Disney World closed its Orlando, Florida theme parks and resorts in mid-March when the United States was finally starting to respond to the novel coronavirus pandemic in a significant way. In the last four months, as cases have continued to surge across the nation, a number of large-scale events and social gatherings have been canceled or closed, ranging from professional sports games to concerts, to movie theaters, to other theme parks, including Disneyland. Disney World has expressed interest in wanting to reopen in mid-July, however, and now that mid-July is here, the park has, indeed, reopened in part. There are reportedly a number of safety measures in place at the park, but as COVID-19 numbers continue to rise in Florida in particular, the decision to reopen the theme park has a lot of people horrified—and concerned for the long-term.
The Magic Kingdom and the Animal Kingdom reopened on Saturday, July 11. Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios are set to reopen on July 15. And are people actually interested in going? According to local outlet NBC Miami, tickets for July have already sold out.
As Daily Kos has previously covered, Disney World revealed a number of changes it would make to the park in order to reopen. For example, park capacities will be limited, and guests will have to make reservations ahead of time for entry to the park. Character meet-and-greets aren’t happening, and neither are big crowd events, like parades and fireworks. Social distancing and mask use (for anyone over two-years-old) will be mandated inside the parks, with employees monitoring such usage. Guests and employees will also have temperature checks when they enter the parks.
“Hot or not, mask or not, we’re just happy to be here,” Diane Watkins told the Associated Press on Saturday. Watkins, who is a preschool teacher in Alabama, told the outlet: “I feel like everybody here is in the same frame of mind. Everybody is just so excited to be here.”
Now, Florida’s coronavirus numbers are important. On Saturday, state officials reported over 10,000 new cases, as reported by BuzzFeed News. To put that number into perspective, that’s the second-highest number of daily cases the state has seen so far. On Friday, the state reported 11,433 new cases. The other important note is that, according to state statistics, the number of coronavirus-related hospitalizations is going up, not down, with rising numbers in ICUs.
"This is absolutely the busiest it's been since it all started," said ER physician Dr. Randy Katz, who works in Hollywood, Florida, when speaking to CBS News this week. He added they were seeing patients “come in on the hour.”
“What Disney is doing is really, I call it, akin to a living laugh because this is a wonderful experiment to figure out if we can reopen business and reopen our theme parks and do so in a safe manner,” Orange County, Florida Mayor Jerry Demings said in an interview on Saturday, as reported by local outlet FOX 11. It’s unclear how many people entered the park on Saturday, but CNN reports that “thousands” of people “walked through the gate.”
In the U.S. overall, more than 70,000 new coronavirus cases were reported on Friday. The total number reported in the U.S. is more than 3.2 million.
People on Twitter have a lot to say about Disney’s move to reopen, too.
Including lots of wry and dark humor.
In an interview with Reuters on Saturday, chairman of Disney’s parks, experiences and products division, Josh D’Amaro, told the outlet, “I feel really good about our environment.” D’Amaro added: “We’re taking this seriously.”