News Disney mask policy at Walt Disney World theme parks

[Jlwise2021]

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If wearing a mask while on rides and in queue was this annoying for you, just be glad you hadn't visited Disney anytime in the past 11 months.

For me, I can't believe I had gone 100 days with masks a required protocol at all times. It's all about perspective in a pandemic I guess.

I specifically said “a bit annoying” and also said I would never disrespect the rules. I wouldn’t have gone to Disney while masks were still required outdoors.

 

[HairyChest]

Just from a locals point of view - I live in a very highly Disney-oriented affluent area about 5 minutes from the parks. Disney's reluctance to remove the indoor mask requirement is absolutely driving business away from the parks until they do -- and with that, it means a lot of money normally spent at WDW is being spent at Universal and SeaWorld. Currently, my neighbors and clients are all talking about their trip to Universal the way they used to about Disney. With park reservations near impossible to get without planning a month out (nobody here does that), and with absolutely nobody wearing masks anymore indoors and outdoors for the past month, its going to become increasingly problematic for Disney if they don't remove the indoor mask requirement. At the current time, the money is going to Universal and SeaWorld. For my own stocks worth I'd rather they be going back to WDW and spending money there. At some point very soon, WDW is going to cave on this. Since it extends to Disney Springs, our local AMC, they are losing business as well since they require indoor masking "because they are on Disney property" and none of the other local cinemas require that if you are vaccinated. I tiptoed around it, but there were a whole bunch of livid locals yelling at the poor manager at AMC on Saturday morning about the mask rule, since they don't have to follow it anywhere else but AMC Disney Springs. It's a matter of time, and I am sure it will be sooner rather than later if they want to keep the local big bucks flowing in.

Yea at this point Disney is losing more guests by having masks then not having masks indoors. The fact that they have the county and CDC on the side of no masks is really putting pressure on those in control with the mindset of “masks are the right thing to do whether cdc says so or not”.
It’ll happen this week.

 

[robhedin]

Yea at this point Disney is losing more guests by having masks then not having masks indoors. The fact that they have the county and CDC on the side of no masks is really putting pressure on those in control with the mindset of “masks are the right thing to do whether cdc says so or not”.
It’ll happen this week.

Hmmm... this doesn't track....

If they're losing money it's by having the park reservation system which is limiting park access. Not saying that some people aren't staying away because of masks, but Universal is packed and they don't require a reservation. Seaworld does, but it looks pretty easy to get (although I've not been tracking them).

When the Disney reservation system looks like this then there's enough people willing to go to fill the park with or without masks:

 

[HairyChest]

Hmmm... this doesn't track....

If they're losing money it's by having the park reservation system which is limiting park access. Not saying that some people aren't staying away because of masks, but Universal is packed and they don't require a reservation. Seaworld does, but it looks pretty easy to get (although I've not been tracking them).

When the Disney reservation system looks like this then there's enough people willing to go to fill the park with or without masks:View attachment 562478

Good point. Thats why I think they would increase capacity at the same time they remove the masks.

 

[disneygeek90]

Good point. Thats why I think they would increase capacity at the same time they remove the masks.

They already have. At several points over the last few weeks the calendar for June looked completely grey. It's pretty well tracked on the Park Pass thread.

Big park pass refresh -

Before/After June -

View attachment 562020View attachment 562021

Before/After July -

View attachment 562019View attachment 562018

 

[danlb_2000]

Good point. Thats why I think they would increase capacity at the same time they remove the masks.

The question now is, if they wanted to, how quickly could the ramp up capacity, meaning bringing back shows, M&Gs, all the restaurants, all the hotels, having enough transportation capacity, etc. They may be slow walking things to give themselves time to ramp back up.

 

[RonAnnArbor]

Hmmm... this doesn't track....

If they're losing money it's by having the park reservation system which is limiting park access. Not saying that some people aren't staying away because of masks, but Universal is packed and they don't require a reservation. Seaworld does, but it looks pretty easy to get (although I've not been tracking them).

When the Disney reservation system looks like this then there's enough people willing to go to fill the park with or without masks:

I have never seen Universal as packed as it has been the past month -- and the same for SeaWorld (a particular favorite place of mine) -- and part of that is because they don't have any mask rules in place and it has increased the local attendance there specifically because you DON'T need masks anymore. You can just wake up that morning and go. SeaWorld's reservations are not checked for passholders. The charts are misleading, because the Annual Passholders only get the leftovers of what the resort guests haven't already booked. June was all grey a week ago. Now it has yellow. If you look at it, you see that the only park available is Epcot -- because it opens so late the locals are staying away, and because you can't just drop in for dinner like you normally could. I went to Epcot at least once a week for dinner somewhere by just parking my car and walking in whenever I felt like it. Now, I would certainly not waste a day at Epcot, arriving in the heat of the day since they open at 11:00 - or wasting a day of parks just to go there for dinner. But Disney Springs was specially expanded to accommodate the locals and it has become our "local mall" and right now nobody locally is going there. That is decreasing income significantly. And by "locals" I mean people who live within a 6-10 mile radius of WDW. Plenty of passholders from all over the state will still make the occasional drive to the parks if they can. But those aren't necessarily the folks that keep the money flowing.

 

[GimpYancIent]

I don't really think it's that simple. I am a very rational, logically thinking person, but I will not get on an airplane. It will take more then repeating the safety statistics to fix that fear.

I last flew a decade ago. There was a time I found flying fun and interesting. There was a time the flying public was treated as valued customers. About 20 years ago everything deteriorated rapidly w the airlines treating passengers like live stock. 9-11 gets blamed by the airline industry but the fact is the decline had begun well before that. No fear of flying here, not a hypochondriac, it ain't about money, just a person that will not subject himself to the abuses encountered simply to fly commercially. When a need to travel arises I set aside time and look at all modes of travel except flying commercial.

 

[Nottamus]

Are CM enforcing the masking indoors when you see those without? Just curious as I have read in the past Disney was very strict about masking just wondering if you are seeing the same now.

Well…the places I’ve noticed are in my resort in the hallways.

there’s really no way to enforce that

 

[danlb_2000]

I last flew a decade ago. There was a time I found flying fun and interesting. There was a time the flying public was treated as valued customers. About 20 years ago everything deteriorated rapidly w the airlines treating passengers like live stock. 9-11 gets blamed by the airline industry but the fact is the decline had begun well before that. No fear of flying here, not a hypochondriac, it ain't about money, just a person that will not subject himself to the abuses encountered simply to fly commercially. When a need to travel arises I set aside time and look at all modes of travel except flying commercial.

That's actually a rational reason for not getting on a plane, my reason is not rational.

 

[Magic Feather]

Just from a locals point of view - I live in a very highly Disney-oriented affluent area about 5 minutes from the parks. Disney's reluctance to remove the indoor mask requirement is absolutely driving business away from the parks until they do -- and with that, it means a lot of money normally spent at WDW is being spent at Universal and SeaWorld. Currently, my neighbors and clients are all talking about their trip to Universal the way they used to about Disney. With park reservations near impossible to get without planning a month out (nobody here does that), and with absolutely nobody wearing masks anymore indoors and outdoors for the past month, its going to become increasingly problematic for Disney if they don't remove the indoor mask requirement.

The issue, as you just admitted, is not masking, but park reservations, which is hindered by capacity and ridiculously unprecedented demand. If Disney dropped reservations and moved to 100% capacity, I promise that the parks would become even worse/

the local big bucks flowing in.

This is, unfortunately, something of an oxymoron.

I have never seen Universal as packed as it has been the past month -- and the same for SeaWorld (a particular favorite place of mine) -- and part of that is because they don't have any mask rules in place and it has increased the local attendance there specifically because you DON'T need masks anymore. You can just wake up that morning and go. SeaWorld's reservations are not checked for passholders. The charts are misleading, because the Annual Passholders only get the leftovers of what the resort guests haven't already booked. June was all grey a week ago. Now it has yellow. If you look at it, you see that the only park available is Epcot -- because it opens so late the locals are staying away, and because you can't just drop in for dinner like you normally could. I went to Epcot at least once a week for dinner somewhere by just parking my car and walking in whenever I felt like it. Now, I would certainly not waste a day at Epcot, arriving in the heat of the day since they open at 11:00 - or wasting a day of parks just to go there for dinner. But Disney Springs was specially expanded to accommodate the locals and it has become our "local mall" and right now nobody locally is going there. That is decreasing income significantly. And by "locals" I mean people who live within a 6-10 mile radius of WDW. Plenty of passholders from all over the state will still make the occasional drive to the parks if they can. But those aren't necessarily the folks that keep the money flowing.

SeaWorld and Universal are packed because of ridiculously high demand and a lack of any capacity limit. At this point, those parks are effectively back to the way they were pre-covid. SeaWorld's "Reservations" are for appearances and have never really been checked.

Day of, spontaneous passholders should be the least affected by this. Once parks are within 2-4 hours of closing, availability tends to become something of a free-for-all.

Lastly, Disney doesn't care that Springs is full of non-locals, so long as Springs is full.

 

[jaklgreen]

Isn’t that what ParkPass is for though? Disney can’t magically release masks and then go back to their pre-pandemic capacity. They barely have enough staff to work their parks as it is right now.

They have said that they are increasing capacity. It was just my opinion about what they are going to do. I never said it was fact. Someone said they think that they will go maskless all the way by the 4th. No one is raking them over the coals. My opinion is just that. NBD

 

[HairyChest]

Since they just increased pass availability/ capacity, they will remove mask mandates to fill that capacity. I expect an announcement by friday.

 

[BaconPancakes]

Since they just increased pass availability/ capacity, they will remove mask mandates to fill that capacity. I expect an announcement by friday.

Can you stop making baseless predictions? Lol…

 

[ToTBellHop]

Can you stop making baseless predictions? Lol…

Eventually he will be correct!

 

[MaryJaneP]

Isn't this forum for all predictions, be they predictions based upon actually publicly consumable information or wild predictions based on nothing? As has been said before, the ignore selection is there. All predictions are eventually true or false and maybe be used as a measure to evaluate the trustworthiness of the poster making the prediction. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

 

[correcaminos]

However, where is WDW at right now with the masks? I know they don't require them outside walking around. But is it still at the point where they need them in lines and on all rides? Are they needed at Disney Springs/Boardwalk?

Or better yet who has been there recently that can give their own take on the mood/theme of the mask enforcement at the parks.

In line upon entrance always. On all rides all the time. In any shop or the like. In resorts lobbies and such. Transportation too. Being in BRV, no one to enforce. About 50% are masked indoors all the time. It's not super busy though.

 

[DisneyDean97]

The issue, as you just admitted, is not masking, but park reservations, which is hindered by capacity and ridiculously unprecedented demand. If Disney dropped reservations and moved to 100% capacity, I promise that the parks would become even worse/

This is, unfortunately, something of an oxymoron.

SeaWorld and Universal are packed because of ridiculously high demand and a lack of any capacity limit. At this point, those parks are effectively back to the way they were pre-covid. SeaWorld's "Reservations" are for appearances and have never really been checked.

Day of, spontaneous passholders should be the least affected by this. Once parks are within 2-4 hours of closing, availability tends to become something of a free-for-all.

Lastly, Disney doesn't care that Springs is full of non-locals, so long as Springs is full.

Hey @Magic Feather do you have any info on when (and if) Disney will modify the rules for park hopping, like if they will push back the 2PM window to say 1pm or 12, or maybe not have that restriction in at all anymore? Thanks

 

[HairyChest]

Can you stop making baseless predictions? Lol…

Never. This is too fun. And that’s what I’m here for.

 

[HairyChest]

Eventually he will be correct!

There is nowhere to go but up