Disney World guests with COVID rage spit and yell at resort staff trying to enforce safety guidelines, report says
- Disney World employees are experiencing harassment from guests, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
- Workers detailed incidents of being spat and yelled at for trying to enforce COVID-19 safety protocols.
- The theme park has said that the majority of guests are cooperating with mask-wearing rules.
Employees of the Walt Disney World Resort have been harassed by furious guests while trying to enforce COVID-19 health and safety guidelines, according to a report by the Orlando Sentinel.
An unnamed security guard at a hotel in the Florida resort told the Sentinel that he was spat on when reminding a guest to wear a mask.
The guest reportedly rebuffed a request to follow coronavirus protocols, spat at the guard, and then escaped into the hotel, according to the local newspaper. Some of the guest's saliva landed on the worker's forehead, the paper reported.
Another employee told the Sentinel that ensuring guests wear masks frequently results in harassment. "There's never a day when I don't have a story," the unnamed worker told the paper. "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."
One incident left this worker particularly shaken. "I've had a guest literally get right up in my face and literally curse me out," she told the Sentinel. "If I honestly didn't have good coworkers, I would have already quit by now."
Despite these reports, a representative for the Orland resort said that most visitors abide by the rules. "Guests have overwhelmingly been supportive of our protocols," the representative said. "Millions of guests visit our theme parks each year and in rare instances when things of this nature occur, we hold them accountable."
The resort reopened on July 11, after a 116-day closure. It began operating at reduced capacity.
While Florida never enacted a statewide mask-wearing mandate, the theme insists that all visitors must wear face coverings.
Guests must also undergo temperature screenings and not attend if they are experiencing coronavirus symptoms, according to the Walt Disney World Resort website.