While trying to enforce safety protocols at Disney World durring the COVID-19 pandemic, Disney World cast members have reported being spat on, yelled at, and pushed by guests.
In a report published by the Orlando Sentinel, a Disney security guard that was stationed at Disney’s Contemporary Resort hotel detailed the incident when they reminded a guest to put their mask on before walking into the building.
The male guest — who was not identified by name by the publication — reportedly told the guard, “I’m a guest,” and asked to be left alone, before he allegedly spat at the guard with some of his saliva landing on the guard’s forehead.
The outlet added that the man then “hurried inside the hotel” where he entered an elevator bank and disappeared. He was unable to be identified following the incident.
“There’s never a day when I don’t have a story,” another employee, who took on a new role enforcing mask rules in the Disney Springs parking garages after her previous job was terminated, told the Sentinel. “I cried the first week I started. It was not a good time at all. Imagine going to work every single day where people ridicule you.”
“I’ve had a guest literally get right up in my face and literally curse me out,” she added to the publication. “If I honestly didn’t have good coworkers, I would have already quit by now.”
At the Walt Disney World resort in Orlando, guests need to comply with a series of safety protocols during their stay, including wearing an approved face mask at the resort’s four theme parks — Magic Kingdom Park, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom — as well as its resort hotels and Disney Springs.
Since reopening, the resort has instituted strict new health and safety protocol, including mandatory mask-wearing, temperature checks upon entry, cashless payments, remote ordering at restaurants, limited capacity at parks and socially distanced lines, shopping and dining. They’ve also enacted an “enhanced” cleaning and sanitation regimen.
Since then, some restrictions have been reduced, such as not spacing out guests on certain rides, while others have been tightened, namely, the required wearing of masks when not actively eating or drinking, even when seated in a dining location.