[Updated] One SoCal theme park lifts California residency requirements; will others follow?
by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix, staff writer
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Updated 4/21:
Disneyland officials confirmed the following: "Until further clarification from the state, only California residents may visit our parks, in line with current state guidelines. Please visit our policy here."
Officials from Sea World have yet to respond to our inquiry, but have changed the announcement on their website.
A representative from the California Department of Public Health confirmed the new guidelines to an industry magazine.
BREAKING: A spokesperson for the California Department of Public Health has confirmed to InPark that "fully vaccinated people from out of state are now permitted to participate in activities restricted to in-state visitors." Includes concerts, spectator sports, and theme parks... pic.twitter.com/F1VjGtAE7F
— InPark Magazine (@InParkMagazine) April 21, 2021
When California theme parks got the green light to reopen as early as April 1, the state handed down a set of guidelines that regulated everything from how many people could visit a theme park to how long they could remain inside an indoor attraction.
The guidance for amusement parks and theme parks also required theme parks to restrict admission to California residents only, persuant to a travel advisory from the California Department of Public Health.
One local theme park, Sea World in San Diego, had already reopened under guidelines for zoos, and decided to keep operating under those more lenient guidelines through the spring break period because zoos were permitted to sell tickets to out-of-state visitors.
Now the park has announced it's open with rides and roller coasters, and is also welcoming out-of-state visitors. A notice posted on the website Tuesday night read:
"Per state COVID-19 restrictions, attendance is limited to California in-state visitors, and now out-of-state visitors will be required to show proof of a completed COVID-19 vaccine or a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of their park visit (required for guests 3 & up)."
What gives? What changed? We're not entirely sure. We learned about the Sea World situation from our travel partners at Get Away Today , and we were as perplexed at they were.
We quickly checked to see if there had been an update to the guidance issued by the state, and found no change there. Then we looked at the state's Blueprint for a Safer Economy, and discovered that it had been updated on Monday, April 19. The language there still reads that theme parks can open to in-state visitors only, but refers back to the CDPH travel advisory.
A quick scan of the Southern California theme park websites showed nobody else had altered their residency requirement, so we sent a note to Sea World's media relations department asking them to share what prompted them to make the change. They never responded, but on Wednesday, the announcement was changed to remove the option to provide a negative COVID-19 test. The new announcement reads,
SeaWorld San Diego is now operating as a theme park. Per state COVID-19 restrictions, attendance is limited to California in-state visitors, and now out-of-state visitors will be required to show proof of a fully completed COVID-19 vaccine (you are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after your second shot, or two weeks after the one-dose vaccine).
Stymied, we hopped on Twitter to see if anyone else was seeing what we were seeing, and found that Leslie Harvey from Trips with Tykes had been following the same road, and found what she believes Sea World is relying on for their policy change,
There is also an addendum on page 8 that says: "Fully vaccinated persons from out of state may visit or attend activities or events that are restricted to in-state visitors." 4/6 pic.twitter.com/SENSYPZI6W
— Leslie Harvey (@TripsWithTykes) April 20, 2021
Sea World may be making a giant leap in their justification for their policy change, or may just have found a loophole in California's inconsistent policies.
We're waiting to hear from Sea World, Disney, and any of the other Southern California theme park operators about their future plans, [see update at top], but if you're an out of state visitor just waiting for your opportunity to return to the Disneyland Resort, that time may be coming sooner than expected.
Comments
I don't know why Sea World would want to become Vaccine police, but in as much as the footnote appears to grant fully-vaccinated out of state visitors the same privileges afforded to in-state residents, I think that they are allowed to do so. I don't think that this is a loop-hole as much as a poorly written series of rules that have grown increasingly complex.
I haven't been watching as many of the governor's briefings as I was mid-pandemic, so I don't know if this was a formally announced change. It wouldn't surprise me if it was just dumped with a lot of the other rule changes.
As to testing, the testing exception is in the section regarding large events and suggests that minors who are unable to be vaccinated can be in the vaccinated section if they have a negative test result and are with a fully vaccinated parent. I don't think Sea World can allow out-of-state non-vaccinated adults who only have a negative COVID test.
The problem here is that theme parks are under their own sets of guidelines. I think someone in a different place pointed out to keep reading and they would see that. Sea World is trying to act as if they are an activity or event and they are neither. They are a theme park. Yet San Diego though seems to have been pushing though for awhile to have Arizona residents come on over and vacation from what I've seen said by residents there on tv commercials they see. Legoland doesn't care to follow the theme park guidelines and tells guests from out of state calling that as long as they have a reservation/tickets they are welcome to come.
Now back to the case of activities and events...well I think they are talking more sports, weddings, fairs and concerts. We already know that with sports you have to show the negative test or that you are vaccinated. Sea World IMO is trying to push things here and its wrong. There is NOTHING in guidelines for them to do such things and we all know if this was an option for theme parks it would have been splashed across the news. I've seen some pretty upset comments to Sea World to where out of state guests want their money back on passes they have and how this is an invasion of privacy. Mix in that the California residents questioning where Sea World is thinking this is allowed because no one is finding it. I don't get why Sea World thinks this is ok and how they will even be able to tell if a person is being honest on the vaccine card or not. Its not like there hasn't been warnings of fake ones. Yet mix the fact that you are telling out of state guests to do this but in state wouldn't have to. So it leaves the issues of what ifs on in state guests going while COVID positive and giving out of state guests COVID to take back to their home state. You have to wonder if Sea World is going to try to skirt the rules in this what else will they try to get around doing or not doing? I can't imagine most theme parks, especially Disney doing this. It would be a pain to get guests through the gates with having to see a residents ID, guests negative test or vaccine card. SMH
The rule that states that out-of-state visitors who are fully vaccinated may be treated as though they are in-state is not restricted to any particular set of guidelines. The Theme park guidelines say in-state only. But if a different rule says that we will treat someone as though they are in-state, then they would be allowed to participate in in-state only activities.
It's no different than if something said "red only" and something else said "for all rules relating to red, blue will be treated as though red." Both blue and red can participate. The difference is that it is relatively easy to show CA residency, and much harder to show fully vaccinated.
This comes back around though to the fact that theme parks have their own set of guidelines they were given separate from the rest of the guidelines. Look at the indoor dining as an example of how theme parks have different guidelines here compared to any restaurant in a city has. The theme parks were told no indoor dining while in the red tier. Yet a restaurant in DTD would be allowed indoor dining at 25% capacity. With being in the orange right now theme parks will be allowed 25% indoor capacity but DTD restaurants could be 50%. There is even a whole guide for amusement and theme parks reopening. They do not fall under this so called "loophole" many are trying to find so they can travel here and go to Disneyland or whatever theme park here. We all know that if there was going to be such a change the state would have announced it before Sea World decided to do what they are. I saw a comment that said the CDPH will be making a statement soon about what they mean by activities and events because of what Sea World put out. If they are doing that we will all know soon enough if theme parks will be able to decide to open in that manner like Sea World is trying or stick to the in state as was originally said.
Given how the State has released guidelines to date, I see no reason why we would believe that they would have formally announced this change. The Addendum was first in the Blueprint for a Safer Economy released on April 13, 2021. It remained in the versions released on April 15, 2021, and April 19, 2021 (currently, the active version).
The April 13th version removed the guidance for what would happen once 2 million doses were administered in the first healthy places index quartile and added the Addendum. Since the changes were based on increased vaccinations, this was a logical time for this Addendum. The April 15th version, removed the pre 4/15 rules for a variety of sectors. The April 19th version updated some of the rules for outdoor live events with assigned seats and controlled mixing.
Since the Sea World news broke yesterday, I'm assuming that was a fairly recent change to their procedures. But this Addendum has been in effect since 4/13. Is it not possible that Sea World, upon first seeing this change, contacted CDPH for guidance before announcing their update?
A change like this would make news because of DLR and how many out of state folks are trying to find work arounds to come before the state lifts the restrictions. Obviously once it is lifted it would be up to each theme park to decide to open it to all at that point. With Sea World, I think they jumped the gun on it or trying to use guidelines about events/activities as a loophole that they really don't fall under. I doubt they asked the CDPH for guidance. Yet with the links you posted I am not seeing anything that would lead me to believe the theme parks could make this change. Maybe I'm missing something there on where it says they can do this but as far as I see nothing allows the change for out of state guests under any of those tiers. Even the June 15th date of opening things all up we have no idea if that will mean the state will allow out of state guests in the theme parks. I know many are assuming it changes the out of state rules for theme parks but it may not. We all know how the state has been. I think once we get official word that the travel advisory is dropped is when we will see theme parks allowed to have out of state guests in. I can't see a push for them to do vaccinated only or the negative COVID test to get in. If they did that it would have to be for even residents in the state as well. I know just from seeing our board of supervisors here in the county mentioning a vaccine "passport" setup, and how many in my city were melting down over it, that I can't see how it would go over well for theme parks to do even put forth such a thing. How many parents would be ok with needing to test their kids before the trip but also depending on how long a trip is probably having to do it again if they are going to some other theme parks...I can't see to many being happy with that. No matter what at this point it seems the CDPH needs to make some comment on it all and clear things up.