After months of unprecedented closure, Walt Disney World has presented its plans for a phased reopening before the Orange County Economic Recovery Task Force group, the last major Central Florida theme park to do so after finalized announcements from Universal Orlando and Sea World.
Walt Disney World plans to begin its phased reopening on the following dates:
Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Animal Kingdom – Saturday, July 11
EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios – Wednesday, July 15
Disney plans to deploy a series of soft reopening tactics for select audiences several days prior to the July 11 reopening with Cast previews and affinity soft-opening preview days.
Walt Disney World will reopen much like Shanghai Disneyland, on the basis of a reservation system. Guests will have to secure a reservation in advance via a new system. More details on how to secure a reservation will be released in the near future.
The parks will reopen at limited capacity, with gradual increases as the county progresses through reopening phases. Social distancing and face masks will be required and enforced throughout the parks, and temperature checks will be required for access to the parks. Hand washing stations, as well as hand sanitizer, will be readily available throughout the parks. Disney is also developing “relaxation zones” for guests to break off from the main areas and take off masks in designated spots.
Increased mobile food ordering options will be available, and cashless transactions will be encouraged throughout. Character meet & greets and play areas will remain temporarily closed, and parades, fireworks, and other events that create crowds will also be temporarily suspended.
The following COVID-19 General Health and Safety Protocols have been revealed. Signage will be posted throughout the parks and attractions:
Plans were presented during today’s Task Force meeting, headed by Jim MacPhee, Senior Vice President of Operations of Walt Disney World Resort. The phased reopening proposal has since passed with zero opposition from the Task Force. Do note that the resorts and water parks themselves were not mentioned during the reopening proposal.
Reopening plans will require endorsement from the Orange County Mayor before they can be submitted to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for final approval. You can view the full Orange County Economic Recovery Task Force Meeting from today below:
For a recap of what the current experience is like at Disney Springs, including temperature checks and new social distancing guidelines, click here. Disney Springs expanded its offerings today with the reopening of the World of Disney store, among other Disney-owned and operated restaurants and stores.
Does this include resorts?
Why wouldn’t they open along with SeaWorld/Universal? Now there is going to be larger crowds and pent up demand…No word on resorts either….
Not sure what they’re trying to accomplish here. It’s not good for people to wear masks. Especially healthy people. Not coming back until these bogus rules are gone. If they really wanted to do some good, get rid of the bag checkers and the stroller nazis that fondle 6 strollers to fill 1 hole.
Nothing on hotels yet?
In these conditions, I prefer cancelling my reservation. Force people To wear a mask, and with such a heat is really abusive. Hope it won’t remain this way too long… In this case no more Disney for my family and I
Yes, exactly the same for me !
I love this News cannot wait to go down there in November!
They just lost a lot of customers with the mask requirements. It is unnecessary in that it only keeps a sick person from Possibly infecting someone else. If you are sick stay home is the other requirement. 90-100 degree weather with a mask that actually causes a person to have a harder time breathing properly. Forced face coverings is in itself unconstitutional. Fact check it….
A business requiring you to wear a piece of cloth over your face is 100% constitutional, its the exact same principle as a restaurant refusing service if you don’t have a shirt or shoes on. Masks protect yourself from contracting the disease, and prevent others who are asymptomatic from inadvertently spreading it too. If it was as simple as sick people staying home, America wouldn’t be leading the world in COVID deaths with over 100k.
Not so constitutional. As it makes difficult or impossible to see your face / who you are, and it’s a security problem. And there is a risk anyway, it won’t be a complete protection at all, people take risks whatever they do. They have to know it and to accept it, or not. There is no magic solution to avoid the virus, only staying home. And if someone faints and goes to emergencies because of the mask and the heat, I’m not sure it’s better. As you can contract covid at the hospital !
Because of these two I will be cancling my families august week long resort/parks stay.
We were already sad because my 5 year old son loved spaceship earth and had a pirates league appointment in may. Now those are gone as well .
Expecting people to spend a whole day in the park in the height of Florida summer humidity wearing a mask is ridiculous. There is no way that will be an enjoyable experience for anyone.
I imagine you are not the only one who feels this way. It will probably help Disney keep crowd levels low. I have a trip booked for August. Not sure what we’re doing, but the masks will not be a deterrent.
I do not understand why they pushed it so far off when Universal and Seaworld are opening in June. The restrictions should be relaxed further by the time we get closer to opening I hope. If not, we might have to just cancel our trip. I’m not paying over $4,000 for half of the experience.
I just want everyone who keeps complaining about the mask to know they are the reason why we have to wear mask. if you are healthy? wear one to lessen your chances of catching it, sick? theres a high chance you may not know or even feel it, but guess what? you may be spreading it, and the person who catches it may not be so lucky to be asymptomatic. the mask and distancing limits the chances of it spreading to lower than 2%. wow imagine that, we do something to keep others safe. the selfishness on this post is astounding. As a long time annual pass holder I applaud Disney for being strict and even more so in their delayed opening time, lets keep in mind the tens of THOUSANDS of employees they need to train for this, and they can’t have all 40k+ of them just show up at once, install sanitation (which lets be honest we should be this clean when there isn’t a pandemic, I know how many men don’t even wash their hands after going to the bathroom) and even more so, see the surge that may happen in the next few weeks from the reopening. Not to mention they donated most food and other items when this started, restocking a place of this size isn’t magical over night. Yes it’ll be hot, but they are adding areas to take off the mask, and at a much lower capacity finding shaded areas shouldn’t be hard and ride lines should all be significantly less. and honestly? this isn’t the best time to be taking a vacation anyways, reschedule it for later. Lets not pretend this thing isn’t still spreading like a wildfire and NO ONE is safe. as someone with asthma this virus is terrifying but people’s attitudes are even scarier.
Yes, it may suck to have to do this, but it’ll suck more if it gets worse or if things need to shut down yet again and for longer.
Stay safe and patient, this isn’t a little thing we’re fighting.
I’m just not seeing the value anymore. So sad.
They’ll have a lot of fainting… forcing people to wear mask with the heat… I won’t go, I didn’t pay for this, it has nothing to see with holiday.
Hahahahah seriously either open up or stay closed. Social distancing is a morons term its called PERSONAL SPACE and be clean unfortunately it comes down to liability. If you check my temp and Im clean then why the mask????. I know trolls cry complain and moan or just stay home because the truth is masks only matter if you are around sick people or they are useless let us see what happens when that 1st person passes out do to high heat and humidity while wearing a mask. Simple live life to its fullest or stay home and rot!!!!
All these people complaining that their vacation is ruined and they’re not going if they have to wear a facemask when the people that actually work there are being forced to wear it their entire shift(some 10hrs or more) in all weather conditions, inside and outside. Some of these workers are out selling food or in the hot parking lot trying to get you to follow the directions of the 15 signs you already saw and are ignoring saying there should be better signage. Are any of you complaining for THEM? No, just for yourself. You refuse to go to Disney if you have to wear a mask? Fine, stay home. We don’t want idiots there getting them sick. Cause you know that there are people complaining that they paid thousands of dollars and have some type of godly rights to be dickheads, and they’ll be sick too, but they won’t stay home because of the money they spent.
I am a Disney lover but in these conditions I will never go there because I don’t breathe well with a mask and I am fainting easily. To all the haters who cowardly dislike other opinions, remember the mask is not a safety bubble or a life insurance. Moreover, you will see if that it has nothing to see with holiday or disney magic after just a half day of heat and humidity with the supermasks, it makes feel sick and you ll see people and children suffering and willing to go back home. The people who don t want to pay to suffer it are right. And anyway they do what they want. Fortunately this situation must be temporary. Everyday we take risks whatever we do, if you go to disneyworld even with a mask you take your own risk. That s part of life.
I totally agree. Masks are very hard to breathe, especially in Florida heat. For people with asthma and acne it is very difficult. I will not return under face masks are not required