California Governor Gavin Newsom, in conjunction with California Department of Public Health Director Dr. Sonia Angell, have set strict guidelines as to when businesses can reopen. Theme parks and convention centers fall under stage 3 or 4 of this roadmap which means that they will remain closed for the next few months at least.
Theme parks like Disneyland are among the final businesses that will be able to reopen, based on the governor’s new four-stage road map. The four-stage plan, announced during a livestream today, establishes phases in which each business sector can reopen, starting with Stage 1, or “where we are now”, moving to Stage 2, which includes Lower-Risk Workplaces, followed by Stage 3, which covers Higher-Risk Workplaces, and finally Stage 4, or the end of the stay-at-home order.
According to the OC Register, theme parks were not explicitly mentioned in the plan outline, but all major theme parks in the state, including Disneyland, Universal Studios Hollywood, and others seem to fall under Stage 4 of the roadmap, if not Stage 3 at the very earliest with significant operational changes, such as the ones outlined earlier this morning by the Orange County Task Force.
During yesterday’s meeting, we also learnt that when theme parks open their attendance will be heavily restricted. All employees will be required to wear facemasks, touchless hand sanitizers will need to be at each ticketing position and at the entry/exit for every ride/attraction. Prior to work, all employees will have their temperature checked.
These same restrictions are likely to be placed on events at convention centers such as the Anaheim Convention Center. With this, it is time for Disney, Lucasfilm & Reed to announce that August’s Celebration event will have to cancelled/postponed. Star Wars fans around the world would love to have something to look forward to, so please reschedule the event for next year and we can all change our plans accordingly!
