Disney World Reopens Today 🙃

The theme park has new Covid-19 safety precautions in place

Credit: SOPA Images/Getty Images

Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida is opening on Saturday. The theme park is usually one of the most visited in the world. The park will be implementing a new safety protocol to try to keep visitors safe from Covid-19.

The Magic Kingdom park and Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park are now open, and EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios will reopen on July 15. According to the safety plan, guests must make reservations ahead of time, they must wear masks in the park (they are required for everyone age two and up), there may be temperature screenings, and the park says it has enhanced cleaning and physical distancing measures. The number of guests allowed in will be at a lower capacity than usual.

Other theme parks around the U.S. and around the world have started to reopen. At the Fuji-Q Highland theme park in Japan (where the virus is more under control), similar safety measures are taken, including the now-iconic advice to “please scream inside your heart.”

Some worry the reopening of the “happiest place on Earth” is a dangerous move, given the surging caseloads of Covid-19 in Florida. There have been at least 244,143 cases of Covid-19 in the state according to a New York Times database, and at least 4,101 people have died. In late June, many Disney World workers signed a petition asking for the reopening to be postponed. As New York Magazine reports, Actors’ Equity, the union representing theatrical workers in Disney’s parks, asked Disney to regularly test the workers for Covid-19, but Disney is not complying with the request.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a press conference Monday that he has “no doubt [Disney] is going to be a safe environment.”