Crowds fill Disneyland's Main Street U.S.A. on opening day, April 30.
Courtesy of GettyFor Disneyland fans, there’s good news, and there’s bad news.
The good news: Orange County’s recent elevation to the yellow tier means capacity at the nearly sold-out parks can increase immediately, and new guidance about the end of capacity restrictions next month means it will be much easier to get a ticket to the "Happiest Place on Earth," even for out-of-state guests.
The bad news: Wait times for rides and attractions are already getting to be a problem, and this increased capacity — without the return of FastPasses or single-rider lines — means those waits are going to increase exponentially in the next month.
On May 21, California released new guidance on the planned reopening of the state economy. As of June 15, California will completely abandon social distancing and capacity mandates, California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said during that press conference. “We will not have capacity restrictions,” he confirmed.
That means that physical distancing in ride queues at Disneyland, and limits on the number of guests, could soon be a thing of the past.
But there’s another twist: Proof of vaccination or of a recent negative COVID-19 test could soon be required by the parks. Under that new guidance, Disneyland has been classified as a “mega event,” defined as having 10,000 people in attendance outdoors or 5,000 indoors. For the indoor events, negative test results or proof of vaccination is required by the state. For the outdoor events, it’s recommended, largely because, per the guidance, “participants and attendees are spending extensive periods of time physically close to large numbers of people they don't usually interact with.”
Disneyland classifies as an outdoor mega event, which means that, as of now, proof of vaccination likely won’t be required. Ghaly, though, made it clear that the guidance will continue to shift between now and June 15. “There will be some guidance … specific to the various settings,” Ghaly said. “We know that it will be shifting over the next few months.”
Proof of vaccination has already been a sticking point when it comes to theme parks. Though the resort has been allowed to bring back vaccinated out-of-state parkgoers since April 19, Disneyland has not changed its rule about only allowing California residents yet. Universal Hollywood and SeaWorld, among many others, have already made that change. It seems likely that once the proof of vaccination mandate is dropped next month, out-of-state guests will be allowed back at Disneyland.
Disney, however, has not made immediate changes to its offerings following new guidance in the past. Walt Disney World is still not operating at full capacity, despite being allowed by Florida to resume full operations last September. After the CDC’s new mask guidance was released, Walt Disney World and other Florida theme parks like Universal Orlando removed mask mandates outdoors, but not on rides or indoors.
Disneyland already received a boost in capacity when Orange County moved into the yellow tier May 19. When the park increases capacity, days that have been long sold out on the Disneyland park reservations calendar will show more availability, but fans quickly scoop up those spots. As of press time, the first day that single-day Disneyland Park tickets are available is June 28.
Every time the park has increased its capacity since reopening last month, the wait times have gotten longer, and the ride queues have grown to take up even more of the open space at the park. This past week, guests were commenting on social media that wait times and availability for mobile food ordering and ride queue wait times were high.
“It’s so disheartening seeing the wait times at Disneyland get longer with each day,” Twitter user @Edogg24 tweeted May 20.
Theme park data tracking account @ThrillData tweeted May 24 that over the past week, wait times had gone up an average of 11 minutes per ride at Disney California Adventure, and that May 22 saw the highest wait times at that park since reopening.
Disney blog TheDisInsider.com analyzed wait times over Disneyland’s first three weeks of being reopened and found that Disneyland’s average wait time increased 108% over that period, while California Adventure’s average wait time increased 158%.
“If you’re increasing park capacity you should be increasing ride capacity and park hours as well,” Twitter user @Darkest_Star tweeted May 22. “The wait times are increasing every day.”
On one hand, increased capacity seems as though it will make wait times even more of an issue than they currently are if Disneyland doesn’t bring back some kind of ride management system, either by reintroducing FastPasses or allowing single rider lines. On the other hand, the park will also be allowed to raise capacity on rides themselves, no longer having to leave several rows of empty seats between parties. It also means rides like Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance will no longer have to abbreviate its 18-minute show to fit California’s guidelines, and that Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye could theoretically revert back to a physical queue rather than the new virtual one it recently debuted, now that guests are allowed to wait in line indoors.
One thing is clear: Changes are on the horizon. Whether they will improve the park experience is anyone’s guess.
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