I have to say, CMs have been very on the ball with masking! (At Universal too).
I’ve also seen like 99% of guests having and keeping it on when they are supposed to.
If enforcement and compliance concerns you, thought you’d appreciate hearing my experience.
Thanks for the intel!
I agree. They wouldn’t start Star tours today until everyone had their masks over their noses and called out specific rows who weren’t listening.
Here now and found it spotty. Overall not too bad. But the ferries and things like, say, the train to conservation station - lots of people not masking and CMs didn’t say anything. And many, many unmasked people at Indiana Jones. There were quite a few people - okay, honestly, every single one I saw was male - who took their masks off once they were out of sight in dark rides, but them back on once they were again in view of CMs. But there were also some gentle reminders that I saw as well. Really depended upon the cast members; some didn’t seem to want to do it, some were quite strict.
Not questioning whether the policy should be followed/enforced here, but genuinely wonder if these things might be considered outdoors to some and thus not intentionally violating. The wildlife express trains are pretty open on the one side so might not be considered “enclosed transportation” and same for outdoor-ish parts of ferry. And unless theaters for BatB and IJ have specific mask signage or wording in the rules I’m not aware of for “covered areas”, I would probably consider those outdoors too.
Again, not trying to be argumentative and rules should be followed, but I could see how some of the ‘noncompliance’ might be understandable and people acting in good faith if the rules are not clear enough for those things.
I think you’ve landed on it. I think at Disney, those aren’t considered “indoor” or “enclosed”. It’s a bit confusing, because IIRC, Disney originally required masking throughout all “attractions” and “transportation” (indoors and out), but dropped it at some point (maybe when they reinstated masking?). Universal uses the “attractions” language, to make it even more confusing.
From a risk standpoint, at least pre-Omicron, outdoor transmission is thought to be a pretty low occurrence. I’m not sure there is conclusive data for Omicron yet, so probably isn’t a terrible idea to mask outside if you’re in close, and especially prolonged, proximity to others. A well-ventilated venue and a high quality protective mask probably makes the risk pretty low, even with Omicron and others not masking.
That’s so interesting. At my local theme park, I think they recognised the ambiguity, so each attraction has a poster explaining whether it’s masks in queue but not on the ride itself, etc etc.
Oh, yes, I think that’s true, that people could consider it “outdoors.” But I do believe (could be wrong) that all attractions, lines to attractions, and transportation required masks. If that’s true, a simple reminder/announcement would have taken care of the vast majority of it. (Edit: yes, I was wrong. Thanks to Amy for clarification.)
Ah, thanks for the clarification. We were at Universal recently and I assumed rules were the same. (However, I would definitely call the ferries “indoor.” It’s pretty enclosed. But I would say over 90% were wearing them anyway. I was just surprised.
Edited: reading further I see this was covered. Carry on 
I was curious so I did some more digging. 
DFB actually has a masking timeline…
I found a number of different sources that had similar wording to below for the August clarification, specifically saying ferries were excluded. so they must have said that in the announcement, but I wasn’t easily able to find the annoucement itself.
That’s interesting because I thought the ferries - like the buses and monorails - fall under the federal requirement of masking on all public transportation (or is that gone now? I don’t even know)
This is how it was in May, but after they removed the mask requirement completely then reinstated it, it was only for actual indoor portions of lines, attractions, and shows. Not sure about why ferries don’t fall under DOT guidelines.
The latest extension is through March 18, 2022. It looks like there were updates in August that might have driven the Disney update.
There is a carve out exclusion for outdoor areas of ferries and such. They also specifically mention “partially enclosed parking garages“ so I’m guessing partially enclosed ferries are considered likewise. That might have been part of the August updates but I’m not positive.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/face-masks-public-transportation.html
If the DFB timeline is accurate, outdoor attractions were included when it was reinstated in July, but then dropped in August (I think when CDC carved-out outside areas from their transportation coverage).
So hard to keep up!
That makes perfect sense.
Ah yes, there was a brief period before they dropped it. At Disneyland I believe it was always indoors only. (I think? 
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They dropped all mask requirements at Disneyland last summer. When we went in late July, we didn’t wear masks anywhere there. It was wonderful. They reinstated them inside a day or two after we left.
I didn’t mean the big ferries. I meant the little . . . what are they, the friendship boats? I’m not saying I don’t believe you all that they are not required there. I’m just saying the space felt uncomfortably enclosed for no masking.
Yeah, I’d feel the same. I’d definitely mask in that situation, if it were me.
