You Can Take Off Your Masks At Disneyland Starting June 15

The spring of 2020 was a terrifying, confusing period, during which changes to everything from movie releases to retail operations to theme parks were happening on what felt like an hourly basis. The summer of 2021 is less scary, but with COVID-19 cases continuing to decrease to, at the very least, manageable levels, we're now getting the reverse situation.

To wit, the Disneyland Resort will – starting tomorrow, June 15 – be relaxing one of its biggest safety restrictions yet. You won't have to wear a mask anymore...as long as you're fully vaccinated.

If you've been keeping a weather eye on the news surrounding the Disneyland Resort and its rules on safety, you may already have known that June 15 was an important enough day. That's when the resort, and really California as a whole, is welcoming back out-of-state travelers. But now, per an update on the Disneyland website, June 15 is also the day that anyone who's fully vaccinated no longer has to wear a mask either indoors or outdoors at the Disneyland Resort.

Now, if you're not fully vaccinated, and you're age 2 or older, you'll have to wear a mask indoors except when you're eating and drinking. (All you 2- and 3-year olds, pay attention! Keep those masks on.) And of course, there's the obvious unspoken part about this news, which is that you may well be fully vaccinated but you may still feel more comfortable wearing a mask. At this point, too, vaccines aren't readily available for anyone under the age of 12, so kids are likely going to have to wear masks for a little while longer.

There's also an additional wrinkle here, if you're a guest taking transportation to the Disneyland Resort from the Toy Story parking lot. When that reopens on June 18, you'll have to wear a mask whether or not you've been vaccinated while on the bus.

As the last 15 months have proven, lots of people are operating here in very different ways so making sure that guests remain in compliance is still going to be something of a challenge for Disney's Cast Members. For this writer, it's still easiest, from an operational standpoint and emotionally, to wear a mask. But the rules are changing rapidly, and it's somewhat encouraging that Disneyland feels comfortable enough to become so much more lenient. Perhaps this is a sign of future operational shifts back to something approaching normal.