Celebrating the Reopening of Shanghai Disneyland
It’s a new dawn, at least for Shanghai Disneyland which officially re-opened their theme parks today after the COVID19- closure. The theme park had been closed for more than three months.
Shanghai Disneyland is located in the country’s most populous city and the world following the news with great excitement as it marks the first of Disney’s six main resorts around the world to reopen.
It welcomed a capped number of visitors who had to pre-book tickets, have their temperatures checked on arrival and show a government QR code designed to prove they are not a health risk.
So what exactly did that look like? As AFP relax news tells us, speakers on a recorded loop were asking people to wear masks at all times and reminded guests to obey social distancing on the queues and the rides.
Cast members were tasked with holding signs that said, “Please maintain a proper social distance from other guests” and yellow lines and posters on the ground showed people where to stand when waiting.
Here’s a tweet posted by @tdrexplorer that shows what the social distancing queue looks like for Pirates of the Caribbean.
Social distancing in the queue for Pirates of the Caribbean at Shanghai Disneyland. pic.twitter.com/rCrFCJBInj
— Chris Explorer (@tdrexplorer) May 11, 2020
In addition to social distancing practices, Disney has also advised that there will be an increase in sanitation and disinfection and that character interactions will be suspended.
Today President of Shanghai Disney Resort said in a statement, “For myself – and for our Shanghai Disney Resort cast members, who have taken great care to prepare the park for our guests – this is a very special moment. Making magic means even more to us today, as we reflect on the resilience of our community; our wonderful cast members who worked so diligently to preserve the park during the closure; the enthusiasm of our guests and fans; and, of course, the determination and dedication of the medical workers and first responders who helped to make this possible.”
For Shanghai Disney Resort, while this is a key step in our phased reopening, there are many more milestones to come for us and our sister parks around the world. I invite you to learn more about our approach to reopening our parks here.
As we previously reported here at MickeyBlog, consumer demand was definitely there when it came to reopening the parks. Tickets went on sale for opening day on Friday and they sold out within minutes.
Andrew Bolstein, who is the senior VP of operations at the resort said that the majority of attractions and facilities are open with more being added as time goes on.
The re-opening of Shanghai Disney Resort is drawing attention for being a blueprint of sorts as to how Walt Disney World and Disneyland may approach reopening. As of going to print, neither Disneyland or Disney World have announced an opening date though Disney World is a bit further along in the process having announced last week that Disney Springs, the resort’s downtown shopping district will re-open on May 20th.
Last week, Disney made its second quarterly earnings report which saw profits down by nearly 91% as a result of theme parks being shuttered around the world. Disney CEO Bob Chapek said that the company will suffer a $1.4 billion hit in the current quarter.