Two-and-a-half years after Disney World shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the resort has removed prominent pandemic-era warnings from its website.
Until Monday, the Disney World website had still included a small banner labeled “COVID-19 Warning and Information. The banner said, “An inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present,” and linked to other pages about the resort’s COVID-19 policies. That information is still accessible through a direct link, but the banner is gone.
The now-removed COVID-19 warning from Disney World’s website (Disney)
At the time of writing, a similar COVID-19 banner remains live on the Disneyland Resort website.
Website changes aside, it’s been months since COVID-19 policies at Disney World have been anything but optional recommendations for guests. The resort’s last face mask mandate, which covered monorails and buses, was removed in April. Face masks had been required in all indoor spaces at Disney World from July 2021 to February 2022, a time when nearly all Florida theme parks were largely maskless. Warning signs about COVID-19 exposure within the parks began being removed last month.
Restrictions were more prevalent earlier in the pandemic. When Disney World’s theme parks reopened in July 2020 after a nearly four-month shutdown, masks had to be worn everywhere on property, physical distancing was enforced, capacity was severely limited and all guests had to undergo temperature checks on arrival. While some Orlando area theme parks failed county inspections on COVID-19 restrictions, all of Disney’s parks passed.
President Joe Biden said the pandemic is “over” in comments that aired on CBS’ “60 Minutes” Sunday night. The World Health Organization and many public health experts disagree. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Sept. 14, “We are not there yet, but the end is in sight.”