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Disney Parks, Experiences and Products Chairman Josh D’Amaro announced on Tuesday that Disney properties were making changes and “creating a place where everyone is welcome.” D’Amaro said the company had, starting in 2019, engaged employees and come up with a new guiding principle: Inclusion. D’Amaro wrote in a blog post, “Every Disney Parks cast member is familiar with our longstanding tradition of The Four Keys – Safety, Courtesy, Show and Efficiency – which have guided our approach to guest service for more than 65 years.” He announced that “Inclusion” would become the Fifth Key which, along with the others will...

Happy to learn that Disneyland in CA will open in April 30. As a Floridian, I am proud that Disney World has been open for many, many months.— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) March 17, 2021

The ability to 'keep on believing' is an important lesson during these difficult times. Yet, ultimately, masks can’t hide our dreams and wishes.I learned an important lesson during three days at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, EPCOT, and Magic Kingdom last week: Masks are not magical. Yes, every guest to Walt Disney World is required to wear a mask (I had to wear a traditional surgical mask until spending $8.99 on a lovely Minnie-themed mask). Every guest we saw — from children tucked into their strollers to seven-year-olds dressed up as Snow White — wore masks. Cast members operating the rides, serving...

Disney World has closed a mask loophole, banning park visitors from eating and drinking while they walk as a means to encourage attendees to wear masks. “Face coverings are required for all Guests (ages 2 and up) and Cast Members,” reads Disney World’s official policy. “Please bring your own face coverings and wear them at all times, except when dining or swimming.” The policy only allows eating and drinking as long as guests remove their masks while standing still and socially distant from others. “You may remove your face covering while actively eating or drinking, but you should be stationary...

My daughter was visiting Florida from Mass....she was furlowed from Disney but still has not been layed off...she works from home...so I had to go,.. Did not go to the park but went to Disney Springs... From what I can see Disney is going to have a long up hill battle.. Good for the the locals who have season passes and want to go for rides and leave..Lines are short... THE resort was open but nothing else...no food except pizza and deli items. The Boardwalk was dead... Disney Springs had people but maybe 5%...a lot of the stores were closed.....

Following months of closing its gates to visitors due to the coronavirus pandemic, Disney World reopened in Orlando, Florida, on Saturday to mixed reactions. Some seemed thrilled on social media that the Happiest Place on Earth was open again, while others were panicked about what this could mean for the spread of COVID-19. The reopening comes as cases of the virus continue to spike in Florida — the state saw a record 15,283 new cases on Saturday, according to data shared by the Florida Department of Health. In Orange County, where Disney World is located, there were 8,672 confirmed COVID-19...

Park was set to reopen on July 17, but no new date was announced Disney said on Wednesday it will delay the reopening of its Disneyland resort and theme park and did not offer up a new date. “The State of California has now indicated that it will not issue theme park reopening guidelines until sometime after July 4. Given the time required for us to bring thousands of cast members back to work and restart our business, we have no choice but to delay the reopening of our theme parks and resort hotels until we receive approval from government...

Disney fans are hoping one of the most popular rides will get a redo. Splash Mountain, a ride inspired by the film “Song of the South,” is a major attraction at both Walt Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in California. “Song of the South” is a 1946 film considered by many to be the studio’s most racist, criticized for its stereotypes of black people and its apparent nostalgic view of the antebellum South. The film is best known for the song “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah.” Several petitions have popped up recently, CNN reports, calling for Disney to remove all mentions of the...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - A Florida man is charged with providing material support to the Islamic State extremist group, including attempting to buy multiple weapons and scouting potential targets for an attack in the Tampa Bay area, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. A criminal complaint charges Muhammed Momtaz Al-Azhari, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen, with attempting to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. The charge carries a potential 20-year prison term. **SNIP** According to the affidavit, Al-Azhari scouted a number of targets in the Tampa Bay region, including beaches, parks and even the Tampa FBI field...

One Walt Disney World attraction just became a little too immersive for riders. Around midday on Thursday, one of the boats used in the classic Jungle Cruise ride at the Orlando theme park started sinking while filled with passengers. Witnesses documented the mishap on social media, showing guests still standing inside the boat as the murky water slowly rose around their legs. All those on board were safely rescued, but later images captured the vessel nearly completely submerged, its canopy roof still visible and what appears to be a lone park employee on board. “Our boat on the jungle cruise...

When Dave Cassidy was asked to help a group of women train for the 2010 Walt Disney World Half Marathon, he readily accepted. Cassidy worked in the sports rehabilitation department at what was then Florida Hospital, but he likely never had done something like this before. Neither had the women, nearly 20 in all, competitive to their core but with little experience running, much less that far. "He really became the center of why we were there,'' said Kari Conley, one of the runners. "I don’t know if we could have achieved it without him.'' Cassidy helped 16 of the...

You’re not supposed to see them like this, their polyester prince costumes unbuttoned and backpacks hanging from the shoulders of their colonial period dresses. Flip flops on, lunch boxes in hand, legions of workers stream into an employee parking lot at Walt Disney World, weary from another shift of making magic at the world’s busiest theme park. This is the place where the pixie dust loses its sparkle. It’s where the low-wage workers who power Orlando’s tourism machine leave the attractions, hotels and eateries and fade into a community that doesn’t have enough affordable housing, public transportation or opportunities in...

The Baldwin family was feeling the Christmas spirit at the Epcot’s Candlelight Processional as the choir sang and celebrity guest soap star Susan Lucci read the nativity story. “I turned to my husband [Claude] and I said, 'Aren’t you glad you came? And he said, ‘I just had a really great time,’" said Emma Jean Baldwin, according to court transcripts. “And that is when ... all hell just broke loose.” Claude Baldwin, then 74, said he was attacked by a teenage boy and injured at the end of the show on Dec. 22, 2011. However, the boy’s family argued it...

This is the craziest fight yet — men beating women, women slapping men — while out for a fun day at Disneyland with the children. A family went to Disneyland with the children and then got into a violent brawl in front of the children. The men and women were slapping and punching each other. This is absolutely nuts. The poor children. Several people tried to intervene during the four minutes of mayhem, with a Disneyland janitor being the first park employee to try to break up the violence. The Anaheim police were called when Disney security couldn’t stop these...

Starting in May, the only smoke coming out of Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom will be from the fireworks. Disney announced on Thursday that it is banning smoking, vaping, and stroller wagons in Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Disney water parks, and the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, effective May 1. There will be designated smoking areas outside of the entrances, and smoking visitors will be able to return to their park once they are finished, a Disney spokesperson told the Orlando Sentinel. Dennis Speigel, president of International Theme Park Services, said it's "about time" smoking was banned at Disney...

The case was reported on January 24... The Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Review is Walt Disney World’s longest-running dinner show. Nestled in Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground, guests dine on an all-you-care-to-eat selection of fried chicken, smoked barbecue pork ribs, baked beans, tossed green salad, cornbread, and strawberry shortcake. This isn’t the first health scare to hit a Walt Disney World restaurant. Back in November, guests at Morimoto Asia at Disney Springs were exposed to Hepatitis A and were asked to get vaccinated as a precaution.

Turkish autocrat Recep Tayyip Erdogan is coming to Washington, DC, on May 16 loaded for bear.  He has an ambitious agenda and apparently feels he can achieve it all because he holds “trump” cards against the President of the United States. Erdogan and his proxies have publicly said they want to convince the United States to jettison its budding alliance with the Syrian Democratic Union (PYD) and its armed wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Kurdish group that has become the tip of the spear in the fight against ISIS in Syria. On this point, they will encounter resistance...

Actor Gary Sinise gave an amazing gift to Gold Star families for Christmas — a trip to Disney World for almost 1,700 family members of fallen soldiers. “Each one of these children who are going on these airplanes have lost a parent in military services—either combat related or illness or unfortunately suicide sometimes,” The Gary Sinise Foundation founder said. “We wanna take care of these kids and make sure they know we don’t forget.” The families took 15 planes and stayed at Disney for five days, The Epoch Times reports.

Custodians at the Walt Disney Co. theme parks in Orlando, Fla., and Anaheim, Calif., use code words to disguise the messier aspects of their work from visitors. When a manager radios for a “Code V” cleanup, it means a patron has vomited. “Code U” signals urine. No code is kept more under wraps at Walt Disney World and Disneyland than the call for a “HEPA cleanup.” It means that, once again, a park guest has scattered the cremated ashes of a loved one somewhere in the park, and an ultrafine (or “HEPA”) vacuum cleaner is needed to suck them up....

Disney is exploring a reboot of its billion dollar Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. The studio has met with the writing team of Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick and they are in early talks to write the script. Reese & Wernick are the writers behind the first two Deadpool blockbusters, and before that wrote Zombieland and its sequel, and 6 Underground, the action film that Michael Bay is directing for Netflix with Ryan Reynolds starring. Jerry Bruckheimer will continue to captain the ship as producer on Pirates of the Caribbean, but at this point it is too early to say...