Disney fans cheer as Mouse House reverses DEI-inspired theme park change

It’s been nearly five years since the Walt Disney Company leaned into the corporate vogue of diversity, equity, and inclusion across its theme parks.

Now, some parkgoers think they’re hearing something different — something familiar.

‘The sound of the trip starting for real.’

DEI dream

Back in 2021, Disney confirmed to Newsweek that it would phase out the classic greeting, “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,” from announcements at Magic Kingdom. In its place came a more neutral line: “Good evening, dreamers of all ages,” part of a broader push to make park language more “inclusive.”

At the time, the change was treated as small but symbolic — another piece of Disney’s effort to align itself with the cultural priorities of the moment.

Now, a clip circulating on X suggests the company may be quietly loosening its grip on that approach. In the video, a monorail announcement clearly addresses riders as “ladies and gentlemen” while instructing them to hold the handrail — a phrase that, until recently, had been scrubbed from official park language.

Old times

No announcement has been made. No policy has been reversed, at least publicly.

But at a place like Disney, where every word is scripted and nothing is accidental, even a small change can signal something larger.

For longtime visitors, it’s not really about the phrasing itself. It’s about what it represents: a return to tradition — or at least a pause in the steady rewriting of it.

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No place for ‘ladies’

Various Disney-centric sites have stated that the removal of “ladies and gentleman” from park experiences was actually a bigger blow than it seemed. Inside the Magic called it the most recognized part of the vital experience that leads Disney fans into the theme park.

Disney Dining called the phrase “the sound of the trip starting for real,” noting its specific cadence made it memorable to park goers.

That Park Place reported that it took just a year for Disney to start treating gendered language like a bygone era, with progressive ideology becoming part of Disney’s internal training philosophy. The outlet cited diversity and inclusion manager Vivian Ware, who reportedly said cast members were being taught to avoid saying “ladies and gentlemen” and “boys and girls.”

Instead, the outlet stated, they were taught to say, “Hello, everyone,” or, “Hello, friends.”

The language shift wasn’t the only obvious change to standards at Disney, either.

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Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service/Getty Images

Mixed-up mouse

In 2023, Disney partnered with a man who claimed to be “gender fluid” in order to promote a Minnie Mouse-themed clothing set that included a red dress, yellow pumps, and red hair bow.

Earlier that year, an employee at Disneyland, who appeared to be a man in a dress, was seen greeting little girls at the salon and dress shop called the “Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.”

Align reached out to Disney Parks to ask when the gendered language was brought back into the attractions and the reasoning behind the policy change, but did not receive a reply.

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