“To all who come to this pleased place: Welcome.” Walt Disney spoke these phrases throughout Disneyland’s grand opening ceremony on July 17, 1955.
Now, almost 70 years later, Disney has a unique greeting for visitors at its parks on each coasts. In December 2022, Disneyland and Walt Disney World added “courtesy” tabs to their web sites, reminding visitors what is predicted of them after they go to a Disney park.
On Disneyland’s web site, the tab reads, “We ask all who come to this pleased place to deal with others with respect, kindness and compassion,” adopted by a hyperlink to the park’s guidelines and laws. Equally, Disney World reminds visitors to “Be the magic you wish to see on the earth.”
Theme park guests ought to already know the best way to deal with others and should not have to listen to this admonishment. Nonetheless, a string of violent incidents and unruly habits at varied theme parks possible spurred the mild reminder.
In the summertime of 2022 alone, Orlando information station Fox 35 reported on two separate altercations at Disney World – one over a fireworks viewing spot and the opposite a big brawl that broke out in entrance of Peter Pan’s Flight at The Magic Kingdom. In the identical time interval, Disneyland bore witness to a brawl between a number of visitors ready to see the nightly efficiency of Fantasmic, based on the Orange County Register.
This is not a Disney-specific drawback, although. Theme and amusement parks nationwide are seeing an increase in documented bodily altercations.
It is troublesome to say whether or not there truly are extra altercations now than there have been prior to now or if we’re simply documenting them extra on social media. Both approach, the uptick just isn’t going unnoticed by theme parks. So far, Disney’s solely live performance and noticeable motion has been the extra phrases of warning, however others have taken it a step additional by implementing strict chaperone insurance policies.
Which theme parks have chaperone insurance policies?
Cedar Truthful parks
The biggest group to implement chaperone insurance policies is Cedar Truthful, which owns and operates many parks, together with California’s Knott’s Berry Farm. Knott’s Berry Farm was pressured to shut early on July 16, 2022, attributable to “unruly habits and altercations involving quite a lot of youngsters,” based on an announcement from the park.
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Just a few days later, on July 20, 2022, the park introduced it could be implementing a chaperone coverage on Fridays and Saturdays solely. It additionally up to date its code of conduct web page to incorporate particulars of the police.
The coverage was later amended to incorporate Sundays after which scaled again to incorporate solely Saturdays. As of April 2023, the park once more amended the chaperone coverage to state that “all visitors ages 15 years previous or youthful should be accompanied by a chaperone who’s at the least 21 years previous so as to be admitted to or stay within the park after 4 p.m. native time to shut.”
“The protection of our visitors and affiliate has all the time been our prime precedence,” the park said on its web site. “Over the previous two years, there have been rising incidents of unruly and inappropriate habits throughout our business and at different main leisure venues.”
Different Cedar Truthful parks have since adopted swimsuit.
Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia; Worlds of Enjoyable in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri; Kings Island in Mason, Ohio; Carowinds in Charlotte, North Carolina; and California’s Nice America in Santa Clara, California, now all have comparable chaperone insurance policies after seeing violent incidents.
Worlds of Enjoyable put the coverage into impact after “a combat involving a number of juveniles” broke out contained in the park. The Clay County Sheriff’s Workplace estimated 100 to 150 youngsters had been concerned within the disturbance, none of whom seemed to be accompanied by an grownup.
Disney parks
Disney World and Disneyland haven’t modified their insurance policies within the wake of those incidents. Their web sites already state the coverage that “visitors below age 14 should be accompanied by a visitor age 14 or older to enter a theme park.”
Common parks
Common Orlando has no particular revealed minimal age to enter the park with out supervision. Nonetheless, it recommends “visitors beneath the age of 14 have a supervising companion that’s 14 years of age or older.”
At CityWalk, nevertheless, Common Orlando’s web site states that “visitors below the age of 18 have to have an accompanying grownup after 10 p.m.”
What do the chaperone insurance policies state?
Chaperone insurance policies differ from park to park.
To enter and stay in Cedar Truthful parks after 4 p.m., visitors 15 years previous or youthful should be accompanied by a chaperone who’s at the least 21 years previous. This implies the supervising grownup should stick with the youthful visitor all through their time within the park.
The coverage additionally states {that a} chaperone can accompany not more than 10 visitors ages 15 or youthful per day. Visitors discovered contained in the park with no chaperone could also be requested to go away the park.
How can I discover out which parks have chaperone insurance policies?
There are a number of choices for figuring out if a theme park or amusement park you intend to go to has a chaperone coverage in place. You can name or electronic mail the park, however most even have a “code of conduct” or “park guidelines” web page revealed on their web site. These pages will present info on the supervision of kids, together with whether or not the park has a chaperone coverage.
Backside line
Reactions to those chaperone insurance policies are understandably blended. Some visitors commented on Twitter that “parks aren’t daycares,” and that “it is not the park’s job to observe your children.” Others really feel the insurance policies needlessly punish all guests based mostly on the actions of only some.
Nonetheless, many parks are transferring to implement chaperone insurance policies to maintain visitors and employees members safer. We advocate familiarizing your self with the parks’ chaperone insurance policies in case you have teenagers and tweens trying to absorb a theme park this yr.
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