News Disney mask policy at Walt Disney World theme parks

["El Gran Magnifico"]

Overwhelmingly, Guests will follow mask mandates as directed by WDW.

Exactly. It is a condition set by Disney to enter and enjoy the park. I followed the then current policy in the past. And will follow the current policy now. If/when that changes - I'll follow the new policy.

 

[FormerMember]

I disagree, I think the pandemic that proven that a lot of people can't be trusted to do the right thing.

Let me know when we start trying that. All the pandemic has proven is that coercion doesn’t work as a public health measure.

 

[correcaminos]

Speaking of masks... I have Under Armour masks and for me... its hot and hard to breath in.

How are the masks that Disney sells? Also... do they have a Baby Yoda mask?

Best masks for outdoor or any harder breathing (like singing for me) are the surgical style one IMO

 

[Epcotbob]

Exactly. It is a condition set by Disney to enter and enjoy the park. I followed the then current policy in the past. And will follow the current policy now. If/when that changes - I'll follow the new policy.

Yep! I think the vast majority of people did what was asked of them thru the covid masking and lockdowns.

I think Disney has done an excellent, reasoned response to covid all the way around. They closed for an extended period of time, scrubbed the parks, instituted spacing, cleanliness measures and limited attendance when reopening, all of this at great expense!

Now they are taking a completely reasonable approach to relaxing masking as things are winding down. It’s really hard to fault them for being “greedy” or anything like that.

 

[correcaminos]

Yep! I think the vast majority of people did what was asked of them thru the covid masking and lockdowns.

I think Disney has done an excellent, reasoned response to covid all the way around. They closed for an extended period of time, scrubbed the parks, instituted spacing, cleanliness measures and limited attendance when reopening, all of this at great expense!

Now they are taking a completely reasonable approach to relaxing masking as things are winding down. It’s really hard to fault them for being “greedy” or anything like that.

If anything they were over cautious at times which I'm fine with too given what we didn't know and such at the time. I'd rather be more cautious than being not cautious enough.

 

[Chi84]

Which is how it always should have been. Coercion is rarely effective.

Most people are intelligent, reasonable and responsible. We've done ourselves a great disservice by deciding to treat each other like idiots and enemies during this pandemic.

 

[ElvisMickey]

I went to an outside bar/club to see a band (The Nerds) in Belmar NJ yesterday.
Tables were spaced, and I thought it would be weird to be unmasked again.
It wasn't at all, it felt natural - as it is.
What felt weird (and pointless) was putting the masks on to walk past other table to walk to and from the restrooms.

The Nerds…you’re bringing me back to my days before I ditched Jersey for Florida lol. Definitely one of the most popular cover bands up there…

 

[Incomudro]

The Nerds…you’re bringing me back to my days before I ditched Jersey for Florida lol. Definitely one of the most popular cover bands up there…

I can't believe they're still at it.
I used to see them in the 80's.
When I met my wife to be in around 1992 (she's almost 5 years younger than me,) I went to see them with her - and I couldn't believe they were still around.
Well, it's 2021 now, and they're still around.

 

[tallica]

"Why most published research findings are false", says a published research finding.

yeah new I would get called out for that

 

[007mickey]

We are a family of five going in two weeks. Can all five now wait together in line or must they still be separated to parties of no more than four?

Our group of 6 just got back, we all waited in lines together. Kind of hard to fit 6 people on or behind the marked line on the ground but you do the best you can. Most folks weren't closely following the 6' markers anyway.

 

[Chi84]

I told my husband, I think people thought it’d be slow here for people to “let go” of wearing a mask...that you’d only see a few doing it yesterday - wrong! We’re here now and went to all the parks yesterday and I’d say nearly most people have dropped the mask! I’d go as far to say 90% have! How quickly we can revert back to normal! Thank god!

I'm not surprised by that at all. I don't think there were too many people planning WDW vacations with the hope that Disney would continue to require masks outdoors even after local mandates were dropped. Clearly, I don't know for certain, but I doubt that was the mindset of someone going to a theme park at this time. I do know that Disney has been collecting data on their guests' opinions of COVID protocols based on a survey I was sent recently. My guess is they know more about their guests' expectations than people posting here, especially those who haven't been to WDW recently and have no plans to go soon.

 

[crawale]

Our group of 6 just got back, we all waited in lines together. Kind of hard to fit 6 people on or behind the marked line on the ground but you do the best you can. Most folks weren't closely following the 6' markers anyway.

Thanks for the info. Three of the five are small children.

 

[crawale]

Yeah, they've been the fastest to react to cdc guidelines, no matter which direction.

It's so odd things have flipped so quickly. Apparently a study came out showing vaccinated individuals just don't transmit the virus, even if they get infected. I guess that was all the CDC was waiting for... Now we know they don't really get covid much, almost never die from it, and almost never pass it on. Sounds like it was science-based, but man, what an abrupt change after 13 months of masks!

Walmart too. They have not been enforcing masks although they had a sign to say that you must wear one. In fact many stores like Publix had given up enforcing masks despite the signs. Of course I live in Florida. A friend of mine will not shop in any store that makes her wear a mask - she walks out without buying.

 

[007mickey]

We just returned from a 7 day trip. Of course the mask relaxing happened the day we flew home and considering our whole party is vaccinated, it was a little disappointing we missed out on the new rules. Oh well, a great time was had by all!

We enjoyed the FPless lines. No pre planning, no planning around ride times, etc. All lines seemed longer because of the distance markers (which were loosely followed once inside the show buildings). Almost every attraction posted wait time was much less than stated. The only one I can recall that was within 5 minutes of the posted time was Splash Mtn. Space would say 50 min, we waited 25. Test Track would say 45 min, we waited 30. Most queues were long but moved quickly. Hated missing the pre shows on Tower, Rockin', Mansion, etc. Actually had a family of 1st timers waiting for Tower trying to figure out what the premise of the ride was. It's easy to take this knowledge for granted when you've seen all these pre shows previously and understand the pre-ride stories. I tried my best to explain to them the back story but Disney does a better job.

Our experience was everybody did a very good job following the mask rules while we were there under the old rules. I'm sure there will be multiple reports with the new rules. If you are comfortable with the rules, go and have great time, we did.

 

[Baloo62]

I thought this was interesting. We are taking a 10 day vacation through Appalachia this summer with one of the stops being Busch Gardens Williamsburg. According to their website, masks are no longer required at all...even for indoor use! I assume Tampa has the same policy.

 

[Nickp1983]

Just got back from lowes and target. Everyone masked up. No one throwing punches or pulling hair. Everyone was pleasant and wore their masks as directed by the store. Also stocked up on some super double protection deodorant for our trip next week.

So the more I've been out this week, I haven't seen anything out of the normal. Most stores that don't require masks, I'd say 70% still wore masks.

As much as people tend to freak out about change, I see the mask reduction as a slow gradual decline. It's not like everyone just jumped into the deep end by me.

 

[ElvisMickey]

In defense of your comment, I think one thing we’ve learned from everything is that rules can change quickly…like, less than 24 hours. So at this point, it wouldn’t be shocking if ALL parks dropped mask requirements quickly. There are more guests who have been upset about the mask requirements than those who’ve been leaning on them as a safety net. And Disney knows it. Their bottom line is hurting and they’re looking to make some cash. They don’t care about anyone who has a problem with the new rules. They just want to relax the rules enough where they can‘t get sued and improve their bottom line.

 

[JD2000]

I am really disappointed the mask requirement continues to include outdoor queues.

 

[Jlwise2021]

The Orange County Mayor said when either 70% of adults have the first dose of the vaccine OR when the rolling positive 14 day average is under 5%, the mask mandate for indoors will be dropped too. On Friday, this average was at 5.7%, and the rolling average is actually under 5% for all of the US. Do we think it’s actually possible that the rolling average will fall under 5% in the next couple of weeks for Orange County? I think it will, and then I think it will be optional mask every in Disney possibly sooner than people think.

 

[Kingoglow]

Our group of 6 just got back, we all waited in lines together. Kind of hard to fit 6 people on or behind the marked line on the ground but you do the best you can. Most folks weren't closely following the 6' markers anyway.

I don't know what you are talking about. Just use the people in your party to occupy 2 or 3 of the line designations. 2 people per line on the ground, side-by-side; the group occupies three lines on the ground. Or 3 people per line on the ground bunched up; the group occupies two lines on the ground. Spacing out is easy; so is the math.