The Sleeping Beauty Castle at the Disney California Adventure Park on January 12, 2016.
Eric McCandless | ABC | Getty Images
Disney is delaying the opening of its California-based theme parks.
On Wednesday, the company said its proposed phased opening of its two parks in Anaheim for July 17 would be postponed as state officials will not be issuing theme park reopening guidelines until after July 4.
“Given the time required for us to bring thousands of cast members back to work and restart our business, we have no choice but to delay the reopening of our theme parks and resort hotels until we receive approval from government officials,” the company said in a statement.
Once the company gets a better sense of when guidelines will be released and what those guidelines will be, Disney said it will be able to announced a new reopening date. Disney will still be opening its shopping center Downtown Disney District on July 9.
The delay of the California parks comes as Disney workers from Florida have petitioned the company and local government officials to reconsider the opening of Disney World next month.
As the number of coronavirus cases surges in Florida, more than 8,500 people have signed the online petition. It is unclear if all signees are actually Walt Disney employees or if the petition is union-backed. There is no mention in the petition itself of any affiliation with an employee union.
Disney has already reopened parks in Shanghai and Hong Kong and has plans to reopen its Paris and Japan-based locations.
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