Disney Proposes Opening Orlando Theme Parks Beginning July 11

The Disney World theme park and resort have been closed since March 14

Walt Disney Co. on Wednesday proposed opening its Disney World park in Orlando in a phased approach beginning July 11.

Disney World’s senior vice president of operations Jim MacPhee made the proposed the reopening during a presentation to the Orange County Economic Recovery Task Force in Florida. The phased reopening would start with Disney World’s Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom on July 11, followed by Epcot and the rest of the park July 15.

Disney closed its Disney World and Disneyland resort and theme parks in Orlando and Anaheim, as well as others around the world, on March 14.

Earlier this month, Shanghai Disneyland reopened to the public after shutting its doors for roughly three months, with several new policies in place to enforce social distancing and visitor cleanliness.

Visitors to the park of all ages and its employees are required to wear masks, submit to temperature screenings before entering security and obey social distancing protocol. In addition, only 30% of the resort’s typical capacity can visit each day — and only one group of visitors is allowed per ride car with an empty row between — an attempt to keep crowds as sparse as possible.

Disney’s parks, experiences and products division, which includes all of the company’s theme parks, resorts, and cruise lines, is its biggest contributor to revenue. In 2019 the division contributed $26.2 billion to Disney’s overall revenue of $69.6 billion.

More to come…