Despite rising virus cases in Fla., Disney World reopens its gates to a limited number of guests

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — The Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, a Magic Kingdom hair salon where little girls get styled like Disney princesses, remained closed Saturday. Buzz Lightyear was only able to wave from a distance. Parades and fireworks? Scratched.

And the coronavirus continued its rampage through Florida, with state officials reporting 10,360 new infections, the third-highest daily jump since the pandemic began.

None of which stopped thousands of theme park fans from turning out — in masks in the scorching Florida heat — for the reopening of Walt Disney World, a place designed to chase your troubles away. After closing in March because of the pandemic, the mega-resort near Orlando began tossing confetti again at 9 a.m.

Two of its four major parks, the Magic Kingdom and the Animal Kingdom, welcomed back a limited number of temperaturechecked visitors, with some attractions and character interactions unavailable as safety precautions. Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios were set to reopen Wednesday. It amounted to a breathtaking effort by a corporation to prove that it can safely operate — entertaining families and employing tens of thousands of workers — at a highly dangerous time.

After months of home quarantining, the chance to have some wholesome fun and perhaps touch a childhood memory seemed to outweigh the risk of catching the virus for visitors.

“I’m so overwhelmed with emotion,” said Sonya Little, 45, who flew to Orlando from Birmingham, Ala. “The last few months have been so hard. We have just felt so defeated. Being here gives me the strength to go on.”

To safely reopen, however, the Magic Kingdom had to allow some of the grimness of pandemic life to puncture the utopian fantasy. To ward off germs, Disney now leaves rows of seats empty on rides. Employees constantly disinfect ride vehicles and lap bars. Face masks are mandatory, and, for some visitors, the coverings quickly grew wet with sweat.

In addition to providing employees with protective gear, the company added 4,000 hand-sanitizing stations, set up restaurants for mobile ordering and installed plexiglass partitions everywhere, including inside the queuing areas of rides.