Disneyland’s closure has many wondering when the theme park will reopen
Layoffs have left thousands of Disneyland employees adrift and caused million dollar losses for Anaheim during the COVID-19 pandemic
By Daniel Guerrero
Published on December 12, 2020
On a typical summer day at Disneyland in Anaheim, California you could expect to hear the sound of gleeful music playing throughout the park, smell the scent of churros and see crowds of people making their way to their favorite attractions.
Summer 2020 was expected to be no different as the “Happiest Place on Earth” was set to celebrate its 65th anniversary in July.
But as the coronavirus pandemic has continued with no end in sight, the park’s iconic green gates are locked, the churro carts remain in storage and the once music-filled air is quiet since closing indefinitely in March.
Now, over a half a year into the pandemic, thousands of employees have been laid off, the city of Anaheim has lost millions of dollars in tax revenue and no one knows when Disneyland’s gates will swing open again.
Downtown Disney reopens, provides a sample of a safe reopening
Like many small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic, the theme park giant also has had to pivot.
The Downtown Disney shopping district, which sits on the same property of the Disneyland Resort, reopened in July with new COVID-19 restrictions.
Some modifications include limited capacity, facemask enforcement, multiple hand sanitizing and handwashing stations and temperature checks done upon entry by Hoag, an Orange County-based non-profit health care network.
City of Anaheim’s Communications Officer Mike Lyster said the new Downtown Disney experience is a sample of what Disneyland’s reopening could look like.
“(The reopening) has gone extremely well and for anybody who’s visited gets a good taste of would be like to go to the parks,” he said.
Victor Gonzalez, 25, was one of 10,000 Disneyland employees that were laid off during the pandemic.
Like many, his last time being inside the Disney Parks was in March before they were shut down indefinitely.
He took a trip to Downtown Disney in October in what he said was an emotional return to the theme park where he grew up.
Even as a guest, he said the precautions in place for COVID-19 were responsible moves by the resort.
“I personally felt safe,” he said. “I think they are doing a good job trying to handle it.”
On Dec. 7, Disneyland announced the outdoor dining locations at Downtown Disney and the Buena Vista Street opening inside Disney’s California Adventure Park were going to close to adhere with the newest statewide stay-at-home order. Retail and dining locations with takeout options may continue to operate, according to a report from the OC Register.
Thousands of Disneyland’s cast members left jobless
A year ago, Gonzalez was performing in the pre-taping of the Disneyland Christmas Day broadcast that airs on Christmas Day. Now, he finds himself torn with emotion after getting fired in October following what he described as “one of the hardest phone calls” he’s ever received.
“As a performer, you work your entire life to get a job or like a gig that you just love and cherish,” he said. “So it literally felt like all my hard work was just taken away from me within like a blink of an eye.”
In October, the Walt Disney Company announced it was laying off over 28,000 cast members, which is how the company refers to its employees. Layoffs took place across their U.S. based theme parks including Disneyland in Anaheim and Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
Disneyland alone had nearly 10,000 cast member layoffs, according to the LA Times.
Gonzalez spent five years as a dancer at Disneyland. He performed in parades like the Main Street Electrical Parade and the Magic Happens parade which debuted in March before the shutdown.
What made Gonzalez the most proud of his work was bringing smiles and cheer to guests during his time working at Disneyland.
“It’s the guests,” Gonzalez said. “It was the little kids. It was the parents who saved their savings, their paychecks to come for one day to Disneyland… That’s like one thing that I will never forget.”
For furloughed employees like 24-year-old Hugo Vargas who have avoided getting laid off, hearing about his co-workers getting fired has been painful.
“It’s unfortunate and I’ve been lucky enough to not get laid off yet, but you know that it’s happening to your friends, you know that it’s happening to people you care about,” he said.
Vargas is a restaurant lead in the Toontown and Fantasyland areas. He learned of the immediate closures after seeing a news alert on his phone during a work break.
Vargas is currently furloughed. He said employees have no clue when they could be back.
“I heard this information at work because I read a news article, and now it’s November and we still don’t know when we’re gonna go back,” Vargas said.
Anaheim faces a major budget deficit
As employees deal with job insecurity, the city of Anaheim has found itself in financial trouble.
Because the pandemic has cut tourism, Anaheim is facing a budget deficit ranging from $75-100 million for funding that it uses for its police and fire departments, along with community spending that goes to libraries and public community centers.
The annual hotel revenue which can reach around $160 million is expected to be only $80 million at the end of the 2020 fiscal year, according to city officials.
“That’s a serious issue for us. We will have to look at many ways of solving that deficit,” Anaheim Communications Officer Mike Lyster said.
Theme park and city officials have met to review the modifications for a safe reopening made by Disneyland, Lyster said.
He said the push for the joint effort from Disneyland and city officials to reopen the theme park isn’t about putting profit over people. He added that the city of Anaheim and Disneyland officials have worked to make sure the park is ready to be reopened.
“So, it’s not a choice between the economy and public health,” Lyster said. “We believe that you can manage both.”
But with the California state guidelines for reopening theme parks, Orange County would have to remain in the least-restrictive yellow tier of the colored tier system for Disneyland to reopen.
As of Nov. 16, Orange County moved back into the purple tier, the most strict tier for reopening according to the state’s guidelines.
Orange County Health Officer and Health Care Agency Director Dr. Clayton Chau said in an email that there aren’t immediate plans for the theme park to reopen.
“The OC Health Care Agency is in active conversation with the Disneyland Resort as to how they can support efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 at the community, city and county level,” Chau said. “At this time, no concrete plan has been determined.”
This project was done as my capstone assignment for JMS 550 at San Diego State University
Daniel Guerrero 