I miss Disneyland. Though I’m not a SoCal local, able to visit the original theme park whenever I desire, I still miss it. I miss the idea of Disneyland and Walt Disney World, as much as I miss the places themselves. My wife, a high school teacher, had a class trip to Disneyland set for the end of April, and I was set to attend myself, mostly so I could watch our infant son in a hotel room. That trip was obviously canceled, and with the parks still closed, there’s no clarity on when we would return.
This afternoon, Disney has its first earnings call since a) Bob Iger moved into the new role he has as Executive Chairman and Bob Chapek became the new CEO of the Walt Disney Company, and b) the pandemic became as much an American problem as it was an international one. I’ll be fascinated to see what they have to say about the near-term and long-term future of the company.
What I keep asking myself, in relationship to Disneyland as well as to local parks, museums, etc., is this: “What would it take for me to want to go back?” On some level, the answer is “Just reopen, and I’ll be there.” I want to leave my house, to take my family for a fun time to do almost anything. But that is a small part of me, easily overtaken by the more concerned and neurotic part. I do not need to link you to the various studies arguing that we’re in for far more infections and deaths in the next few months, high temperatures be damned.
So then, I keep asking myself what a place like Disneyland has to do for me to want to come back. Other theme parks have announced things like advance reservations, constant sanitization, extreme social-distancing, etc. However, I keep coming back to the same answer to my own question: I won’t feel truly comfortable until there’s a vaccine that everyone has received.
I hope that places like Disney and Universal are going to be strict in their policies, and that those policies are stringent. Neither of those words, of course, “strict” and “stringent” speak to the Magic and Fun and Memories and Dreams you’re accustomed to. But here’s the thing: I know that I would wear a face mask to Disneyland, if that’s the rule. I don’t know that other people would, and I don’t know that Disneyland’s security team would enforce that policy.
Seeing Shanghai Disneyland begin to prepare reopening is obviously encouraging news, but I am skeptical that the same kind of restrictions being unveiled there would work as well in the States. Not because Disney wouldn’t want to be overly cautious, but because…I mean, here’s a story about a guy shooting a security guard at a Family Dollar for asking him to put on a face mask. We’re a fucked-up country. We value the wrong things.
Hence, I worry. Hence, a vaccine will be what calms me down far more than any level of restrictions imposed on the parks now.
I want to go back. I really do miss Disneyland. And I want to hear what the Bobs have to say today. I hope they have good news. But while I want to go back, I don’t want to go back…quite enough. Not yet.