Disneyland and California Theme Park Reopening Guidelines & Covid Tiers

Disneyland will likely not be reopening until 2021. Here’s why: the California theme park reopening guidelines are restrict California counties within certain COVID Tiers, and the Orange County Tier isn’t going to be low enough in 2020, according to experts. Even though the Downtown Disney District is up and running again, we probably won’t see the inside of Disneyland or California Adventure very soon. Here is everything you need to know.

California Theme Park Reopening Guidelines

If you’re short on time, just read these…

The Main Points:

• Governor Gavin Newsom instituted new California theme park reopening guidelines on October 20th, 2020.
  • Disneyland is in California, so they have to follow these rules.
• The Disneyland theme park reopening guidelines state that their county must lower their covid cases to Tier 4, which is “Minimal” (tier color: yellow).
  • The number of cases in Orange County, where Disneyland is located, has been very high, so the experts say this probably won’t happen until summer 2021.

“The protocols … allow a large park, defined as one with a capacity of more than 15,000 visitors, to reopen once coronavirus transmission in its home county has fallen enough for the county to reach Tier 4 — the state’s least-restrictive designation.”

The Los Angeles Times

What Are the California Covid Tiers?

With the new restrictions and guidelines in place, Disneyland fans want to now what the California County covid tiers are exactly.

So, here’s the answer…

What are the California Covid Tiers? There are 4 California Covid Tiers: Minimal (Tier 4, Yellow), Moderate (Tier 3, Orange), Substantial (Tier 2, Red), and Widespread (Tier 1, Purple). They correspond to the number of actual cases of coronavirus in a certain county in California:

• Minimal – Tier 4, Yellow – Less than 1 daily new case per 100k people
• Moderate – Tier 3, Orange – 1 to 3.9 daily new cases per 100k people
• Substantial – Tier 2, Red – 4 to 7 daily new cases per 100k people
• Widespread – Tier 1, Purple – More than 7+ daily new cases per 100k people

Here’s a quick graph to make it easy to see and understand:

Here’s what that means for Disneyland and California Adventure…

What county is Disneyland in? Orange County. The Disneyland Resort and California Adventure theme parks are in Anaheim, CA, which is located within Orange County.

To see more details…

When you go to the same website (California For All), you can search by county and activity, to see what it pulls up for Orange County and theme parks.

This is exactly what it looks like right now (Oct. 2020) for amusement parks in Orange County:

Once you’re there…

You can click on Amusement parks and theme parks.

It will then show you this series of guidelines and restrictions for all four California covid tiers:

The problem for Disneyland is that they’re located in Orange County…

What tier is Orange County in? As of October 2020, Tier 2, which is Orange, meaning Substantial covid cases.

See the image below every county covid tier in the state of California as of this time:

Meaning they have a long way to go before they can start a phased reopening like Disney World and the others around the world have done.

Once they do reach the lowest covid tier, they’ll be able to reopen and Disneyland fans like us can go back to The Happiest Place on Earth!

What Is Disneyland Max Capacity?

With all this talk of tiers and reopening, there’s been mention of reopening at a lower percentage of max capacity, such as 25% of max capacity.

But what is Disneyland’s max capacity? And, on top of that, what would 25% of their total capacity actually be?

Here’s the answer…

What is Disneyland max capacity? 85,000. That’s the number people have come up with for the hypothetical maximum capacity at Disneyland and California Adventure, combined. The Walt Disney Company doesn’t give out attendance numbers, but that is as good a guess as we have.

If 85,000 is the full capacity, then 25% of that would be 21,250 people. That’s exactly 1/4 (one-fourth) of their total daily visitor capacity.

Wrap Up

Keep in mind that this is all very new information. As we learn more, we’ll be able to update you on exactly what’s happening and when.

Recently, I wrote an article where I guessed when Disneyland would reopen. Looks like I might not be correct after all…

Here is that article, if you want to see more.

Let me know your thoughts here in the comments section below, or on social media @disfordisney_ on Twitter and Instagram.

Have a magical day!

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