Will WDW lift mask mandate?

[mitsukoshi samurai]

Universal also lets you remove masks for pictures.

A lot of the schools in my area switched their senior trips to universal with one day at Disney. It’s usually 4 days at Disney and one day at universal. They said Disney wouldn’t accommodate them.

Plus no reservations required at hogwarts

 

[marikujawa]

Since that site isn't allowed, here's one that is: Disney CEO: We Expect to Remove Theme Park Mask Mandate, Social Distancing in 2022

I hope people will actually read the article, or better yet, listen to the interview. He did say that under current conditions they expect to have some measure of social distancing and masking until the end of the year (unclear if he was talking fiscal year since the call was about earnings), but that if the vaccines were highly successful, it would be a "game-changer." No definite statements were made, at least not to the extent that are being reported.

 

[Eric Smith]

Eh, I’m not sure that’s going to matter enough for Disney to pull mask restrictions. The parks are just one part of a massive empire and at this point they have shown that they would rather err on the side of caution, even if that comes at the expense of park revenues, which I think is probably the right move. Disney has a bunch of other revenue streams to rely on, particularly Disney+ at the moment, but they also know they could face consequences if the parks become a transmission vector for Covid that other companies like US or Sea World wouldn’t.

Also, unlike a lot of the other parks, Disney has the ability to eat losses for longer because they have other ways of making money. The parks were essentially money making machines pre-covid and I think Disney would rather take the hit now so there isn’t any event that could prevent the parks from returning to that once things get back to normal. Sure, they might lose a marginal amount of business to the other Florida parks for they remain more strict, but they know that WDW is a valuable brand worth protecting in the long-term. They aren’t going to throw that away for one year of lost revenue on the parks, especially when they have other revenue streams.

The parks were also close to breaking even in the last quarter. I'd expect that they'll at least break even once Disneyland reopens.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

View attachment 561221

The airport is the most utterly ridiculous thing. The first time I flew since covid I was LOL that we had to social distance while boarding but then all sit next to each other. Really?

 

[Eric Smith]

View attachment 561221

The plane is HEPA filtered and cycles all the air in the cabin every 2 minutes. The airport does neither of these things. Engineers from Boeing looked at this problem back when the pandemic started. they determined that seating next to a person with both of you masked on the plane is the same as being 80 feet apart outdoors unmasked.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

The plane is HEPA filtered and cycles all the air in the cabin every 2 minutes. The airport does neither of these things. Engineers from Boeing looked at this problem back when the pandemic started. they determined that seating next to a person with both of you masked on the plane is the same as being 80 feet apart outdoors unmasked.

We were ON the plane boarding and finding our seats and putting our bags away and they were telling us to maintain social distancing until we were seated. Maybe it was just my flight but they went on and on (the flight attendants).

 

[Weedy]

From a Orlando news station
https://www.wftv.com/news/local/ora...-not-anytime-soon/VTHN6OGQGJFSHB4VBYUBL7OABY/

 

[Childs1stTime2Disney]

Orange County is starting to sound like they will lift their mask mandate in the coming weeks. Although Florida never had a statewide mandate, most minicipalities required some sort of covering. But those are starting to be lifted all over the state.

Without getting into the personal philosophy of mask usage, vaccine politics or COVID in general, when do you think WDW follow suit? Will they stop the requirement as soon as Orange County does, or will they wait a few more weeks? Or will they require masks into the summer or beyond?

The same thing with attendance and line distancing? If Florida lifts all restrictions, and Orange County does the same, how long will it take before Disney gets back to its normal operating procedures?

I think they'll be more conservative than the county, so maybe another week or two after OC for masks, and then attendance creeps back up through June, with full attendance in July. If that's the case, they'll start talking about the return of FPs at the end of March, with availability starting in June.

I also think they'll reconsider getting rid of DME. A lot of decisions/speculation was made becuase we thought some degree of COVID adaptationw as going to go on forever. While that might have been the smart way to think in September, I think the country is going to be fundamentally restriction free by the end of July, and instead of this being something that changes the world forever, it will be a bad, horrible, disastrous memory that people will be anxious to move past as quickly as they can.

I suspect Disney will lift it by the 50th anniversary or possibly even the summer. I think between vaccine rollout and seasonal lows of the virus they will lift it.

 

[Childs1stTime2Disney]

I don't think the mask mandate will be lifted until everyone has a chance to get vaccinated. And even then I think they'll likely encourage masks for anyone who is unable or unwilling to get the vaccine.

They are saying now with the rollout of the J&J vaccine, everyone should be able to be vaccinated by end of May.

 

[Childs1stTime2Disney]

So do most of you feel that masks will be necessary (and required) even AFTER all have an opportunity to get vaccinated (notice I didn't say 'all are vaccinated' because many appear to oppose getting the vaccine)?

I think once all adults have the opportunity to be vaccinated, it should be lifted.

 

[mdonald]

Orange County is starting to sound like they will lift their mask mandate in the coming weeks. Although Florida never had a statewide mandate, most minicipalities required some sort of covering. But those are starting to be lifted all over the state.

Without getting into the personal philosophy of mask usage, vaccine politics or COVID in general, when do you think WDW follow suit? Will they stop the requirement as soon as Orange County does, or will they wait a few more weeks? Or will they require masks into the summer or beyond?

The same thing with attendance and line distancing? If Florida lifts all restrictions, and Orange County does the same, how long will it take before Disney gets back to its normal operating procedures?

I think they'll be more conservative than the county, so maybe another week or two after OC for masks, and then attendance creeps back up through June, with full attendance in July. If that's the case, they'll start talking about the return of FPs at the end of March, with availability starting in June.

I also think they'll reconsider getting rid of DME. A lot of decisions/speculation was made becuase we thought some degree of COVID adaptationw as going to go on forever. While that might have been the smart way to think in September, I think the country is going to be fundamentally restriction free by the end of July, and instead of this being something that changes the world forever, it will be a bad, horrible, disastrous memory that people will be anxious to move past as quickly as they can.

Great question! I could see option the summer with “heard” immunity being reach by summer. I think the whole answer hinges on “do vaccinated people spread the virus”...which we will know soon hopefully. I think Things will look much clearer in May.

 

[AvidDisReader]

Great question! I could see option the summer with “heard” immunity being reach by summer. I think the whole answer hinges on “do vaccinated people spread the virus”...which we will know soon hopefully. I think Things will look much clearer in May.

A recent Pfizer study showed that vaccinated people do NOT spread the disease. If memory serves me, they stated 93% accuracy. Testing will continue and we will be getting periodic updates. But as of now, this is very good news.

 

[dreamer17555]

I think a lot hinges on the variants, especially since J&J is not helpful with at least one major one. (I will clarify to say it’s less than 60% effective for the SA variant)

Having enough doses doesn’t mean they’ve actually been able to vaccinate everyone. That’s just going to take time. Also I’m going to continue to point out the fact that there is no vaccine currently approved for children under the age of 16 which is a big portion of Disney’s guests.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

I think a lot hinges on the variants, especially since J&J is not helpful with at least one major one.

Which variant? Everything I've read about J&J has shown that it does offer protection against the known variants.

 

[LSUmiss]

The airport is the most utterly ridiculous thing. The first time I flew since covid I was LOL that we had to social distance while boarding but then all sit next to each other. Really?

I just went to Gatlinburg & they packed us in like sardines in an aerial tram, but when got there lines were long due to social distancing. It was beyond ridiculous.

 

[dreamer17555]

Which variant? Everything I've read about J&J has shown that it does offer protection against the known variants.

The South African one. It is below 60% effective- better than AZs but still concerning.

 

[LSUmiss]

Just read new cdc guidance says fully vaccinated ppl can gather without masks. So I would think that when vaccines are widely available that mask mandates will be relaxed.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

Just my opinion, I think lifting of mandates (for places not itching to drop them prematurely) is not going to be directly related to who can get vaccinated and when. I think it will be related to the results of the vaccines, and a result of the hopefully massive drop in case numbers.

Dropping restrictions because people can get vaccinated, and dropping restrictions because we are seeing major results of said vaccinations may sound similar but are quite different IMO. Especially because of the under 16s, even when everyone can be vaccinated a large chunk of Disney guests cannot actually be vaccinated. Disney also has the international factor to consider, that there may be a point in time where international guests come back with some frequency before vaccinations are widely available in their countries.

As they have been for the past year, I think Disney is going to be way more cautious than many think they should be. This pushback and claims of never going back until _____ has happened each step of the way.

 

[dreamer17555]

.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

The plane is HEPA filtered and cycles all the air in the cabin every 2 minutes. The airport does neither of these things. Engineers from Boeing looked at this problem back when the pandemic started. they determined that seating next to a person with both of you masked on the plane is the same as being 80 feet apart outdoors unmasked.

Engineers from Boeing designed the 737Max, so there's that.