A video circulating on social media this week suggests Disney Parks may have restored gendered language to at least one Magic Kingdom announcement, several years after the company dropped such phrasing as part of a diversity and inclusion initiative.
The clip was shared on X by the account Theme Park Cheetah, whose user wrote: “It was very nice to hear that ’Ladies and Gentlemen’ has returned to the Magic Kingdom Express Monorail recently. For context it was removed around 2021 when Disney tried to make the parks more ’inclusive.’ When it was removed, it was just skipped over, nothing was added in its place.”
Disney has issued no statement explaining the change, and it is not clear whether it extends beyond the monorail.
The shift in park language dates to 2021. A Disney spokesperson confirmed to Newsweek at the time that “ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls” had been removed from fireworks pre-show announcements as part of the company’s ongoing effort to promote diversity at its parks, with the greeting replaced by “Good evening, dreamers of all ages.”
By 2022, Disney diversity and inclusion manager Vivian Ware said cast members were being trained to avoid greetings like “ladies and gentlemen” and instead use phrases such as “hello, everyone” or “hello, friends.”
The entertainment outlet That Park Place, which first reported on the monorail audio, noted that the original language had been dropped not because it felt outdated, but because company leadership “at least at that time, believed gender-neutral language better matched the image the company wanted to project.”
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