Visitors wishing to smoke at its resorts and theme park properties, including Walt Disney World and the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida, and Disneyland and the Downtown Disney District in California, will have to do so at designated locations outside the security area, according to a post on the Disney Parks blog.
Representatives for The Walt Disney Co. did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday. But the decision was greeted with widespread praise.
Dennis Speigel, president of consulting company International Theme Park Service, said, “It’s about time.”
“It’s the happiest place on Earth,” he told The Orlando Sentinel. “Why should people be subjected to smoke at Disney?”
Conscious of its image as a family-friendly company, Walt Disney has slowly curbed tobacco use in recent years.
In 2015, it became the first major Hollywood studio to cut portrayals of cigarette smoking from films geared toward younger audiences.
Disney’s chief executive, Robert A. Iger, announced at a shareholder meeting that Walt Disney Studios would “prohibit smoking in movies across the board: Marvel, Lucas, Pixar and Disney films,” because it “was the right thing for us to do.”
Smoking has already been restricted in most sections of the parks, and designated smoking areas inside the properties have been dwindling. Guests have been charged between $250 and $500 in cleaning costs if they smoke inside its hotel rooms, on patios or balconies.
The move comes before the public opening of Star Wars attractions, on a 14-acre construction site that has swallowed up the last remaining smoking area at Disneyland in California, according to news site Theme Park Insider, and is expected to draw throngs of tourists.
In preparation for long lines of Chewbacca and Darth Vader fans coming for the new Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge spaces, the park is also banning stroller wagons and large strollers starting May 1.
Dry ice, which some parkgoers use to keep drinks cool, is also prohibited beginning Thursday.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.