90.5 WESA: Theme parks in California say new state guidelines will keep them closed indefinitely, affecting hundreds of thousands of workers and businesses across the state. The presidents of Disneyland, Universal Studios Hollywood and other theme parks say they're considering all options to speed their reopening, including potential legal action.
17 comments:
Its so interesting to me to see some states open their entertainment parks while some remained closed; especially since Disney World was allowed to re-open while Disney Land was not. It seems that the states that are re-opening their parks are not actually basing their decision to do so based on COVID numbers, while numbers are the reason that some states are keeping theirs closed. I can understand the frustration of Disney Land in that they can technically achieve the same safety precautions that Disney World is supposedly achieving, but I believe that they are forgetting that the most foolproof safety precaution they can take is to just stay closed. Since children are the main target groups for parks such as Disney Land, and also considering the fact that many children live with older adults that fit the at-risk for COVID category, I believe that it makes complete sense for all parks in the country to remained closed for now.
I currently live in California and am attending remotely, and I say GOOD. However, I think that this article title is misleading: it should say Disney theme parks are staying closed not California's Theme Parks. Places like six flags magic mountain and knott's berry farm are open, and I think it is the most ridiculous thing ever. Living here, especially near the beaches, it is obvious why our corona cases are not going down. The thing with theme parks is that it isn't just about the rides. It is about eating there, having interactive scenery, shopping, and meet and greets. Even if they do not allow people to walk and eat at the same time and even if they reduce their capacity, people will still be maskless and covid spreads airborne, and popular areas and rides will still attract the majority of people. And for how big the park is and how many people they employ, it is financially smarter to just keep closed.
The way this article begins with Disney and Universal administrative personnel expressing their dissatisfaction with California’s plan to keep amusement parks closed is just outright annoying at this point. The article claims that California’s new covid protocol “blindsided” the theme park presidents and my question is, how? It has been very clear since the beginning of this pandemic that everything is a numbers game. If your area can keep covid case numbers down, you get to do more fun things, it is just that simple. Personally, I am thrilled to hear that these parks are remaining closed, while it is only adding to the hardships that employees are facing, companies should be more worried about the people that run the company than the Universal Studios Backlot Tour. Overall, it is incredibly exhausting to keep seeing business updates and unemployment statistics, but the thought of voluntarily sacrificing members of the population just to ride a roller coaster, is appalling.
Why is anyone surprised by or angry about this? Yesterday the U.S. surpassed the single-day record for new virus cases that was set in July. We are in the third surge of infections across the country. Theme parks are literally designed to be places that people are packed into and get to touch and interact with everything. I am sorry that your family cannot have their annual Disney trip, but there is a literal pandemic going on and people are dying, so I don’t really care if your kid gets their picture with Mickey Mouse. I get that these parks are a business, and many people are out of work, which is a horrible thing, but, again, where is the government support? However, the fact that administrative folks at Disney cannot seem to understand why the state would do this is absolutely beyond me. Do you want to be responsible for the infection, and possibly deaths, of thousands of people? Disney is a very rich institution, they can handle keeping things closed right now.
It is also interesting to see and read about how different states and different counties are dealing with the re-opening after everything was shut down earlier this year due to the Coronavirus outbreak. What California has done with their new update has hurt the theme park industry pretty badly. Expecting a large county like Los Angeles County, where Universal Studios Hollywood is located, or Orange County, where Disney Land and California Adventure are located, to get into the "minimal risk" category any time soon is crazy. The shear population of these counties doesn't allow it. On top of that, there is already proof that, with the proper regulations, these parks can open without major issues. As was stated in the article, Orlando has allowed parks to reopen and there has yet to be a spike in cases directly attributed to the parks. I hope California takes a second look at their current regulations in order to allow these parks to begin the re-opening process.
This is a issue where I am not sure about where I stand. On one side, I am immediately suspicious of any policy that comes from Florida. Governor DeSantis has proven himself to be completely on the wrong side of science when it comes to this pandemic. I have the lowest expectations for their government issued safety protocols (if they have any). Additionally, I’m rather familiar with Disneyland and the types of people that would be first in the door when it reopens and I have equally low expectation for their ability to social distance and follow any park employee’s instructions. On the other hand, I do feel for the employees out of work. Also, if these parks haven’t had outbreaks in Florida and are meeting with public health issues who have looked at their plans then that is promising. However, I think Disney should feel ashamed for letting anyone go in this pandemic. They have buckets of money from their Marvel movies alone and to lay people off when they could easily support them through the year is disgusting behavior and a cruel manipulation tactic to push governments to reopen sooner.
Although it is unfortunate that many Disneyland workers are currently left unemployed, I believe that opening up the Disneyland park is still the wrong decision. Opening Disneyland would attract a lot of out of state visitors that could make them seem an increase in coronavirus cases. The government officials are trying to do everything they can to prevent the spread of this still largely unknown virus in their community and trying to pressure them into opening up just for some economic gain is not right. Maybe there should be an Avenue for these theme parks to open to just California residents so they don’t attract any national or international visitors. That could be the solution that keeps both the health officials and the theme park workers happy. Disneyland is a great theme park but we do not want its reputation to be tarnished because it contributed to a local, maybe even a national, surge in cases.
While this is disappointing to a lot of people, its completely necessary. I agree with Emma, I think that California's precautions isn't too much to ask and that people that want to get back to their amusement park lifestyle can just wait longer. Of course, the employment loss is a huge hit, but the business' can survive without it in the long run- especially Universal and Disney. With the size of most California cities, including Los Angeles and Anaheim, opening up anytime soon is out of the question- the numbers haven't changed much and its still a high risk area. I personally like amusement parks a lot but I think its a very easy thing to sacrifice in a global pandemic. Opening up is dangerous right now, especially in places like Universal Studios and Disneyland that attracts tourists, and large crowds of people- even with social distancing and masks in place, I think is still irresponsible.
As much as I love both Universal Studios and Disney, I am so glad that they are going to stay closed. Being a Florida native, I think even having the Orlando theme parks open with limited capacity are dangerous. This pandemic has gone on long enough and we, as a country, need to be doing everything to minimize the amount of COVID -19 cases present. I get that they are experts and are successful in their openings of Disneyworld and Universal Studios Orlando, but I personally would not want to risk opening another set of tourist attractions. Having one set open is already unsafe, now imagine a whole new flock of people across the country grouping up. I just want this mask wearing, quarantining, and social distancing TO END by any means necessary and if keeping theme parks closed is a small step toward that, then I will take it.
Ah yes, my favorite topic: California theme parks! Honestly this article does not surprise me one bit, considering that San Diego (where I currently am located) has been in the news for increasing it's restrictions, as well as other counties in the state. The fact that Disneyland thought that it might be able to reopen in Southern California is hilarious because SoCal has been on a teetertotter of restrictions. Only recently were stores allowed to increase the number of people allowed and my local mall has almost no seating or food court access. I'm not sure that Disneyland would be able to keep their guests following rules and regulations, especially without throwing a fit, because the people that are itching to go to Disneyland are more than likely the same people who would do that in a grocery store. Something that comes to mind is a recent issue that came up with SDSU, in which there was an argument to remove the school's coronavirus numbers the county's total case number because it was pushing San Diego into tighter restrictions. I could see that same treatment being done to Disneyland, which would cause an uproar for including those numbers, as well as potentially pushing Orange Country into a higher tier for cases, not including spillover into other counties for people who are traveling.
We, as a society, are approaching a tipping point in how much more we are going to allow our elected officials in some of these places to stay elected officials. The science has shown and the data has proven that we can, with certain measures strictly enforced, begin to return to some sense of normalcy. Right now, it seems that politicians want only the extreme. Either shut everything down again or open it all up and let the virus rage through the community. For most, there is no compromise and that is what is hurting theme parks and live entertainment. We are an afterthought to many of these elected officials. We don’t matter to them no matter how much money our work brings to the local economy. Instead of going from one extreme end to the other, maybe it’s time for the politicians to sit down, keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times, and listen to the live entertainment experts on how to make this ride exciting. After all, we’ve been doing it for decades.
I chose to comment on this article because it seems to me that remaining closed is common sense, but that is not the case for all theme parks because it really goes from state to state. Unfortunately, it seems that such decisions are not based on logic and safety, but instead local government and theme park supervisors are pushing for money. Some theme parks are opening back up, but the choice to do so is just going to prolong the effects of Covid-19 in our country. We all have a friend who is traveling right now, going out of state for a ‘getaway’, and acting as if we are no longer in a pandemic by traveling to states with lighter restrictions. The issue is, when this happens, they don’t just expose themselves to the virus, but they expose their community when they return home- and it seems like no one really cares anymore.
It’s pretty sad to see that all of these attractions and parks are closed down and will be empty for such a long time, but it is the safest thing to do since this pandemic doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon either. It seems pretty stupid that they said they were “blind-sided” by California’s plan that won’t reopen parks and that they think the guidelines aren’t based on facts. I understand being disappointed or upset that the parks can’t reopen, but saying that the ruling is baseless when SO MANY PEOPLE ARE DYING is completely ignorant. Especially in places with large populations of people. In other states where regulations are more relaxed, and things are opening up, cases are spiking again. Places are letting people gather in larger numbers with less precautions and people are dying. The United States has reached 225K deaths from this virus, and it will continue the upward climb if large corporations keep trying to open things up when it’s not safe.
I’m a little confused why park executives describe themselves as ‘blindsided’ by the regulations not allowing them to open, and thought the viewpoint of the article was a little frustrating. Obviously the jobs of the workers at the parks are important, but public safety still takes priority, and the solution seems to be to remain closed and provide federal funding to the displaced workers to help them through the closure. Like, as frustrating as it is, live entertainment and theme parks are high-risk and inessential, and are going to be some of the last industries able to return. The management of these companies definitely should have seen this coming - not the pandemic as a whole, obviously, but the extended period of closure, particularly in California, has been a safe bet for a while now. Disneyland, in particular, announcing a reopening would likely mean thousands of people traveling across the country to come back to it, which is basically the worst-case scenario, public health-wise.
This article was meaningful to me on multiple fronts. As a California native who lives only about an hour away from Disneyland, Universal, and Six Flags, it is extremely disheartening to see that none of these parks will be able to open for the foreseeable future. However, as a person, I see the need for the parks to remain close. Despite the fact that the parks all have extensive reopening plans and procedures in place and the fact that Disneyworld and Universal Studios Orlando have both reopened at limited capacity without major issues, all it tak4es is a single mistake for hundreds to thousands of people to be infected and possibly killed. On the other hand, however, the parks remaining closed has resulted in tens of thousands of workers being left without pay for months. Especially with the recent Disney layoffs, I think this is one of the most pressing issues relating to the parks right now. The solution for this issue, instead of reopening the parks, might have to be further government intervention to aid those workers while keeping risks of transmission low.
I am shocked that these parks had any expectation that they would be able to open anytime soon. California’s COVID numbers are some of the most concerning in the entire country. (Not that that stopped Florida parks from opening, but that's another Newsquiz comment.) Obviously I have sympathy for all the employees that are out of work, but to say that this came as a shock is flabbergasting to me. Broadway has been shut down for the start. Every time the shutdown gets extended, we don’t see Broadway producers threatening to sue the State of NY. We just have to bite the bullet. The one thing I will say is that theater more easily translates into the digital world than the theme park experience. I haven't seen much online content from Broadway productions, but it would still be easier for them to conceive of a possible revenue stream than it would be for theme parks. At a theater, much of the experience is spent viewing. But at a theme park, it's all touch and feel. Of course, these workers have a right to be devastated, but to say that this came out of the blue is simply incorrect.
While it is certain.y heart-breaking to know that myself and others in my field will be out of work for the foreseeable future, I also want nothing more than. to see Disney be bled like a stuck pig. Seeing the protest outside of theme parks for them. to reopen has made me physically nauseous and I am beyond grateful that they are remaining closed and the lives of millions are being spared over the desire for Disney to accrue exponentially ore wealth and power to shove their hot garbage down our throats. I'm not sure why every single one of my comments turns into anti-capitalist propaganda but I'm certainly not complaining. Disney is simply one more heartless corporation that undermines workers and small-businesses to further grow their monopoly, and Walt Disney has free reign to choke on my toes.
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