Disney World Makes Major Step In Returning To Normal Operations As Disneyland Reopens

Starting New Year's Day, Mickey Mouse fans will finally be able to visit more than one Disney World park in the same day as the media conglomerate plans to bring back its popular park-hopping option.

“As we continue to operate in a responsible way, we are reintroducing the Park Hopper option so our guests have the opportunity to see and do more during their visit while we manage attendance and foster physical distancing,” Disney spokeswoman Erica Ettori told the Orlando Sentinel.

Disney World will require reservations from customers on a first-come, first-serve basis. However, after securing a spot at a primary park, visitors will have the freedom to go to another Disney park after 2 p.m. without an initial reservation. Parks eligible for the park-hopper option include the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom.

When Disney World reopened back in July, fans previously were only allowed to visit one specific park per day. Parks were also scaled back to 25% capacity, but the limits are changing. Disney CEO Bob Chapek announced this month that Orlando will increase park capacity from 25% to 35%.

While Disney World in Orlando continues to reopen, a small portion of Disneyland Resort in Anaheim officially reopened on Nov. 19.

A portion of the California adventure park known as Buena Vista Street welcomed guests back for shopping and outdoor dining. The rest of the park will remain closed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which shuttered the entire resort and other properties earlier in the year, The Hollywood Reporter reported.

True Disney fans may also be reluctant to flock to their favorite theme park. Annual pass holders, who pay upwards of $1,295 per year, had issues making advanced dining reservations, faced long lines at guest service counters, and received only partial pass refunds over the weeks of no park access amid the pandemic, The Orlando Sentinel reported.

Disney also previously announced that it's laying off over 28,000 people in the U.S. as the pandemic hampered the theme park industry.

In a memo sent to employees, Josh D’Amaro, head of parks at Disney, cited several “difficult decisions” that the company had to make, including laying off thousands of employees in its Parks, Experiences, and Products Unit. According to CNN, 67% of the people who will lose their jobs are part-time workers.

“As you can imagine, a decision of this magnitude is not easy,” D’Amaro wrote in the memo to employees obtained by CNBC. “For the last several months, our management team has worked tirelessly to avoid having to separate anyone from the company. We’ve cut expenses, suspended capital projects, furloughed our cast members while still paying benefits, and modified our operations to run as efficiently as possible, however, we simply cannot responsibly stay fully staffed while operating at such limited capacity.”