As Daily Kos previously covered, Disney World reopened its Orlando, Florida, location on July 11. The Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom parks reopened that Saturday, with Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios a few days behind on July 15. Mind you, Florida’s coronavirus cases have been surging. Just today, the state reported more than 10,000 new cases.
Even still, Disney’s Florida location reopened with additional safety measures: limiting how many people can enter the park at once, for example; using apps to order food and drinks; and canceling crowd-heavy events, like parades and fireworks. What else? All guests over 2 years old and employees are instructed to wear masks while in the park, with some exceptions. And it seems that those exceptions had to be tightened up because Disney is already updating its new policies, as reported by CNN.
In order to enter the park, you needed to wear a mask—that’s still true today. However, while inside the park, people could remove their masks while actively eating or drinking. People apparently discovered a little loophole in that rule: eating and drinking while walking around, which is, in normal times, a pretty normal way of checking out a theme park. Disney has now reformed its regulations to clarify that while masks can still come off to eat or drink, you’re supposed to stay stationary and maintain social distancing.
“Please bring your own face coverings and wear them at all times, except when dining or swimming. You may remove your face covering while actively eating or drinking, but you should be stationary and maintain appropriate physical distancing,” the updated guidelines read in part.
All of this said, the big question is: Why keep a theme park open at all during a global health crisis? It’s not only Disney, either; other popular tourist spots in the Orlando area, including SeaWorld and Universal Studios, have reopened amid the pandemic already. Disneyland in California is still closed.
While these parks are implementing additional safety measures, the theme park’s opening raises bigger-picture concerns. For example, how many people are traveling to (or even around) Florida because these places are open? Does seeing friends, neighbors, or coworkers going to a theme park send the message that it might actually be safe to go, too? Without significant federal guidance, people are understandably confused about what’s safe and what’s overly strict, and a few months into the pandemic, people are growing restless. The issue of worker rights is, of course, a significant one, comparable to ongoing talks about employee safety in areas where restaurants are offering indoor dining.