Disney World Unmasked
Park’s indoor ‘relaxation zones’ raise eyebrows
Disney says it will enforce a strict policy on wearing masks as it prepares to reopen Disney World on Saturday — but there’s a notable exception that’s raising eyebrows.
The Orlando, Fla.-based theme park has designated a handful of “relaxation zones,” where guests are allowed to remove their face coverings — and some of them are indoors.
Disney fan blogs WDW News Today and Inside the Magic revealed the locations tucked away in the Magic Kingdom and at Animal Kingdom. The first mask-free oasis is at Pete’s Silly Sideshow, a dimly lit space sprinkled with round wooden tables inside a tented room at Storybook Circus.
The second is at Pizzafari, a pizza canteen turned maskless sanctuary with a safari theme. The room is adorned with wallpaper of cartoon reptiles and several colorful dining tables. A third location, at the Tomorrowland Terrace Restaurant, is a large, covered, open-air banquet space, known for its dessert buffet during Disney World’s nightly fireworks spectacle.
The indoor, air-conditioned, mask-free areas offer respite from the sweltering summer heat, and Disney notes that tables will be spaced 10 feet apart. Nevertheless, they appear to be flouting the advice of many health experts, who have emphasized the importance of wearing a mask in indoor public spaces as COVID-19 hits record highs in Florida.
A spokeswoman from Disney World confirmed the company’s decision to include indoor, mask-free spaces, telling The Post: “Each park offers at least one indoor location with A/ C,” and that “there is physical distancing and a limited number of guests” allowed.
This week, Disney began phased reopening of both US parks, which have been shuttered since mid-March. Attendees at the reopening of Disneyland’s shopping district on Thursday captured hordes of people standing shoulder to shoulder in stores.
Rich Greenfield, an analyst at research firm LightShed, tweeted photos of crowds from Disney World’s employee day, which served as a soft reopening for the Magic Kingdom.
“This definitely looks like a good idea,” the analyst tweeted sarcastically on Tuesday, before turning to a photo of a crowd waiting to get on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ride. “Looks like Walt Disney World has social distancing nailed @GovDeSantis,” he wrote, tagging Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.