ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. — For the past couple of weeks, Legoland in Carlsbad has hosted a holiday event.
Visitors can walk around the Lego-themed theme park, take a picture in front of a 30-foot Lego Christmas tree with more than 400 Lego ornaments, meet with Lego characters in a social distance fashion, and experience a holiday light show.
Rides are prohibited under current state orders to prevent the coronavirus spread, but it gives visitors a chance to walk into a theme park and enjoy the sights. The event runs on select days through January 2021.
Still, the seasonal event may close soon as a new regional shutdown looms ahead.
As a pre-emptive move in response to Gov. Gavin Newsom's recent stay-at-home order, Legoland officials announced it would close if and when the new guidance goes into effect.
"Following [Thursday's] announcement from Gov. Newsom preparing Southern California for another lockdown, Legoland California is expecting to cease our Holidays at Legoland dining and retail experience once the guidance is implemented across the state," Legoland spokeswoman Julie Estrada said. "The health and safety of our guests and our staff is always our top priority."
Estrada said Legoland's the Big Shop retail store and Castle Hotel will remain open until further notice.
Legoland is the first theme park to make such a decision if the new stay-at-home order begins and could be the first of many theme parks to close under Newsom's new order.
Theme parks have been closed since mid-March when the coronavirus pandemic began, but many have found ways to work around the state's current orders and keep business going. Some have opened their theme parks by hosting outdoor dining and shopping events. Others like Sea World are using the state's "zoo designation." Six Flags Magic Mountain has visitors driving through its 262-acre theme park.
But Newsom's newest Regional Stay At Home Order could halt everything.
After seeing a rise in coronavirus cases across the state in recent months, Newsom has implored residents to wear a mask and stay home as much as possible.
The governor's Regional Stay Home Order has broken the state into five separate regions: Northern California, Bay Area, Greater Sacramento, San Joaquin Valley, and Southern California.
If a region's ICU bed capacity falls below 15%, a new round of shutdown begins. The stay-at-home order will prohibit indoor and outdoor dining, playgrounds, hair salons, barbershops, museums, zoos, aquariums, bars, movie theaters, cardrooms and casinos, live audience sports, and amusement parks. Hotels can only house essential workers. Retail and grocery stores have to limit capacity to 20%.
According to the Desert Sun, the Southern California region's ICU bed capacity is at 20.6% as of Friday. The SoCal area includes Imperial, Inyo, Los Angeles, Mono, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties.
The LA Times reported that Southern California, along with three other regions, could hit that 15% threshold by early December.
The lockdown order will go into effect within 24 hours of a region hitting the 15% ICU mark.
"We are at a tipping point in our fight against the virus, and we need to take decisive action now to prevent California's hospital system from being overwhelmed in the coming weeks," Newsom said in a news release. "By invoking a Stay-at-Home Order for regions where ICU capacity falls below 15%, we can flatten the curve as we've done before and reduce stress on our health care system."
The governor's mandate released Thursday has many theme park operators scrambling for answers when they were beginning to adjust to the situation that the coronavirus and state health orders have placed on them.
Under the current orders, a theme park must wait until its home is in the yellow tier of the state's coronavirus monitoring list before it can reopen at 25% capacity. Local health officials don't expect theme parks to be fully up and running for years.
Theme park officials said they aren't sure what to make of the new order and how it impacts their seasonal events. The new order has sent them into limbo.
"We have seen the news from the state and are working to get clarification on what that means for our operation moving forward," Six Flags Magic Mountain spokesman Jerry Certino said to Spectrum News 1. Six Flags Magic Mountain is hosting a Holiday in the Parks Drive-Thru Experience. Visitors remain in their cars and drive-thru a holiday lighted and dressed up Magic Mountain.
A Knott's Berry Farm official said the company was also trying to grasp the new situation. For the past several months, Knott's has hosted various themed outdoor dining and tasting events at the Buena Park theme park since the pandemic began in March. This holiday season, Knott's is hosting the Knott's Taste of Merry Farm outdoor dining experience.
"We're trying to understand how it will impact our event," Knott's Berry Farm spokeswoman Diana Bahena said.
Sea World and Disney did not respond as of press time.
Sea World is hosting its own Christmas celebration, and Disney reopened Disney California Adventure's Buena Vistra Street area as part of an extension to Downtown Disney.