Why are these maskless guests allowed to stay in the park at all?

Covering Up

At the Walt Disney World theme parks in Florida, masks are required at all times — even during photo ops.

But that hasn't stopped some defiant park guests from sneaking around and getting on rides mask-free. Now, Disney is reportedly taking an eccentric approach to mask enforcement: editing a digital mask onto visitors' faces in photos. The bizarre practice, first spotted on social media by industry blog Walt Disney World News Today, has left guests confused about why the park is doing something about masks but not actually enforcing them.

Negotiating With Terrorists

If a parkgoer took off their mask for a ride, they previously would have been barred from accessing whatever pictures the ride's mounted cameras took of them.

But Disney seems to have eased up. Now they can access the photo but only after a short delay, during which either an employee or algorithm hastily slaps a digital mask over their face as though they were using a choppy AR face filter.

Gentle Guidance

WDWNT suggests that the digital masks are being added to remind guests that they are in fact supposed to keep their masks on.

But the lax enforcement to mask-wearing, and by extension protecting the health and safety of everyone else at the park from the deadly coronavirus still ravaging Florida and the rest of the U.S., raises an important question: Why are these guests allowed to stay in the park at all?

READ MORE: PHOTO: Walt Disney World Now Placing Digital Face Masks Over Maskless Guests in On-Ride Photos [Walt Disney World News Today]

More on masks: If Most Americans Wore a Mask, It'd Save 130,000 Lives


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