Disney World Is Reopening, but You Won’t Be Able to Hug Mickey

The Florida resort is one of the largest tourist sites in the world, but capacity will be limited, face masks will be mandatory, and it won’t be possible to get up close and personal with characters.

Walt Disney World, one of the largest tourist sites on the planet, has a plan to reopen in mid-July. But the necessary safety protocols — limiting the number of visitors, making face masks mandatory, deploying roaming squads to enforce social distancing, no longer allowing people to get up close and personal with Mickey Mouse — shows how difficult it will be to operate once-booming attractions as the country prepares for a broader reopening.

“We’re going slow because we want to make constant progress and not have to backtrack,” Bob Chapek, Disney’s chief executive, said by phone from Florida on Wednesday. “The risk is going too far, too fast.”

Disney’s theme parks, some with Main Street U.S.A. entrances, loom large in the popular imagination as symbols of Americana. Disney World has been closed since March 15 because of the pandemic, and its reopening carries a certain symbolism in itself, an attempt by fans to reclaim a semblance of normal life and an effort by a coronavirus-battered Disney to demonstrate that a visit will remain a cultural rite of passage for many children.

The Orange County Recovery Task Force in Orlando approved reopening plans for Disney World and SeaWorld on Wednesday but pressed executives about how they would enforce mask wearing, something that has become a contentious issue as more people return to public places and may pose difficulties for vacationers in the Florida heat. Jim MacPhee, Disney’s World’s senior vice president for operations, said signs would have “strong language” and that “high-energy squads” of employees would remind guests about compliance. He said Disney might establish “relaxation zones” where guests can take off their masks.

Walt Disney World consists of six separately ticketed parks with combined annual attendance of 93 million. The two most popular ones, the Magic Kingdom and the Animal Kingdom, will reopen on July 11. Disney World’s other major parks, Epcot and Hollywood Studios, will reopen on July 15.

The National Basketball Association has been in discussions with Disney to restart its season in late July by holding games and practices and housing players at the resort. Mr. Chapek said he was “very optimistic” about making a deal with the league. (Disney-owned ESPN is a broadcast partner of the N.B.A.) Major League Soccer is also in talks to restart its season from the resort’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, which Mr. Chapek noted had high security and “turnkey” broadcasting capabilities.

Mr. Chapek declined to say how many people Disney would let into its parks. The number is likely to be less than half of pre-outbreak capacity, at least at first. Major Disney parks can handle 80,000 people a day. In China, where Shanghai Disneyland reopened on May 11, the government limited attendance to one-third of normal capacity.