Disney Bans Tobacco Sales at Anaheim, Florida Parks

Walt Disney Co. has banned all tobacco sales at Disneyland and its four Florida theme parks in a likely precursor to outlawing smoking at the parks except in a few designated areas.

The Burbank-based entertainment giant, which operated a tobacco shop at Disneyland until 1990, has gradually tightened restrictions in recent years as public tolerance of smoking has declined. Now, customers can light up while wandering the park or sitting on a bench, but not indoors or in outside areas such as lines where they are close to nonsmokers.

Following a policy first implemented at Walt Disney World in Florida, Disneyland halted all tobacco sales last month, workers said. Smokers previously were directed to the Market House shop on Main Street or Pieces of Eight in New Orleans Square, where cigarettes were hidden under the counters. Tobacco still is sold at nearby Disney properties, the Disneyland Hotel and Disneyland Pacific Hotel.

Employees in Anaheim and Florida said they next expect the parks to create a few smoking areas, with tobacco use banned elsewhere.

Bill Warren, a spokesman for Walt Disney World in Florida, said cigarette sales ended at the complex’s Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney-MGM Studios and Animal Kingdom parks earlier this year, although tobacco is sold at the company’s hotels, restaurants, clubs and other facilities.

As for reports that further restrictions on in-park smoking could take effect early next year, Warren said, “We’re not prepared to make an announcement right now.”

The moves could influence attitudes toward tobacco throughout the amusement park industry. Although most parks ban smoking indoors and in lines for attractions, tobacco is still sold inside many parks, including the two that Universal Studios operates in Orlando.

Except for some European visitors, most smokers at Disneyland have accepted the restrictions willingly, an employee said. But recent postings on a pro-smoker World Wide Web site complained that park employees force smokers to extinguish cigarettes any time nonsmokers are near. One woman said she vacationed in Las Vegas instead of Anaheim because of the restrictions.

As late as 1976, a company guide to Disneyland’s Main Street touted a shop’s “vast selection of smoking materials and . . . tobacco.”

About five years after the tobacco shop closed, ashtrays disappeared next to trash cans and outdoor attractions at Disneyland. When Disney launched its cruise line in Florida last year, the ships were designated as nonsmoking except for a few areas.