If you needed a clue how serious the coronavirus pandemic is, look no further than the gates of the Happiest Place on Earth as Disneyland and all the other Disney parks have been closed for over a month now with no sure sign of when they’ll re-open. One person thought this would be a perfect opportunity to experience the park for themselves as a man was arrested after breaking into the property. ABC7 in Los Angeles reports that the accused was spotted entering the California Adventure park with officers responding and finding him inside the park near the Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout! where he was arrested around 11 PM on Sunday night.
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The man was reportedly cited with trespassing and released, with Sgt. Shane Carringer telling the NY Daily News: “It appears his intentions were the construction area. He never tried to penetrate deeper into the park.”
As of this writing the Disney Parks have still not set a date for re-opening, having extended their closure dates until further notice. A previous report seemed to indicate a potential June re-opening date for the company as the parks are now taking reservations for dates beginning on June 1st.
It’s unclear how many employees from The Walt Disney Company have been effected by the parks shutdown but at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, as many as 30,000 workers were furloughed by the company. Disneyland also confirmed construction work on its Marvel-inspired land, Avengers Campus, has also been put on pause amid the shutdowns. The new land inside Disney California Adventure Park was originally scheduled to open July 18, 2020.
When the Disney parks eventually do re-open though they could be taking extra precautions before allowing guests to enter the park including taking their temperatures.
“One of the things that we’re discussing already is that in order to return to some semblance of normal, people will have to feel comfortable that they’re safe,” Iger told Barron’s in an interview earlier this month. “Some of that could come in the form ultimately of a vaccine, but in the absence of that it could come from basically, more scrutiny, more restrictions. Just as we now do bag checks for everybody that goes into our parks, it could be that at some point we add a component of that that takes people’s temperatures, as a for-instance.”
Prior to closing for the coronavirus pandemic, both Disneyland had only closed a handful of times prior including a day of mourning following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and immediately after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Both Disneyland and Disney World have been closed previously due to natural disasters like the Northridge Earthquake in 1994 and various hurricaines, but this marks the first extended closure of both parks ever.
(Cover photo by DAVID MCNEW/AFP via Getty Images)
