I don't post here often. The past few weeks have given me ample time to reflect on these issues. Please know that the following is just speculation and my own opinion.
I don't see how one profitably runs a theme park and maintains social distancing guidelines in any effective way. There are a lot of theoretical ideas that have been bandied about here, eliminating interior queues, reducing restaurant capacity, eliminating entertainment that promotes massed gatherings of people, etc. The bottom line is that a place like WDW or Universal are very expensive to run and if any theme park operator engages in these tactics to promote social distancing, the experience is going to be so compromised that admission prices would have to be slashed. This, in tandem with a practice like limiting the number of guests at the gate, would make the parks unprofitable to run. That being said, I don't foresee theme parks reopening until people can gather in crowds in a fairly normal fashion. Remember, even during events where admission to a park is very limited, you still end up with massed gatherings of people. People are not going to go to a place with employees barking at them to disperse or maintain separation. It's fundamentally counter to the purpose of the experience. Now, when this is all over with, I do hope some of the hygiene habits stay in practice.
