Disney During Covid
I’ve been to Disney twice since they reopened. Hardly anyone knew and I did zero posting on social media about it because I wanted to go without any outside judgement. The internet has become a bit of a crazy place this year and I didn’t want any balloon poppers ruining the weekend. I wanted to be immersed in the Disney magic after all the craziness this year - you can read last month’s blog post to get an idea of why I wanted to do this. I wanted to be sure I could go safely so our reservations were for the second weekend that the parks were open. This allowed us to see how the first few opening days went. Here is what we did to stay as safe as possible.
Why, yes, my mask does match my dress and coordinate with my ears. Would you expect any less? Both were made by my awesome sister.
Hotel & Arrival
Both trips were booked at the Wyndham Garden Lake Buena Vista. There are only a handful of Disney resorts open and this hotel had rates that Disney couldn’t even come close to beating. Their cancellation policy also allows you to cancel closer to your arrival date than Disney does. This gave us the option of knowing we could cancel if we didn’t think it was going to be safe to go. The hotel did not have all the amenities available but did a great job with social distancing and cleaning. All staff members I encountered wore masks. They weren’t doing daily housekeeping, valet parking or park transportation but all that was fine with me. The pool was open and it was easy to keep your distance from other people. We also chose this hotel because it’s a Disney Springs Hotel and allowed us to be counted as a Disney resort for park reservations (giving us priority booking) and you can walk to Disney Springs.
I drove to Florida because I am not quite ready to fly yet. Having a car there also allowed driving to the parks as we were not up to taking Disney buses just yet. A bonus to driving is that you get to have your mask off. If you take Disney transport, you must have your mask on. And we did have to take it once - if you go to Magic Kingdom there isn’t a way to get around using Disney transport unless you are staying at the Contemporary and can walk there. We opted for the ferry because there was much more space to spread out as opposed to the monorail not to mention the fresh air. The trams were not running when we were there so be prepared to walk the parking lots. Although we never had a far space due to the low crowd levels.
Park Preparation
Here is what I had in my park bag:
Masks. I had two for each day. It was hot so being able to switch to a non-sweaty one was nice.
Disposable gloves. I never used them but had them just in case I ever felt that I needed them.
Hand sanitizer that I barely used any of my own because Disney had stations everywhere including some temporary hand washing stations.
Hand Sanitizer wipes. Again, barely used these because of the abundance of what Disney had.
Clorox wipes. I used these to wipe down the handrail of whatever ride I was on, the table I sat at, etc. Necessary? Probably not but it made me feel better.
My array of masks for the weekend. All were Disney themed and coordinated with my outfits of course. 😊And my talented sister made them all.
Park Reservations
If you go now know that in addition to park tickets, you need park reservations. And it doesn’t look like this will end anytime soon. The fact that they started requiring them was not a surprise as that was what the international parks had done. There were some system glitches in the beginning but we’ve got everything booked for what we want this year. It’s definitely weird having to plan so far ahead of what park you are going to go to and not being able to park hop (probably my biggest disappointment) but whatever Disney wants me to do to be safe, I will do. The first people to get priority in booking a reservation are those staying at Disney resorts (and have a ticket/pass of course). This includes the Disney on-property resorts and the Disney Springs Hotels. The next to get access are Passholders without a hotel reservation and this group has often been fully booked.
While you need the My Disney Experience app for everything, you do need to make your park reservations on their website using a web browser and not the app.
Park Protocols
I felt that Disney did a wonderful job of enforcing the protocols they had in place. You had a temperature check before entry and at the bag check they didn’t go through your bag. And this process actually improved between my two visits. In July you had to remove all metal items from your bag and then go through a metal detector with the bag. In August you took nothing out of your bags and went through a new detector with them - and they were able to tell which bag needed to be checked more. I don’t know how this technology worked but I LOVED not having to take the time to get things out of your bag or having the guard go through them. Anywhere were there was a line - or could potentially be a line - Disney had markers on the ground to ensure appropriate social distancing. This went for the ferry ride to Magic Kingdom, line queues, shows, etc. The shows had seats and rows blocked off so you weren’t even remotely close to anyone else. On the rides you often got your own car or had one to two rows separating you from another party.
You had to keep your mask on during any rides or shows. And if you had it off when the Photopass camera went off, they wouldn’t put that picture up in your gallery. Of all the general complaining you will hear about mask wearing I’d say I saw about 98% compliance. And guess who were the small percentage not being compliant? ADULTS. The ones who understand the need for them. 😐 All kids I saw were doing fantastic with wearing them. When cast members asked to guests to put them on it was in a very polite way. They even stopped the train in Animal Kingdom until the random adults put them on. It may have helped that I also pointed at them. 🤷🏼♀️ Was it hot? ABSOLUTELY! August is the most miserable month weather wise in Florida! Did wearing the mask make me feel hotter? Nope. It wasn’t ideal but well worth every bit of annoyance to be able to take advantage of the empty parks.
No Mask No Photopass
Food & Drink
As usual I brought my own water bottle. Normally I’d refill it at the water fountains but opted out of that this time. All you need to do is ask for a cup of water at the counter service restaurants and you can get an ice water for free (this is always the case BTW).
Not all the restaurants were open and the counter service ones that were required you to use mobile order via the My Disney Experience app. When you used it, you had to wait outside until the app told you that your food was ready. It was incredibly easy to find a table with no one else around and I used one of my Clorox wipes to wipe down the table before we ate. It was the same at Epcot for the Taste of Epcot Festival. No mobile ordering was available at the booths but lines were short and there were no issues finding a place away from people once you had your food. Keep in mind that they have now enforced that you must be stationary in the parks when you are eating/drinking with your mask off. When I was there over the second weekend, they had yet to enforce that. We chose to sit with our food and drink anyway but I realized that did make Epcot a bit less fun. But just a bit! We only ate at one sit down restaurant in the parks and it was this month because we desperately needed a break in the ac. If you do go to a sit down spot, I definitely recommend making reservations but even if you can’t get the place you want, just try to walk up for a spot. This is what we did at the Sci Fi Restaurant at Hollywood Studios and only had to wait about 20 minutes.
When we stay by Disney Springs we love going there for a meal. However, we had seen some people post in the first few days that Disney Springs was different than the parks in terms of crowds and compliance. That was to be expected as you don’t need a ticket to enter and not all the shops/ restaurants are owned by Disney. We definitely saw people not wearing masks there and the crowds were far heavier but only in the evening. If you want to go there I suggest getting their right when they open. There are just far less people. For dinner we took food back to the hotel each night that we picked up from Disney Springs. I used the mobile order through the Disney app at D-Luxe Burger one night and online ordering from Polite Pig another. It wasn’t too difficult to find a parking spot on the second level close to the entrance so I didn’t have to walk too far. We just felt more comfortable eating in the hotel room in the evening than at Disney Springs because of the higher crowd levels. One morning we did have brunch at Wine Bar George but made the reservation for 10:30am - right when they opened. We ended up at a table in a room with no one else. Despite knowing we were the first there, they still wiped down the table in front of us and provided small paper bags to put your masks in so they didn’t have to sit on the table. Another option at our hotel was utilizing the Domino’s Kiosk in the lobby. You could order pizza and have it delivered directly to your room. This was super convenient because then we didn’t even have to go anywhere!
Brunch at Wine Bar George was fantastic as usual and they have the best Covid protocols that I’ve seen at any restaurant - Disney or otherwise.
The benefits of going now
The parks were SO EMPTY. If you’ve ever been to a park right at rope drop (recent Hollywood Studios visits aside) the crowds are at their lowest. It felt just like this but ALL DAY LONG. It was amazing. We never waited more than 40 minutes for a ride. At Hollywood Studios we rode Mickey & Minnie’s Railway, Rise of the Resistance, Smuggler’s Run, Slinky Dog Dash AND Toy Story Mania. In less than 5 hours. Not being able to get fast passes let you plan your day however you want. Sometimes with Fast Passes you can zig zag across parks needing to be places at certain times. All this went away. Want to ride Mine Train right now? Okay. Want to ride it again? No problem! With no park hopping you knew you had all day to be at that park. So your time there never felt rushed. And despite the shorter opening hours you have plenty of time to do everything you want because of the low wait times. While they aren’t having parades or fireworks they have mini parades that are unannounced and awesome and I hope they never stop. Mickey and Minnie welcomed guests to Magic Kingdom from atop the train station platform in their 90th birthday outfits, Buzz Lightyear cruised in a matching convertible in Hollywood Studios, Pocahontas was seen gliding along the river with Meeko in Animal Kingdom and Pooh was spotted chasing butterflies in Epcot (which I sadly missed).
Bottom Line
Only go if YOU feel that it is safe enough.. A lot of people I follow on Instagram were there over the course of the opening week and their reactions were a wide range. I was glad for that because I wasn’t just seeing one side of things. Some were extremely cautious even leaving Magic Kingdom on their first day due to a longer than expected line (and a line like that was never seen again because Disney fixed whatever they needed to to make it work). Some people I watched spent as long as possible in the parks and plenty of time in Disney Springs. And after watching how those opening days went, we felt comfortable going, so we went. In terms of the choices I made there, I felt I was in the middle of those two groups of people I watched on Instagram. I wasn’t overly paranoid but I was conscious of each decision. Disney always does things absolutely first class so I suspected this would be the same and I was right. Disney got a LOT of crap for opening up but no one bothered to mention that Universal, Legoland and Sea World all opened up about 6 weeks earlier!! I think Disney waiting to open was smart because it helped them figure out what to do to make the parks safe and magical at the same time. And I definitely can’t wait to go back home in the near future.
I mean, SERIOUSLY, this is how empty the parks were. This was around 6pm on a Friday evening.