The big news this week was Disneyland getting a proposed reopening date. We also had some smaller updates from other resorts. Before we get to this week, here’s a look at our other core reopening content (which focuses on Disney World):
Disneyland Proposes Reopening Dates
Disneyland announced plans to reopen according to the following schedule:
July 9 — Downtown Disney reopens
July 17 — Disneyland and Disney California Adventure theme parks reopen
July 23 — Grand Californian and Paradise Pier hotels reopen
Similar to Walt Disney World, ticket sales were halted and the parks are planning to use a reservation system to allow for the parks to operate with a reduced capacity. No details about this system have been released yet. The plan still has to be approved by local authorities, but that isn’t expected to pose a challenge.
You’ll recall that Walt Disney World has announced the reopening of its theme parks on July 11 and July 15. DVC hotels are reopening June 22, but we don’t have word on other Walt Disney World hotels.
Some people were surprised to see Disneyland have hotel information before Walt Disney World. I file this under “Disney World is complicated.”
Walt Disney World is still working out the details of hosting the NBA. They have over 20 hotels, and it’s unlikely they’ll need to operate all of them when the parks reopen. They’re also probably still expecting many people to cancel when they realize they can’t all get into the parks (due to the limited capacity and the theme park reservation system).
By contrast, if they wanted—and they have not said they’ll do this!!—Disneyland could probably guarantee park entry to all their hotel occupants without worrying about hitting their reduced park capacity.
There’s only about 2500 rooms on Disneyland property, so even if every room were booked you’d be look at probably fewer than 10,000 guests, plenty few for two parks. It’s not surprising Disneyland is able to quickly announce two hotels reopening.
The other surprise is that Disneyland Hotel has no set reopening date. My speculation is that this is due to a lack of demand for very expensive hotel rooms at Disneyland. Grand Californian and Disneyland Hotel are two of the most expensive hotels in the area, and it’s unsurprising that in the current climate there isn’t a ton of high-end demand.
Message from Josh D’Amaro + Our Thoughts
Josh D’Amaro, Chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products released a message about the parks reopening. The tenor and underlying message are as you’d expect—they’re trying to do this safely while still maintaining Disney magic.
Josh D’Amaro is well-respected for being an accessible leader and for putting a lot of focus on frontline experience, both for Cast Members and guests.
As a lifetime Walt Disney World visitor and a relative newbie to the Disneyland circuit, I saw Josh D’Amaro walking around the park more times in a handful of visits at Disneyland while he was in charge there and a handful of visits in Walt Disney World while he was in charge there than I’ve seen of any other executive.
This is all to say we believe Josh D’Amaro understands himself to be in a tough position. If you’ve followed the Universal Orlando reopening, you know those parks have been more or less empty since they reopened.
Florida is also seeing a rise in daily detected COVID cases, which mostly accords with a rise in testing. (It’s a long road—one we aren’t going down—to settling on what the data “should” look like.)
We don’t yet know what demand for Walt Disney World will look like. Universal’s AP previews were much busier than the days since, which aligns with the theory that there is some pent up demand, but it fizzles quickly.
Complicating this in both good and bad ways is the mask requirement. Florida gets awfully hot, so people aren’t loving the idea of wearing masks there. However, as the heart of summer hits the United States, public (i.e. not theme parks, which are private property) mask requirements are going to be harder and harder to enforce.
So if you’re someone who prefers a mask-wearing world, the theme parks that require masks are one of your better options. Theme parks also control access through temperature testing, which is also an option unavailable to public spaces like sidewalks and parks.
We live in Chicago, for example, where public spaces are getting more and more crowded, and mask wearing is pretty prominent, but not universal. Based on what I’ve seen at Universal so far, I’d definitely feel safer inside those parks this week than at some of Chicago’s more popular spaces (our parks are just reopening, so this coming weekend will be a big deal).
If mask wearing greatly reduces nationwide as summer hits, there might be pressure on theme parks—particularly Florida theme parks—to loosen the requirement. This cycle / feedback loop continues…all with the backdrop of fears about a second wave of the virus.
Disney World Updates
Earlier this week we discussed updates from Walt Disney World pertaining to hotel and dining policies. There haven’t been substantive updates since then. See our Walt Disney World Reopening Masterpost for the latest.
Major League Soccer Coming to Walt Disney World
The potential restart of the NBA season at Walt Disney World has gotten a lot of attention, but this week we got confirmation of another league restarting at Walt Disney World—Major League Soccer.
ESPN Wide World of Sports—an athletic campus at Walt Disney World—will host Major League Soccer’s MLS is Back Tournament from July 8 through August 11.
The teams and staff will be staying at the Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin. The Swan & Dolphin are Marriott-operated hotels that share a number of perks with Disney hotels but aren’t actually Disney hotels themselves.
This makes sense for Marriott, who will face a lot of challenges filling their hotels once the parks open because of the yet-undetailed theme park reservation system.
The same could be said of Disney, who continue to try to work out the details to host the return of the NBA. With the NBA rumored to be looking at occupying up to three hotels, it’s possible that Disney didn’t need the added headache of hosting another sports league at its own hotels.
Theoretically the impact on other Disney guests during this time should be minimal. If the Boardwalk area and hotels are open, it’s reasonable to expect the Swan & Dolphin will be roped off in some way to preserve a “bubble” for MLS people. I wouldn’t expect to walk over there for a meal or drink (the Dolphin has a decent coffee shop, FUEL, too) from July 8 through August 11.
Disneyland Paris Reopening Plans (No Date Yet)
The DLP Geek reports on Disneyland Paris preparing protocols to reopen safely. Disneyland Paris has not commented on any plans to reopen. June 22 is currently the earliest date they could reopen, according to the French government.
As we noted last week, it would be reasonable that if Paris, Anaheim, and Orlando all allow local theme parks to reopen by mid-July that we might see Disneyland Paris, Disneyland, and Walt Disney World reopening near each other. Despite all their differences, the parks and operations are similar enough that their reopening timelines could be similar, if local authorities permit.