News Disney mask policy at Walt Disney World theme parks

[mkt]

People just waited 7 hours for a popcorn bucket.

Exactly.

I view this every day through my work's internal communications channels. People who are militantly anti-mask are a minority, and it's the same people over and over who are screaming the loudest about it. Most people are pro-mask or just don't care.

If the people who don't want to wear a mask stop going to Disney, guess what, it won't affect Disney: at all.

Every time a group boycotts Disney over something the company did that they disagree with, Disney still came out ahead.

 

[Trauma]

The airlines don't need to attract customers in the same way that Disney does because they all have the same rule and are required to have it by "federal law" (calling it a law is tenuous at best but I'll not go on that tangent). If the federal mandate gets dropped in my lifetime and one of the airlines stops requiring masks, then others won't be so strict because they won't want to lose business to a competitor.

While USO currently has the requirement, I'd expect that they take it away once the Omicron wave passes in a few weeks and they will remove the requirement before WDW does.

It's also about future business. If WDW adopted a 3 strikes rule for improper masking, people who get kicked out are unlikely to return for a future vacation.

That's why they seem to only eject people if they either outright refuse when asked by a CM or if they become combative.

Personally, I will not renew my AP if the rule is still in place in June when my renewal comes up. I could have gone for a quick trip this past week and I didn't because I didn't want to have to wear a mask.

There is no chance the mask mandate is still in place this summer. People will tolerate it because there is a giant wave of new cases. Once this wave has passed this will be declared endemic.

Do you really think the masses are going to be willing to spend $3-$12k to mask under those conditions?

They have the star-cruiser that’s about to open.

How many people want to mask the entire stay on that thing at those prices? You couldn’t pay to me to stay there if I had to mask the whole time.

This will all be changing soon just a little more patience.

 

[Incomudro]

There is no chance the mask mandate is still in place this summer. People will tolerate it because there is a giant wave of new cases. Once this wave has passed this will be declared endemic.

Do you really think the masses are going to be willing to spend $3-$12k to mask under those conditions?

They have the star-cruiser that’s about to open.

How many people want to mask the entire stay on that thing at those prices? You couldn’t pay to me to stay there if I had to mask the whole time.

This will all be changing soon just a little more patience.

Masks virtually everywhere will be dropped soon if this wave of Omicron is the last gasp of covid, and it becomes a background threat from here.
Here's to hoping that's the case, and some new and worse strain doesn't develop.

 

[Touchdown]

While numbers are decreasing in Florida, the 7 day average is still above the delta wave, and 1% of Floridians were just diagnosed with confirmed Covid in the last week. I don’t see any mask rules changing until the last week of February. Things are improving, and that’s great but we’ve got a long way to go. With how fast things are changing, the 7 day average will drop below the delta wave peak later this week, and it will then still be another 2-3 weeks before Florida will drop out of the CDC’s “high spread” level.

 

[SingleRider]

There is no chance the mask mandate is still in place this summer. People will tolerate it because there is a giant wave of new cases. Once this wave has passed this will be declared endemic.

Do you really think the masses are going to be willing to spend $3-$12k to mask under those conditions?

They have the star-cruiser that’s about to open.

How many people want to mask the entire stay on that thing at those prices? You couldn’t pay to me to stay there if I had to mask the whole time.

This will all be changing soon just a little more patience.

Agreed. I bet Disney wants masks gone before Starcruiser opens.

 

[wdisney9000]

What I see are guests clearly ignoring safety restrictions that they agreed to when they booked their reservations and then belittle Cast trying to enforce rules. It is not a surprise, guests are warned several times that these are the current guidelines throughout the booking process and on signs and placards throughout the resort. If guests don’t agree or don’t think they can follow these rules, or any other of the park rules, designed to keep guests and cast safe then they should find somewhere else to visit. These type of guests just wear down the cast and make it harder for cast members to offer great service as they waste energy on people creating unnecessary issues.

Just got home from a 7 day trip trip.

What I saw was CM's who are clearly sick and tired of the mask mandate. Not because guests make their job harder, but because they realize it has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with coddling the minority who get upset if somebody else isn't wearing a mask.

About 90% of the CMs I spoke with said they feel it's stupid. Young and old alike. They all recognize the stupidity of having to wear it indoors unless there is food or drinks in front of you.

*But meh scary charts and graphs say otherwise!! lol.

 

[BuddyThomas]

Just got home from a 7 day trip trip.

What I saw was CM's who are clearly sick and tired of the mask mandate. Not because guests make their job harder, but because they realize it has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with coddling the minority who get upset if somebody else isn't wearing a mask.

About 90% of the CMs I spoke with said they feel it's stupid. Young and old alike. They all recognize the stupidity of having to wear it indoors unless there is food or drinks in front of you.

*But meh scary charts and graphs say otherwise!! lol.

And the CMs are all obviously very well trained epidemiologists, so they know exactly what they are talking about. Just like a lot of people on this website.

 

[castlecake2.0]

I'm all for following the rules when I go to a place - much as I hate masks and believe that much of how they are worn, and under the circumstances they are worn makes their effectiveness questionable at best - I'd where a mask where required at WDW because I'm a polite person who doesn't make scenes and challenge people.
That being said, WDW is not a "safe" place to be if a person is actually concerned about covid.
Dense crowds essentially all day long, but wearing masks indoors?
Hardly a measure of safety, if that's a guests priority.
Those rules are to protect Disney, not the guests.

Right. Regardless of how safe people believe it is or isn’t, those are Disney’s requirements and guests agreed to them when they booked their trip. The greeter at the attraction or the hostess at the gift shop doesn’t care how much they guest believes in their effectiveness.

And the CMs are all obviously very well trained epidemiologists, so they know exactly what they are talking about. Just like a lot of people on this website.

yah Im not even going to respond to that post. What the cast and/or Guest think of the usefulness of masks doesn’t negate that they are required under the current guidelines.

 

[MickeyCB]

Just out of curiosity, as someone who hasn’t been during all this. I’ve heard rumors that the cast members have gotten to the point of not caring if someone is following the mask rules or not. (Cant say I blame them for being fatigued, not really in their job description). My question is does this seem to be the case? We are going the first week of May and I expect mask mandates probably to have been removed by then but curious what you guys have seen lately? Thanks.

In October, only indoor masks were required. There were some signs as reminders, but I didn't see CMs approach or admonish anyone. Once again, compliance with the indoor requirement was high, so there wasn't much need to enforce it. There were several times when people in restaurants forgot to put on masks when leaving.

In response to the above, we were there this past October and while I am a rabid supporter of masks, vaccines etc., I kept forgetting to put my mask on stepping inside buildings. And each time I was greeted by an unsmiling CM who had to remind me to put it on. I was embarrassed I needed to be reminded and could tell they had just had it with perceived non compliant guests.

And unrelated to my response above-after reading all of the pages in this thread my only comment is, when did some people become experts on everything?
I do not know how to train dogs, I do not know how to put out fires, heck I'm a recently retired internist and admit I don't know how to take out your gallbladder.
It wasn't too long ago that most people weren't know it alls and were willing to defer to someone else's expertise.
I could take care of your blood pressure but had to take my car to the mechanic when it started to make an annoying sound.

The current scariest words/phrases during this pandemic are--my opinion, I believe, I feel...
I wanted to believe that the brakes on my car weren't about to fail, but my mechanic told me otherwise.

 

[Chi84]

The current scariest words/phrases during this pandemic are--my opinion, I believe, I feel...

“I did my own research.”

 

[MickeyCB]

“I did my own research.”

How could I have forgot that one?!

 

[fgmnt]

Just got home from a 7 day trip trip.

What I saw was CM's who are clearly sick and tired of the mask mandate. Not because guests make their job harder, but because they realize it has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with coddling the minority who get upset if somebody else isn't wearing a mask.

About 90% of the CMs I spoke with said they feel it's stupid. Young and old alike. They all recognize the stupidity of having to wear it indoors unless there is food or drinks in front of you.

*But meh scary charts and graphs say otherwise!! lol.

It's a shame you are wasting your enhanced mind reading powers and superhuman empathy on a web forum instead of finding a way to change the world for the better or at least making yourself fabulously wealthy.

 

[mkt]

About 90% of the CMs I spoke with said they feel it's stupid.

I'm surprised you got 1 CM, let alone 90% of the ones you spoke to to say the that phrase.

I'm also impressed you were able to keep such clear statistics during a weeklong vacation.

 

[mkt]

And the CMs are all obviously very well trained epidemiologists, so they know exactly what they are talking about.

I mean Disney did raise their hiring standards. For a while I thought all that meant was that they finally started doing background checks to scare the diddlers away, but no - it meant that they now only hire trained epidemiologists.

 

[TikibirdLand]

I'm surprised you got 1 CM, let alone 90% of the ones you spoke to to say the that phrase.

I'm also impressed you were able to keep such clear statistics during a weeklong vacation.

Well, it is a fact that 37% of all statistics are made up...

While in college, I attended a seminar titled, How to Lie with Statistics. Most fun I had in school!

 

[mkt]

While in college, I attended a seminar titled, How to Lie with Statistics. Most fun I had in school!

poli-sci?

 

[TikibirdLand]

poli-sci?

Math & CompSci

 

[Incomudro]

In response to the above, we were there this past October and while I am a rabid supporter of masks, vaccines etc., I kept forgetting to put my mask on stepping inside buildings. And each time I was greeted by an unsmiling CM who had to remind me to put it on. I was embarrassed I needed to be reminded and could tell they had just had it with perceived non compliant guests.

And unrelated to my response above-after reading all of the pages in this thread my only comment is, when did some people become experts on everything?
I do not know how to train dogs, I do not know how to put out fires, heck I'm a recently retired internist and admit I don't know how to take out your gallbladder.
It wasn't too long ago that most people weren't know it alls and were willing to defer to someone else's expertise.
I could take care of your blood pressure but had to take my car to the mechanic when it started to make an annoying sound.

The current scariest words/phrases during this pandemic are--my opinion, I believe, I feel...
I wanted to believe that the brakes on my car weren't about to fail, but my mechanic told me otherwise.

What if your mechanic scammed you?

 

[larryz]

In response to the above, we were there this past October and while I am a rabid supporter of masks, vaccines etc., I kept forgetting to put my mask on stepping inside buildings. And each time I was greeted by an unsmiling CM who had to remind me to put it on. I was embarrassed I needed to be reminded and could tell they had just had it with perceived non compliant guests.

And unrelated to my response above-after reading all of the pages in this thread my only comment is, when did some people become experts on everything?
I do not know how to train dogs, I do not know how to put out fires, heck I'm a recently retired internist and admit I don't know how to take out your gallbladder.
It wasn't too long ago that most people weren't know it alls and were willing to defer to someone else's expertise.
I could take care of your blood pressure but had to take my car to the mechanic when it started to make an annoying sound.

The current scariest words/phrases during this pandemic are--my opinion, I believe, I feel...
I wanted to believe that the brakes on my car weren't about to fail, but my mechanic told me otherwise.

I believe you're right! At least, that's how I feel.

 

[larryz]

What if your mechanic scammed you?

Then he'd have safe brakes for another two years or so.