BREAKING: Disneyland Resort Cancels July 17th Reopening, Delays Theme Parks Returning

Jessica Figueroa

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BREAKING: Disneyland Resort Cancels July 17th Reopening, Delays Theme Parks Returning

Disneyland Resort has announced that it will not be reopening its theme parks on July 17 as planned. The resort was slated to reopen sixty-five years to the date after the historic opening of Disneyland Park, but due to rising COVID-19 cases (and, as you’ll see below, strict government regulations) it has had to postpone the reopening to an undefined date. The full announcement from Disney Parks can be found below.

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We previously announced a proposed phased reopening of our theme parks for July 17, pending government approvals. We developed enhanced health and safety protocols for both cast and guests at Shanghai Disney Resort, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort that have been approved, allowing us to reopen in a responsible manner and bring our cast members back to work.

The State of California has now indicated that it will not issue theme park reopening guidelines until sometime after July 4. Given the time required for us to bring thousands of cast members back to work and restart our business, we have no choice but to delay the reopening of our theme parks and resort hotels until we receive approval from government officials. Once we have a clearer understanding of when guidelines will be released, we expect to be able to communicate a reopening date.

Our Downtown Disney District will reopen on July 9 as previously announced with health and safety protocols in place for our cast members and guests. The opening of our Downtown Disney District has been previously approved in line with restaurant and retail openings throughout California. The Master Services Union, which represents our retail cast at this location, previously signed an agreement for members to return to work.

In order to reopen our theme parks we need to negotiate agreements with our unions to return employees to work. We have had positive discussions and are very pleased to have signed agreements from 20 union affiliates, including the Master Services Council, which represents more than 11,000 of our cast members. The signed agreement details plans that include enhanced safety protocols that will allow us to responsibly reopen, and get thousands of our cast members back to work.

We thank our cast and guests for their patience during this unprecedented time while we await approval from government officials.

This announcement comes after numerous petitions from Cast Members to hold off on the reopening. Work conditions for Disneyland Cast Members recalled to their positions were recently established and released.

Meanwhile at Walt Disney World Resort, county officials have stated that the decision to possibly postpone their reopening is completely up to Disney, and the state government. Given that their plans have already been approved, it’s unlikely that they will backtrack on their announcement.

3 thoughts on “BREAKING: Disneyland Resort Cancels July 17th Reopening, Delays Theme Parks Returning”

  1. I know that the government in CA vs FL are not even comparible, but any thoughts if Disney World is next to postpone reopening? FL had higher covid cases diagnosed today than in CA (FL 5511 vs CA 4940).

    • this clearly has nothing to do with COVID cases but as stated really clearly the guidelines not being released/approved. Disney has very stringent guidelines and is probably safer than your local grocery store. Also Orange County now has a mask mandate all over that should help and could become a criminal violation very soon if people don’t comply 100% (so far I see MUCH better compliance).

    • Odd isn’t it? Florida is full speed ahead with reopenings regardless of th infection rate. I know Florida relies on tourism and Disney’s revenue is way way down, but is risking people’s health the price we have to pay for reopening?

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