This week, the State released new guidance for theme park reopening, what that means for Disneyland, plus Disney’s reaction to the news, a pleasant surprise from Bob Chapek during the shareholders call, D23 celebrates 20 years of DCA, we finish our talk with former cast member Dave, and more!
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News:
The State of California released new guidance on the reopening of theme parks througout the state. Theme parks can now open at 15% capacity in the red tier, 25% in the orange tier, and 35% in the yellow tier. Some other restrictions include no indoor dining, limits on indoor attractions, and visits are limited to residents of California. – https://www.ocregister.com/2021/03/05/disneyland-universal-and-other-california-theme-parks-can-reopen-april-1/ and https://www.micechat.com/284100-breaking-disneyland-reopening-plans-revealed/
Disneyland President Ken Potrock released a statement shortly after the revised guidelines were posted stating they are encouraged by the revisions and are looking forward to reopening in spring and getting thousands of cast members back to work, allowing other local businesses to open as well. – https://twitter.com/DisneyParksNews/status/1367974539397795844/photo/1
With the announcement of the ability for the parks to reopen on April 1st, there are still a lot of things that have to land in place to actually be able to open. First, Disney has to decide if opening at the lower capacity is financially possible, then cast members have to be called back to work and re-trained. Part of this re-training is becoming recertified on the attraction to be able to operate them in the state of California. Senior attraction operators need to be called back in earlier to get recertified, so they can then train the other cast members for them to get certified. – https://www.micechat.com/284685-disneyland-update-not-quite-as-soon-as-you-think/
On the Disney Company Shareholders meeting Tuesday, Bob Chapek stated that they hope to have Disneyland open in late April. There is no date they are ready to announce, but if the cases in Orange County continue on the decline, guests could be welcomed back shortly after the Touch of Disney event ends on April 19th. Chapek stated that they are calling back 10,000 cast members in preperation. – https://twitter.com/DisneyParksNews/status/1369358327562477568/photo/1
D23 is hosting a virtual event to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Disney California Adventure. Tickets are free for D23 Gold members, and $11.50 for D23 general members. The panel will include a multitude of Imagineers and others that worked to bring DCA to life. The panel will be available for viewing from March 10th at 4pm Pacific to March 26th at 11:45pm Pacific. – https://d23.com/d23-event/d23-x-walt-disney-imagineering-magical-milestones-disney-california-adventure-park-20th-anniversary/
Tickets for the Touch of Disney event went on sale last week with no specifics, other than the date. Guests hit up the site at midnight pacific time to no update, then at 7am, then 8am, and finally around 9ish, a button appeared to take guests to a queue to get tickets. This queue then lead to another queue to actually get tickets, which for most folks we talked to said “more than an hour.” Once guests got to the online sales page, the process was quick and easy, with no major hiccups. – https://www.mouseplanet.com/12881/Disneyland_Resort_Update_for_March_8__14_2021
MiceChat has some new photos from the skies above Disneyland this week, giving us a glimpse