Disneyland Proposed Plans For Phased Reopening By July 17th

Jun 10

Jun 10 Disneyland Proposed Plans For Phased Reopening By July 17th

Dust off your Minnie ears and annual passes, Disney announced the Anaheim parks - Disneyland and Disney California Adventure - have a proposed plan to reopen on July 17th, 2020. If they’re approved to reopen on that date, it would be on the theme park’s 65th anniversary. This news came on Wednesday, June 10th as businesses in California counties slowly begin to reopen. Keep in mind that this is a phased reopening and is pending state and government approval. Downtown Disney will begin reopening on July 9th with safety measures in place.

While we’re all itching to get back to the happiest place on earth, there are few changes to keep in mind:

Theme park capacity will be significantly limited to comply with governmental requirements and promote physical distancing.
Disneyland Resort will manage attendance through a new theme park reservation system that will require all guests, including Annual Passholders, to obtain a reservation for park entry in advance. Reservations will be subject to availability with more details about this new reservation system to come.
There will also be a temporary pause on new ticket sales and Annual Passport sales and renewals.

For more details, visit Disney Parks Blog

There are many debates online whether the park is opening too soon as the risk of being exposed to COVID-19 is still present, especially places where large crowds gather. Shanghai Disneyland was the first of the Disney Parks to reopen and have utilized an online reservations system, temperature checks, face mask requirements, limited capacity, social distancing markers, and more, as ways to keep both employees and visitors safe. Universal Studios Orlando has partially reopened as well with similar safety measures in place. While there are no details on what type of safety measures Disneyland will utilize, I’m pretty sure it’ll be almost identical to what Shanghai Disneyland and Universal Studios Orlando have done so far. Universal Studios Hollywood also announced a partial reopen for CityWalk and some of its restaurants and shops. Daily hours are 12pm - 8pm.
For entertainment such as parades, fireworks, and character meet-and-greet are temporarily unavailable until further notice, though the Disney Parks Blog state “Characters will be in the parks in new ways to entertain and delight guests.”. Photos from Universal Studios Orlando show the Scooby Gang posing for photos with face masks on as guests take selfies from a social distancing marker on the floor. Shanghai Disneyland had their character greet the guests from a safe distance. Disneyland may use similar strategy when it comes to character appearance.

What if you’re an annual passholder and your pass expired during the months when Disneyland was shutdown? When we called the Annual Passholder Member Services , they told us that the pass expiration date will be extended to provide additional access opportunities at the end of the passport term. They also said that an updated expiration date will be reflected on our account before the parks reopen. On my Disneyland app, it still shows the original expiration date BUT it does say we still have over 60 days remaining so we’ll keep an eye on this and report if the new expiration date comes up.

If Disneyland is approved for reopening on July 17th, would you be attending or do you think this is too soon?

To stay up-to-date with the latest news in geek fashion and more, follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @GeeknGlitter