In a surprising move, Disney Parks has reinstated the traditional greeting of “ladies and gentlemen” in its park announcements, marking a significant shift following years of avoiding gender-specific terms to satisfy advocates of gender inclusivity.
The iconic theme park has seemingly started to reintroduce this classic phrasing in its announcements. This alteration is being hailed as one of Disney’s most meaningful reversals in recent memory, as reported by the entertainment and Disney-centric news outlet, That Park Place.
A Disney enthusiast expressed delight in a post on X, noting, “It was wonderful to hear ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’ on the Magic Kingdom Express Monorail recently!” and shared a video capturing the revived announcement.
This change comes after Disney’s previous commitment to using gender-neutral language, with a spokesperson informing Newsweek that the decision was part of Disney’s broader strategy to foster diversity within its parks.
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Back in April 2021, Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro announced the initiative, emphasizing that “Inclusion is essential to our culture and leads us forward as we continue to realize our rich legacy of engaging storytelling, exceptional service, and Disney magic,” while indicating that this was merely the start of their efforts.
In July of that year, Disney removed “ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls” from its park greeting in 2021, replacing it with “Good evening, dreamers of all ages.”
In 2020, the company had introduced the “dreamers of all ages” languages to the end of “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls” — only to axe the initial part of the message the following year.
Disneyland, meanwhile, was making similar changes in its own nighttime entertainment language by — not only gendered park language — but also incorporating it into Disney’s internal training philosophy, That Park Place noted.
By 2022, Disney diversity and inclusion manager Vivian Ware said cast members were being trained to avoid greetings like “ladies and gentlemen” and “boys and girls,” and instead being told to use phrases such as “hello, everyone” or “hello, friends.”
What makes this language turnaround “so notable,” according to That Park Place, is that “this would not be a minor wording tweak — it would be Disney reversing a highly intentional communications choice that had been tied to inclusivity, brand identity, and cast member conduct.”
“The old phrasing was not phased out because it had gone stale. It was phased out because Disney leadership, at least at that time, believed gender-neutral language better matched the image the company wanted to project,” the entertainment outlet noted.
A return to “ladies and gentlemen,” therefore, might suggest that Disney “now sees more value in familiarity, tradition, and broad cultural normalization than in the ‘progressive inclusivity signaling’ that drove the earlier shift,” That Park Place reported.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for – News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
