♪M I C-K E Y, please wear your mask.♪

Back at the end of February, Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea announced that they’d be closing for a while. Not very long, though; the initial plan was to close for just two weeks, while we all waited for the coronavirus to disappear.

Well, we’re still waiting for that, and the parks have been closed ever since. However, Oriental Land Company, the Japanese corporation that owns and operates Tokyo Disney Resort, has decided the health situation has improved enough to reopen the Happiest Place on Earth (in Japan), so on July 1 both Tokyo Disney parks will once again start welcoming guests.

But just because Disneyland and Disney will be open for business doesn’t mean that it’s going to be business as usual. Tokyo Disney Resort has declared its support of an extensive set of guidelines, including “try to refrain from screaming on roller coasters,” that was developed by the East Japan and West Japan Theme Park Associations to lessen the risk of coronavirus transmission. Oriental Land will also be requiring guests to have their temperatures checked upon entering the park, and visitors will be required to wear masks when inside indoor attractions, shops, and restaurants. Guests will be allowed to remove masks outside, but only when maintaining “an adequate distance” from others, which would seem to indicate that if you’re actively walking through the park, you’ll be required to stay masked up.

Other countermeasures include blocking off certain seats, benches, and line-up area sections to keep guests from being too close to one another for extended periods of time, hand sanitizer stations set up at the entrance and various points throughout the park, and a request that guests make use of cashless payment systems when possible. Admission numbers will also be capped for individual attractions as well as the park itself, which will require guests to pre-purchase tickets for the specific day of their visit online (i.e. no at-gate ticket sales).

In addition, Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea will be barring admission to anyone who, within the past 14 days, has entered Japan travelling from a country with inbound travel restrictions, or who has been in a post-arrival quarantine/observation status within the past 14 days (effectively just about anyone entering Japan from a foreign country right now). Japanese residents who have had extensive contact with a person infected with the coronavirus are also asked to refrain from visiting the parks.

Online ticket sales start at 3 p.m. on June 25 here on the Tokyo Disney Resort website, with full-day prices ranging from 4,900 yen (US$46) for young children to 8,200 yen for adults. No lineup of adorable mask-wearing Disney character plushies and other merchandise has been announced, which seems like a huge missed opportunity.

Source: Oriental Land via Otakomu
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