Disneyland Closure Update: Reopening Rules Fallout & Litigation
It’s been an eventful week (to put it mildly) in the ongoing reopening saga of Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. This post will bring you up to speed on the fallout from California’s stringent theme park reopening rules, responses from Anaheim leaders and businesses, and where Disney, Universal, Cedar Fair, and other operators will likely go from here when it comes to legal action.
In case you missed it, this week California released reopening rules for theme parks, the effect of which is likely extending Disneyland’s closure until Summer 2021. While smaller parks can open sooner, the theme park guidelines provide that Disneyland and DCA cannot reopen until Orange County reaches the yellow tier, at which point the parks will be limited to 25% capacity and reservations will be required.
These long-awaited theme park reopening guidelines are almost identical to what was leaked a few weeks ago that both Disney and Universal implored California to reconsider. These parks, along with local leaders and health experts, believe that Los Angeles and Orange Counties cannot conceivably reach the yellow tier in 2020, and most likely will not get there until Summer 2021 at the earliest. As they point out, such an onerous standard will have devastating consequences not just for the parks–but for local businesses dependent upon their operations…
Anaheim and Orange County leaders quickly spoke out quickly on the ramifications of California’s theme park reopening rules. “These guidelines fail working families and small businesses,” stated Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu in a statement to ReOpenOCNow.
“Too many Anaheim hotels, stores, and restaurants will not survive another year of this. Many are family businesses. The jobs they provide support even more families. The labor unions of the Disneyland Resort understand these impacts and support the reopening of theme parks in Tier 3 — not Tier 4, which would wipe out jobs and destroy lives,” concluded Mayor Sidhu.
“For a large county like us, especially a county with institution of higher education where folks [are] coming in from outside the county and outside the state, I think it’s going to be very hard to achieve the yellow tier,” stated Dr. Clayton Chau, Director, Orange County Health Care Agency at a Board of Supervisors meeting.
“It depends on when the vaccine will come as well as how many doses [are] available for our populations as well as how many of our residents will readily accept the vaccine — those are the three factors that will determine how soon we can get to the yellow tier.” Dr. Chau painted a bleak picture for the reopening, concluding that Orange County “can look forward to a yellow tier by next summer, hopefully. Hopefully.”
Todd Ament, President and CEO, Anaheim Chamber of Commerce criticized the decisions as “delaying by a year or longer reopening of the Disneyland Resort and major theme parks in California, decimating the state’s tourism industry. Tens of thousands of workers have already been laid off by state mandates to remain closed since March. Now, seven months later, small business owners in our resort areas who’ve held on by the thinnest of margins have no further hope or recourse to remain in business.”
Ament called the reopening guidelines “devastating news for the people of Anaheim.”
Although fans might envision scenarios of the parks packing up and relocating to Texas or wherever, that is not going to happen. It’s not feasible (this isn’t RollerCoaster Tycoon) or even economically viable. In the long term, being in the heart of Orange County is a great location for Disneyland. The short term news is obviously bad news for Disney, but the company will be fine. They have billions of cash on hand, and there will be no shortage of pent-up demand once the parks reopen.
The same is not true for many of the restaurants, hotels, other operations and their employees that are dependent upon Disneyland. This sentiment was echoed by small business owners in the Anaheim Resort Area, who shared the first-hand impacts to their families and employees, and the financial hardship that will be caused by remaining closed for an additional year or longer.
“At this point if the resort doesn’t open back up, we’ll be lucky if we make it through the end of the year,” said Karmel Shuttle Service owner Mike Afram, “It stills weighs on me every day because I don’t know what the next day brings.”
“I’m a first generation Latina in the United States and I know the struggles that my parents went through to get here and it’s just really sad to think we might not be here,” says Jocelyn Campos from family-owned Big Bertha’s Pizza in the Anaheim Resort, “I can’t imagine not being able to wake up in the morning and have something to call mine…ours.”
“At one time we had over 50 employees, but we have had to let almost 85% of our employees go, some of whom have been with us over 20 years,” says Bharat Patel, whose family built and has run the Castle Inn since 1974, “The day we had to lay them off was one of the hardest days of my life. I still think about them (our employees) every day.”
“I opened the business in 1987 and we were number one in Orange County and we continued to stay number one in Orange County,” says Rick Cerney, franchise owner of an Anaheim Resort Subway restaurant location. “We’re now at an 86% loss in business and we’re the lowest in sales. Out of 230 stores, we were the highest last March and now seven months later, we’re the lowest.”
Not to put too fine a point on it, but I think the quotes from these small business owners are important to share because they underscore some of the real world ramifications of these reopening rules. It’s understandable to focus on near-term health and safety given the circumstances, but that should not be occurring at the exclusion of literally everything else.
It’s disingenuous to ignore long term consequences–economic and otherwise. Shutdowns and closures do not occur in a vacuum; the full picture needs to be openly discussed as part of an honest conversation.
I’m sympathetic to the tough choices facing California leadership, but I’m also sympathetic to everyone losing their livelihood. I cannot fathom being entrusted with a business that has been in my family for generations, and having to watch it slowly slip away through no fault of my own. These are not multi-national conglomerates with billions in the bank–they cannot survive with no revenue for a year.
What the government should do to assist them is a moot point, because that clearly has not and will not happen. Unfortunately, even if the parks could reopen tomorrow, some nearby small businesses would still inevitably go under–but at least they’d have a fighting chance instead of watching a train wreck play out in slow motion.
This topic was repeatedly reiterated during the “Ready to Reopen Responsibly” conference call with theme park executives from Disneyland, Universal Studios Hollywood, Legoland, and Cedar Fair. That’s worth a watch if you have 44 minutes–there are a lot of great points raised by the participants that we won’t have a chance to touch upon here.
Those leaders stressed that the people hurt hardest by the theme park reopening rules were employees, small business owners, and local communities. They pointed out the parks will not be profitable for a while due to attendance caps and a lack of demand–that’s not their motive for pushing back against California’s rules. Rather, it’s to get people back to work and prevent catastrophic scenarios from playing out in the communities they call home.
Early on during the conference call, each executive presented their opening statement/reaction to the guidelines. Disneyland Resort President Ken Potrock closed his initial remarks by saying: “We’re strongly advocating for a science and real-time data-based approach to achieve a holistic and balanced solution. Ultimately, we all want to get people back to work…that helps from a health perspective, and is the right kind of collaborative solution we should all be working with the state to achieve.”
That’s a nice, succinct summation of the shape this conversation between California, theme parks, and other relevant stakeholders (literally any Californian) should be taking.
During the Q&A, the topic of visits by the team of state officials who toured parks in both Orange County Florida and California came up. Potrock said the teams were “incredibly through” during several multi-hour visits to observe how guests were behaving and how Cast Members addressed issues, including “strong and stringent enforcement of rules” by employees, which is an “industry differentiator” of the theme parks. Potrock indicated that the team took detailed notes and had a meeting with the parks afterwards.
Potrock’s impression was that the visits had gone well with Disney thinking, “This is great, they came and learned some things.” The other participants shared similar sentiment. Karen Irwin, President & COO of Universal Studios Hollywood added, “we were told there would be reports in a week or so that would provide us practical steps toward reopening.”
When the fruits of those visits were seemingly ignored, theme park leaders were perturbed, believing it was “just for show” and that California’s decision on the tiers a foregone conclusion. Potrock said there had been no solution-oriented collaboration or dialogue. Instead, the parks were told, “here are the rules–you have to live with it.”
The theme park leaders also pushed back on the state’s purported rationales for keeping the parks closed. Most notably, the notion that theme parks would attract visitors to California, further fueling transmission. They all agreed that past precedent elsewhere suggests it will be a predominantly local audience because few people will travel to visit theme parks right now. Irwin also pointed out that beaches and weather are bigger drivers of California tourism, and the hospitality businesses (restaurants, hotels, etc.) supporting those points of interest and attractions are already open.
The most noteworthy portion of the Q&A occurred early on, when Erin Guerrero, Executive Director of the California Attractions and Parks Association said that the organization is considering legal action to gain permission to reopen or to change the state’s newly-released reopening guidelines.
“All options are open at this point. We’re going to explore all options. Our number one goal is to reopen responsibly. Obviously, we’d love to keep that conversation going and come up with a reasonable timeline for reopenings, but at this point any options are viable,” said Guerrero.
Cedar Fair VP Raffi Kaprelyan echoed the sentiment regarding legal action: “If they’re open to discussion, we’ll continue our dialogue,” Kaprelyan said during the news conference. “If not, all options are open.”
It’s worth noting that Cedar Fair has been down that road before. Earlier this summer, Cedar Point and Kings Island filed a lawsuit against the Ohio Department of Health claiming an order singling out amusement parks and water parks from opening while other businesses were permitted to operate.
That lawsuit was resolved rapidly, with Ohio’s Governor responding the same day it was filed and agreeing to allow amusement and water parks to reopen two weeks later. Similar lawsuits have been filed around the United States seeking injunctive relief and equitable treatment.
It certainly appears that the theme parks are laying the groundwork for litigation–what not just based upon what they’ve expressly said in that press conference. It’s possible Disney, Universal, Legoland, and Cedar Fair could bring the action directly, or maybe have the California Attractions and Parks Association bring it on their behalf if they’re concerned about optics (although that appears less and less the case).
Meanwhile, the State of California’s representatives have been mostly quiet since releasing the theme park guidelines. Looking at the totality of the circumstances–the state dragging its feet on releasing the rules, scheduling park visits months after they should’ve and could’ve occurred, and then blindsiding the operators with a release of the same draft rules–it’s possible that California is simply trying to buy time. Delay the openings for another month or two, giving the state a better chance at getting numbers further under control.
Ultimately, it remains to be seen what will happen next. One thing is for certain: the saga of Disney v. California is far from over. While the rules as currently released mean Disneyland, Universal, Knott’s, etc. probably won’t open before Summer 2021, I’d personally be shocked if guests aren’t back in all those parks before then. I’m not bullish enough to bet that they’ll be back in time for Christmas 2020 (unless we’re counting food/merchandise events, in which case I’d make that bet) but before Spring 2021 seems possible. As always, we’ll keep you posted of further developments!
If you’re preparing for a Disneyland trip, check out our other planning posts, including how to save money on Disneyland tickets, our Disney packing tips, tips for booking a hotel (off-site or on-site), where to dine, and a number of other things, check out our comprehensive Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What are your thoughts on California’s theme and amusement park reopening guidelines? Is this too stringent, or appropriate given the circumstances? Think Disney, Universal, Legoland, Cedar Fair or the California Attractions and Parks Association will file a lawsuit against California? Any other thoughts on the topics covered in this article? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Slightly off topic, but I just saw a post of the full food truck from Feed Hope Now food drive you and Sarah put together. What a way to use your platform, take initiative and create positive action from this horrible situation. This country is better with people like you.
I’ll second that. Great work!
Thank you for your continued extensive coverage of what is going on out here in California. We are beyond frustrated and saddened by what has happened in Anaheim. I think the theme parks are definelty getting ready to sue. The thought that Disneyland may not open until summer 2021 is devastating. Meanwhile we will keep traveling to Florida. We are DVC members at the Grand Califonian and this presents a huge problem for DVC. With the news that Tokyo Disney just cancelled their annual passholder program, do you think Disneyland is headed in that direction? It might help them keep their numbers down when they are eventually allowed to open.
“With the news that Tokyo Disney just cancelled their annual passholder program, do you think Disneyland is headed in that direction?”
Probably. Disneyland has the exact same demographics issues as Tokyo Disney Resort. It’s going to make a lot of Annual Passholders upset, but I don’t think Walt Disney World’s approach is workable in California. WDW has far fewer APs, significantly more physical space, and double the number of parks. So the options are either upset Annual Passholders when they can almost never score Park Pass reservations or upset them by temporarily suspending the AP program. Either way, people will be mad because they (erroneously) assume the alternative would produce a better outcome.
There was a lawsuit heard on October 21st that is asking for Newsom’s emergency powers and executive orders be rescinded. It’s incredibly possible that Disney is waiting for the outcome of that case before making its next move.
Having read the guidelines for theme parks though, I did find it incredibly interesting that CA is insisting that the parks allow for mask exceptions for disabilities, which Florida certainly has not done. IF (and I think it unlikely) Disney decides to sit back and wait for yellow, it will be interesting to see how that is handled.
Anyhow, thanks for being a calm voice of reason, as much as humanly possible, during this time. It’s a scary time to be a CA resident. Somehow your handling of the facts and possible outcomes makes it a tiny bit easier.
“I did find it incredibly interesting that CA is insisting that the parks allow for mask exceptions for disabilities, which Florida certainly has not done.”
Now THAT’s a lawsuit waiting to happen. Every single guest will have a medical issue in that case. It will be unenforceable, just like the service dog vs pet conundrum.
We’ve voted them into the offices to serve us and we, the people can vote them out. Please remember that.
I live just south of WDW, and I absolutely was worried about WDW reopening. I still think they reopened too soon, BUT no clusters have been traced back to WDW. With everyone required to wear masks in the parks, I think that IS the “science and data-based approach”, and even I am confused as to why CA is refusing to let DL reopen. If DL takes the same precautions as WDW, they should be just as ok. While I am concerned for the Cast Members, I was classified as Essential at the beginning of all of this, and have been working with the general public since May 8 – so I understand that it’s not fun to wear a mask all day for work, but it is possible.
As an essential employee, I don’t care about having to wear a mask. I care about some idiot coming in and infecting me.
Nice shout out for Roller Coaster Tycoon! A classic game if there ever was one. Just an FYI, RCT 3 just got re-released (it had been unavailable for several years) for purchase, and it is a worthy successor to the first two. You won’t get your Disney “fix” from it, but it does help scratch the theme park itch. It’s also old enough to not need a super fast/new computer to run smoothly.
I wonder if donations to political campaigns for California politicians will dry up. I hope a lawsuit opens up the California theme parks soon. So many lives and businesses are in jeopardy, if they haven’t already closed. I feel so sorry for all the smaller hotels and restaurants around these theme parks.
Disneyland and other large theme parks should remain closed until we get through flue season. COVID isn’t a joke and we don’t know what the impact will be on our hospital systems. While I feel for folks out of work, Gov Newsom is keeping a health first framework. He moved away from that framework in the spring and the reopening was a disaster! We survived the summer surge and things are looking better now. We need to stay vigilant and patient. So far, Californians are coming together and looking out for each other by wearing masks. Hopefully the rest of the country will follow California’s example.
Kym you must live in California. I USED to live in San Diego county, for 25 years, and moved away to avoid things like this. Ever since Gray Davis, California has lost its mind. Florida has the same things, but they opened months ago, why? Because their governor knows how to run a state. I feel sorry for the Californians, as it seems they cant see the forest for the trees.
Essentials have found ways to mitigate risk at work from Day 1 which include everything from grocery store baggers to healthcare workers. The Southern Hemisphere managed to get through their winter. If you don’t feel comfortable going to Disneyland then don’t go but it is ridiculous to continue to deny people income. Saying you feel for them has no impact on their ability to pay their bills.
I can assure you that the last thing most of us in the rest of the country want to do is follow California’s example on this or pretty much anything else. You can keep your high taxes, insane regulations, and loss of liberty, thank you very much.
As an SF Bay Area resident, let me assure you Californians are NOT “coming together and looking out for each other by wearing masks.” I took my daughters to the SF Zoo recently and mask compliance was around 60%. I see people all the time out and about without masks. Clerks in our local bike shops refuse to wear them. Californians aren’t special in this regard.
Well only Mr. Newsom The King of California can take his decision behalf of all of California’s business & workers!!! What if we don’t get this pandemics not gone till 2 or more years!!!
Our family loves Disney all around too! However, with Disneyland being closed we opted to fly to San Diego for a get away instead. We used Lyft while there, and I asked different drivers their thoughts on the theme parks still being closed. Interestingly, all of the drivers overwhelmingly approved of the decision to still have them closed. They were very concerned about a huge surge in the virus in Southern California. It seemed like they enjoyed going to Disney, and other parks too, but they seemed to have the thought that they would still be there later. I didn’t get into debates with any of them about job losses, small business closures, etc. I was just quite surprised how supportive of their governors decision they were. I thought for sure it would be a 50/50 split for their opinions on being for or against the current state of affairs in the state. It was definitely interesting coming from out of state asking their thoughts on the matter.
It is easy to say keep things closed when we have a means to pay our bills and eat.
Our governor says his decisions are based on science and data. His decision to keep theme parks closed is not based on science and data. Issuing the same guidelines written from ivory towers preTeam vacation, uhm inspection to FL, says data was not involved. How is opening stadiums, museums, zoos, and aquariums okay but not theme parks based on science and data? He says he will be stubborn about health first. He seems to only care about COVID and not the emotional, mental, and financial health of the people in CA.
COVID is stubbornly hanging around. Based on science and data as we learn, we need to open up and learn to live with it responsibly and safely.
People are fatigued with sheltering in place with the new norms.
Disneyland called today asking to reschedule our Grand CA hotel reservation for the fifth time. I declined and asked for a refund. It’s sad but fortunately there are other places to vacation and we will not be spending our dollars in California. I flew to Orlando recently for business and most of the plane was returning to LA with Disney stuff!
First, California doesn’t want to allow it’s citizens to work. Now they are additionally saying they will perform their own testing of any vaccine and further delay the process of reopening. But they will also send a “team” on a vacation (I mean, research trip) to see how WDW is operating as if what they are doing right now is some tightly guarded trade secret.
Hit the nail on the head right there.
Thank you for reminding me that I have a copy of DisneyWar to read!
I agree , I would read your book if you write about all this!
I can promise you all that I will never write a book about this. I don’t even plan on watching the inevitable movies about this year. I am ready for this to all be behind us–I look forward to forgetting as much of this miserable year as possible, not reliving it. 🙂
Oh I totally get it and agree Tom. It has been horrific. Reading your posts has been great though and helped me get my Disney fix from afar!
I feel just awful for everyone impacted by this and all the other closures everywhere!
Hopefully this fuels the fire for Governor New some recall signatures.
I understand that this topic is inextricably intertwined with politics, but please try to keep your comments respectful. Anything with personal attacks or insults (whether to other readers or even politicians), meaningless buzzwords, or that’s intentionally antagonistic will be deleted.
I don’t really care which “side” of this you’re on—just present your perspective in a way that is not unnecessarily charged or inflammatory.
It seems like an obvious compromise would be to only allow visitors from California. I wonder why hasn’t that been considered?
That was in the draft proposal and is still in the plans for the smaller parks.
The only issue with this is it presents a huge issue for the hotels in Anaheim. A ton have been built since when Cars Land opened, and some are undoubtedly going to go out of business as a result of this.
Haha, yeah lots of luck with that. Imagine the lawsuits that would generate… And those of us who wanted to go would magically obtain whatever documents were necessary to show local address, etc.
Governor Newsom is obsessed with power and control. He feels great issuing unrealistic edicts, which in the end impact negatively on the lives of tens of thousands. I feel most fortunate to being a Floridian with an empathetic governor concerned about the welfare of its people.
Time to just reopen! Implement similar measures to WDW, and tell the state if they don’t like it, then they won’t accept any tax revenue from the companies.
You’re right, they’ll never move actual Disneyland, but moving corporate out of CA to FL should’ve already occurred. Imagineering should be in LBV. I hope they at a minimum sue the state and governor personally for lost revenue for the entire shutdown period. If I had a small business there I’d be open if there were customers.
Well said!!!
None of that’s going to happen either. Corporate wants to be closer to Hollywood, and none of those executives want to live in Florida. Imagineering is already having trouble competing with Silicon Valley for tech talent, moving to Florida would only exacerbate that.
I think “just opening” is a viable (albeit scary) strategy for a smaller, lower profile business. I don’t see any of these parks going that route.
I know Tom, mostly wishful thinking. It would cost too much to move corporate up front even though the tax and regulatory savings alone would make up for it. Seems the Hollywood angle becomes less relevant every day though, with a lot of filming around the world. Hell, any building can become a sound stage these days. I’m in agreement on most of the executives, Southern CA weather is awesome. But I don’t think Disney would have any trouble with staffing Imagineering in FL. Far lower cost of living and taxes would be like a 40% raise, not to mention constitutional issues. And the beaches are better with warmer water if you like swimming, etc.
While I agree that Disneyland will not close down and move to Texas, I do believe that future investments will be given a lot more thought. The political and taxation policies in California are driving people and businesses out to other states right now. That said, I respectfully disagree with Tom. At this time it may be true that Hollywood executives and Silicon Valley talent want to stay in California, but everyone and every business has its limits. It was not long ago that everything that had to do with the auto business was located in and around Detroit, the 5th largest city in the USA in the 50s. In fact Detroit’s population was only about 100,000 less than Los Angeles (4th largest). An auto plant in Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, or Mississippi was unthinkable. Look at it now. Bad policies, high taxes, skyrocketing cost of living, along with the increasing transportation and communication efficiencies that allow people to work anywhere make leaving a state or city a lot easier. Time will tell but this is the beginning of something very bad for California. You can’t keep robbing and abusing the golden goose or it will leave.
@KenR – I’m talking specifically about high-level positions that would be working in Burbank and Glendale. It certainly could make sense to move other businesses out of California–I don’t dispute that. However, WDI was already having issues losing talent to tech companies and I cannot imagine that those in the c-suite want to move from Malibu, Newport Beach, Brentwood, or Beverly Hills to Central Florida. Highly compensated employees living in California is not an apples to apples comparison to labor in Detroit.
With that said, I still think California has problems on the horizon. Taxes, bureaucracy, cost of living, wildfires, etc. could all push people away from the state.
Ridiculous taxes and cost of living can be somewhat compensated by throwing a literal ton of money at people in salary, but the insane constitutional abuses are quite another and a big part of why I would never live in CA again for any amount of money. I will have more than 10 rounds, thank you very much, and I don’t need a sign on every surface of every structure saying there MIGHT be lead paint. And I get the idea behind their oppressive environmental goals, but am pretty sure I’ll be riding a gasoline-powered bike and have a gas or diesel 4WD until I die.
For WDI, I guess I’m looking at it differently, as few of those people would be a direct fit in Silicon Valley in my ever so humble estimation. Even those high level programmers and such would not have nearly the creative freedom anywhere else. There is nowhere else in the world that would be having Joe Rhode’s earring on display! Well, maybe Google. There are obviously many folks who actually desire to live in an environment like CA, but not me or any of my people. All my friends there are either leaving or planning to as soon as they can.
I agree that it’s a tough decision either way. But while people can get by without a paycheck for weeks or even a few months, very very few can go over a year. I think at some point you have to learn to manage risk as best you can and return to living some form of life. I don’t think it’s governments place to tell people: too bad, you chose the wrong career. Go starve.
“I don’t think it’s governments place to tell people: too bad, you chose the wrong career. Go starve.”
It’s not the place of the government to begin with, but especially when they aren’t presenting an alternative course of action.
Yup, they don’t have the authority. But CA doesn’t seem to care about the constitutionality of any ‘laws’ they want to pass.
Then the government should be finding better ways to support the unemployment system and finding more work-from-home jobs. Everyone is so stuck in the live life “normally” vs stay home mentality they don’t want to consider other options or solutions that would solve problems more far-reaching than COVID.
Moq: There are lots of jobs than cannot be done from home. Who’s going to fight the fires? Who’s going to provide medical care? Who’s going to take care of people in Nursing Homes? Who’s going to deliver all those groceries? Who’s going to operate all the farms? How are you going to drill for oil or mine coal or pipe natural gas? Who’s going to make all the medical supplies, all the plexiglass, mine the minerals needed for batteries, computers, etc? Are you going to deliver your own baby at home with just a computer telling you what to do? Work from home only works for a very small number of jobs.
If when this is all behind us, whenever that is, you write a book about the theme park industry/Disney and this era I’ll buy it.
We are owed *so many* sequels to DisneyWar at this point.
I fully expect TWDC to do to Newsom what Enron did to Gray Davis