Disneyland will reopen on April 30, more than a year after closing down

• Disneyland will reopen on April 30 after being closed for more than a year, Disney said Wednesday.
• The park will open at limited capacity and allow in only California residents.
• Customers will need to book a reservation to visit the park.

After shutting its gates a year ago as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in the US, Disneyland is reopening for business.

The Anaheim, California, theme park - which includes both Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park - will reopen to the public on April 30, Disney announced Wednesday.

Because of California's public-health requirements, capacity will be limited and customers will need to reserve a spot. For the time being, tickets and reservations are available to California residents only. Disney said the first visitors invited back would be members of the local community.

In early March, California announced revised COVID-19 guidelines that allowed amusement parks and stadiums to reopen on April 1, provided they weren't in one of the state's highest-risk zones. Those rules permit theme parks to reopen at 15 to 35% capacity with mandatory mask-wearing and other precautions in place.

Disney CEO Bob Chapek previously said during a conference call that it would take some time for the company to get its California parks back up and running after the long shutdown. Reopening the parks will mean bringing back more than 10,000 furloughed employees, Chapek said.

Disney has a clear incentive to reopen its parks as soon as public-health guidelines allow. In the fourth quarter of 2020, the company lost $2.4 billion in income because of park closures.

The company's Disney World park in Florida has been open since July because COVID-19 restrictions have been less stringent in that state.