Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Reiterates That Walt Disney World is Safe to Reopen

Jessica Figueroa

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Reiterates That Walt Disney World is Safe to Reopen

In a press conference held this afternoon, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis lauded the procedures and precautions being taken by the central Florida theme parks that have reopened, like Universal Orlando Resort, or are about to reopen, as Walt Disney World will tomorrow for the start of its Cast Member previews.

When asked about the safety of theme park reopenings, DeSantis emphasized the measures in place at the theme parks:

The theme parks have been doing great. I mean, Universal… if you look at what they’re doing… and that’s, I think, the lesson: We have to have society function. You can have society function in a way that keeps people safe. And when you have all of the different procedures that they have in place, people are going to be—it’s a safe environment. Disney, I have no doubt is going to be a safe environment. I think that where you start to see the spread is just in social situations where people let their guard down. Usually like a private party or something like that. So that’s kind of what we’ve seen. But I think that the folks that put a premium on safety, that’s showing you that, you know, we’re able to handle this, have society function, you still want people going to work… but do it in a way that takes some basic precautions. I’m really impressed with what Universal’s done, and I’ve looked at Disney’s plan and it is very, very thorough.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis

When asked at what point he’d consider closing down the theme parks again, he reiterated the need to focus on high-risk groups, and that for the general population, “Doing the basic things will go a long way.”

You can watch the full press conference in the video below. The video starts at the opening of the floor for questions, which is when the governor was asked about his stance on Walt Disney World reopening:

13 thoughts on “Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Reiterates That Walt Disney World is Safe to Reopen”

  1. Is it sad that I feel better in a theme park than at publix where mask usage is less than 50%? And to the no masks people, we’ll talk a year from now and debate if it worked or not. Worth noting that while the positive cases have gone up in FL the deaths seemingly are not. NY has over 24K and we have less than 4K. Who knows what is accurate. What I can say, is that I know 7 people that have tested positive here in FL in the last 3 weeks all 30-45 in age. 6 out of 7 were asymptomatic and the other 1 had no worse than a bad cold for 3 days. Take that however you’d like.

  2. This is what should have happened from the beginning. At risk should have been warned to stay away, masks and distancing should have been mandatory. If they had just done that from the beginning instead of closing so many businesses for months, we would be better off. The businesses would be in better shape, the workers would be in better shape, the economy would be in better shape, and I think the virus would have already peaked and dropped some. We were always going to have this spike once things reopened after having been secluded for months. It just hurt our immunity as that needs constant exposure to keep up. They would have just needed a few weeks of closure to install the safety measures and then keep on trucking.

  3. Shame on you no brotherly love there. One effected person will spread to 10 others. Just ask CDC. Bad enough you pay employees 7$ now you are infecting the but management work at home 🤬🤬👿🦠🦠🦠🤡

  4. No the governor is wrong. I work for disney and I wouldn’t go right now. The issue is the numbers are growing but the governor can’t admit he is wrong and re opened too soon. So instead of admitting he was wrong he is going to push through and open. Sad he’ll just be a 1 term governor. Do yourself a favor and stay away from the parks till this blows over. The death rate might be 1.8% but that could be you or your children.

  5. I know 2 young people who have died from covid 19. Young healthy people. I’m 46 and I contracted covid in March I still have symptoms of fatigue. Its foolish to put people at risk when clearly countless people are dying. Have this conversation with the families of the 130,000 people who have died from covid. Americans have become so desensitized it’s sad. It’s like nothing has happened. Pay attention to history and learn. When the Spanish flu of 1918 swept through this country there were some areas barely hit. They cities and towns thought they had dodged a bullet. When the 2nd wave hit it hit them hard! They had the same protocols we have today such as wearing masks and distance. Play with your lives and the lives of others. Let’s see how this plays out.

    • I have seen a change in the symptoms from March and the symptoms now in July. The virus for sure still very serious but those contracting it now seem to be bouncing back faster. Just an observation.

  6. Money money money by the pound. DeSantis is grinning about the 80-100 million visitors who come to FL, spend money in high contact places like restaurants, hotels, amusement parks, then go home, and he and none of these walking bank cards are honestly caring about The Floridian thousands of young to old employees who may lose the quality of their lives, if not their life, because of the people they are making happy in the millions of privileged guests. They have to respond to the call to go to work. It is about the economics of $$$, not the life of one single employee, Floridian or otherwise.

  7. The governor is sending out a false sense of security, boasting about every place being safe as it reopens. Yet here we are with more positive cases every day. The numbers haven’t stopped. Not one day has gone by where we have ever seen zero cases, EVER.. Our governor is money hungry, he doesn’t care about the people. A friend of mine who has family that works for Universal, warned me not to go as she says its not as safe as the company claims. Employees are already slacking on safety, social distancing & cleaning.

  8. So my daughter went back to work at Disney after working just one day she was exposed to another employee who tested positive the very next day. Opening is putting the employees at needless risk. DW best laid plans will not work

  9. This is just insane thinking on DeSantis and Disney’s part. Who needs to go on holiday during a pandemic? The virus is still highly communicable and we don’t know the long term effects of it especially on our youngsters! Be Smart, Stay Home, distance yourself and wear a mask until we get a vaccine because you and your loved ones are at risk!!! I live in Florida and wish I didn’t right now!

  10. Ron DeSantis just got a huge future contribution to his reelection campaign, thats the only way he could think that this is worth the consequences of allowing disney to open at this time, with 11,485 new cases of covid-19 in one day, due in part to congregations of large groups of people,.I don’t care what precautions you put in place, people at disney congregate, it happens. You thought the spikes of diagnoses were bad before, wait.

  11. Ron DeSantis, why don’t you and your family go on opening day , if it’s so safe , hmmmm… of course it wouldn’t matter, because you and your security would have everyone stay 50 ft away.

Comments are closed.