Disneyland, Universal and other California theme parks can reopen April 1

[mom2rtk]

It’s not so much would they make money as it is would they lose less than they are losing now

I'm not even sure I'd say that. Their costs will increase substantially with all the staff they have to bring back.

 

[DLgal]

I'm not even sure I'd say that. Their costs will increase substantially with all the staff they have to bring back.

Yes. Any company's largest cost is payroll.

 

[WonkaKid]

Not to mention the new stuff in Star Wars area. Both those big rides are indoors. No thanks, I will wait until indoor rides can open.

Given that neither of the attractions will be able to open (probably), I suspect that SWL won’t even open.

Edit to Add, plus I love to eat at Blue Bayou and can't go down there without eating there! No indoor seating either they said.

If they’re nimble about it (and I hope they would be), they could annex the seating at French Market and convert it into outdoor seating for BB.

 

[WonkaKid]

From the ABC7 article,

“Under the new guidelines, there will be both a building capacity limitation and a time limitation. A ride that takes place indoors or goes into a building for a brief period of time may open if it meets both of these requirements.”

Sounds to me like a number of indoor attractions could open if handled properly.

 

[DLgal]

So, hold on. Has everyone seen the matrix floating around with the color tiers and theme park guidelines.

Under the colored tier definitions it says "case rate OR positivity percentage." That language is very different than it has been. I wonder why that is.

 

[lcp9]

Yikes - sad as an out-of-stater but I think it's great if they can open. That said - even if I were a resident - I'm not sure I'd want to pay full price for what is probably going to be seriously limited offerings.

 

[WonkaKid]

That said - even if I were a resident - I'm not sure I'd want to pay full price for what is probably going to be seriously limited offerings.

Totally get it. But it’ll be worth it to me whenever it opens. If I can get tix. We all (or many of us) remember what it was like when SWL opened. It’ll be like 1,000,000 people all trying to get 20,000 tix. And I’ll be among them ;-).

 

[Disney0010]

I’m thinking if the three resorts reopen that there will be reservations set aside for those and possibly the Disney neighborhood hotels. Those would probably receive priority.

 

[mom2rtk]

I’m thinking if the three resorts reopen that there will be reservations set aside for those and possibly the Disney neighborhood hotels. Those would probably receive priority.

If it's only open to CA residents, I can't see them opening up all 3 hotels.

 

[Disney0010]

I can. If it helps to sell package deals then I can see them opening up the hotels. At least GC and DLH. We’re only 90 miles from DL but we would book either hotel for a package to get into the parks easier.

 

[Malcon10t]

100k is too small a number if we are taking a daily total capacity for both parks together.

Disneyland is rumored to be around 85,000 and DCA is something like 50,000.

I knew the numbers in 2014, which were 58K in Disneyland and 30K in DCA. (Remember, capacity and attendance are 2 different numbers.). With the addition of SW:GE I doubt it increased more than 17K. Now, in DCA, you have closed Bugs Land, so you need to decrease by the value of that area (low estimate, 3K.). You also need to decrease the capacity by the rides that won't be able to open and the decrease capacity of the rides themselves. Example, if Pirates can't open, they would have to decrease the the capacity of the park by about 1500 just based on that ride, so instead of (imaginary number of) 100,000, it is now 98500, which lowers the 15% number by 25 people. Every walkway in DL has a capacity number and when a walkway closes, it alters the capacity number. There is so much that goes into the "capacity" number, and I think the 100K number is actually going to be on the high side.

 

[Malcon10t]

If it's only open to CA residents, I can't see them opening up all 3 hotels.

I can see them opening 1 tower at DLH, one wing at GCH, and certain floors of PPH.

 

[Katiebird]

I knew the numbers in 2014, which were 58K in Disneyland and 30K in DCA. (Remember, capacity and attendance are 2 different numbers.). With the addition of SW:GE I doubt it increased more than 17K. Now, in DCA, you have closed Bugs Land, so you need to decrease by the value of that area (low estimate, 3K.). You also need to decrease the capacity by the rides that won't be able to open and the decrease capacity of the rides themselves. Example, if Pirates can't open, they would have to decrease the the capacity of the park by about 1500 just based on that ride, so instead of (imaginary number of) 100,000, it is now 98500, which lowers the 15% number by 25 people. Every walkway in DL has a capacity number and when a walkway closes, it alters the capacity number. There is so much that goes into the "capacity" number, and I think the 100K number is actually going to be on the high side.

I think for this, they’re talking about fire Marshall capacity, not previous attendance or normal attendance, so it’s likely higher than most of us would think. Capacity in these terms is a legal number.

 

[DLgal]

I knew the numbers in 2014, which were 58K in Disneyland and 30K in DCA. (Remember, capacity and attendance are 2 different numbers.). With the addition of SW:GE I doubt it increased more than 17K. Now, in DCA, you have closed Bugs Land, so you need to decrease by the value of that area (low estimate, 3K.). You also need to decrease the capacity by the rides that won't be able to open and the decrease capacity of the rides themselves. Example, if Pirates can't open, they would have to decrease the the capacity of the park by about 1500 just based on that ride, so instead of (imaginary number of) 100,000, it is now 98500, which lowers the 15% number by 25 people. Every walkway in DL has a capacity number and when a walkway closes, it alters the capacity number. There is so much that goes into the "capacity" number, and I think the 100K number is actually going to be on the high side.

Average Disneyland daily attendance (just DL park) in 2019 was 52,000.

 

[Malcon10t]

I think for this, they’re talking about fire Marshall capacity, not previous attendance or normal attendance, so it’s likely higher than most of us would think. Capacity in these terms is a legal number.

Yup, which was where I got my numbers years ago. Fire Marshal capacity is the only one that counts. They actually have a capacity count for each walkway, each ride and queue, each store, each eatery. We got to sit with the Fire Marshal at Fantasmic! and they explained how and what they looked for during the show. And how even the fireworks were loaded, counted and how it was determined if the could go off. For person capacity, anything "closes", capacity goes down by that count. Attendance is always higher than capacity because people leave and others enter.

 

[JoshF]

I think it would be great to be there with susceptibility low capacity!

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Average Disneyland daily attendance (just DL park) in 2019 was 52,000.

But they’re not all in the park at the same time.

One of our friends was a Disneyland fireman for awhile (mostly worked Fantasmic!), and he says it was “about” 60,000/30,000 when he was there. I think he stopped in 2018? So pre-SW:GE and some other changes... but not that far off. He also talks about how what’s open changes capacity, so I’d imagine some of the show venues alone are going to make a dent in it (there’s stuff like the Hyperion, the Disney Jr show, even Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln... that will add up).

It will be very interesting to see what they come up with in terms of tickets - you don’t want 20,000 people all showing up for rope drop, so I imagine there is likely to be a timed element involved? I’m so curious to see how this is all managed.

 

[CO2CA]

One of our friends was a Disneyland fireman for awhile (mostly worked Fantasmic!)

What a fun job!

 

[brightlined]

But they’re not all in the park at the same time.

It will be very interesting to see what they come up with in terms of tickets - you don’t want 20,000 people all showing up for rope drop, so I imagine there is likely to be a timed element involved? I’m so curious to see how this is all managed.

I assume the daily attendance will be less variable during the day during this period, if only because there won't be APs bouncing in and out for a couple of hours here and there. And, if it's anything like what WDW has done, I don't think they'll be all that concerned about being under capacity during the day. They've probably got decent metrics to figure out how "over" capacity they can go in terms of selling tickets (expecting no-shows), but I'd bet they'll stay pretty close to the allowed capacity.

Despite some of the blog speculation, my opinion: I bet they'll do things like Taste of Disney rather than "opening" the park in the traditional sense. If anything, it gives them way more control.

After the current ToD schedule at DCA, they could easily add more dates, open the rides that they can, raise the price a bit, and end up with what seems like a pretty happy medium. DL has enough food spots that they wouldn't necessarily need to add any kiosks, but they could easily do a similar ticketed event ("Taste of Disneyland") that includes whatever rides they can safely manage to open.

A ticketed event would allow them to distinguish this period from a "normal" park day, which I think would help adjust visitor expectations.

 

[gelatoni fan]

Just throwing some info out there:
1. Hong Kong announced on February 16th that theme parks could reopen starting on February 18th. On February 17th, HKDL announced that they would reopen starting on February 19th. But because this is the 3rd time reopening, there's a lot of things that were ready and past experience which Disneyland in California doesn't have.
2. Tokyo Disneyland cancelled annual passes in October and there's still no news of anything on the horizon. It's highly likely that Disneyland in California won't have any sort of annual pass system until at least 2022.
3. A number of amusement parks around the world which have cancelled annual memberships due to the pandemic are currently selling season passes. For example, Ocean Park in Hong Kong had an annual membership pre-pandemic but is now selling passes that last until the end of May. Given that Shanghai Disneyland sold season and 1/2 year passes before offering annual passes, it's possible that Disneyland in California may choose to do the same.
4. Guaranteed entry to Galaxy's Edge was a benefit to hotel guests being offered when the land first opened. Guaranteed park entry is also a benefit of the Tokyo Disney Resort hotels. This means, it could make sense for Disneyland in California to open up all the hotels and restrict capacity for non-hotel guests given the expectation is that there will be more people who want to visit than reservations available. For Hong Kong Disneyland where there are more reservations available than people who want to go, only one of the three Disney hotels is completely open with a second hotel open only on weekends.