COVID-19 cases are accelerating locally and across the country. At the same time, a movement has launched in California, with mayors of cities such as Anaheim and Los Angeles urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to allow theme parks to reopen earlier than planned.
Newsom addressed the danger of reopening parks Newsom said, “Self evidently we should be concerned about opening up a large theme park where by definition people mix from every conceivable walk of life and put themselves and others at increased risk of seeing transmission rates rise related to COVID-19.” The virus threatens to keep larger theme parks closed for what would be close to a year. This obviously has huge consequences for staff, park revenue and the revenue of the city in which these parks are located.
“We, as a state, are going to be driven by data and science and we are going to be driven by public health first,” said Newsom about reopening theme parks in a press conference on Oct. 27.
As of late most of the counties in southern California are in purple tier or tier red of the risk level scale. According to California guidelines tier 1 represents a widespread county risk level of COVID-19 and tier 2 represents a substantial risk level. The California Department of Public Health qualifies this as “all operations must be closed.”
Disneyland has addressed some of its reopening plans on its website.
“The Downtown Disney District has begun a phased reopening, including an expansion onto Buena Vista Street starting Nov. 19,” the park announced.
Disneyland does note that not everything is guaranteed to be the same, however.
“Upon reopening, certain parks, hotels, restaurants, attractions, experiences and other offerings will be modified or unavailable,” reads an announcement on the theme park site.
Currently Disneyland’s plan is to only reopen shopping and dining areas in the Downtown Disney District.
Although smaller local theme parks are starting to reopen it is the large scale parks who have higher possibilities of risking visitors as they also have large amounts of park visitors daily.
Fairytale Town is an amusement park located on Land Park Drive in Sacramento, which closed from March to June and has faced multiple struggles.
“Our biggest obstacle has been revenue,” said Lisa Keyson, Fairytale Town’s director of advancement. “As a result, we have gotten creative with our fundraising efforts. Partnering with a local brewery to create Fairytale Ale; socially-distanced, evening Frisbee Golf at the park; and an art sale are just a few of the efforts we’ve tried.”
Upon reopening of smaller parks like Fairytale Town there have been adjustments to the days pre-pandemic.
“Luckily, since our reopening, we have been able to conduct most of our programs with little change. Mask-wearing and hand-washing have been instituted and we make sure to keep our kids in small groups that stay together and don’t intermingle,” said Keyson.
What does the new day-to-day at the park look like?
“Before the pandemic, we did not limit the amount of guests in the park at one time but now we are limiting it to 125 guests per hour. I think the pandemic has impacted us more than any changes,” Keyson said.
As the number of visitors is of a smaller scale than those of larger parks, there are less people at risk. The state has also announced visitor limitations for smaller parks.
According to the CDC “Highest risk: Large in-person gatherings where it is difficult for individuals to remain spaced at least 6 feet apart,” highlighting the importance of avoiding large gatherings.