The House of Mouse is, like so many of the rest of the world, closing its doors this week. This is the first time the entire Disney park system worldwide has shut down. Disneyland has barely ever closed—there’s some conflict about whether the park actually closed after the Northridge earthquake or not, and I genuinely do not remember despite living in LA at the time. But as my friends Chris and Ariel can attest, this is definitely the first time Disney has ever closed because of disease. Hurricane, in Florida. The death of JFK. 9/11. But despite being technically exempt from the California law banning gatherings of more than 250 people, Disney made the decision to close the gates.
In fact, this is the first time in my life that so many things have been closed, postponed, and canceled over a public health emergency. It’s a little startling. And I’m connected with a small business owner who is worried about sales—the Mouse can float for a while; many, many other people out there cannot. I’m pleased to announce that cast members will continue to get paid during the crisis, and those who have jobs they can do from home are being allowed to work from home, though that’s obviously not most of them.
As I’ve written several times, I’ve been to Disneyland many times and have enjoyed my visits, but let’s be real—the potential for contagion there is huge. Disney does not officially list its capacity, but the estimate I’ve found online is some 85,000 people, plus about 10,000 cast members. Walt Disney World is believed to reach capacity at about 100,000 people. I mean, we are talking about a lot of people. Even under ordinary circumstances, we’re talking about unknown numbers of mild illnesses swarming about the place. I have friends who went to Florida last year and came back with something mild. That’s probably true of hundreds, if not thousands, of guests every year. Maybe even every day. Now, there have been no confirmed cases of this illness at Disney so far, but even just one could be devastating.
The examples everyone keeps looking at, and not incorrectly, is how we handled the Spanish flu. The situations are different; for one thing, we’re not dealing with a world war just now. However, the potential for transmission is strangely even greater, because it’s so much easier to travel now than it was then. If I wanted, and could afford it, and so forth, I could be in Florida at the end of the day. A century ago, I would’ve been lucky to take less than three days to get there. Tens of thousands of people from all over the world, sharing virus—and one that lives for at least a while on surfaces? Thank you, no.
Another difference, of course, is how much we can do without being there in person. Because the Mouse is still taking our money, doors open or closed. With our schools closed, I suspect here that quite a lot of families will be putting on Disney+, watching the DVDs, and so forth. People will still be buying the merchandise. Frankly, I have to admit that part of me hopes that the Mouse realizes that they don’t need to keep raising the prices on the park to keep increasing those profits, because they’re still making a fortune even with the gates closed. I realize that’s a faint hope, but there will be stranger changes in the weeks to come, I suspect.
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Also, thank you to Anthony Pizzo for the image!