I love Walt Disney World.

I have spent more than my fair share of time in the parks, and yes, I am one of those people who visited even without kids. (If you haven’t, you should. It’s a totally different experience.) I love Dole Whips and the Haunted Mansion, and I can tell you the fastest way to get from Epcot to the Animal Kingdom without looking at a map.

But would I go back this week? Yikes.

On July 11, Disney reopened the gates to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. On Wednesday, Epcot and Hollywood Studios were welcoming guests back. The parks have been closed for months while the company, like the rest of the country, dealt with the dangers of the coronavirus pandemic.

One could see this as frivolous since Florida is being gripped by a massive resurgence of infections. Florida’s numbers now eclipse all of the nations of the European Union combined. The highest one-day total belongs not to New York, where covid-19 was most deadly at the beginning, but the Sunshine State.

But Walt Disney World could be seen as the whole pandemic problem in miniature — balancing the threat to lives from a disease or from economic fallout.

Florida has one of the largest state economies in the country, and the tourist industry drives more than $85 billion of that engine. Walt Disney World is more than just the biggest employer in Florida. It’s the largest single-location employer in the country. Its 2018 payroll boasted 75,000 employees cashing $2.7 billion in paychecks.

That is a lot of people staying home and collecting unemployment with the doors closed. At the same time, it’s a lot of people possibly at risk from covid-19.

Disney’s impact spirals outward, affecting hotels, restaurants, shops, other attractions, airlines and other transportation. All of those generate tax money that flows into state coffers that support the services Florida provides to its residents.

So how can Disney be a better corporate citizen? Closing the doors and keeping the staff — and the visitors — safe, or opening them and keeping the staff paid?

It’s an impossible question.

The company is doing what it can to encourage distance and safety with lowering attendance and upping cleaning. Personally, I’d take the opportunity to make a line of Mickey Mouse-themed face masks but somehow I’m guessing they’ve beat me to that idea. Worth billions, Disney seldom leaves a dime or a branding opportunity on the table.

Maybe guests will handle it for them. According to Forbes, the parks were less crowded than grocery stores when they reopened, and most grocery stores haven’t exactly been packed lately.

If opening the gates to a place with books and websites and Facebook pages devoted to planning the perfect vacation can’t drum up enough guests to make it worthwhile, maybe that is exactly the kind of self-quarantine necessary.

Maybe that takes the decision out of Disney’s oversized, four-fingered cartoon hands. It would point to a population that is listening to medical professionals and prioritizing safety recommendations.

But it doesn’t solve the economic problem. If people don’t come back to Disney for Space Mountain rides and smoked turkey legs, how will the employees pay their bills? How will the city of Orlando or the state of Florida make ends meet?

If anyone can anticipate a change in consumer needs and find a way to capitalize on it, it’s bound to be the House of Mouse, which would be a victory for capitalism and creativity over government mandates.

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