News Disney mask policy at Walt Disney World theme parks

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Andrew C

You know what's funny?
So now Pfizer says their new pill reduces hospitalizations by 90%.

Sorry, as fully vaccinated person your going to have a even harder time convincing me to mask up.

Adults and children have the tools to protect themselves, if they choose not to use them that’s on them.
Yeah. Really at this point, it is about giving the younglings the opportunity to be vaccinated and then put ourselves in a position where we will not overwhelm hospitals moving forward (even during the delta surge, hospitals fared a lot better than the winter surge). Once those two items are locked in, probably by spring at the latest...what is the next excuse?
 

ABQ

Well-Known Member
Oddly, the anti-vaxx crowd will likely have no issues taking this pill if they get sick, even though its development was just as "rushed" as the vaccine's. For whatever reason a pill doesn't carry the same stigma with these people as the shot does.
The majority of the anti vax people have the belief that they will not get covid in the first place or that if they do, it's no big deal. That is why many of them aren't taking the vaccine as they think it's unnecessary in the first place. I'm not saying I agree with them at all, heck I've already gotten my booster.
 

Tom P.

Well-Known Member
I’m not implying that your a maskhole at all, I know you’re not, but maybe masks should be the new norm. There will always be a new threat and a new virus on the horizon, our lifetimes and definitely our kids lifetimes - multiple times over for them. Why not stop it before it starts? Masks do nothing to our mobility, lock downs do. Masks keep us safe yet agile. I’d rather mask up then be subjected to a lock down. I won’t ever wear 2 or 3 masks, but I will wear one to stop the spread, especially when something comes along that we have no answer (vaccination) for. Masks are a visible form of prevention, a vaxx card we can all see. Masks make it all easier, no vaxx status checks, no fights in restaurants, just an agreeable form of spread reduction.
No. And it's not agreeable. Not even remotely.
 

CaptainAmerica

Premium Member
Masks are a visible form of prevention, a vaxx card we can all see.
But they're not though.

Vaccines are so much more effective than masks that lumping them into the same category of "form of prevention" is counter-productive.

It's like... If someone eats three pounds of bacon every morning and a small piece of candy every night after dinner, and we try to convince them to lose weight by cutting out the candy. Yeah, technically it would KIND OF help... a little. But it's not really the problem. And constantly nagging people about the candy is going to make them turned off by our messaging entirely, so they become even less likely to listen to us about the bacon. "Stop eating the bacon and you can continue to eat your one small piece of candy" is much more effective messaging.
 

DisneyCane

Well-Known Member
I get all that and I would love to never carry a mask again myself, but masks may never go away. Masks are better than lock downs

I’m not implying that your a maskhole at all, I know you’re not, but maybe masks should be the new norm. There will always be a new threat and a new virus on the horizon, our lifetimes and definitely our kids lifetimes - multiple times over for them. Why not stop it before it starts? Masks do nothing to our mobility, lock downs do. Masks keep us safe yet agile. I’d rather mask up then be subjected to a lock down. I won’t ever wear 2 or 3 masks, but I will wear one to stop the spread, especially when something comes along that we have no answer (vaccination) for. Masks are a visible form of prevention, a vaxx card we can all see. Masks make it all easier, no vaxx status checks, no fights in restaurants, just an agreeable form of spread reduction.
Masks should absolutely not be the new norm. They are not comfortable for many to wear and they reduce the enjoyment level of things like going to a theme park.

I wish they did as much to "keep us safe" as you think they do.
 

sullyinMT

Well-Known Member
No. And it's not agreeable. Not even remotely.
Seriously. I wear mine for my own psychological benefit, but my maskless summer 2020 was glorious. Can’t wait for those time again.

Thinking that mandating masks into normalcy is good for society in the absence of a pandemic isn’t rooted in reality. The only way I would be happy to see them “normalized” is losing reactions to them going forward.
 

Zummi Gummi

Pioneering the Universe Within!
HUH? did I miss something?
Only thing I can think of is that the latest DOH/CDC report that's due to come out this afternoon will push Orange County down to the moderate level of transmission, which might give them the justification to lift the mandate?

Just a thought.
 

Trauma

Well-Known Member
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrowwwww
Shining at the end of everydayyyy
No more masking announcement to followwww
So I will start to throw my masks awayyyyy
*clap* *clap* *clap* *clap*
Is this speculation, insider info or a funny song?

Maybe it’s all three?
 

drnilescrane

Well-Known Member
Only thing I can think of is that the latest DOH/CDC report that's due to come out this afternoon will push Orange County down to the moderate level of transmission, which might give them the justification to lift the mandate?

Just a thought.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I bet the rumors had some merit - they had every intention of doing it last Friday but the numbers came in just a tad too high. They only publish once a week and decided for PR reasons it was better to wait the extra week to reach the CDC tier.

Problem then is Disneyland - Maybe they do both for the sake of consistency and hope people don't notice the difference in case rates, or maybe they figure it's less of an economic issue at DLR and wait it out.

Outside of the western US I've noticed attitudes shifting a tad - Apple today has dropped masking in a lot of their stores, the governor of Colorado (a Democrat) has said it's your own fault for not being vaccinated and he's not going to mandate masking.

I think the major fear at the CDC and in the western US right now is winter. If that ends up being mild, and approval ratings still in the toilet, I think guidance may change again.
 
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Ayla

Well-Known Member
Just my random thoughts on this past October trip.

Masks really are the least of the issues due to Covid that affected this trip - at least to us. It was hot/humid while we were there, but still didn't really cause any aggravation for us.

What was noticeable was lack of merchandise due to pandemic (for a lot of stuff, we were told supply issues), lack of the wine I like (I fully understand that may only be a concern to me :D) - again, supply issues, and for me, it really was kind of weird to only be able to take a picture with Mickey while he's standing 6 or more feet behind me. 😂
Also, a lot of restaurants still have reduced menu options.
And we had horrid bus service. Not sure if it's pandemic related, but waits were 30 or more minutes every time we left a park. It was bad.
And darn it, I miss real menus!
And it was weird to have to take out our own trash. Maybe just give the rooms bigger trash cans at this point if it's going to continue?
Also, mobile ordering. I didn't know I should click "prepare my order" 30 minutes before we were ready to eat...a lot of time waiting for food because we didn't know how long the wait would be. 40 minutes for our corn dog nugget order. I wish they would go back to giving the option - wait in line or mobile order.

So when they drop masks, I hope people who were staying away due to pandemic issues realize those issues will still be there.

With all that said, we still enjoyed ourselves!
Mobile order was problematic on our trip, too.
 

Trauma

Well-Known Member
"According to BlogMickey.com sources, face masks will no longer be mandatory for fully vaccinated Cast Members indoors beginning November 8th. Cast Members will still be required to wear face masks indoors when they are considered “on stage” – in guest-facing roles."


So this is the big announcement?

Great news for the cast members.

Sounds like no plans to alter the mandate for guests.
 

mikejs78

Premium Member
We picked Universal at Christmas over this. I want to give the wife and kids a normal vacation. We won’t be back at WDW until April. Surely no masks by then!!!
I'll be going in April (four-time postponed trim) for the first time since May 2019 (for myself) and Feb 2019 (for the family). What I really want before April is my 4-year old fully vaxxed. My 11 year old will be by Christmas; as long as my four year old can get his first shot by mid-March, we'll be cool.
 

mikejs78

Premium Member


Cases nationally already seem to be starting to tick up. To the extent that’s something Disney watches, maybe changes aren’t imminent.


However cases in the Southeast continue to decline. Now, I hope WDW keeps the indoor mask requirement until the US drops to 5 cases per 100k. Wearing a mask inside at Disney is easy given the temperature they keep the stores at.

There are 8 states in the US where the rates are climbing. That's what's driving the uptick. Hopefully once the delta passes through them the numbers will plateau or drop back off.

There's also this piece of news this AM. If Phizer's and Merk's pill are authorized by say January, we'll have two pills to treat COVID and all but stop hospitalizations and deaths, vaccines for everyone above 5 years of age, and by early 2022 we'll have well over 201M people fully vaccinated. There should be NO reason to have any covid measures say after March at the earliest. All that SHOULD put life back to as close to normal as we can get it pre pandemic.


I don't think we can say that Flordia/the South is out of the woods quite yet. Florida has been on a 2-months-on, 2-months off trend for a while now.

June-August, 2020 - wave
August-October, 2020 - lull
October 2020-February 2021 - wave
February 2021 - April 2021 - lull
April-May 2021 - small wave
May-July 2021 - lull
July-Sept 2021 - wave
Sept-???? 2021 - lull

By this calendar, we should expect another rise in late Nov/early December in Florida. If we get into December with no rise, we may be at the end of this mess....


So Pfizer says their new pill reduces hospitalizations by 90%.

Sorry, as fully vaccinated person your going to have a even harder time convincing me to mask up.

Adults and children have the tools to protect themselves, if they choose not to use them that’s on them.

But they're not though.

Vaccines are so much more effective than masks that lumping them into the same category of "form of prevention" is counter-productive.

It's like... If someone eats three pounds of bacon every morning and a small piece of candy every night after dinner, and we try to convince them to lose weight by cutting out the candy. Yeah, technically it would KIND OF help... a little. But it's not really the problem. And constantly nagging people about the candy is going to make them turned off by our messaging entirely, so they become even less likely to listen to us about the bacon. "Stop eating the bacon and you can continue to eat your one small piece of candy" is much more effective messaging.

This pill is a potential game changer (though not approved yet). Between this and the vaccines, the pandemic could very well be over... Vaccines are still the best line of defense, but these are a great second layer of protection. Once this pill is approved, assuming we don't have a vaccine-busting varient, I think we'll be able to declare this pandemic over and end the need for masking/social distancing /etc. Although I really wish they'd accelerate the timeline for the <5 crowd...
 

Unbanshee

Well-Known Member
So this is the big announcement?

Great news for the cast members.

Sounds like no plans to alter the mandate for guests.

I thought Disney made policy changes closer to the close of Wall Street. Perhaps there is a guest aspect to this later?
 

drnilescrane

Well-Known Member
I thought Disney made policy changes closer to the close of Wall Street. Perhaps there is a guest aspect to this later?

Yeah, that's my read. HR policy is naturally going to come from a different place to guest policy.

Also, last time there was a good 2 or so week lag between guests taking off masks onstage and CMs being allowed to.
 
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