No More Masks In Orange County. Is Disney Next?
Mayor Jerry Demings made an announcement on Friday morning in reference to mask requirements in the county. Along with dropping the local state of emergency in Orange County, he stated that the mask mandates and social distancing requirements would be lifted by Saturday, June 5th, 2021. This comes as a result of the county’s successful management of COVID-19 and as it reaches milestones that have been set as part of the Mayor’s phased plan to scale back health and safety guidelines. Ultimately, the positivity rate combined with the vaccination rate has made this possible.
In the past months, changes in local and federal guidance have impacted the way Walt Disney World [as well as other theme parks in the area] have operated. We saw this just a few weeks ago when Walt Disney World changed their face covering policy, no longer requiring them in most outdoor areas and we’re seeing it again. This announcement has brought on another minor change to the Walt Disney World face covering policy regarding theaters. Previously, face coverings were required in “all theaters”, but now are only required in “all indoor theaters”.
Adjustments to Walt Disney World’s face covering policy aren’t the only thing that has been happening around the Walt Disney World Resort since the announcement. Guests have also been noticing increased capacity at indoor dining locations, such as The Land pavilion at EPCOT. These changes are to be expected not only with the relaxing of health and safety protocols, but also with the increase of park capacity by Walt Disney World. After all, more quests means more people to accommodate and one are where that has absolutely been necessary is with dining locations; especially quick service.
If all of these adjustments and changes are giving you whiplash, you’re not alone. The changes happening at Walt Disney World have been happening so quickly and without notice that it can be difficult to keep up. That said, the fact that they happen at all are a good sign, as far as we are concerned. Though the may be minor at times and might not make sense at others, it’s often the small adjustments that lead to the big changes.
Whether or not Walt Disney World will follow other area theme parks and remove the requirements for face coverings altogether is still yet to be seen. Though some are hopeful that the requirements for masks will be dropped soon, others thing that we might still be hanging onto them for a while.
Personally, I’m not sure what to expect when it comes to face covering policies at Walt Disney World moving forward. On one hand, I think that there’s a very real chance that they will drop the requirement before the summer heat. However, I can absolutely see how they would keep it around for a while for a multitude of reasons; especially preventing any sort of health or safety reasoning and/or hesitancy that might lead to a bumpy launch of Disney Cruise Line.
Of course, we’ll have to wait and see. What do you think will happen in terms of face covering policies at Walt Disney World moving forward? Do you think they will follow the lead of other theme parks in the area of pave their own path? Let us know what your thoughts are in a comment down below.