Disney's ban on smoking?

I hear you Porky. Do you smoke? How have your friends and family reacted to this change? Will you visit other parks instead or continue to visit Disneyland?

Do you have evidence the smoking ban is at all related to a new bar? Sounds like someone needs to go have a smoke.

Well, I've never heard of anyone, other than a foetus, getting sick from second-hand drinking....

But I too share your concerns about alcohol in the parks.... Maybe I'm just becoming a wowser in my old age.

I think the issue is the smell of smoking. Why have a stinky area of the park nobody but a handful of people want to go to?

Furthermore, I think the larger issue is they make money off drinking but not smoking. A smoking section takes up real estate and gives them zero revenue. Smokers will still come to the parks regardless if they can smoke.

The profits on alcohol is huge. The real estate that cost them money in taxes and the negative effect of a stinky location most people do not want to take their kids to is now exchanged for a profit center. Perhaps one of the largest profit centers in the park!

While you may not agree, this is likely what occurred.

I don't know where you're getting your information, but the smoking ban has nothing to do with a bar. The ban is first and foremost to improve utilization of park pathways in order to deal with increased crowds, and secondly for the health of non-smoking guests. While I do think it would be better to keep a designated area in a secluded section of the park, I understand Disney's reasoning for relocating the smoking areas outside of the parks.

And if you're worried about drunks, I'm pretty confident that the new Cantina is going to have very strict limitations on how much alcohol guests can actually purchase. It will be a lot more restricted than it is at DCA right now, and that park doesn't seem to have many problems.

AJ, its a little weird that a park that a park created by a chain smoker who didn’t want alcohol in the park has now completely banned smoking and will serve alcohol. I hope alcohol does not show up anywhere else in the park like all the other Disney parks. Disneyland has always been for the whole family and banning smoking is in line with that, but adding alcohol is not. With DCA and Downtown Disney just a few hundred feet away I see no need for alcohol anywhere else at Disneyland.

While I think that the smoking ban is more of a PR move to please the Soccer Mom crowd and not really necessary, it is hilarious to see people posting about how they are cancelling their trip that cost of thousands of dollars as if somehow they're sticking to Disney. Ok so are going to explain to your wife and kids that they can't go to Disney World because you're not allowed to smoke in the park anymore? See how well that goes over.

Disney isn't stupid they play long ball. While they might lose a [very] small amount of business now, the company targets families with kids, who do you think they're going to try to make happy? Cigarettes are basically non existent for millennial families they don't want them or their kids around people who are smoking.

>>>AJ, its a little weird that a park that a park created by a chain smoker who didn’t want alcohol in the park has now completely banned smoking

Considering how he died, isn't it weird they didn't ban it sooner?

If the evidence had been as clear then as it is today, I'm sure Roy would have demanded it on Walt's first cough.

I think it is great that their banning it. I'm sick of walking through people's smoke. It especially seemed to happen at night when they weren't being watched.

A CM told me that he overheard security guards saying that enforcing the policy has already caused problems. This is a bad idea. Were there actual guest complaints that caused the change? We're there safety issues? Guests who smoke drop a healthy amout of coin to get through the gate. To say they can't get designated space to light up is ridiculous.

TH

"Guests who smoke drop a healthy amount of coin to get through the gate."

But so do nonsmokers. It has been a problem for me each time I took a trip to Disney in the past. Especially around Echo Lake (in Hollywood), near the Odyssey building (in Epcot) and the entrance to Adventureland (in Magic).

I understand why smokers will be mad, but it ruins others guests experiences allowing it in the parks.

I drink. I certainly enjoy it on vacation, but I understood Walt Disney's reasons for not wanting it in Disneyland. It should not be there. It should not be in Magic Kingdom for the same reason. Go ahead and have it in the other parks and resorts. I feel like smokers can go outside the parks for similar reasons, but when somebody is drinking, they aren't blowing it all over me. When we were there last a few weeks ago, smokers did not confine themselves to the smoking sections and the parks are too crowded to enforce it. I probably breathed in more second hand smoke than at a heavy metal concert.

Most of us on here know Walt died because of his lifelong smoking addition. My point was the company is going against Walt’s wishes by adding alcohol. Walt was a drinker, but he did not feel he or anyone else needed one at Disneyland. The line was already blurred with the addition of DCA and Downtown Disney with alcohol, but hopefully alcohol isn’t available throughout the park.

As for smoking, Walt started smoking over 100 years ago, and died over 50 years ago. We know much more about the dangers of smoking than Walt did, but people still smoke anyway. If people weren’t following the old rules, people aren’t going to follow the new more strict rules. It would be better to still have designated areas and get most smokers to use them, as opposed to people trying to light up all over the parks. The area at Disneyland had to go because of Star Wars, but there are still some other secluded spots to put them, especially at Disney World.

The big problem here is that too many guests have no disregard for others and will light up wherever they feel like. I don't think Disney should have outright banned the practice either, but when the rules keep getting broken, what choice did they have? It's just like the selfie stick ban. They tried meeting in the middle by only banning them on rides, but people kept ignoring that so Disney had to take it further.

@James - That's an interesting thought, but wouldn't you think actually enforcing the old "smoking in designated areas only" rule would have been more effective than outlawing it altogether. Smoking paraphernalia is still not contraband in the parks, so this ban will not eliminate the temptation from smokers to light up (or vape up) all over the parks, especially now since the outlet for their nicotine fix could require as much as a 20+ minute walk to the front gate.

Banning smoking throughout the parks makes it more likely that guests will do so illegally in the parks than before. Also, with no stated consequence, smokers (and particularly discrete vapors) will be emboldened to puff whenever they think no one is looking, especially in a crowd when a scofflaw cannot be singled out.

Last time I visited Disney, the smoking areas were small and secluded. I never caught a whiff of any cigarette smoke. This smoking ban will mean that groups or families that include a member who is a smoker will not be able to visit the Disney parks and this is too bad. I don't have a problem with Disney having a bar. Drinking within limits doesn't hurt anybody.

Or Betsy, maybe the smoker could go to the parks and just not smoke while they're there