The Orange County Economic Recovery Task Force met once again today to finalize parameters for each business sector in order to present to Mayor Demings, who then held a press conference to announce their findings.

During the press conference, the Mayor announced that the existing curfew would be extended for another week. Given that Theme Parks and large venues were excluded from the Phase 1 reopening guidelines recently issued by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, when asked by press regarding theme parks, Mayor Demings was unable to give further information, as he cannot overturn the guidelines in place by the Governor.

His response was that he cannot tell precisely when theme parks will reopen, but when they do, “they will likely reopen in phases.” Many of the theme parks’ business subunits could open starting May 4th during the initial Phase 1 reopening, such as hotels, resort-type areas, and restaurants. The major parks themselves “will probably lag”, but they have the final say on their own guidelines. Mayor Demings went on to state that given the sheer size of the furloughs at the theme parks, with tens of thousands of employees furloughed, it would take a “considerable amount of time” for the theme parks to get their employees back.

The Mayor had previously commented on how Disney’s closure was responsibly done, given that no outbreaks have been traced back to Walt Disney World. After conversations with Thomas Mazloum, Vice President of Walt Disney World Resort & Transportation, Chuck Whittall, President of Unicorp, recently proposed an all-encompassing statement for theme park reopenings:

“Theme parks and other venues of that magnitude shall each develop their own specific and unique set of guidelines following the CDC recommendations and using best practices that will protect the life, health, and safety of their employees and guests. They will be permitted to open at their own discretion with their internally determined level of safe capacities throughout the various phases.”

It is Whittall’s belief that ultimate reopening decisions should be put in the hands of the theme parks as opposed to the task force “trying to write specific guidelines for them.” As previously mentioned, no official reopening guidelines have been established for theme parks like Walt Disney World at this time.

Walt Disney World Resort remains closed indefinitely, and no official reopening date has been identified.