When COVID-19 spread into a
pandemic around the world in 2020, the concept of leisure activities all but
ground to a halt. This included travel abroad, such as when vacationing to
popular tourist getaways like theme parks. Hong Kong Disneyland, the smallest
of the Disneyland park complexes, already has the smallest visitor count as
well. But the pandemic forced onto it the indignity of closing doors no less
than twice all of last year, as Hong Kong sought to battle its own COVID
spread. While the problem has not gone away, the general situation was deemed
okay enough for HKD to be allowed to reopen.
Variety has it that Hong Kong Disneyland is gearing up to welcome
visitors again starting this coming Friday, February 19. The announcement was made
just this Wednesday on the 17th, and comes in the wake of certain
health protocol measures being relaxed by Hong Kong health officials. That is
not to say that safety measures will be done away with soon, but the first
tourists to enter HKD since its last COVID-mandated closure in December of last
year will find that social distancing regulations, for example, are no longer
prohibitive.
Here is how things will be done
in Hong Kong Disneyland starting this weekend, according to a statement by the
park management. They will be open only five times a day, with Tuesdays and
Thursdays (unless a public holiday or special HK day) off to allow for cleaning
and disinfection. Walk-in visitors are a no for now, with advance ticket reservations
remaining mandatory. They must also fill in a health declaration the moment
they enter, or if Hong Kong residents, must scan their government-issued
LeaveHomeSafe QR codes. Visitor capacity will be set by the government to
prevent congestion, though no percentages were provided for now.
On the side of the theme park, all
HKD operations personnel and staff must also submit to testing for COVID every
14 days. And of course, facemasks are still required for everybody involved. All
in all, the Disneyland parks of the world are almost all back in business, with
the exception of Disneyland Paris Resort and the original park in Anaheim, due
to local government regulations. And HKD is running a bit late compared to Hong
Kong’s other signature theme park, Ocean Park which will be ready Thursday,
February 18. That is the same days cinemas in HK will reopen.
During 2020, HKD underwent some
serious remodeling. The original Sleeping Beauty Castle centerpiece building
was changed to a more impressive original structure like Shanghai Disneyland,
the Castle of Magical Dreams.
Image courtesy of Yahoo! News
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