We are slowly moving into the opening of the states but we don’t know what the new normal will be. The biggest aspect that has to be remembered that people’s safety comes first and foremost. There has been a task force that was assembled in Florida to discuss, among other things, Disney World reopening guidelines. There is a lot to cover, so let’s jump in!
Restaurants Guidelines
When phase one starts, restaurants will need to adhere to new restrictions. During phase 1, restaurants will have to limit capacity to 50%, and during phase 2 will be limited to 75%.
Any staff that are older than 65 YOA are recommended/encouraged to stay home during both phases. Menus will need to be disposable to prevent reuse and need to have touchless sanitizer at the entrances. They will need to encourage takeout orders. Each table will need to have a hand sanitizer present and will need to be in plain sight.
Restaurant Staff mandates
All employees will be advised to stay home with any flu-like symptoms and will have temperature checks before each shift. The staff that are working behind the counters will need to wear gloves, the only exception is bartenders. However, bartenders will need to sanitize hands before making any drink order. Tables will be moved to further than 6 feet apart. Doors will need to be wiped down on a regular basis. And the most prominent is that employees will be required to wear facemasks.
Hotel Guidelines
Guidelines for phase one are quite extensive which is understandable as this is a little closer proximity. There will be limited services for hotels during phase one. This will be to minimize guests and employee exposure. Similar to the system that Disney has started, there is the recommendation of mobile check-in. Housekeeping will be before check-in and after guests depart. However, there will be available upon request. Any type of delivery to guests will be to the door and guests will need to self-park cars. Any employees that can work from home, should be allowed to do so. For phases 1&2 also recommends staff older than 65YOA should stay home. This will have an impact on the day to day operation with the Central Florida/ Disney world reopening guidelines
For the reopening mandates
There is a lot to cover for the mandates so we will list them out. All employees will be required to wear facemasks. Entries to the building should have hand sanitizer. The front desk will need to be sanitized on a routine basis along with the constant cleaning of every guest area. It is recommended that there should be no self- food services offered and no stocked minibars. Pool furniture will be spaced further apart along with cleaning of gates and pool chairs. Within the hotel, there will need to have cleaning of elevator buttons, railings and door handles. There will also be the removal of all guest collateral items (exception for single use), coffee makers from guest rooms. Sanitizing of bell carts and guest keys before and after each use. Another big change will be that it is not recommended to host any conferences.
Theme park guidelines
And finally, we get to the part that everyone is waiting on, theme parks or more specifically Disney World and Universal. There will be some updates that will be the same for small theme parks and the large theme parks. It is very likely that the smaller parks will have an easier time reopening. So what will be Disney reopening guidelines.
General guidelines
Under the smaller “theme parks”, this will include go-karting, Gatorland, top golf. For the Larger theme parks include Disney and Universal; Sea World would fall under here as well. Both the smaller and larger parks have the same criteria with their opening guidelines. Under phase 1 opening, there will need to limit the capacity to 50%. The second phase will open the capacity of up to 75%. It is unclear when the different phases will be decided. There are 2 parts to the guidelines that will be an impact on the park’s general operation. First, is tape marking the spacing of 6 feet for ride queues. Second, they will need to regularly wipe down surfaces at random times.
Mandates for the employees
There are several mandates that will be enforced throughout the parks for the employees. One of the biggest ones is that all employees will be required to wear facemasks. There will also need to be touchless hand sanitizers at all of the ride entrances/exits, ticket turnstiles and entries. Employees will need to wipe down all surfaces and railings after every use. Staff with any flu-like symptoms . will need to stay home and all employees will need to have temperatures checked. Anyone with a temp of 100.4 will be sent home.
There will be a lot of changes coming to the theme parks, How this evolves their day to day practices will soon be seen. It is likely that many of the practices that we take for granted will be changed, even down to refillable travel mugs. With these Disney world reopening guidelines, it may take a long time to reach any level of normalcy.
How do you think this will impact the parks? Let us know in the comments below!