Pandemic Disney World Does Not Sound Like a Very Happy Place

Here’s an update from Disney World, which is currently open in a state where covid-19 cases are simply skyrocketing: visitors can no longer walk around eating and drinking because it interferes with the mandated mask-wearing. Starting to think maybe opening Disney World is a bad and unnecessary idea!

Variety reports that the (open! why!!!) park recently updated its mask policy on its website, noting that while guests can still remove their masks to eat and drink, they have to sit down while doing so:

“Face coverings are required for all guests (ages 2 and up) and cast members. Please bring your own face coverings and wear them at all times, except when dining or swimming. You may remove your face covering while actively eating or drinking, but you should be stationary and maintain appropriate physical distancing,” the park’s website now says under the face coverings section.

I’m not invested in shaming people who want to go to Disney World right now, even though I generally feel like shaming people who want to go to Disney World who are not a) children or b) children. The government should be mandating that potential virus petri dishes like Disney World stay closed for now, and the government won’t. A multibillion dollar company like Disney World could, for the sake of its staff and potential visitors, keep Disney World closed (and pay its employees in the meantime). Disney won’t.

Still, even the cheap flight deals and the promise of shorter lines for, I don’t know, Peter Pan’s Flight (I haven’t been to Disney World since I was six, sorry!) don’t seem worth the dystopian hell that is Pandemic Disney World. Not that having to sit while eating a Tinkerbell ice pop or whatever is hell, but this is, and the ever-changing Disney rules telling everyone to mask up to spare the vulnerable from a deadly virus serve as a reminder that maybe this juuuuuust isn’t the time to see Mickey Mouse.