Parks drop outdoor mask mandate

Guests at Disney World, Universal, SeaWorld won’t be required to wear face coverings outside

Universal Orlando, Disney World and SeaWorld made wearing masks optional beginning Saturday for guests when they are outside, ending a major COVID-19 restriction and sparking both praise and concerns from theme park fans.

Kolby Urban, a St. Cloud resident who holds annual passes to all three parks, had been waiting for the parks to change their rules, he told the Orlando Sentinel.

Masks are certainly do able but not comfortable, he said.

“I would equate [a mask] with having an extra T-shirt wrapped around your head,” Urban said. “It’s an extra layer of cloth or clothing that makes it more uncomfortable in the humid, hot Florida summer.”

But California-based theme parks reporter Carlye Wisel said she was worried the changes are coming too swiftly with employees given little time to prepare.

“Guests on property right now will enter a different park than they left today, and employees were just given so little notice on this that many who will work tomorrow morning’s shift — the very first maskless one — could BE ASLEEP and not even know this massive update, which is BEYOND unfair,” Wisel wrote on Instagram.

Universal Orlando was the first to reveal it was dropping the outdoor mask requirement Friday evening. Disney and SeaWorld soon followed suit with announcements of their