America is months into the coronavirus pandemic, and yet Wednesday proved a grim one, with new daily cases reaching its second highest mark yet, with over 35,000 confirmed. About a fifth of those were in California. That state had recently begun opening up some of its businesses, including movie theaters, and over the last few days it’s seen a spike in new cases. Now comes word that Disneyland, which had once been confident about returning, won’t be making its planned July 17 re-opening after all.
This comes from The Hollywood Reporter, which revealed that the Anaheim theme park — Disney’s original, lovingly overseen by Walt Disney himself 65 summers ago — would not be receiving the state clearance it needs to reopen its doors. The same goes for Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim, which had also planned to open back up.
“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,” the company announced in a statement. “Once we have a clearer understanding of when guidelines will be released, we expect to be able to communicate a reopening date.”
That said, there is one Disney space that will open as planned: Downtown Disney, the shopping and dining district that’s part of the Disneyland Resort, will still be open to the public on July 9.
Disneyland and Walt Disney World, in Orlando, Florida, have both been closed since mid-March. Like California, Florida has recently seen a spike in new coronavirus cases, which evidently hasn’t sufficiently frightened some of its population. There is currently no new date for Disneyland’s reopening.
(Via THR)