New mask requirements experience on 7/30

[nodnarb518]

Thanks for the tip, I’m not on this board much - usually just news. Just had the convo with my wife yesterday and we agreed that whatever the enforcement is, I hope it normalizes by the time we go in a few weeks

Our family will be there around the same time and i admit im getting a little anxious. Wife and i are both vaccinated but things seemed like they were heading in the right direction when we booked a few months back. See what happens over the next two weeks i guess.

 

[DisneyFive]

Been here three days with the new mask rules. There has always been a cast member in place at a location where you must put your mask on. It’s been clear. They will remind you if you don’t have it on.

Dan

 

[SimonSez]

Been here three days with the new mask rules. There has always been a cast member in place at a location where you must put your mask on. It’s been clear. They will remind you if you don’t have it on.

Dan

As I mentioned up thread, have you noticed the masks coming down after people get well within the queue? Is there a CM further up in the line reminding people to mask up? I've seen during some livestreams in the past couple days, people complying only to slide their masks down after they enter the queue past the CM. For example, we noticed it on Pirates when folks got into the inside part

 

[DisneyFive]

As I mentioned up thread, have you noticed the masks coming down after people get well within the queue? Is there a CM further up in the line reminding people to mask up? I've seen during some livestreams in the past couple days, people complying only to slide their masks down after they enter the queue past the CM. For example, we noticed it on Pirates when folks got into the inside part

Sometimes, but not blatantly so. It’s far from the norm.

Dan

 

[SimonSez]

Sometimes, but not blatantly so. It’s far from the norm.

Dan

Thanks, good to know

 

[Mike Mantis]

Just got back from MK 8/1 and was there from rope drop until 10 pm close.

No sugar coating it, there were tons of people and a totally different experience from early June 2021. Was it the same as a trip from July 2019 or earlier? Absolutely not, but Disney always changes. No trip has ever been the same.

All that said, I was perfectly fine traveling with one other adult and a 9 year old. Masks stunk in the heat at times but I tried my best to follow the guidelines.

The worst crowd times were fireworks and the awful wait for the ferry back to the TTC.

If you have a fear of covid, or dear God are not vaccinated, don’t go.

But it’s not the end of the world, not an awful time, and not an insanely different park experience.

One more MK day on Tuesday.

 

[HeyLori]

July 30 was our final day of a 9 day visit. Huge lines some days, others not so much. Generally went well. On July 30 crowds were way down. Ride operators were quite confused on mask requirements - Speedway required them entering the queue, Haunted Mansion did not require them until door, Big Thunder required them when you hit the physical entry (but still in the sun). Signs on all buildings, including restrooms (although generally ignored there). Water park had signs on buildings and restrooms (also ignored - nobody had a mask with them there anyway). In the outdoor queues probably 20% of people either didn't wear mask or had them off nose and/or mouth. Saw several cases of parents being removed from rides where small kids would not comply. Rides also ran quite a bit slower because of additional step of reminding guests to "properly" wear a mask. Carousel probably took twice as long per cycle due to mask check since there is only one operator.

By the way, we saw maybe 5% of folks wearing masks around the parks. Kids included. Didn't seem to change on July 30, except in the actual rides.

Interesting that while CDC now recommends masks when indoor in parts of the country that are hot spots that Disney would take it upon themselves to add masks. As of yesterday Universal was leaving this up to the guests. Given the heat we had on our trip would likely have cancelled had this happened before we went, rather than the last day.

 

[HeyLori]

July 30 was our final day of a 9 day visit. Huge lines some days, others not so much. Generally went well. On July 30 crowds were way down. Ride operators were quite confused on mask requirements - Speedway required them entering the queue, Haunted Mansion did not require them until door, Big Thunder required them when you hit the physical entry (but still in the sun). Signs on all buildings, including restrooms (although generally ignored there). Water park had signs on buildings and restrooms (also ignored - nobody had a mask with them there anyway). In the outdoor queues probably 20% of people either didn't wear mask or had them off nose and/or mouth. Saw several cases of parents being removed from rides where small kids would not comply. Rides also ran quite a bit slower because of additional step of reminding guests to "properly" wear a mask. Carousel probably took twice as long per cycle due to mask check since there is only one operator.

By the way, we saw maybe 5% of folks wearing masks around the parks. Kids included. Didn't seem to change on July 30, except in the actual rides.

Interesting that while CDC now recommends masks when indoor in parts of the country that are hot spots that Disney would take it upon themselves to add masks. As of yesterday Universal was leaving this up to the guests. Given the heat we had on our trip would likely have cancelled had this happened before we went, rather than the last day.

We were there until 7/29 and maybe 10% of people wore a mask indoors or out. It was a real feel of 102 one of the days and frankly, I personally would not be outside with a. Mask on it that kind of heat. They were very clear the next day at Disney Springs where masks were required and where they weren’t.

 

[ShadowBoxer]

Just heard that Florida had the highest number of cases since the beginning of the pandemic. Are masks going to be mandated?

I saw that too. If you are planning to go this month next month or anytime soon, I would defintely be mindful of this and make the best decisions for you.

 

[ShadowBoxer]

Just wanted to pop in and say if you're a WDW and dealing with crazy crowds and folks being mean and nasty about the mask change, please be kind to Cast Members. They are only doing their jobs and trying to create magic for guests and keep everyone safe. I got a friend who recently started as a cast member at WDW a week ago. Her post on Facebook was sad about how several people berated her for doing her job and remind people about masks indoors. She is a super nice person and doesn't deserve that. She is so upset and is even debating on resigning from working as a cast member. Of course many on her Facebook are encouraging her not to quit (including me). It sucked to see that this morning on my timeline.. .

 

[serenitygr]

Just wanted to pop in and say if you're a WDW and dealing with crazy crowds and folks being mean and nasty about the mask change, please be kind to Cast Members. They are only doing their jobs and trying to create magic for guests and keep everyone safe. I got a friend who recently started as a cast member at WDW a week ago. Her post on Facebook was sad about how several people berated her for doing her job and reminder people about masks indoors. She is a super nice person and doesn't deserve that. She is so upset and is even debating on resigning from working as a cast member. Of course many on her Facebook are encouraging her not to quit (including me). It sucked to see that this morning on my timeline.. .

This is sad not only because the cast members are being made to feel this way, but also because if they start quitting their jobs, things are only going to go even further downhill.

 

[ShadowBoxer]

This is sad not only because the cast members are being made to feel this way, but also because if they start quitting their jobs, things are only going to go even further downhill.

Yes some people can be real jerks and think just because they spent thousands of dollars on a vacation to Disney they own the parks and can do whatever they want.

 

[ars0525]

Went to AK on Saturday. Saw all the mask signage posted everywhere again. CMs were at ride entrances & stores reminding folks.

 

[hvanes]

Just leaving after an amazing week. First 4 days (3 in parks) without masks and the last 3 (all in parks) with. In a few outdoor queues, we were asked to mask up; in others we were not. We simply did as we were asked. It is hard not to wonder why there is some inconsistency (wearing masks in the outdoor TSMM queue but not during fireworks, for example), but it's not worth ruining an otherwise lovely trip over, so we just tried not to dwell on it.

We saw very few people blatantly trying NOT to follow the CM requests. It was a much better situation than I expected. In fact, the only time I saw outright rudeness (vs. occasional sneakiness) was a woman on our bus who didn't even bring one and refused to acknowledge the driver's request to put one on. We all had to sit and wait for her to reluctantly accept the one he offered her before we could leave.

The CMs are direct and straightforward, kind and gracious. We went overboard thanking any CM we saw. I think some of the "amenities" we enjoy are more limited because staffing is limited. We're grateful for every person who shows up to do their job so that we can enjoy our happy place.

On Saturday night at Oga's, our family was put at a table with 3 "young people" (I'm apparently ancient now ), one of whom is a CM in Epcot. She said that guests on Friday, for the most part, were respectful about the re-initiation of masks, but she had one guest who was pretty abusive. That is just totally uncalled for.

I packed a package of 100 disposable masks, just in case. I would never have guessed that we would go through so many in our last 3 days. I wish I had brought our lanyards to hang them around our necks. It beats digging through your bag frantically before entering a queue. Sometimes we wore them on our arms, but that gets gross with as much "glistening" as we do in the FL sun!

Lastly, I must add that Friday (Epcot) and Saturday (DHS) the parks seemed so quiet. Friday evening in the WS for Food and Wine, the crowd was nothing like photos I'd seen. The only country booth where we were more than 3 parties deep was France. Saturday in DHS was almost eerie. Our boys built droids at 6:30 and came out to a ghost town in Batuu. At 7:40 we went to get in line for SDD. On Wed we'd ridden it at park close; the posted time was 100 minutes and it took us 50. On Sat the line was so short that we wondered if it had gone down. Took us under 30 minutes to get on. It was such a sudden and stark contrast to earlier in the week that we wondered if it was related to masks. Maybe folks cancelled reservations because they didn't want to deal with it, or maybe some left earlier because they had mask fatigue after a long, hot day.

I'm happy to try to answer any questions, but I would guess the situation will continue to evolve in the coming days.

 

[MyTwoPrincesses]

Thank you all for posting your experiences. We will be at WDW in a week and a half. We are coming from Maryland - and mask compliance is very high here, as is the vaccination rate. I am vaccinated, as are two of my kids. My youngest is not eligible for the vaccine. After a lot of consideration, we are going ahead with our trip, but my parents are canceling (my mother is immunocompromised and is at the highest risk of a breakthrough infection/more serious illness). Our decision to go depends on mask compliance. It is good to hear that *most* people are following the rules.

 

[ngl]

OPs point about crowd declines is an interesting one. I wonder how much that is driven by locals staying home or switching to universal because they aren’t keen to wear masks in the heat. Seems unlikely there would be a huge drop in out of town guests already since people did not have much time to change travel plans

We live 1 hr from WDW. Many Florida public schools start back up Monday, August 9 (know some private ones that start this week) so assume local crowds declining could be contributing to that.

 

[smwisc]

Sometimes, but not blatantly so. It’s far from the norm.

Dan

Same here. Maybe one or two small parties (within eyesight) at each attraction? There are definitely some, but it's a minority.

 

[Cat0727]

was in WDW for the past week, just got back last night- the last three days I was in Epcot and DHS and everyone I saw was very compliant with the new mask rules, no attitude or anything.

 

[SimonSez]

Just leaving after an amazing week. First 4 days (3 in parks) without masks and the last 3 (all in parks) with. In a few outdoor queues, we were asked to mask up; in others we were not. We simply did as we were asked. It is hard not to wonder why there is some inconsistency (wearing masks in the outdoor TSMM queue but not during fireworks, for example), but it's not worth ruining an otherwise lovely trip over, so we just tried not to dwell on it.

We saw very few people blatantly trying NOT to follow the CM requests. It was a much better situation than I expected. In fact, the only time I saw outright rudeness (vs. occasional sneakiness) was a woman on our bus who didn't even bring one and refused to acknowledge the driver's request to put one on. We all had to sit and wait for her to reluctantly accept the one he offered her before we could leave.

The CMs are direct and straightforward, kind and gracious. We went overboard thanking any CM we saw. I think some of the "amenities" we enjoy are more limited because staffing is limited. We're grateful for every person who shows up to do their job so that we can enjoy our happy place.

On Saturday night at Oga's, our family was put at a table with 3 "young people" (I'm apparently ancient now ), one of whom is a CM in Epcot. She said that guests on Friday, for the most part, were respectful about the re-initiation of masks, but she had one guest who was pretty abusive. That is just totally uncalled for.

I packed a package of 100 disposable masks, just in case. I would never have guessed that we would go through so many in our last 3 days. I wish I had brought our lanyards to hang them around our necks. It beats digging through your bag frantically before entering a queue. Sometimes we wore them on our arms, but that gets gross with as much "glistening" as we do in the FL sun!

Lastly, I must add that Friday (Epcot) and Saturday (DHS) the parks seemed so quiet. Friday evening in the WS for Food and Wine, the crowd was nothing like photos I'd seen. The only country booth where we were more than 3 parties deep was France. Saturday in DHS was almost eerie. Our boys built droids at 6:30 and came out to a ghost town in Batuu. At 7:40 we went to get in line for SDD. On Wed we'd ridden it at park close; the posted time was 100 minutes and it took us 50. On Sat the line was so short that we wondered if it had gone down. Took us under 30 minutes to get on. It was such a sudden and stark contrast to earlier in the week that we wondered if it was related to masks. Maybe folks cancelled reservations because they didn't want to deal with it, or maybe some left earlier because they had mask fatigue after a long, hot day.

I'm happy to try to answer any questions, but I would guess the situation will continue to evolve in the coming days.

Thanks for this update hvanes

 

[PalmettoPath]

Does anyone know if tickets are refundable if health protocols are either too much or not enough for you? I have Boo Bash tickets and was going to buy one day tickets for HWS. We are okay with the current rules, but if masks will be required outside here soon then we would just like to do resort days instead. I know the Boo Bash is non refundable, but what about the one day tickets?

We got our Boo Bash tickets refunded today. We called right at 9:00 a.m. and still had a two-hour wait on the phone. But in the end, they did refund the tickets to our CC without issue. They seem to be understanding about guest covid concerns. We were very appreciative. We are still going to WDW, but we have decided to do our best to avoid crowd situations. That will mean eliminating most park days that we would normally do, and the Boo Bash just didn't make sense any more because what's the point of going if you're trying to avoid crowds and lines. Thankfully we have a VIP Tour booked so that will be our main ride day.