How Long Disneyland's Actually Been Ready To Open

Mickey Mouse and Friends at Disneyland

When Walt Disney World announced its plan to reopen, it took the theme park resort about six weeks to actually open the doors for the first time. Over on the other coast, Disneyland Resort is still closed, and there's little to no indication when that might change, however, it seems that whenever the state gives Disneyland the green light, things should move quickly, as the parks have apparently been "ready to roll" since July.

While theme parks are open in Florida and several other places, they are still closed in California, but many theme parks are beginning to get restless and are calling on the state to relax restrictions. It seems that, when the decision is made to let parks open, Disneyland will be ready to go pretty quickly. According to the Orange County Register, Walt Disney World's Chief Operating Officer Jim MacPhee said last week during a Florida round table of theme park companies...

Disneyland has been ready to roll since July.

Back in June, Disneyland actually announced a tentative plan to reopen in mid-July, and the resort actually began to move toward that plan. However, by the beginning of July, it was clear that California's plan to reopen in general was having a larger influence on the state of the virus in Calfornia than anticipated, and plans were pulled back. The guidelines from the state on what theme parks needed to do to reopen were never released, and thus Disneyland and other parks could not reopen.

While Jim MacPhee says that Disneyland has been ready to go since July, that certainly doesn't mean that once guidelines are released, the park will simply open the doors. Without those guidelines, there's no way to know what precautions might be needed. However, it does seem likely that Disneyland has been working on things behind the scenes. The Downtown Disney district is open for business and that means a certain amount of work had to be done already. And with what Disney has been learning with the other theme parks open, Disneyland has probably been able to prepare in advance for a lot based on what the other parks have already discovered.

Between what Disneyland has learned, whatever work had been done in June ahead of the planned reopening, and the fact that Disneyland Resort simply isn't as big as Walt Disney World, the turn around time between being given the ok and actually opening will probably be comparatively short. You can be sure that after being closed for nearly six months, the parks and hotels won't be closed a day longer than is absolutely necessary.

Because of the potential risk however, it does seem clear that even with phased reopening to limited capacity, theme parks will be among the last businesses in California to reopen.

Dirk Libbey
Content Producer/Theme Park Beat

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.