truly bizarre is that California government still hasn’t issued guidelines for theme parks to follow in order to reopen. That’s a breathtaking example of government falling down on the job.
And when the state apparently was getting ready to finally release guidelines, the draft made clear that it would be nearly impossible for theme parks like Disneyland to reopen. As the Orange County Registerreported:
California theme parks have been left waiting on the sidelines while other segments of the economy have reopened under Newsom’s four-tier Blueprint for a Safer Economy -— which proceeds from the most-restrictive “widespread” risk level through “substantial” and “moderate” before reaching the least-restrictive “minimal” tier.
Most California counties with major theme parks currently fall into the second-most restrictive “substantial” risk level — including Orange (Disneyland and Knott’s), San Diego (SeaWorld and Legoland), Solano (Six Flags Discovery Kingdom) and Santa Clara (California’s Great America). Los Angeles County — home to Universal Studios Hollywood and Six Flags Magic Mountain — remains in the most restrictive “widespread” risk level…
The initial draft guidelines from the state for reopening California theme parks reportedly call for:
·Individual theme parks can reopen only once their county reaches the least-restrictive “minimal” risk level
·Operate at 25% of attendance capacity
·Limit visitors to residents living within a 120-mile radius of each theme park
The state’s draft guidelines present two key problems for theme parks:
·Placing theme parks in the final tier of the Blueprint for a Safer Economy means the severity of the guidelines never change until the pandemic ends
·Reaching the least-restrictive “minimal” tier could be difficult to nearly impossible for California’s most-populous counties
The draft guidelines likely would prevent California theme parks from reopening for weeks or months.
Indeed, it’s likely that the parks would not be able to open until sometime in 2021 under these criteria.
That, of course, would continue to pile on the damage in terms of lost jobs, lost small businesses, lost output and income, and mounting problems for local governments, not to mention that state as well.
In a recent letter to Governor Newsom, mayors from cities across Orange County wrote:
Your focus on providing guidelines for restaurants, schools, personal services, gatherings, and so many other businesses and activities have given us hope, because with guidelines, a path forward can be envisioned.
However, a crucial segment of our region’s economy does not have this hope or path forward – theme parks – because no such guidelines have been issued. We know you have stated that you are working on these guidelines, and we respectfully request that they be issued now.
The importance of theme parks to the Orange County economy cannot be overstated. The Disneyland Resort is the single largest employer in Southern California, with over 32,000 direct jobs at the site and over 78,000 jobs created across the Southland. Knott’s Berry Farm is America’s oldest theme park and still one of the largest in California. It employs over 5,000 people and helps support an additional 5,000 jobs in the region. Collectively, this is nearly 90,000 jobs in the Southland that are on hold, due to the closure of theme parks.
These economic engines drive our region far beyond the borders of Anaheim and Buena Park. Many guests to our beach destinations incorporate a theme park stay into their travel plans. The iconic brands associated with our theme parks bring recognition to our region beyond the direct impact of travel. The employees of these destinations, and the small businesses that supply and thrive because of them, are scattered far and wide across the Southland. Quite simply, the current state of affairs – no theme parks and no path forward for theme parks – leaves a huge hole in the very heart of our economy that we cannot fill.
Regarding Disney’s recent announcement of laying off 28,000 workers, Todd Ament, President and CEO, Anaheim Chamber of Commerce, made clear who was at least partially responsible in a statement:
The mass layoff announcement from Disney is tragic – and entirely foreseeable to all of us who have been calling on Governor Newsom to do what he has inexplicably failed to do – issue theme park re-opening guidelines. The Disneyland Resort has been closed for more than 6 months. For the first six weeks of the closure, they paid their cast members – and continue to pay their health care benefits once forced to furlough them. Disney has been ready to re-open since mid-July. Disney’s Florida theme parks have been operating safely since re-opening in July. Responsibility for Disney’s reluctant decision to lay-off more than 28,000 cast members lands squarely on the shoulders of Governor Newsom and those interests who have put their short-term agendas ahead of allowing cast members to return to work.
In the end, this is not about reopening theme parks versus public safety. Instead, this is a choice between allowing theme parks to reopen safely, and thereby allowing life to be injected back into the Orange County and surrounding area economy, or not.
The state has pulled back on its draft guidelines, with negotiations apparently continuing. So, Disneyland and other theme parks, and their employees, continue to wait for guidelines from Governor Newsom.
Due to an executive order ordering all non-essential businesses to close in Orange County, Florida, it’s clear that Walt Disney World will remain closed until at least April 9.
Today, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demmings not only ordered that all non-essential retail and commercial businesses close from 11:00 PM on Thursday, March 26, to 11:00 PM, April 9, but also ordered residents to limit travel to essential trips and to stay at home otherwise. This is all being done, of course, to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
Most of Walt Disney World is located within Orange County.
The order could be extended if deemed necessary.
The executive order defines non-essential businesses as follows: “All non-essential retail and commercial businesses are hereby ordered temporarily closed, including but not limited to, whether indoors or outdoors, locations with amusement rides, carnivals, water parks, pools, zoos, museums, arcades, fairs, children's play centers, playgrounds, theme parks, bowling alleys, pool halls, movie and other theaters, concert and music halls, country clubs, social clubs and fraternal organizations.”
In addition, Universal announced that it would be extending the closure of both Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood from the end of this month, as first announced, to April 19. It’s reasonable to expect that Disney would follow suit, although the Walt Disney Company has made no announcement updating its original statement that its U.S. parks would be closed until April 1.
