As the novel coronavirus began sweeping across the planet at the end of 2019, the United States – up to that point – only heard about it on international news. Some people began taking precautions early on, but most Americans, thinking it would never come here, did not pay much attention to the signs.

Shortly after the new year, as cases started popping up in the U.S., people started paying attention. By the time March rolled around, the U.S. was in the middle of a full-blown pandemic. Everything was thrown into turmoil and uncertainty.

Businesses, schools, and entire states started to shut down. Not knowing the severity of the virus, many companies had initially planned on closing for a few weeks and would reevaluate based on events. Travel and tourism ground to a halt. Companies scrambled how to deal with the onslaught of cancellations

Following everyone’s lead, the Walt Disney Company announced they would be closing all of their public facing divisions including theme parks. In addition, they cancelled all Disney Cruises, Adventure by Disney trips, film and television productions … everything. One of the only businesses that brought any revenue in was Disney+ streaming service.

Initally, Disney had initially closed their Asian-based theme parks, but shortly after they announced all their theme parks would be closing.

“In an abundance of caution and in the best interest of our guests and employees, we are proceeding with the closure of our theme parks at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and Disneyland Paris Resort, beginning at the close of business on Sunday, March 15, through the end of the month,” a Disney spokesperson said in a statement.

At the time, Trip Miller, a Disney shareholder and managing partner at Gullane Capital Partners, told CNN Business, “These parks are iconic brands etched in the culture of America and every childhood. To close assets of this scale around the world would speak to the seldom seen seriousness of this health threat.”

As the United States – and the world – struggled to figure out how to combat this highly contagious and deadly virus, Disney – and other companies – came to the realization that their businesses would remain closed for much longer than a few weeks.

When Disney’s theme parks started to reopen, they did so with reduced capacity ranging from 15% – 25% Disney’s international parks reopened in the summer 2020, only to close on and off as the virus and subsequent varients emerged. Walt Disney World’s reopened, after being closed for 116 days, on 11 July 2020 with the Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Animal Kingdom. EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios would reopen to guest on 15 July.

How a state would reopen was based on each state’s infection and death rates. Despite all the measures California implemented, they we unable to get the virus under control and maintained stricter regulations for a longer period of time. As such, Disneyland was the last of the Disney theme parks to reopen. The Anaheim theme park was closed for over a year and reopened on 30 April 2021.

On the second anniversary of the Disney parks closing, BlogMickey and Twitter user (@bioreconstruct) documented Walt Disney World during this time.

Feature Image: BlogMickey.com