In many cases, park employees (cast members in Disney parlance) wear face shields, but all wear masks and enforce the social-distancing requirements. Only the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom reopened Saturday and their combined crowds appeared to be in the 16,000 range. Epcot and Disney Hollywood Studios set to follow on July 15. Face masks are mandatory, except when eating or swimming and hand-sanitizing stations are sprinkled throughout the park. It's a totally different world for park visitors, who are required to have their temperature taken when they arrive. The next closest is California with 56,304. Disneyland, which is located in Anaheim, has shelved its plan to reopen July 17 due to the spike in that state.īut what Disney-lovers returned to wasn't what they left in March: there are many more safety precautions in place. Of the statewide total, 182,000 have been reported since June 5, about a week after Disney World announced its reopening date.įlorida also has the country's highest seven-day average with 63,064 cases reported in the last week alone, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On Friday, the Florida Department of Health reported 11,433 new cases for a total of 244,151. Its reopening coincided with a sharp increase in new infections in the Sunshine State. While the park's reopening may imply that the worst of the pandemic has passed, the opposite appears to be true. Walt Disney World reopened to the public Saturday morning nearly four months after closing due to the widening coronavirus pandemic.