They’re among the many young families and groups of friends that are once more filling up Shanghai Disneyland, which reopened May 11 after
being closed for more than three months due to measures aimed at
mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic.
Frequent visitors with annual passes, the couple was concerned about whether it would be safe to mingle with thousands of strangers. But
with the park limiting guest numbers to 20% of its max capacity and
employing a variety of social distancing measures, they felt it was safe
to visit. “They do things really well,” says Chen Hao, 37. “Staff are
constantly cleaning and telling people to keep apart.”
For its initial opening phase, the park also suspended indoor theater performances, installed hand sanitizer dispensers and canceled
nighttime fireworks. Visitors must wear face masks, have their
temperature scanned and be able to show a green QR code on a
government-affiliated health-tracking app.
All park visitors who spoke with Variety say that Disney’s hygiene measures helped convince them to purchase tickets, a sign that the
company, which estimates its total losses across all divisions due to
COVID-19 at $1.4 billion, has found a workable formula with which it
could reopen its theme parks in the U.S., France, Japan and Hong Kong.
But building enough trust to reopen parks might rely more on the efforts of local governments than on the company itself. Guests in
Shanghai stressed that the coronavirus outbreak dwindling in the region
was ultimately the most important factor in their decisions whether or
not to visit the theme park.
Shanghai, a city of 24 million people, has kept its number of COVID-19 cases below 700, with about half of those being overseas
returnees. It last registered a local infection in late March. Hong Kong
has similarly low levels of infection and last recorded a coronavirus
death back in mid-March, which could point to Hong Kong Disneyland being
the next Disney park to reopen.
“If Shanghai wasn’t safe, then I definitely wouldn’t have dared come here,” says Joe Tang, 29. Waiting for her friends outside Pirates of
the Caribbean, she says she wouldn’t mind if visitor numbers were
allowed back to their usual 80,000 as long as the other measures stayed
in place.
While the COVID-19 pandemic rages abroad and still sometimes flares up elsewhere in China, Shanghai’s own days of coronavirus angst are fast
becoming a distant memory. The city’s increasingly relaxed rules create
a contrast with those of the park. Rush-hour subway rides again mean
jostling with the crowds, while in Disneyland, ride seats are pointedly
left empty to spread out passengers.
Such abundance of caution and caps on visitor numbers have slashed queues — by far the park’s most popular pandemic policy. “It’s so nice
not to have to wait in line,” says Yang Qi, a 24-year-old on her first
visit to the park, whose accompanying friend had informed her their
speedy passages were an anomaly.
