Disney May Force The COVID Lockdowns To End
Disney and other California theme parks are considering doing this to reopen their establishments.
This article is more than 2 years old
The COVID lockdown in California has been majorly affecting Disneyland and other major theme parks in the state. Disney parks have been reopening in other parts of the world, including in Florida, and there have supposedly been no virus outbreaks traced to the parks. Exactly how this contact tracing, studying, and data collection is being done is a little unclear, but it is worth noting that no cases have officially been connected to the parks since they have implemented social distancing measures, although Florida is reporting its highest number of COVID cases since September 1st.
Now, Disney and other members of the California Attractions and Parks Association are wanting to reopen their establishments. However, the COVID lockdown is still in effect for many establishments where large groups of people gather. The California Attractions and Parks Association is arguing that the conditions that need to be met for reopening are unreachable, and they are threatening the state of California with legal action.
California Attractions and Parks Association executive director Erin Guerrero has said that they are keeping “all options” on the table when asked if they are considering suing the state over the conditions of the COVID lockdown. The California Attractions and Parks Association represents a number of prominent establishments in the state, including Disneyland, Universal Studios, Knott’s Berry Farm, Six Flags Magic Mountain, SeaWorld San Diego, Legoland California, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom and California’s Great America.
Californa issued reopening guidelines under the COVID lockdown for theme parks on Tuesday and the California Attractions and Parks Association believes that the presented guidelines are not able to be met by any of its representative establishments. More importantly, the number of allowed parkgoers seems too low for theme parks like Disneyland to be able to make a sensible profit if they do reopen. If the guidelines are not changed, it sounds like Disney will be backing the California Attractions and Parks Association in potentially seeking a lawsuit against the state.
As COVID lockdowns continue to become lax in the United States, the country is seeing daily case numbers that echo what we saw in the summer and things do not look to be getting better. 14 states have set hospitalization records and experts say the “darkest” months of the pandemic could be headed towards us over winter. The winter months are normally big boom periods for the California theme park industry. It’s likely they want theme parks open for as much revenue as they can get. However, if the pandemic numbers get even worse, will customers even be interested in visiting these attractions during the winter months? Walt Disney World has already seen a large number of cancellations and it is possible that California parks would experience the same drought of incoming customers.
We will have to see if the California Attractions and Parks Association ends up suing the state of California for their COVID lockdown rules and if they can reopen their represented parks under more lenient guidelines. All we can say is that we hope you and your loved ones are staying safe during this truly terrifying time in our planet’s history.
