With Shanghai Disneyland set to start the phased re-opening on May 11th, many have wondered when the other Disney parks would start opening.
The Disney parks in the United States have not announced re-opening dates, but Disney Springs is set to begin a phased re-opening on May 20th. Several analysts have speculated when Disney World could open its theme parks again, but a recent report predicts the parks could open as early as July.
The Orlando Sentinel reports analyst Bernie McTernan of Rosenblatt Securities predicted Disney World could re-open as soon as late July. “There are still many unknowns, but if the timeline for reopening Downtown Disney in Shanghai and the Shanghai Disneyland is similar for Disney Springs and Disney World, it suggests Disney World would reopen July 22nd, 41 days ahead of our current forecast calling for the beginning of September,” said McTernan.
McTernan cites the recent announcement of Disney Springs partial re-opening on May 20th as a sign that Disney World could be next to open park gates. The July 22nd prediction reportedly mirrors the timeline between when Shanghai’s Disneytown re-opened and when the park announced an opening date.
McTernan also noted that there are “a lot of assumptions that go into this analysis,” but that Disney Springs’ re-opening makes the prediction promising.
Chapek also stated that “While it’s too early to predict when we’ll be able to begin resuming all of our operations, we are evaluating a number of different scenarios to ensure a cautious, sensible and deliberate approach to the eventual reopening of our parks.”
What will you do first when Disney World parks re-open? Let us know in the comments.
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Back in December we booked our honeymoon for July 24th. Not sure if that July 22nd is a good thing or a bad thing. Kinda concerned if we should reschedule and get all the money back, or hope things would be fine.
I have reservations for the first week of July. Those that means if Disney will re-open late July, my reservations will be cancelled and my DVC points reimbursed???
I would guess they will open to resort guest’s only. Disney needs to limit the guest’s but still making as much income as possible.
If it were my decision, I would open MK with limited capacity to FL residents only on June 1. It has the most to do and is a “crowd eater”. They have their own cars to get there and with just one park open, there would be no need for mass transportation, just to get from TTC to the park. No monorail stops At resorts since they would be closed. See how it goes. Then open the other parks, also limited capacity to FL residents. Again, having their own cars would eliminate need for much Disney transportation. Then open resorts and parks only to those with existing reservations. Limit day guests based on resort guest numbers since resorts guest are guaranteed entry. Offer guests the option of going day 9-7pm or night 9pm-7am, one or the other not both, each day. Staff would be split day and night shift to keep the park hours doable and to allow distancing and work opportunity. Resorts would have “night” sections so night park goers weren’t disturbed by day guests or housekeeping. Or allow guests to do extended virtual queues for one park per day before arrival with ride times windows a half hour apart. Those who don’t want to do that would have to wait in line or try to join virtual queues on the fly. No traditional FP. Then open to non resort guests.
I agree, the Parks will have to open first to see how their mitigation controls work. As long as Florida does not see another spike, or new cases cannot be traced back to WDW then “maybe” the Resorts open on August, but probably at 50% capacity at first. They might even eliminate the Park Hopper and make guests “reserve” for a single Park for the day to maintain balanced crowds.
Jose, I spoke with an “agent” at DVC at length last week. I had a trip (originally) planned for May. It was cancelled. Some of the points I was using for that trip are set to expire July 31. I was told that CURRENT use year points would be put back into my account and would be available to use for next use year (which starts August 1). So, that’s what I was told. But you really need to talk with DVC to double check for your particular situation.