Politics OC Register - Disneyland and Universal Studios ask Newsom not to finalize theme park reopening plans just yet

[Figments Friend]

Disneyland already checks your photo I.D. when you enter at the Park turnstiles.
They have done this for years...to insure the person entering is the one who owns the ticket.
It also likely helps combat the naughty practice of two people trying to 'share" one admission / one ticket for the day.
And maybe also to combat against the unauthorized resellers market.

I can remember for certain as far back as 2013 they would always ask for mine, even when I later had a AP for a few years.
Just standard practice.
When CMs started photographing Guests when a multi-day ticket was first used upon entering that may have diminished , but I still remember as recent as 2019 being asked to show my photo I.D. anytime I entered a Park.
Along with my 'Tony Baxter Fan Club' Membership card.

So they have been doing this step already, and it is already in place should 'filtering' be required.



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[Tamandua]

Horse****. You're not arguing about jobs and the economy, you're downplaying the pandemic, which is happening with alarming frequency here.



Then why oh why did Japan parks manage to survive with such restrictions?

LA County and Orange County alone have 13 MILLION people. That's not even counting portions of San Diego, Riverside, San Bernadino, and Ventura counties that fall within the 120-mile radius. Disneyland can't make a profit off of that?

Maybe it's actual data that is downplaying the pandemic. Disneyland voluntarily closed when they thought the mortality rate was around 9%. Now that we know it's far less than 0.1% overall, the conspiracy theorists are the people like you trying to gaslight everyone else into still thinking this is Armageddon.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I wondered how this would work and how strictly it would be enforced. Regarding something TP2000 said, San Diegans under the 120 mile radius rule wouldn't be allowed to visit Universal Studios. I'm in San Diego, however, my driver's license and one of my payment cards still has my parent's home in the Anaheim area listed as my "primary" residence. So I've got a debit card with a billing address in Anaheim and a credit card with a San Diego billing address. My wife on the other hand, is entirely San Diegan billing address.

If they went the route you were mentioning, would there be anything stopping me (or I guess technically anyone) from simply using my debit card to purchase two tickets and then technically qualify for a trip to Universal Studios for the both of us? When I bought tickets for Knott's Fall-O-Ween event for my father's birthday, I used my card to pay and was able to simply put the ticket into he and my mother's name and they went.

I wonder if there will be sneaky work-arounds like that present. -and if my time as a CM has taught me anything, it's that folks will do all sorts of crazy things for work-arounds or if they can make a quick buck. There was one individual who used to get on the Rivers of America early (front and center, before the ticketed system) with multiple blankets to save space for Fantasmic!. Then, said individual would go onto Craigslist and the like and literally sell that viewing space to in-park Guests willing to buy it, vacating the area once said Guests showed up to take their place. They did this all the time and we knew about it as CMs and yet for some reason, we weren't allowed to do anything about it as Guest Control CMs. If there are any kind of work arounds through others purchasing tickets, then you can bet that greedy scalpers within the 120 mile radius will take advantage of that to make money and possibly sneak "out of towners" in.

I guess I just feel like Guests will find a way if there are any cracks in the system anyways. Depends how it's implemented, I suppose.

There are rather easy means of spoofing your address for a lot of these systems, and I imagine at some level someone knows that. I’m guessing not enough people try when it involves discounts and other special offers. I don’t think Disney would care any more than they do when they stand to lose money unless the state decides that they are responsible for enforcement and can face penalties if persons outside the designated area are found to be admitted. That seems drastic and ultimately unenforceable. The easier solution would just be to require a good faith effort by the parks and threaten individuals who deliberately violate the geographic restrictions (even without a state of emergency it is fraud).

 

[DavidDL]

Disneyland already checks your photo I.D. when you enter at the Park turnstiles.
They have done this for years...to insure the person entering is the one who owns the ticket.
It also likely helps combat the naughty practice of two people trying to 'share" one admission / one ticket for the day.
And maybe also to combat against the unauthorized resellers market.

I can remember for certain as far back as 2013 they would always ask for mine, even when I later had a AP for a few years.
Just standard practice.
When CMs started photographing Guests when a multi-day ticket was first used upon entering that may have diminished , but I still remember as recent as 2019 being asked to show my photo I.D. anytime I entered a Park.
Along with my 'Tony Baxter Fan Club' Membership card.

So they have been doing this step already, and it is already in place should 'filtering' be required.



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Right. I'm aware of the photo taking that happens with tickets and passports. Though I have to admit, with all the months having not been to the park, I don't quite recall if they asked for my photo ID at any time. My AP had a photo on file so that's been enough for them but I don't recall myself or anyone else I've been with recently being asked for photo ID upon ticket scanning at the turnstiles, just to have their picture taken so that it can be associated with their scanned ticket and that others don't use it to sneak in.

As contrived as it might be to imagine, what would stop say, my wife (who lives in San Diego) from updating her billing address from SD to my parents or a friends place in Anaheim, buying a ticket and then changing it back, all just to visit Universal Studios Hollywood during lockdown? The change in billing info would be enough to get through the actual process of booking a reservation then buying a ticket online, which would admittedly be in her name (-and not someone she was trying to sneak in).

So now she'd have her reservation, and a ticket. Next step? Turnstile. Say we get there and because of the new rules, Universal is deciding to check the photo ID of everyone who enters. Now, I could be wrong, but I would venture a guess that this photo check would simply be to match the name on the ticket and face of the person whose holding it to get in. A photo ID need not necessarily have an address on it and even if it did, that would require the CM working the turnstile to do a distance check on literally every single address that comes as suspect. Now, if an ID said something along the lines of another state, that would be harder to argue but argue the Guest technically still could.

Maybe they say they just moved to the area and haven't had their photo ID fully updated yet? It could cause all kinds of headaches and delays. No, likely the billing address would be "good enough" for most CMs/TMs to believe you're from around the area, if that system gets implemented. Then the photo ID is simply a name and face check to make sure you're on the up and up and not someone entirely different trying to abuse the system. Because let's be realistic, CMs/TMs checking for exact addresses at the turnstile would require them to know the difference between the following two addresses:

7947 Balboa Ave, San Diego, CA 92111 (122 miles but still in San Diego, not allowed access to the park)

and

11259 Camino Ruiz, San Diego, CA 92126 (120 miles but still in San Diego, come on in, access granted)

They won't go that far. The photo ID will simply be a means to check name and face and maybe super obvious address discrepancies like out of state. But even then, Guests could still give enough guff to the CMs with phony excuses like being newly moved that they'd simply be let in.

 

[DrAlice]

You just reminded of that SNL skit
The Californians.

Ahem.... that skit should really be called "The SOUTHERN Californians" or "The LA Basin Californians". The rest of us don't talk like that.

Northern Californians say things like "Drive home later. Right now there's hella traffic on 80."

 

[DCBaker]

"Six Flags Magic Mountain has called on Gov. Gavin Newsom and state officials to issue “achievable” COVID-19 health and safety guidelines that will allow California theme parks to reopen after nearly seven months of coronavirus closures.

“We are asking the state to provide us with achievable next steps in order for California’s theme park industry to successfully come back to life,” according to a statement from Six Flags. “We are more than ready and eager to reopen our park.”

"Los Angeles County — home to Six Flags Magic Mountain and Universal Studios Hollywood — remains in the most restrictive “widespread” risk level. The state’s most-populous county remains at least six to nine weeks away from reaching the “minimal” level — if and when Los Angeles County moves from the highest risk level to the lowest.

“It is imperative that the state work with the industry to review all theme parks’ plans and visit the parks to see for themselves the significant efforts to safely and securely reopen during the pandemic,” according to a statement from Six Flags."

Six Flags Magic Mountain calls on Newsom to issue ‘achievable’ theme park reopening plan

Six Flags Magic Mountain has been making preparations for months to adapt the Valencia amusement park to the COVID-19 health and safety protocols laid out in the company’s reopening plan.

www.ocregister.com

 

[TP2000]

You, sir, sound like a nonsensical doomsday prophet.

Like most people downplaying the pandemic, you present a false choice: either reopen everything now or it will never reopen again. That's not reality.

No, I'm simply stating the facts. There is no Green Tier, and Governor Newsom said specifically they did that on purpose. The least restrictive tier is the Yellow Tier, and that is extremely hard to achieve for counties with more than 100,000 people in them. Much less counties in SoCal with many millions of people in each county.

The Yellow Tier still does not allow convention centers to reopen.

And if the leaked guidelines are true, Disneyland can't reopen until OC reaches the Yellow Tier. Which seems scientifically impossible at this point since you can't have more than a few dozen positive Covid tests per day in a county of 3.2 Million people.

As the Four-Tier system and leaked theme park guidelines are currently worded, there is no real ability for either Disneyland or the Anaheim Convention Center to reopen in 2020 and the closure would seemingly stretch well into 2021.

If that's not a doomsday for the Anaheim Resort District, I don't know what is.

 

[TP2000]

So many good questions about the zip code requirement.

The turnstile CM's are already equipped with iPhones for photo taking and scanning of multi-day tickets. You could create a CM app that has the approved zip codes within 120 mile radius (that are also easily checked on the Disneyland App by the paying public), and the CM's look at the driver's license and punch in the zip code and see if it's approved.

What gets tricky is the various metro areas that are on the cusp or just over the 120 mile radius. Like San Diego examples from @DavidDL, and I can also think of Santa Barbara neighborhoods. My family who lives well east of town would make it, but once you get past downtown Santa Barbara and towards La Cumbre Plaza mall or Isla Vista you're probably past 120 miles. Silly.

And I'm just not sure how the 120 miles is "safer". Orange County is already much lower in the Tier rankings than Los Angeles County, but a resident from naughty Purple Tier LA County only lives 30 miles away and could hop on the 5 to go to Disneyland. But a resident of Yellow Tier Alpine County 400 miles away can't?

 

[TP2000]

“It is imperative that the state work with the industry to review all theme parks’ plans and visit the parks to see for themselves the significant efforts to safely and securely reopen during the pandemic,” according to a statement from Six Flags."

That last sentence from Six Flags sticks out. Apparently the state bureaucrats in Sacramento haven't even visited the theme parks to see how they operate and the changes they've made for Covid.

This was the same frustration the nail industry had with Sacramento. They were trying to get leadership from the Board of Cosmetology to visit their salons to see the changes and investments made, and no one would even return their emails and calls. It was just complete radio silence from Sacramento.

Sacramento apparently doesn't like to do field trips that take them out of their office buildings.

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

 

[TP2000]

View attachment 504010

Well, at least there's that. A trash can without the 'D' peeled off by crummy skateboard teens.

 

[1HAPPYGHOSTHOST]

"Six Flags Magic Mountain has called on Gov. Gavin Newsom and state officials to issue “achievable” COVID-19 health and safety guidelines that will allow California theme parks to reopen after nearly seven months of coronavirus closures.

“We are asking the state to provide us with achievable next steps in order for California’s theme park industry to successfully come back to life,” according to a statement from Six Flags. “We are more than ready and eager to reopen our park.”

"Los Angeles County — home to Six Flags Magic Mountain and Universal Studios Hollywood — remains in the most restrictive “widespread” risk level. The state’s most-populous county remains at least six to nine weeks away from reaching the “minimal” level — if and when Los Angeles County moves from the highest risk level to the lowest.

“It is imperative that the state work with the industry to review all theme parks’ plans and visit the parks to see for themselves the significant efforts to safely and securely reopen during the pandemic,” according to a statement from Six Flags."

Six Flags Magic Mountain calls on Newsom to issue ‘achievable’ theme park reopening plan

Six Flags Magic Mountain has been making preparations for months to adapt the Valencia amusement park to the COVID-19 health and safety protocols laid out in the company’s reopening plan.

www.ocregister.com

Newsom wouldn't be caught dead at Disneyland, do they think he would really go to Six Flags???

 

[TP2000]

Newsom wouldn't be caught dead at Disneyland, do they think he would really go to Six Flags???

Of course not. It's beneath him.

But there should be at least some bureaucrats who would do a site visit to at least the Top 5 theme parks in their state; Disneyland, Universal Studios, Knott's, Six Flags, and maybe Legoland and Sea World.

 

[cmwade77]

So many good questions about the zip code requirement.

The turnstile CM's are already equipped with iPhones for photo taking and scanning of multi-day tickets. You could create a CM app that has the approved zip codes within 120 mile radius (that are also easily checked on the Disneyland App by the paying public), and the CM's look at the driver's license and punch in the zip code and see if it's approved.

What gets tricky is the various metro areas that are on the cusp or just over the 120 mile radius. Like San Diego examples from @DavidDL, and I can also think of Santa Barbara neighborhoods. My family who lives well east of town would make it, but once you get past downtown Santa Barbara and towards La Cumbre Plaza mall or Isla Vista you're probably past 120 miles. Silly.

And I'm just not sure how the 120 miles is "safer". Orange County is already much lower in the Tier rankings than Los Angeles County, but a resident from naughty Purple Tier LA County only lives 30 miles away and could hop on the 5 to go to Disneyland. But a resident of Yellow Tier Alpine County 400 miles away can't?

You know we must have inconsistencies in everything, it wouldn't be California without them.

But as it turns out, this might all be all be over with very soon, possibly as early as today:
https://blog.electkevinkiley.com/todays-hearing-in-our-case-against-newsom-2/

If the judge rules against Newsom, it would invalidate all of his emergency orders effective immediately.

If it goes that way, all of the tiers disappear and all businesses (including theme parks), churches, schools, etc. could reopen immediately with or without any mask requirement, social distancing etc. at their discretion. Counties have only been able to implement restrictions beyond the normal 30-60 day limit due to his emergency orders, so even the counties couldn't do anything about it.

They are expecting a ruling "this week", well considering this week is almost over, that doesn't leave much time. I am wondering if the judge might be waiting until 4:59 PM to prevent Newsom from filing for an injunction or something preventing the ruling from taking effect immediately.

If the judge did something like this, I would strongly encourage all theme parks to fully reopen as fast as possible, as it will be a lot harder to try to shut them down again once reopened and guess what, there would be no guidelines needed.

I am not too overly optimistic, but it would be awesome if the tide finally started turning against this mess and got people back to work.

 

[TP2000]

You know we must have inconsistencies in everything, it wouldn't be California without them.

But as it turns out, this might all be all be over with very soon, possibly as early as today:
https://blog.electkevinkiley.com/todays-hearing-in-our-case-against-newsom-2/

If the judge rules against Newsom, it would invalidate all of his emergency orders effective immediately.

If it goes that way, all of the tiers disappear and all businesses (including theme parks), churches, schools, etc. could reopen immediately with or without any mask requirement, social distancing etc. at their discretion. Counties have only been able to implement restrictions beyond the normal 30-60 day limit due to his emergency orders, so even the counties couldn't do anything about it.

They are expecting a ruling "this week", well considering this week is almost over, that doesn't leave much time. I am wondering if the judge might be waiting until 4:59 PM to prevent Newsom from filing for an injunction or something preventing the ruling from taking effect immediately.

If the judge did something like this, I would strongly encourage all theme parks to fully reopen as fast as possible, as it will be a lot harder to try to shut them down again once reopened and guess what, there would be no guidelines needed.

I am not too overly optimistic, but it would be awesome if the tide finally started turning against this mess and got people back to work.

That's fascinating! I will need to look into that and read up this afternoon. Thanks for posting that link!

But I hope this doesn't screw up the timing on my Welp, gang post today at 4pm.

 

[Travel Junkie]

And if the leaked guidelines are true, Disneyland can't reopen until OC reaches the Yellow Tier. Which seems scientifically impossible at this point since you can't have more than a few dozen positive Covid tests per day in a county of 3.2 Million people.

I preface this by saying that I do think the state should work with the theme parks more than they have and find common ground on reopening.

Scientifically impossible?

Hong Kong has a population more than twice that of Orange County and much denser that OC. They had 18 cases yesterday.

Singapore which is also denser and more populated than OC. They had 9 cases yesterday.

Tokyo with its dense population of 37 million people? 203 cases yesterday and that's higher than they have been trending.

I could go on, but you get the point.

As I said, at this point theme parks and the state should be able to come to an agreement on guidelines and the lack of an agreement is more on the state than the parks. Unlike others have stated however, I don't feel there is any ulterior motive or some hatred of the theme parks. Newsom simply sees them closer to conventions and sporting events with fans than malls or museums. No conspiracy theory here.

 

[Tamandua]

You know we must have inconsistencies in everything, it wouldn't be California without them.

But as it turns out, this might all be all be over with very soon, possibly as early as today:
https://blog.electkevinkiley.com/todays-hearing-in-our-case-against-newsom-2/

If the judge rules against Newsom, it would invalidate all of his emergency orders effective immediately.

If it goes that way, all of the tiers disappear and all businesses (including theme parks), churches, schools, etc. could reopen immediately with or without any mask requirement, social distancing etc. at their discretion. Counties have only been able to implement restrictions beyond the normal 30-60 day limit due to his emergency orders, so even the counties couldn't do anything about it.

They are expecting a ruling "this week", well considering this week is almost over, that doesn't leave much time. I am wondering if the judge might be waiting until 4:59 PM to prevent Newsom from filing for an injunction or something preventing the ruling from taking effect immediately.

If the judge did something like this, I would strongly encourage all theme parks to fully reopen as fast as possible, as it will be a lot harder to try to shut them down again once reopened and guess what, there would be no guidelines needed.

I am not too overly optimistic, but it would be awesome if the tide finally started turning against this mess and got people back to work.

That is interesting. When we talk about "emergency orders", I think they've stretched the meaning of the word "emergency" well past its limits. Time for some sanity.

 

[Tamandua]

That's fascinating! I will need to look into that and read up this afternoon. Thanks for posting that link!

But I hope this doesn't screw up the timing on my Welp, gang post today at 4pm.

Please pm me the weekly update if you can't continue the practice. I'm a creature of habit and this year has been brutal on my habits.

 

[TP2000]

I preface this by saying that I do think the state should work with the theme parks more than they have and find common ground on reopening.

Scientifically impossible?

Hong Kong has a population more than twice that of Orange County and much denser that OC. They had 18 cases yesterday.

Singapore which is also denser and more populated than OC. They had 9 cases yesterday.

Tokyo with its dense population of 37 million people? 203 cases yesterday and that's higher than they have been trending.

I could go on, but you get the point.

While I would take any information from Communist China with a giant rock of salt, the Singapore and Hong Kong examples are interesting because they are basically compact city-states that have shut themselves off from the world for the past six months.

It is still impossible for any foreigner to fly into either Hong Kong or Singapore right now. They are both sealed off and inaccessible to average civilians.

• All non-Hong Kong residents arriving by air from any location other than mainland China, Macau, and Taiwan will be denied entry. Non-Hong Kong residents arriving from mainland China, Macau, or Taiwan will be denied entry if they have been to any overseas countries and regions in the past 14 days.
• On January 30, the Hong Kong government closed certain transportation links and border checkpoints connecting Hong Kong with mainland China until further notice.

COVID-19 Information | U.S. Consulate General Hong Kong & Macau

Last updated: [09/15/20] HONG KONG Country-Specific Information: Hong Kong: The Hong Kong government has confirmed cases of COVID-19 within its borders. Safety and security information is provided in our Travel Advisory for Hong Kong , currently at Level 3. For more information on conditions in...

hk.usconsulate.gov

California, meanwhile, has no such restrictions on interstate travel among the 330 Million other Americans. The land borders with Canada and Mexico are open, but are officially limited to "essential travel" for students, trucking, family visits, etc. It's easy to get around that requirement by just claiming you are enterting the US for an "essential" reason at our land borders.

At some point Singapore and Hong Kong are going to have to reopen their borders to international travel and allow people to move in and out of the country again. But that hasn't happened yet.

Tokyo and Japan are something else entirely, but that's because it's a fabulous country!

 

[1HAPPYGHOSTHOST]

It is once again almost 4pm!!!!! Can't wait for my favorite post of the week!