California theme parks can open indoor rides with outdoor lines

They could have done this safely months ago, says Florida.

While I don't disagree, I'm also not sure that taking Florida's lead on anything pandemic related is a great strategy. I know, I know..."science!" But also, "Florida."

You're not wrong about that, but while the state essentially did nothing, the industry figured it out because it had to. It responsibly closed on its own accord, not wanting a target on its back, and then reopened only when it was certain it had the right protocols in place. I assume the reason for this in part is because it's already a very safety oriented business.

Yeah, but the incentives are not always 100% aligned. The public's incentive is to minimize risk while increasing availability of jobs and entertainment. The company's incentive is to minimize risk traceable to the park while increasing availability of jobs and entertainment. Those are obviously closely aligned but there may be some differences.

I've been to Disney a few times now during the pandemic. I've talked bout it elsewhere but I have been impressed with the measures they took to socially distance in the queues. Florida hasn't discontinued using the indoor space but a good portion of many of the traditionally longer lines is outside. Space Mountain, for instance, snaked all they way back to the Tomorrowland Speedway (not an insignificant distance) and wound around the Carousel of Progress, the outdoor stage, etc. Mansion backed up almost to the wood boardwalk that begins out across from HOP (and then they skipped the stretching room entirely so that you walked right through it into the anteroom that leads to the boarding station.

A lot of outdoor space was used in the Studios park...and on one visit the Frozen ride at Epcot stretched well into China (a daunting line since they were only loading 2-4 people per boat). Bottom line, 6' distancing measures were attempted and generally followed well unless you got near a knucklehead family. At that point the 6' tall bald headed guy gave a pretty mean stare and the family backed off...or so I'm told.

I love the Disney Resort's announcement of DisneylandForward riding the wave of excitement of reopening. Blatant, but a good move. I hope this works out better than their last set of plans, whether a third park or big expansion of the existing two. Now if only they'd bring back Voyage Thru Inner Space attraction, with all new Covid-19 viruses, we'll be set. ;)