News stories, social media users and fan blogs are fighting over whether Walt Disney World’s monorail system eliminated, and then brought back, its “ladies and gentlemen” greeting.
“My favorite small win for sanity today: After a 5-year gender-neutral absence, Disney has restored ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’ to the Magic Kingdom monorail greeting,” one user wrote on X April 15.
“The world is healing,” the conservative social media account Libs of TikTok posted on X. The post included a Fox Business headline that said, “Disney World revives ‘ladies and gentlemen’ greeting after years of gender-neutral messages.”
Besides Fox, other conservative news outlets such as the New York Post and Washington Times also reported on the supposed reversal, writing that Disney fans were “rejoicing” over the theme parks restoring gendered greetings.
Reports about the monorail greeting reverting back to “ladies and gentleman” surfaced in April after a Disney fan page posted about it on X, writing, “It was very nice to hear that ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’ has returned to the Magic Kingdom Express Monorail recently!” The post included two videos in which the monorail recording uses the phrase.
Disney has been mum about the park’s recorded greetings and did not respond to PolitiFact’s request for comment.
Company leaders, however, acknowledged in 2021 and 2022 that Disney was implementing gender-neutral speech throughout the parks, a shift the company said at the time was aimed at providing more inclusiveness for guests and cast members.
Here’s what we know.
What changes did Disney make in the past?
In April 2021, Disney Parks Blog, the company’s official website for news about its theme parks, published an article titled “A Place Where Everyone is Welcome” that referenced changes Disney was making to be “a place where everyone is welcome and taking action to create meaningful change.”
“We want our guests to see their own backgrounds and traditions reflected in the stories, experiences and products they encounter in their interactions with Disney,” the blog post, by then-chairman Josh D’Amaro, now Disney’s CEO, said. “And we want our cast members — and future cast members — to feel a sense of belonging at work.”
The post covered several changes, including reimagining and adding more diverse attractions and initiating gender-inclusive approaches to hairstyles, jewelry and costume choices.
In July 2021, Disney confirmed that the “ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls” greeting was removed from Magic Kingdom’s “Happily Ever After” fireworks show. The same change was made at Disneyland’s fireworks show. “Good evening, dreamers of all ages” was put in its place. A Disney spokesperson told Newsweek that the greeting was changed as part of the company’s diversity efforts.
In a March 2022 video, Disney’s diversity and inclusion manager, Vivian Ware, said starting the previous summer, Disney “removed all of the gendered greetings in relationship to our live spiels,” and cast members were being trained to avoid the greetings “ladies and gentlemen” and “boys and girls,” and instead use phrases such as “hello, everyone” or “hello, friends.”
Ware cited the fireworks greeting change as an example of Disney’s new approach and said the company was “in the process of changing over those recorded messages.”
Did Walt Disney World ever change its monorail greeting?
Disney’s monorail system, a public transportation network connecting Magic Kingdom, EPCOT and select resorts, we found a mixture of examples from 2022 through 2024 when Disney’s cast members and recorded messages did and did not use “ladies and gentlemen” when greeting visitors.
For example, in May 2022, one monorail operator could be heard on YouTube footage saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, a very good afternoon and welcome aboard.” In the same video, we found no examples of the system’s recorded narration using the language; it simply said “welcome aboard” or “this is the Magic Kingdom monorail system.”
In a June 2022 video, neither the cast member nor the recording said “ladies and gentlemen” when people boarded the monorail or arrived at Magic Kingdom.
In one April 2024 video, the recording can be heard saying, “This monorail will be returning to the Magic Kingdom. Ladies and gentlemen, if you’re standing, please hold onto the handrail.” But in an October 2024 video, neither the cast member nor the recording use the phrase.
We didn’t hear the phrase in monorail videos captured in 2025. It was heard multiple times in one taken in January 2026.
