Disneyland, Universal and other California theme parks can reopen April 1 - OCR/SCNG

[PiratesMansion]

Ultimately, this is progress. For those still unhappy, I think it's worth remembering that being unable to visit a theme park, or to visit a theme park in precisely the way a person wants to, remains a wonderful example of a first world problem.

If you're in California, you're already much closer to being able to visit than I and the other out of staters here are. I'm not sure what to tell anyone who didn't realize that the reopening of the parks would all be a process, and that this is part of that. It was always going to be awhile until we're fully back to 8 AM to 12 AM full capacity days with fireworks and two Fantasmics every night.

Even the "fully open" WDW still has a number of venues, attractions, and other things that haven't come back yet.

If you're still not happy with where Disneyland is or is going to be, you can continue to wait, because eventually things will be closer to normal. Or you could. you know, go to Florida (which seems, ironically, to almost never be an option for many of those most loudly lauding Florida's rules vs. California's).

 

[Californian Elitist]

Aloha,

So under the current rules, you don’t need any ID to enter the country or vote, but you do need some version of a state ID to attend Disneyland? Even with a yellow tier? And we can’t have a border wall to protect our country but we can have a border wall around the nation’s capitol and Disneyland?

Aloha,

That’s correct.

Assuming you’re in Hawaii, guess you’re SOL. Lol.

 

[J4546]

lol @ border wall protecting our country

 

[NobodyElse]

lol @ border wall protecting our country

 

[Disstevefan1]

>>California theme parks can reopen April 1 under updated guidelines from the state’s health department following a year of coronavirus closures that cost the parks billions and forced them to shed tens of thousands of jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new California theme park guidelines and opening date are part of a “refresh” of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s four-tier Blueprint for a Safer Economy.


California theme parks have been closed since March 2020 under COVID-19 health and safety reopening guidelines issued by the state. Many parks have partially reopened for special events and food festivals without rides.

The Newsom administration’s “Blueprint Refresh” allows Disneyland, Universal Studios Hollywood, Knott’s Berry Farm, Six Flags Magic Mountain, SeaWorld San Diego, Legoland California and other California theme parks to reopen as early as April 1 once the counties they are located in reach the red/substantial tier 2 risk status.

Starting on April 1, California theme parks can reopen at 15% capacity in the red/substantial tier 2. Capacity levels will shift in the orange/moderate tier 3 and yellow/minimal tier 4.

Theme park attendance will be limited to California residents. Updated guidelines will be worked out over the next couple of weeks in partnership with theme parks.

“We appreciate the administration’s willingness to work with the state’s theme parks on the finer details of the plan so parks can responsibly reopen soon, putting people safely back to work and reinvigorating local economies,” California Attractions and Parks Association executive director Erin Guerrero said in a statement.

Most California counties with major theme parks still remain in the most-restrictive purple/widespread tier 1 risk level — including Orange (Disneyland and Knott’s), Los Angeles County (Universal Studios Hollywood and Six Flags Magic Mountain), San Diego (SeaWorld and Legoland) and Solano (Six Flags Discovery Kingdom).

Orange and Los Angeles counties are expected to move into the red/substantial tier 2 next week — meaning Disneyland, Disney California Adventure, Universal Studios Hollywood, Knott’s, Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain could reopen on April 1.

Santa Clara County — home to California’s Great America — is currently in the red/substantial tier 2 risk level. The Santa Clara amusement park has already set a reopening date of May 22.

Under the revised theme park guidelines, capacity limits will be placed on indoor rides and attractions.

The move is an abrupt about-face from the “slow, stubborn and stringent” approach to reopening California theme parks taken by the Newsom administration last fall.

In October, California officials issued separate reopening guidelines for smaller and larger theme parks in the state — with small parks allowed to reopen in the orange/moderate tier 3 while large parks could return in yellow/minimal tier 4. Attendance capacity was set at 25% in both tiers.

The California Attractions and Parks Association said the initial guidelines issued in October would keep the state’s large theme parks “closed Indefinitely.”

The “Blueprint Refresh” no longer makes a distinction between large and small California theme parks.

The Newsom administration has been under pressure from the theme park industry to revise reopening guidelines for months.

The reversal by the Newsom administration comes just days before the one-year anniversary of the coronavirus closure of California theme parks in mid-March 2020. It also comes just weeks after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that outdoor amusement parks could reopen on April 9 — making it likely that California theme parks would be the last to return in U.S. A bi-partisan bill proposed in February by California assembly members would speed the reopening of theme parks and override state guidelines.<<

Aren't you supposed to spring April fools jokes on April 1st?

Seriously, attending DLR at 15 percent capacity for those lucky enough to win the “I got a reservation to Disneyland” lottery it is really going to be super cool and a unique experience!I hope some Vloggers can get in there so I can at least watch from afar.

 

[DLR>WDW]

It should also be noted that Disney has a backlog of tens, possibly hundreds, of thousands of guests with the 3-day SoCal Resident Ticket from last spring. So yes... getting in is gonna be like winning the lottery.

I wonder if they'll create separate pools in the reservation system for existing tickets and new tickets. Gonna be interesting, that's for sure.

 

[mickEblu]

Aren't you supposed to spring April fools jokes on April 1st?

Seriously, attending DLR at 15 percent capacity for those lucky enough to win the “I got a reservation to Disneyland” lottery it is really going to be super cool and a unique experience!I hope some Vloggers can get in there so I can at least watch from afar.

But it’s 15% at DL and 15 % at DCA right? Or are we not excited about DCA? I get it but I’m pretty sure I’m going to DCA if I can’t snag a DL reservation.

Anyway, between both parks being available and the fact that this isn’t a one day thing - I think getting a ticket to one of the parks by June is possible, maybe even probable. I’ll just have to create a pool with 5 small families. Everyone who gets in buys 10 tickets. I’m guessing that’s what will be allowed as they mentioned that number in regards to max # of people per party.

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

You never know, it may be incredibly hard to get a reservation. I imagine everyone waiting on their phones for the reservation system to go live and instant sellouts and server crashes.

 

[J4546]

is park hopping gone?

 

[mickEblu]

You never know, it may be incredibly hard to get a reservation. I imagine everyone waiting on their phones for the reservation system to go live and instant sellouts and server crashes.

It’ll be tough but I like my chances to get to tickets to one of the parks by June. Assuming they open in late April or early May. If not, might have to bump that prediction out.

 

[chadwpalm]

is park hopping gone?

Yes. They don't want to risk spreading the virus from one park to another. Also, there will be temperature screenings at the entry to every land.

Also, if you aren't wearing your mask while doing a #2, you're immediately ejected without the option to pull up your pants.

Edit: The pants part is only until the yellow tier.

 

[PiratesMansion]

is park hopping gone?

Not forever, but it won't be back until the parks are allowed higher overall capacities.

WDW reopened in July and only brought back park hopping a few months ago, and it's only from late afternoon onwards.

Speaking of add-on admission perks, it will likely also be awhile MaxPass is back in any capacity.

 

[britain]

Given the extreme restrictions imposed, I wonder if they might have a predetermined menu of attractions scheduled for each party of guests? Something like that Genie app but REQUIRED.

 

[fctiger]

But it’s 15% at DL and 15 % at DCA right? Or are we not excited about DCA? I get it but I’m pretty sure I’m going to DCA if I can’t snag a DL reservation.

Anyway, between both parks being available and the fact that this isn’t a one day thing - I think getting a ticket to one of the parks by June is possible, maybe even probable. I’ll just have to create a pool with 5 small families. Everyone who gets in buys 10 tickets. I’m guessing that’s what will be allowed as they mentioned that number in regards to max # of people per party.

Considering they will probably opens Avengers Campus, lots will be excited about DCA, at least for awhile.

And I'm not sure why people would think other wise? Isn't DCA the park that sold out all their space for Touch of Disney in literally hours without any rides? I mean sure, there was no DL to compete with but with just 15% capacity, both are going to sell out fast, DL will probably just do it first.

 

[TP2000]

Who is laughing? Did you honestly think the parks would immediately open without restrictions when that time came?

I was hoping that the rules for reopening would be relaxed, not made harder and more restrictive. This is not relaxing the rules, it's applying new rules and making existing rules even stricter.

Many of the new rules appear to be arbitrary, like "No Indoor Dining" at Disneyland restaurants, but Captain Kidd's and the IHOP across Harbor can reopen for indoor dining. And that makes sense how???

Those with certain political beliefs often love the idea of having no foreigners.

Yes, Governor Newsom is not a fan of foreigners apparently. No one from Oregon or Canada or England is allowed in. Californians only need apply. I wonder how that stands up in court, especially when our neighboring West Coast states have much lower infection rates than California does? And whatever happened to Newsom's Western States Pact he trumpeted 10 months ago?

Red, Orange & Yellow Tier = "In-state visitors only"

 

[TP2000]

Did you read the Voice of OC article I just posted....

>>Dee Dee Myers, an aide to Gov. Gavin Newsom, didn’t provide any specific ways parks would stop out of state residents from moving around the system.

“It is our hope that people will respect the guidelines and it’s our expectation that the parks will work to really encourage people from California to come and others not to come,” Myers said. “Just by reducing mixing and by reducing geography of where people are coming from we think there’s’ a reduction in overall risk.”

Friday’s abrupt changes to theme park guidance follows a series of sudden updates — from reopening metrics to school reopenings — as Newsom is likely to face a recall election. <<

Wow. So Sacramento is hoping that theme parks police their own customers on this? Good luck with that at places like Six Flags.

This is another example, like the 10PM Statewide Curfew that absolutely no one obeyed, where Sacramento just sets itself up to destroy any credibility it has. If you claim there are rules, but then do nothing to enforce them, it just makes people realize your authority has no merit. That's a dangerous long-term thing for a government to do to its citizens.

I also wonder how the heck a theme park is supposed to police and enforce this other new rule released yesterday...

"Small Groups - Max 10 people or 3 household groups with no intergroup mixing."

What the heck does that even mean? No more than 10 people who know each other can enter the park at a time? How does that even work? Who enforces it? It's entirely untenable and just makes the whole thing seem like a farce.

 

[fctiger]

I was hoping that the rules for reopening would be relaxed, not made harder and more restrictive. This is not relaxing the rules, it's applying new rules and making existing rules even stricter.

Many of the new rules appear to be arbitrary, like "No Indoor Dining" at Disneyland restaurants, but Captain Kidd's and the IHOP across Harbor can reopen for indoor dining. And that makes sense how???



Yes, Governor Newsom is not a fan of foreigners apparently. No one from Oregon or Canada or England is allowed in. Californians only need apply. I wonder how that stands up in court, especially when our neighboring West Coast states have much lower infection rates than California does? And whatever happened to Newsom's Western States Pact he trumpeted 10 months ago?

Red, Orange & Yellow Tier = "In-state visitors only"

I'm pretty sure this is just for the first few months. Once the county gets into higher tiers and more people are vaccinated they will loosen things up. I don't get all the grief over it frankly. We all knew the restrictions were going to be severe at opening considering how severe they been for most of the year. If things run smoothly the first few weeks, they will probably relax. Shanghai Disney had pretty tough restrictions when they first opened and that park has basically gone to its old ways, just with masks and limited capacity. Of course Shanghai is nothing close to where things are like L.A. and O.C. either.

And AFAIK, with the exception of WDW, all the Disney theme parks have originally limited the park to basically just local residents, at least TDR, HKDL and SDL did. And now they are all open to people in the country at least. Not sure about what Paris did though.

Guys, you finally got what you all wanted, DL to open again. Just be happy that one big hurdle is happening. My guess is after the summer, things will change greatly. This is just the test run.

 

[TP2000]

It should also be noted that apparently there is no real document that fleshes out or explains all these new rules yet.

It's a work in progress, and all they did at the press conference yesterday is say...

"Parks can reopen April 1st!" And for you silly business types who shouldn't question us wise folks in Sacramento while you pay Billions in taxes, here's a single page from a PDF file that has some very vague new rules that open up a lot more questions than they answer. Okay, it's 3PM on a Friday afternoon in Sacramento, so we have to go home now. Good luck kids!"

I'm sure eventually there will be formal documentation of what all these new rules actually mean, and specific instructions on how to implement them. But until then, the theme parks don't have anything more to go on than this PDF file that Darkbeer first linked to....

https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/CDPH%20Document%20Library/COVID-19/Dimmer-Framework-September_2020.pdf

 

[TP2000]

I'm pretty sure this is just for the first few months. Once the county gets into higher tiers and more people are vaccinated they will loosen things up.

So they are going to Refresh their Refresh? I'm not sure that's reassuring.

I don't get all the grief over it frankly. We all knew the restrictions were going to be severe at opening considering how severe they been for most of the year.

Well, because after months of haggling and a Top Secret trip to Orlando where the bureaucrats were put up at the Waldorf Astoria that Newsom has blocked all access to their findings, they finally released Guidelines for theme parks last October. And they were restrictive and seemed impossible to meet, let alone make a profit with.

We knew what those original restrictions were. They just made them worse yesterday, and added new rules on top.

Guys, you finally got what you all wanted, DL to open again. Just be happy that one big hurdle is happening. My guess is after the summer, things will change greatly. This is just the test run.

And how do we know that? How can we trust Sacramento to deliver that? No business owner in their right mind would try to plan for a fiscal year based on all this uncertainty, and restrictive rules that only get more restrictive when they get a "Refresh".

15% Capacity? No Indoor Dining? No foreigners allowed? No intergroup mixing? Time restrictions on indoor rides?

What the heck?!? What does all that mean? How does a business plan for that? How does a business implement it and still try and turn a profit? Disneyland will have Vloggers there by the masses on opening day, but what about Knott's, Six Flags, Legoland, etc.?

How does the California theme park industry try and survive until 2022 when every Refresh makes it worse?

 

[TP2000]

Aloha,

So under the current rules, you don’t need any ID to enter the country or vote, but you do need some version of a state ID to attend Disneyland? Even with a yellow tier? And we can’t have a border wall to protect our country but we can have a border wall around the nation’s capitol and Disneyland?

Aloha!

These new Refreshed rules for California theme parks are the equivalent of this incoherent and illogical rule at a drive-thru...

I can hand you a mask, but I can't hand you your drink.