Disney Execs Say Disneyland To Be Closed More Than a Year During Earnings Call
If you’ve been following along with us here at MickeyBlog you’ll know that today was the Q1 earnings call for 2021 where Disney reported losses of up to $2.6 billion in its theme parks division. Its not surprising with Disneyland Resort still closed and Disney execs speculate that the parks won’t be opening soon.
“Our current expectation is that Disneyland and Disneyland Paris will be closed for the entirety of the second quarter,” Disney Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy said.
Disney’s second quarter ends around end of March or Early April meaning another Spring Break without attractions reopening at the parks. If you’ll remember Disneyland and Disney California Adventure closed back in mid-March. If they’re not expected to reopen until late Spring or Early Summer that means that rides and attractions at both parks will have remained shuttered for over a year.
“It’s hard to believe nearly a year has passed since the start of the pandemic, which continues to negatively impact the operations of our company,” Disney CEO Bob Chapek said on the call.
Thankfully Disney’s theme parks in Florida, Japan and Shanghai all remain open. Disneyland Paris is expected to reopen on April 2nd. Chapek, remains optimistic that the theme parks will turn a corner in terms of profitability and being able to increase capacity limits hopefully this year. “In terms of the outlook for the parks for the rest of the year and the capacity, it’s really going to be determined by the rate of vaccination of the public.” The CEO continues, “That seems like the biggest lever that we can have in order to either take the parks that are currently under limited capacity and increase it or open up parks that are currently closed.”
As we previously reported, Disneyland is currently one of the designated COVID-19 distribution centers in Southern California with over 100,000 COVID-19 vaccines having been administered since the site first opened in mid-January.
There is also the expectation that Hong Kong Disney will be able to reopen soon. “We are hopeful we will be able to reopen Hong Kong Disneyland during the quarter,” McCarthy said on the call.
In the meantime, its a waiting game on the West Coast as Governor Gavin Newsom has created separate reopening blueprints for small and large theme parks. Disneyland and Disney California Adventure both of which fall into the large park category are currently in the most restrictive category. This means that attractions have been unable to reopen.
By law, a three month waiting period is required between tiers which are depending on COVID-19 cases remaining down in the area. This means that the soonest Disneyland and California Adventure could re-open is six weeks from now which by all accounts is probably a bit too optimistic.
This is a story that we’ll continue to follow here at MickeyBlog. Keep checking back with us for further news and updates!
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