The ongoing coronavirus pandemic caused both of Disney’s North American theme parks to shut the gates back in March, leaving potential attendees wondering how long it will be before things are up and running once again. Unfortunately for all of the Disney faithful out there, it’s going to be a while. While some businesses are working on ways to open back up after extended closures, theme parks like Disneyland and Walt Disney World aren’t close to ready because they rely on large amounts of people being in the same place at the same time. Coronavirus can be easily spread throughout a place like Disneyland, which is why some experts are now saying that the parks likely won’t be open until 2021.
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According to the Los Angeles Times, Swiss banking giant UBS has told its clients that Disney will likely wait until January 1st to reopen its parks. Even when that happens, UBS predicts that Disney will only see about half of its 2019 attendance.
“Moreover, we now believe the lingering effects of the outbreak — including crowd avoidance, new health precautions, etc. — will dramatically reduce the profitability of these businesses even after they’ve reopened until a vaccine is widely available,” said the UBS report.
Once there is a widely-available coronavirus vaccine, most things can return to normal. The issue there is that a vaccine can take a significant amount of time to be developed and tested. Until that point, there will still be some social distancing protocols in place around the country. As long as it’s not safe to be in big groups, theme parks don’t stand a chance of reopening.
Disney has yet to make any official announcement regarding the future of the parks. They are currently closed indefinitely with no indication as to when they could reopen. Universal is currently planning to open up its North American parks in June, but that outcome seems less and less likely the closer it gets.
For now, it’s best not to plan any trips to theme parks at all, because there’s no telling how long it will take them to get up and running once again. It’s all a waiting game at this point.
