Disney reopens its Shanghai theme park with masks and limits

CBS News ^ | 05/11/2020

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Visitors in face masks streamed into Shanghai Disneyland as the theme park reopened Monday in a high-profile step toward reviving tourism that was shut down by the coronavirus pandemic.

The House of Mouse's experience in Shanghai, the first of its parks to reopen, foreshadows hurdles global entertainment industries might face. Disney is limiting visitors, requiring masks and checking for the virus's telltale fever. Reserve tickets for the resort sold out three days before the reopening.

"We hope that today's reopening serves as a beacon of light across the globe, providing hope and inspiration to everyone," said Joe Schott, the president of Shanghai Disney Resort.

Tourism has been hit especially hard by controls imposed worldwide that shut down airline and cruise ship travel, theme parks and cinemas. Disney blamed a 91% plunge in its latest quarter profit on $1.4 billion in virus-related costs.

Shanghai Disneyland attracted about 12 million guests last year and a total of 66 million since it opened in 2016. Visitors to Shanghai Disney are required to show government-issued identification and use a smartphone app issued by the Shanghai city government that tracks their health and contacts with anyone who might have been exposed to the virus.

To minimize crowds, Chinese officials have placed a 30% capacity limit on the resort, a facility that normally sees 80,000 visitors daily. That means the park can only accommodate 24,000 patrons per day.

"We're going to actually open up far below that just to have our training wheels on with our new procedures and processes to make sure we don't have any lines backing up either as guests are entering into the park or as they wade through the park," CEO Bob Chapek said in the earnings call last week.

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Disney guests, some wearing Mickey Mouse ears, and children in Little Mermaid, Mulan, Minnie Mouse and Snow White costumes were checked Monday for fever at the park gate and then walked down nearly empty lanes as employees waved to them.

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SCENES FROM THE SHANGHAI DISNEYLAND RE-OPENING

[BushCountry]

They should have run at 30% to make the place more enjoyable all along (even though I haven’t been since my kids were small). Hour long waits for crappy rides should have never been the average.

[Sgt_Schultze]

Can’t expect to sell much food if patrons require masks while on property.

[gibsonguy]

If you see how much the virus is costing Disney per day it will curl your hair.