Starting Saturday, visitors to the Universal Orlando Resort will no longer be required to wear masks in most locations outdoors, the resort announced today. Mask use will continue to be mandatory while indoors and while waiting for attractions.
Here is the full statement from Universal Orlando:
The health and safety of our guests and team members is always our top priority. Based on guidance from local government and health officials, effective Saturday, May 15, face coverings for guests are no longer mandatory when outdoors at Universal Orlando. Face coverings will remain required at all indoor locations, including restaurants, shops, and indoor hotel public areas. Face coverings are also required at all attractions from the moment guests enter the queue to when they exit the experience. Based on these updates, guests are still expected to bring a face covering with them for their visit. Social distancing guidelines still apply.
I also have been forwarded some team member communication that Universal has sent to its employees that says that they will still be required to wear face coverings - both indoors and outdoors - while onstage. When in outdoor backstage locations, team members may remove their face covering so long as at least three feet of distancing can be maintained.
Orange County, Florida today announced that 50% of people ages 16 and older in the county have received at least partial vaccination, which was the county's benchmark for lifting mask requirements outdoors. The CDC recently advised that fully vaccinated people do not need to wear masks, either outdoors or inside, but noted that people must abide by local restrictions including those set by private businesses, such as Universal Orlando.
For discounted tickets to Universal Orlando's theme parks, please visit our authorized travel partner's Universal Orlando tickets page.
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Greeter positions just got a bit more challenging.
This summer is going to be a dumpster fire at the theme parks. Too much pent up demand. Too many knuckleheads that live by their own rules. And too many rule changes too soon.
The folks working in the parks are going to have a challenging summer.
I think I'm going to wait until this fall for cooler weather before I go back to the theme parks.
I work in a small-town, small casino in Nevada. Based on the CDC guidelines, the state and the Gaming Control Board have allowed us to not require FULLY vaccinated (as in two weeks from the final dose) to not wear masks. But this has been taken as a free-for-all where almost nobody is wearing them, even if they're not vaccinated.
While I do like not being the mask police anymore and no longer getting yelled at, threated, or worse, and while I am personally fully vaccinated, I'm still wearing my mask until I see how this affects the numbers in our area.
People are so sick of masks that they don't care what the guidance is -- any excuse to not have to wear a small piece of cloth over their mouth and nose has thrown their common sense and any sense of responsibility to their communities (or, in the case of Disney parks, towards their fellow visitors) out the window.
It has been hard enough being the mask police here. I can only imagine how much worse Disney cast members have it, with so many more visitors.
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I feel sorry for my Orlando Team Members. So many entitled guests will find a way to not wear masks at all.