Disneyland Reopening Speculation Superthread

[lindyv321]

Not sure why you think this. Anyone or any entity can be held liable for negligence. If a restaurant serves you food that makes you sick they can be liable. If a store refrigeration unit is leaking a chemical that makes people sick they can be liable. If a company creates a situation where one customer makes another sick when the company could have taken reasonable action to prevent it, they can be liable. Why do you think salad bars have sneeze guards?

The question would be whether Disney acted reasonably to prevent illness from spreading. Obviously Disney takes tons of precautions against illness, from the aforementioned sneeze guards to providing free dispensers for hand soap and hand sanitizer. These are reasonable actions because illness is fairly rare and most people have immune systems strong enough to fight off most bacteria and viruses most of the time. (Vaccinations help immensely, of course.) But this virus is something new, far more deadly than seasonal respiratory viruses and nobody has immunity to it. Disney must act reasonably to prevent this new disease as well, or they will be legally liable.

Reduced capacity and mandatory masks are the bare minimum it will take for Disney to stand up in court and successfully argue that they acted reasonably to prevent the virus from infecting its guests.

Of course they have to take reasonable precautions but I honestly can’t see how Disney could directly be held liable if someone got sick. How can it be proven they got sick at the parks? What if it was contracted on a flight to the parks? What if it was contracted before they even left since there’s such a long period where one is contagious prior to showing symptoms?

I personally know what the risks are of being in large groups of people and understand that no matter what additional precautions are taken that there is going to be a risk of getting sick. If I wanted to avoid the risk then I would stay home

Back to speculating...
I think they are going to go to some type reservation system at first to manage capacity. How do you think it will be done? Will onsite guests be given priority and guaranteed park entry for each day of their stay?

 

[Gaugersaurus]

I put no stock in the # of positive tests, only the hospitalization rate, the number of tests is going to fluctuate based on availability. So far stable (this is bending the curve, yes?)

I may be cynical but I put no stock in looking at any of the numbers as an indication of when things should open. Please take the following with a grain of salt: my friend works as an EMT and he told me that any cause of death in someone who tested positive or has symptoms is counted toward the numbers. Example if someone who dies of a heart attack while sick is counted as a death due to COVID-19 "complications".

EDIT: trying to make post "on topic"

 

[alvernon90]

Of course they have to take reasonable precautions but I honestly can’t see how Disney could directly be held liable if someone got sick. How can it be proven they got sick at the parks?

They can tell someone got sick at the parks the same way they can tell someone got food poisoning or measles at the parks. Medical experts can trace the source of the infection. I'm sure Disney would be happy to have you keep believing you have no grounds to sue them if you get sick at the parks, but I'm just as sure that their lawyers understand differently.

 

[travelplanningnerd]

I may be cynical but I put no stock in any of the numbers. Please take the following with a grain of salt: my friend works as an EMT and he told me that any cause of death in someone who tested positive or has symptoms is counted toward the numbers. Example if someone who dies of a heart attack while sick is counted as a death due to COVID-19 "complications".

Can we please not do this here?

 

[mentos]

They can tell someone got sick at the parks the same way they can tell someone got food poisoning or measles at the parks. Medical experts can trace the source of the infection. I'm sure Disney would be happy to have you keep believing you have no grounds to sue them if you get sick at the parks, but I'm just as sure that their lawyers understand differently.

Disney is famous for never settling cases, taking them the trial, AND the venue is always Orange County, California.

So long as the measures Disney takes are reasonably sufficient to your average person/juror, I would tell any enterprising attorney, "goodluck with that!"

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

It will not 100% "prevent" the spread of the virus but all of those things certainly will reduce the transmission of the virus and infect fewer people. It will still be too many, though.



Ah, I see, it's your first week here. Welcome to America! Here nothing is ever our fault and we sue each other for any reason or no reason at all...

Ha ha let me rephrase.

Sue? Maybe. Win? No.

I can’t see anyone winning a lawsuit against Disney. They would have to prove they contracted the virus on Disney property and not an airplane or the grocery store or from a family member, then they would have to prove that Disney didn’t take reasonable precautions to try to mitigate risk.

Mitigate risk does not mean eliminate risk. I truly believe all these measures are being put in place more for legal protection for Disney and peace of mind for guests, not for actual prevention of virus transmission.

 

[alvernon90]

Disney is famous for never settling cases, taking them the trial, AND the venue is always Orange County, California.

This must be one of those urban legends, like Walt's frozen head in Pirates of the Caribbean. All you have to do is google the exact phrase "Disney settles lawsuit" to see a ton of news articles featuring Disney settling a wide variety of lawsuits.

 

[littlea905]

I saw someone had posted in the Disneyland June trip thread that Disney had cancelled their room reservations for June. I don’t have any more details than that. I don’t know if anyone else has had Disney cancel any June reservations?

 

[mel2014]

Since Germany is ahead of the United States in its virus control and recovery efforts, I thought I'd check out the reopening plans for EuropaPark, which, while little known outside of Europe, is the second most-visited theme park in Europe, after Disneyland Paris (and is my favorite theme park). They're planning to reopen 5/29 with date-specific tickets, masks in all covered areas, waiting areas and on rides, and no shows. One of their ideas that I like is a "Distance Radar App" where they are going to turn social distancing into a game where you earn points throughout the day by maintaining appropriate social distancing from other guests:

https://www.europapark.de/en/distance-radar-planning

It seems like a fun concept that Disney could incorporate into the Play App.

I agree that the tiers of APs and the quantity of outstanding prepaid ticket stock are going to make it difficult to limit capacity at Disneyland in comparison to other them parks.

What Europa Park is doing with their "Club Card" annual pass is either: (1) allowing a pro rata refund; or (2) extending pass expiration day for day for the closing period plus limited capacity period AND giving guests 1 day of guaranteed access per month of limited capacity. Of course, one day of access to Disneyland wouldn't necessarily work.

 

[Karin1984]

Since Germany is ahead of the United States in its virus control and recovery efforts, I thought I'd check out the reopening plans for EuropaPark, which, while little known outside of Europe, is the second most-visited theme park in Europe, after Disneyland Paris (and is my favorite theme park). They're planning to reopen 5/29 with date-specific tickets, masks in all covered areas, waiting areas and on rides, and no shows. One of their ideas that I like is a "Distance Radar App" where they are going to turn social distancing into a game where you earn points throughout the day by maintaining appropriate social distancing from other guests:

https://www.europapark.de/en/distance-radar-planning

It seems like a fun concept that Disney could incorporate into the Play App.

I agree that the tiers of APs and the quantity of outstanding prepaid ticket stock are going to make it difficult to limit capacity.

What Europa Park is doing with their "Club Card" annual pass is either: (1) allowing a pro rata refund; or (2) extending pass expiration day for day for the closing period plus limited capacity period AND giving guests 1 day of guaranteed access per month of limited capacity. Of course, one day of access to Disneyland wouldn't necessarily work.

I had posted this in another thread about the updates, Here my post about what Efteling, in the Netherlands is doing, I posted this last Friday:
I'd like to think we are bit ahead of Germany in The Netherlands, what I understand our R-rate is still below 1 where Germany saw a small increase after re-opening.


Ok, as mentioned, I would report back when we knew the plans for the biggest themepark in the Netherlands, Efteling (very cool park, for those who visit Europe and love themeparks, go here. The park is older than DL and said to inspire Walt Disney for DL) .
As Efteling is a very old park, and a very large park, they use the data they have on how people move around the park to create routes.

Re-opening plans:
- Date: 20 May. From now till the 20th they will do more tests with staff & family members etc, on invitation only. On 18 & 19 May they will do tests with a group of AP holders.
- Dated reservations only.
- Go down to 30% capacity.
- There are extra signs around the park with all the new rules.
- Social distancing per family/households, 6ft. Technically they request groups not forming a household not to come, but it doesn't say how they will check this.
I must add that this last bit is something I quoted from newsarticles and not the published list on the website of Efteling.
- They've created routes on how to walk from one place to another.
- Max. nr. of people in restaurants and stores, use of shopping baskets required to create an extra distance between you and other guests while shopping.
- In restaurants mobile order and pay with the app
- Rides will have less seats available, if a cart has 4 seats, 2 of these will be blocked etc.
- Guests will close safety restrains themselves, staff will check at a distance (see previous picture I posted)
- Gloves and masks are requested, but not required.
- If you are sick, stay at home.
- To not burden the public transport, come by car.
- Extra cleaning
- Extra desinfectant stations.


Other parks & zoos in the Netherlands have announced their opening dates and it's all very similar to above.

 

[DizMe]

I don't really have much to offer as to when DLR will reopen, but a couple of things make me think it will be later rather than sooner. First, at least some CMs are getting information from their superiors to support the idea that a reopening is likely not going to be in the next several months. Second, I do honestly believe that there will be a second wave. Once the SIP restrictions begin to relax, it is probable that the number of people getting newly infected will rise, as will hospitalizations etc. Viruses mutate; it's what they do. This may make them weaker, stronger, or not show much of a change, but the potential for it to cause a surge in cases is high. Disney must also be considering this possibility since that is the historical pattern of coronavirus pandemics.

 

[TikiTikiFan]

I think Disney is more concerned with bad publicity than the unlikely scenario of losing in a court case when it comes to finger pointing over catching COVID-19.

Wouldn’t be good press if they open things up and if an outbreak occurred... regardless of fault (and I agree, it’s not theirs) the headlines would twist it to be like ‘Coronavirus outbreak at Disneyland!!’ and off we’d go. Aside from government restrictions, I bet that conversation is being considered in those closed meetings.

Look at the measles chaos when that happened and they didn’t even see it spread there. I had random people bringing that up to me all the time when we’d go on our trips- “watch out for those measles!” And I’d be like huh?

 

[Snap Crackle Pop]

One of my friends works at a store in downtown Disney and they were told that there is no hint as to when they were going to reopen.
I don’t know if this will effect Disneyland at all but the shelter in place order has been extended for another few months in Los Angeles.

 

[mel2014]

I had posted this in another thread about the updates, Here my post about what Efteling, in the Netherlands is doing, I posted this last Friday:
I'd like to think we are bit ahead of Germany in The Netherlands, what I understand our R-rate is still below 1 where Germany saw a small increase after re-opening.


Ok, as mentioned, I would report back when we knew the plans for the biggest themepark in the Netherlands, Efteling (very cool park, for those who visit Europe and love themeparks, go here. The park is older than DL and said to inspire Walt Disney for DL) .
As Efteling is a very old park, and a very large park, they use the data they have on how people move around the park to create routes.

Re-opening plans:
- Date: 20 May. From now till the 20th they will do more tests with staff & family members etc, on invitation only. On 18 & 19 May they will do tests with a group of AP holders.
- Dated reservations only.
- Go down to 30% capacity.
- There are extra signs around the park with all the new rules.
- Social distancing per family/households, 6ft. Technically they request groups not forming a household not to come, but it doesn't say how they will check this.
I must add that this last bit is something I quoted from newsarticles and not the published list on the website of Efteling.
- They've created routes on how to walk from one place to another.
- Max. nr. of people in restaurants and stores, use of shopping baskets required to create an extra distance between you and other guests while shopping.
- In restaurants mobile order and pay with the app
- Rides will have less seats available, if a cart has 4 seats, 2 of these will be blocked etc.
- Guests will close safety restrains themselves, staff will check at a distance (see previous picture I posted)
- Gloves and masks are requested, but not required.
- If you are sick, stay at home.
- To not burden the public transport, come by car.
- Extra cleaning
- Extra desinfectant stations.


Other parks & zoos in the Netherlands have announced their opening dates and it's all very similar to above.

Thanks for providing this information as an additional example of what other theme parks are doing. We visited Efteling two years and it is such a charming and fun park. They do have a space advantage compared to the cramped quarters at Disneyland

Comparing the Netherlands to California, it's interesting that on a per capita basis, the Netherlands is still experiencing roughly the same 7-day average death rate as California, but the per capita daily new cases here are persistently high in California while trending downward in the Netherlands. Even with increased testing picking up more asymptomatic cases, it seems like at some point here in California, we should start trending down with social distancing but we're not, which means at some point the Governor may need to pivot away from any reopening metrics based on case numbers and focus instead on hospitalizations and deaths.

 

[littlea905]

I see the governor gave guidelines for opening dine-in restaurants for the counties. That initially gave me some hope until I saw the requirements for cases. No more than 1 case per 10,000 in the last two weeks and no more than one death in the last two weeks.

 

[EmJ]

How likely is Orange County to follow LA County in extending the Stay at Home Order? LA County's public health director said that extending that County's Stay at Home Order until mid-August is a "certainty", absent dramatic change in the virus or available treatments.

 

[eMoneyBug]

6/1 is definitely out. 7/1 is still possible for Downtown Disney, maybe best case scenario end of June for Downtown D and early July for the parks. Worst case scenario Aug/Sept

 

[Snap Crackle Pop]

How likely is Orange County to follow LA County in extending the Stay at Home Order? LA County's public health director said that extending that County's Stay at Home Order until mid-August is a "certainty", absent dramatic change in the virus or available treatments.

I don’t know if Orange County will follow suite since there is a lot of pushback from the county leaders.
However with Newsoms dine in restaurant guidelines being incredibly strict I don’t see how Disneyland is going to be able to open anytime soon.

 

[midnight star]

https://www.foxnews.com/us/newsom-california-restaurants-can-reopen-dine-in-coronavirus I think they extend the order for money purposes. I'm praying they modify more to keep reopening. Also, would places like DTD count as strip malls? That can technically open now for pick up..

 

[hiroMYhero]

How likely is Orange County to follow LA County in extending the Stay at Home Order? LA County's public health director said that extending that County's Stay at Home Order until mid-August is a "certainty", absent dramatic change in the virus or available treatments.

OC has a reopening proposal that’s yet to be unveiled:
https://www.latimes.com/california/...ed-coronavirus-reopening-guidelines-this-week