Disneyland Ticket Website Overwhelmed Ahead Of April 30 Reopening

Disneyland reopens to the public two weeks from today, and Walt Disney Co. DIS is reporting its online tickets and reservation website has been inundated with sales requests.

What Happened: The Anaheim, California-based theme park and resort has been closed since the COVID-19 pandemic took root in March 2020. While Florida’s state government allowed for the reopening of Orlando-based Disney World last July, California’s theme parks have been shuttered for more than a year.

Tickets for the reopened Disneyland are being handled through the company’s DisneyParks.com website, and the company initially reported that online waiting time for consumers lasted more than an hour — as of Friday morning, it took 20 minutes to be able to proceed to the sales function of the site.

Visitors to the DisneyParks.com site are gently reminded that the online process will not be instantaneous. “Thank you for your continued patience!” the website said. “Due to high demand, this is taking longer than expected. We have a lot of Guests accessing our system, so you are now in a waiting room to plan your park visit.”

Related Link: Disney+ Tops 100 Million Subscribers

What Else Happened: A visit to the reopened Disneyland comes with several significant caveats. For starters, only California residents will able to access the site and groups traveling together cannot exceed three households; the company stated this limitation is in place “until further notice.”

Although Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa will reopen on April 29, the Disneyland Hotel and Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel remain closed and the company did not provide a date when the latter two hotels will resume operations.

Disneyland will be operating on a limited capacity basis and the company warned visitors that attractions “will be subject to limited availability or even closure, and park admission and offerings are not guaranteed.”

Furthermore, the newest addition to the park, the Avengers Campus that was initially scheduled to open last July, will not be part of the reopening. Instead, this attraction has been rescheduled for a June 4 premiere.

Related Link: Disney+ To Stream Animated Segment Of 'Star Wars Holiday Special'

(Photo of Pixar Pier at Disneyland Resort’s California Adventure courtesy of CrispyCream27/Wikimedia Commons.