Last month, Disney announced an ambitious plan to reopen the Walt Disney World resort in central Florida, with new safety procedures and health guidelines. It has led to much confusion and an evolving set of standards and practices as Disney gets ready for some truly unprecedented times. (For instance, if you are traveling from the tristate area of New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey, you have to quarantine yourself for 14 days before entering the parks.) But when it came to the Disneyland Resort, which has been closed since early March, things remained a mystery. California has taken a more cautious, wait-and-see approach to reopening, as states that have jumped the gun (like Texas) have seen dramatic and deadly increases in cases following what some considered a premature reopening strategy.

But now we have a date for the proposed reopening of Disneyland, Disney California Adventure, and the Downtown Disney shopping, dining and entertainment corridor. And it’s a lot sooner than you’d probably image. According to the official press release: “Phased reopening of the Disneyland Resort. Pending state and local government approvals, Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa and Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel plans to reopen on July 23, and Disneyland park and Disney California Adventure park will plan to reopen on July 17. Additionally, Downtown Disney District will begin reopening on July 9th.”

Damn. That is soon. (For those of you playing at home, July 17 is Disneyland’s 65’s anniversary. It originally opened on July 17, 1955.)

This won’t be your typical visit to Disneyland, though. Because theme park capacity will be significantly limited to comply with governmental requirements and promote physical distancing, the Disneyland Resort will manage attendance through a new theme park reservation system that will require all guests, including Annual Passholders, to obtain a reservation for park entry in advance,” the official release notes. These reservations are “subject to availability.” While more details regarding this reservation system will be announced soon, Disneyland has suspended the sale of tickets, annual passes, or annual pass renewals. All updates will be posted on the official Disneyland website.

There are a few interesting things about this announcement.

Firstly, it’s fascinating that Disneyland is attempting to open so soon after Florida. It was believed that Walt Disney World would have at least a few weeks under its belt, figuring out how to implement the new safety procedures and social distancing measures, how the guest experience will be impacted by these implementations, and how they could potentially make the process smoother and more streamlined for California. (It sounds like California will be following the same model of temperature scans, frequent hand washing, reduced ride capacity, mask requirements, contactless orders and payment for food, etc.) But no. Disneyland will be opening days after Walt Disney World’s theme parks (EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the last two parks to open, will resume operation on July 15). That means all six domestic theme parks, plus the hotels and retail corridors, will be figuring it out together.

What makes the California parks more cumbersome, especially in terms of reopening amidst the threat of a global pandemic, is how transitory the guests are. Disneyland is, in essence, the most popular and detailed regional theme park on the planet, with a large percentage of the guests coming in from a 100-mile radius of the park itself and a much smaller percentage of guests who will spend the night. Initially, the thought with Walt Disney World was that, with the thousands of guests who stay on property, they could more easily track an outbreak and alert guests in a more succinct manner. With Disneyland and its mostly-day-guests, that is much more difficult.

Another interesting tidbit is that the Disneyland Hotel isn’t included amongst the hotels that will be reopening in July. Wonder why that is. It could have something to do with an outdated air filtration system, or some other holdover from a bygone era (it opened three months after the park, in 1955). Or it could be something more esoteric and inscrutable. As of right now, Disney is not thinking that the pandemic will affect the hunger for room availability – I just looked and Disney’s Grand California rooms are still between $766 and $924 a night in July. Woof.

Of course, most of the questions hover around what this reservation system will look like – how many guests will be allowed in, if park-hopping will be permitted, and how the various health and safety measures will be set up. For instance, how will park admission work if guests are required to stand six feet away from each other? Will the line stretch to the Mickey & Friends parking structure? Who knows!

We will, of course, be following this closely.