Disney World to Cut Theme Park Hours Due to Lower-Than-Expected Attendance amid COVID-19 Pandemic
Disney World will be reducing their operating hours in September amid lower-than-expected attendance due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The Florida theme park shared its revised hours on the Disney World website over the weekend.
The Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios are both losing an hour of operation at the end of the day. Meanwhile, Epcot is cutting back by two hours and the Animal Kingdom is losing an hour in the morning and an hour at the end of the day.
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Disney World's new hours set to begin on Sept. 8 are:
Magic Kingdom: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Epcot: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Hollywood Studios: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Animal Kingdom: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Disney World officially reopened on July 11 after shutting down all operations in mid-March due to COVID-19. According to USA Today, the Walt Disney Co. lost nearly $5 billion throughout April, May and June due to the closures. It also cost them a total of $4.5 billion just to close the parks.
The company was hopeful for it's reopening, but the parks have experienced low attendance as the coronavirus continues to impact long-distance travel which has significantly affected the number of out-of-state visitors.
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With their reopening, Disney announced numerous new health and safety protocols that guests and staff are required to adhere to.
Disney is asking all guests ages 2 and older to wear a face mask at all times while inside their parks — except for when drinking and eating or visiting one of the parks’ “relaxation zones.” This includes while riding on any of the attractions.
Other changes include requiring visitors to make reservations for each park online prior to admission, significantly lowering the number of guests allowed in, and reducing capacity on rides, various modes of transportation and in restaurants and retail stores.
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