South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
CEO: Disney expects masks requirements to remain in ’21
Don’t expect mask requirements to go away at Disney World this year, although company CEO Bob Chapek said he believes the tightened pandemic safety rules won’t be needed by 2022.
As the COVID-19 vaccine is rolled out, Chapek said he envisions some form of social distancing and mask-wearing to remain in place for all of 2021.
“That’s our expectation,” he said Thursday during a first-quarter earnings call that disclosed the parks and consumer products endured a $119 million operating income loss compared with a profit of $2.52 billion a year earlier.
Closing some of its hotels and resorts, beaching its cruises and reducing operations cost Disney about $2.6 billion in lost operating income, the company said.
To help overcome the struggling theme parks was Disney+, the company’s new streaming service that has reached narly 95 million paid subscribers, Disney said.
The company’s earnings beat Wall Street estimates and its stock rose in after-hours trading. Overall for the quarter, the company generated $16.2 billion in revenue, down 22% from the previous year.
What could be a “game changer” for Disney’s theme parks rebound was Thursday’s news that vaccines could potentially be available by April for anyone who wants them, Chapek said.
“Will there be some overlap until we know that we have hit herd immunity? Sure there will,” Chapek said “Do we also believe that we’ll be in the same state of
six-feet social distancing and mask-wearing in ’22? Absolutely not.”
Since November, just before the holidays, Disney World raised its cap from 25% to 35% of full attendance. The company executives confirmed Thursday the cap still remains today at 35%.
For Disney World’s attendance to rise this year, Chapek made it clear that depends on the public’s vaccination rate.
“That to us seems like the biggest lever that we can have in order to either take the parks that are currently under limited capacity and increase it or open up parks that are currently closed,” Chapek said.
Disney’s global theme park empire is currently hit hard by the pandemic.
Disney World’s Orlando theme parks reopened seven months ago with limited capacity.
Disneyland, which has stood vacant of tourists since March 2020, and Disneyland Paris aren’t expected to reopen in the upcoming months during second quarter, said company chief financial officer Christine McCarthy.
A Disneyland parking lot has been used as a vaccine distribution site and so far, 100,000 doses have been given out, the company said Thursday.
McCarthy said the company is hopeful it can reopen its Hong Kong park this quarter.
Chapek also discussed the cancellation of Disneyland annual pass program, which he said “may have been heresy prior to the pandemic.”
“Everything we do, the first lens we look at is to exceed guest expectations,” Chapek said. “It’s very tough when your park has more demand than supply. We have to put limits on it.”
He went on to say, “There’s nothing like a pandemic to challenge the status quo and make you be fairly introspective about a lot of things that you may be taken as fairly dogmatic ... We’ve had a lot of time to think, particularly at Disneyland, about what could be.”
During the earnings call, Chapek touted the still under construction projects at Disney World from its Star Wars hotel, a new night show at Epcot, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind coaster as well as the family-friendly Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure ride at Epcot that had been originally scheduled to debut last year.
Chapek, however, was mum on when the new attractions would open.