How To Open Disneyland Amid Current Guidelines

Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage Lagoon Disneyland

Disneyland has continued to struggle with getting reopening guidelines from the state of California and it is now looking like they are not coming any time soon. So we are going to speculate on various routes forward for the resort amid the pandemic that would allow them to partially reopen amid the current guidelines and start finally making some money again.


We are taking our ideas primarily from what Knott's Berry Farm has been doing, but with a Disney twist.

What Disney should begin doing, is opening up a sizable portion of one or both of their parks, but only operating the restaurants and shops.

Disney clearly is not going to be allowed to operate rides anytime soon, but they could easily open one or multiple lands as a kind of outdoor shopping mall.

There have been long waits for shops throughout Downtown Disney, and they just opened a soundstage of Disney California Adventure as a kind of overflow shop just to create additional space. They could easily though open lands in one or both parks.

Let us take you through what Disney could do with both parks.

Disneyland Entrance Train Station

At Disneyland, Disney could easily choose to open just Main Street USA and the hub, which would give them multiple restaurants and shops. They could charge admission to get in, and people would pay just to get access to favorite locations, as Knotts has proven. This would be really simple and involve only one land.

But they could also expand slightly if they wanted to.

Adventureland Entrance Disneyland

If they were to do a second land, I would bet they would open Adventureland. It features multiple food locations that are not too far away from the hub, including the ever-popular Dole Whip.

This could be done under current guidelines, and while by no means would it be as popular or earn as much money as Disneyland as a whole being open, it could certainly bring some much-needed revenue to the resort, and potentially prevent further layoffs. Especially they could do some limited entertainment, maybe using the Main Street Train Station as a staging area, as a selling factor.

Perhaps we could even see different lands open at different times to allow for repeat visits, although lands beyond Main Street USA would be a bit more difficult, but certainly possible.

Hollywoodland Red Car Trolley at Dusk Disney California Adventure

Disney California Adventure could also open certain areas in the same way. Buena Vista Street and Hollywoodland would allow for the same number of shops and restaurants roughly to open, especially if they were to open some of the food booths we see in the park seasonally.

Given the park's design, it would also be easier to open up additional lands on a staggered basis. They could easily open up the central pathway in a way that only opened Pacific Wharf, Grizzly Peak Airfield, Cars Land, or Pixar Pier. This could easily allow for multiple different events to be offered, opening up various lands to the public in the coming weeks and months.

The Golden Horseshoe Exterior Frontierland Disneyland

Again this is by no means a perfect option, but nothing is. We also don't know how popular it would be, but given that Knotts Berry Farm has continued to run similar programs, it seems like Disney could probably be equally as successful if not more successful, although there are still a lot of questions as to how this would work.


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