News Disney mask policy at Walt Disney World theme parks

[GimpYancIent]

It's great that you don't want to disappoint your family, but you are part of the family to, so your comfort level is important. If I was in your wife or kids place I wouldn't want to force you to take a vacation where you won't be comfortable.

A vacation = "an extended period of leisure and recreation, especially one spent away from home or in traveling." What is the comfort zone? Each family makes decisions based on their comfort zone. If going some where (just to go) is not within that comfort zone then it will not be much of a vacation.

 

[LittleBuford]

The parks have been packed. And I mean, packed. With hardly anyone wearing a mask. So what does that tell you?

Not that the majority of people disapprove of Disney’s decision. Again, that’s an assumption on your part, just as faulty as if I were to extrapolate public opinion from this forum, where most posters seem to approve Disney’s reintroduction of masks.

 

[ElvisMickey]

I think Disney has the right and obligation to set the rules how they see fit. I can also see how Universal could reap the rewards of more guests now that they are slightly seperated from Disney on the covid ruleset.

Disney can certainly do whatever they want. But they also jumped the gun on their decision. Like I said, show me one major company anywhere whether it’s a theme park, retailer, restaurant, etc., who’s brought back a mandate for customers. No one has.

 

[CosmicRays]

Disney can certainly do whatever they want. But they also jumped the gun on their decision. Like I said, show me one major company anywhere whether it’s a theme park, retailer, restaurant, etc., who’s brought back a mandate for customers. No one has.

Best case scenario is that you are right.

 

[ElvisMickey]

Best case scenario is that you are right.

I mean, right now, all of this is fluid. Maybe by Wednesday we’ll be in a lockdown again . It’s just all very exhausting at this point.

 

[mikejs78]

Granted, But 74% ?!?! Apparently in a place with a 75% vaccination rate? Why isn't the infection rate highly skewed towards the un-vaxxed??

Let's show an example: If you have 100 people in a room and 10 are unvaccinated and 90 are vaccinated - let's say you have a 50% chance of getting infected from a single person (for sake of argument) without vaccination, and with vaccination, 80% less than that. That would mean in that crowd, about 5 unvaccinated people would get infected, and 9 vaccinated people, for a total of 14 people, mostly vaccinated.

But if you reversed that (90 unvaccinated and 10 vaccinated), 45 unvaccinated people would get infected and 1 vaccinated person would get infected - for a total of 46 people infected, overwhelmingly unvaccinated.

So the higher the ratio of vaccinated to unvaccinated in any situation, you can have more vaccinated being infected.

Now, with low vaccination rates, those 45 people now can spread it to other unvaccinated and vaccinated exponentially. In a high vaccinated scenario, the vaccinated will still spread it, but again at a much lower rate - as in every spreading opportunity, the risk of spreading to another vaccinated person is 80% less of that of spreading it to an unvaccinated person. So if everyone is vaccinated, cases go down exponentially, not to mention the risk of hospitalization and death, which the vaccines have a much higher efficacy against.

Bottom line - the more people vaccinated, the more vaccinated people will catch mild illness, but the more it will spread.

With Delta's R0 factor it's likely we need about 80-85% vaccinated for herd immunity - and that's of the whole population, not just those currently eligible.

 

[Ayla]

Ha! I'd be a mean wife. I'd say "wear the mask inside and get over it. You'll be fine."

If person was afraid for health reasons, then I'd see it differently.

I'd say "stay home, then. We'll go have a great time without you."

 

[donsullivan]

Disney can certainly do whatever they want. But they also jumped the gun on their decision. Like I said, show me one major company anywhere whether it’s a theme park, retailer, restaurant, etc., who’s brought back a mandate for customers. No one has.

They jumped no guns on their decision at all. Local hospital systems in central Florida have had to go to black status banning all other medical procedures that are not emergencies to free resources to deal with the massive surge in COVID patients. What part of this is so hard to understand.?

Despite what our governor is telling you, central Florida is in the midst of a COVID emergency and everyone must do their part to mitigate. As central Florida’s largest employer and largest tourism destination, Walt Disney World chose to do what it could to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

if you have a problem with those mitigation steps or anything stricter that might be necessary in the future then please stay away and don’t make it worse.

 

[Patcheslee]

Just curious has anyone seen any other theme park or amusement/entertainment type location require masks again like Disney rather than just “encourage” it? Seems like Disney is the only one doing this at the moment which is…interesting

I'm not sure what percentage of other parks are year round outside of Disney and Uni. A majority of Cedar Fair and Six Flags parks are seasonal, it seems like a bigger risk to require them and possibly lose alot of people.

 

[ElvisMickey]

They jumped no guns on their decision at all. Local hospital systems in central Florida have had to go to black status banning all other medical procedures that are not emergencies to free resources to deal with the massive surge in COVID patients. What part of this is so hard to understand.?

Despite what our governor is telling you, central Florida is in the midst of a COVID emergency and everyone must do their part to mitigate. As central Florida’s largest employer and largest tourism destination, Walt Disney World chose to do what it could to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

if you have a problem with those mitigation steps or anything stricter that might be necessary in the future then please stay away and don’t make it worse.

Well, 50% of folks would agree with me, and 50% of folks would agree with you. Such is the story of the last 18 months. And for what it’s worth, I’m fully vaxed and not going back until they drop the mandate. Disney’s not THAT important.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Well, 50% of folks would agree with me, and 50% of folks would agree with you. Such is the story of the last 18 months. And for what it’s worth, I’m fully vaxed and not going back until they drop the mandate. Disney’s not THAT important.

And on the other 50% I’m fully vaxxed and considering visiting in September BECAUSE the masks are back. I’d really like to visit Disney again, and I’d like to see happily ever and Epcot forever again before they go away.

I definitely feel more comfortable with masks right now.

 

[ElvisMickey]

And on the other 50% I’m fully vaxxed and considering visiting in September BECAUSE the masks are back. I’d really like to visit Disney again, and I’d like to see happily ever and Epcot forever again before they go away.

I definitely feel more comfortable with masks right now.

Awesome! I hope you have a great time. It’s all about personal choice. I’m just ready to get August over with and it’s not even here yet…the most disgusting month in Orlando

 

[Disstevefan1]

“How was your vacation?”
“Well, we didn’t die in a car accident!”
“That bad huh?”

Allow me to recap. My reply was a reply to a post where the family drive from Texas to to to Universal Orlando and the Dad contracted COVID somewhere during the vacation. So looking on the positive side:

• Dad will recover.
• I am not a Dr. but Dad looks to be overweight which probably contributed to his complications that sent him to the hospital rather than simply recovering at home like the rest of the family.
• No ventilator! just some oxygen, pretty standard. It looks like we are learning how to properly treat this and not just sticking folks on ventilators to die.
• He probably got it at Universal for all you Universal hating Disney fans.

They did say in the article they had a great vacation, so there’s that, plus there probably other good things to list as well.

 

[pdude81]

Disney can certainly do whatever they want. But they also jumped the gun on their decision. Like I said, show me one major company anywhere whether it’s a theme park, retailer, restaurant, etc., who’s brought back a mandate for customers. No one has.

But mom, everybody else is doing it....

 

[ElvisMickey]

But mom, everybody else is doing it....

Listen, I hear you, but these companies weigh their decisions on the bottom line, not ”doing the right thing”. Unless they’re forced, which in this case, they weren’t. Just go read the Facebook and Twitter comments. More folks are upset about this than not. Disney is about to be sued by Scarlet Johansson, and maybe Emma Stone, and maybe Emily Blunt. Peace and love to everyone on these boards but they lost at least $1000 from me by their decision on masks. And while it may not seem like a lot, it contributes. But I’m also not going to whine about it or put anyone else down with a different opinion, I’m just not going to go. See you when you drop the mandate.

 

[seascape]

Don't forget ESPN getting sued by the Big 12

The Big 12 is not suing ESPN. They sent a cease and desist letter but that is far from bringing a lawsuit. Further if the SEC or AAC contacted ESPN and asked if it would be possible to renegotiate their contracts if they expanded it would be legal for ESPN to say yes.

 

[pdude81]

Listen, I hear you, but these companies weigh their decisions on the bottom line, not ”doing the right thing”. Unless they’re forced, which in this case, they weren’t. Just go read the Facebook and Twitter comments. More folks are upset about this than not. Disney is about to be sued by Scarlet Johansson, and maybe Emma Stone, and maybe Emily Blunt. Peace and love to everyone on these boards but they lost at least $1000 from me by their decision on masks. And while it may not seem like a lot, it contributes. But I’m also not going to whine about it or put anyone else down with a different opinion, I’m just not going to go. See you when you drop the mandate.

I believe people complain louder than cheer online. Also each of these companies previously said they were following CDC guidelines in their reopening, so it's not crazy for Disney to do so now. I don't fault the others for not following suit, but Disney provided cover should they have chosen to follow.

We are considering cancelling the universal portion of our upcoming trip but I want to see how this plays out in real life with real crowds first.

 

[ElvisMickey]

I believe people complain louder than cheer online. Also each of these companies previously said they were following CDC guidelines in their reopening, so it's not crazy for Disney to do so now. I don't fault the others for not following suit, but Disney provided cover should they have chosen to follow.

We are considering cancelling the universal portion of our upcoming trip but I want to see how this plays out in real life with real crowds first.

Life just kind of sucks right now! I’m chalking it up to that lol! But in all seriousness, the only thing we can do right now is take it day by day. And I’m a planner! So I hate that.

When is your next trip?

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Eh. You could just as easily say Disney is more assertive and comfortable with making an unpopular policy because of how much they value guest safety.

Well they might say that…it’s not true…but PR doesn’t have to be

 

[pdude81]

In the next few weeks. Not a lot of time to decide anything, but we have ap and can stay longer at Disney if need be.