A typical day at the happiest place on Earth is filled with exciting roller coasters and rides, enormous fireworks displays, and memorable souvenirs. After being closed for a year due to the pandemic, Disneyland has had a much anticipated reopening. According to NBC News, the popular theme park is allowed to welcome guests once more starting on Apr. 30.

   Previously, California’s strict coronavirus measures had prevented the park from opening its gates to in-person attendees. As per California’s COVID-19 website, each county in the state is placed in a special tiered system based on the county’s positivity rate. If a county meets the criteria of a tier for two weeks, it is moved to that tier; if the pandemic situation worsens in a county, they are placed in a more restrictive tier. Los Angeles County is in the orange, less restrictive tier, thus, pandemic limitations are beginning to ease, and more places— like Disneyland— are being permitted to reopen.

   However, this exciting news does not come without special precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the parks. According to the Disneyland website, several important changes are being made in order to make the park safer to visit.

   First, the reservation and visiting systems have been changed. Visitors must have a reservation made in advance in order to enter the park. These reservations will be limited, and temporarily, only California residents will be allowed to visit Disneyland.

   In addition, the park will be reopening in accordance with CDC guidelines. Face coverings are necessary for anyone over the age of two. The park will be operating at a restricted capacity to encourage social distancing. There are also special markings on the ground in order to help guests maintain distance between others, and barriers have also been added in areas where spacing out is difficult.  Areas that normally contain higher numbers of guests will be cleaned more frequently. 

   Further, guests are encouraged to wash their hands and use hand sanitizer often. Some processes, such as transactions, are being altered as well in order to reduce the amount of contact people may have with others.

   Cats, if you’re visiting any of the parks that are reopening, be sure to follow coronavirus guidelines, and have fun!