This week’s big news was the announcement of reopening dates for Walt Disney World, but we’ve got updates from around the world this week.
Walt Disney World Reopening Dates Announced
The big news this week was that Walt Disney World announced plans to reopen July 11 (Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom) and July 15 (Epcot, Hollywood Studios). As a result, we have begun building a new set of content that will focus on this phased reopening (link a few paragraphs down).
We say “phased” reopening even though no phases have been spelled out because there is a long road between July 11—which will see very reduced capacity, no parades, no character greetings, no fireworks—and an eventual return to something resembling “normal.”
Going forward, we may highlight important Walt Disney World specifics in the weekly update, but you will want to begin following our Walt Disney World Reopening Masterpost, which contains all of this week’s Walt Disney World news.
Disneyland — California Making Moves
California Governor Gavin Newsom has clarified that theme parks can reopen has part of the Stage 3 reopening of California, and we are seeing more approvals for “accelerated” reopenings in California. As a result, SeaWorld San Diego and Legoland California are asking to reopen July 1.
One theme we’ve highlighted a lot the last few months is that Disneyland began this crisis getting special treatment from the government—it was exempted from the first ban on large gatherings.
Now that we’re in the more ad hoc phase of this, where the authorities seems to be picking and choosing who can reopen, it’s reasonable to expect Disneyland to get approval at least as soon as nearby attractions (note though that California’s theme parks aren’t as centrally located as Floridas)…but that’s not the end of the story.
Another theme we repeatedly highlighted is that even though it was exempted at the start of the crisis, Disneyland chose to close anyways. And we just saw Walt Disney World propose a mid-July reopening date, while no one would doubt that they could have gotten approval to reopen much sooner if they’d wanted to.
I’d expect Disney to see how the requests by the San Diego theme parks go, and they might even let Universal Hollywood propose a date first. Unlike Florida, where reopening requests have been swiftly approved, we have no indication California will rush to approve these requests.
Also, recall that Disney Chairman Bob Iger is on the California reopening task force. It’s reasonable to expect Disney won’t propose plans until they know those plans are going to be approved.
As for how Disney might time their reopening, I don’t think we can predict that. While they might be more cautious than other parks, Disneyland is a less complex operation than Walt Disney World, which could allow for a quicker reopening.
This means a July 1 date—currently the earliest we’re seeing theme parks in California target—is in play. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see them delay few weeks like they did in Florida.
Disneyland Paris — June 22 In Play
Disneyland Paris has been tough to track, perhaps because US media doesn’t cover the situation in Paris as closely. At one point, it looked like a ban on large gatherings would keep theme parks closed until at least September.
Now, we’ve seen French authorities indicate that Disneyland Paris could reopen as soon as June 22 with certain restrictions.
I’m in no position to speculate further. I’d just remind everyone (as I have throughout this), that the situation is always more complex than a single “okay” date. Disneyland Paris may well decide it’s not worth reopening under certain restrictions, for example.
Tokyo Disney Resort and Hong Kong Disneyland
Ikspiari, the shopping mall at Tokyo Disney Resort, is reopening June 1. The state of emergency in Japan has also been lifted. We haven’t heard anything about a reopening date for the resort yet, but a 3-week to 6-week target would accord with what we’ve seen in Shanghai and the United States.
I haven’t heard much about Hong Kong Disneyland. A few weeks ago we were hearing about them testing operations, but nothing official has come of that.
You might initially find this surprising—the pandemic hit mainland China harder than Hong Kong, and Shanghai Disneyland is already reopened! But there are big differences.
Hong Kong Disneyland is a much smaller park, which makes it harder to socially distance. Hong Kong Disneyland is also a less popular park (annual attendance 7 million vs. 12 million), so the business case for reopening it under restrictions is tougher.
Hong Kong has also seen a resurgence in protests. The protests were a problem for Hong Kong Disneyland’s business before the pandemic, so it’s reasonable that the park might not rush to reopen in such uncertain times.