Thousands pack Disney World before park closes amid coronavirus
Thousands of people packed Disney World for the final visiting hours before the park closes for the remainder of the month; Phil Keating reports from Orlando on the tourism impact.
Disneyland has delayed its July 17 reopening because the state of California will not issue theme park post-coronavirus guidelines until after July 4, the company said Wednesday.
Disneyland Resort said in a statement: “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.”
The company said its next steps include a smooth transition.
“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.”
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Walt Disney Co. announced the closure of Disneyland in March, shortly after California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s news conference on his executive order recommending against any “nonessential” gatherings of more than 250 people.
Disneyland fans normally could bank on the park being open regardless of what’s going on in the world around it. The park has closed only a handful of times in 65 years and never for more than a day, said Jason Schultz, supervisory archivist at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum and unofficial Disneyland historian who wrote “Jason’s Disneyland Almanac.”
The last closure was after the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.