We took a family trip to Disney World during COVID 2021. We had a few summer vacations in the works since the moment my husband and I were vaccinated. Life was getting back to normal albeit, it was different, but there was so much progress and we saw glimmers of life before the pandemic started creeping in.
Then a few weeks before our vacation news of the delta variant and cases rising had me questioning the ballsy decision we were making to travel right now. Trust me when I say this, I was and still am incredibly nervous and indecisive on the way the demographic is shifting with delta. Mostly it’s my 4 and 10 year old that I want to protect and worry about constantly.
I had already planned, booked, and paid for a trip that I justified as at any moment we could alter the plans. The beauty of road tripping was that it was all on our watch. There were no flights to catch, I paid for travel insurance, and we would take the trip moment by moment. Two days before we were set to leave, Disney World announced their mask mandate was back. I was happy that DW was implementing some directives and precautions and I was optimistic.
DW was apparently at 30% capacity and we had to make reservations. I am almost certain given the crowds we saw that Disney World the first week of August was way over 30% capacity. With that being said we still felt comfortable with our days at the parks and made our own adjustments to feel like we weren’t just putting our family in a melting pot of COVID.
Disney World during COVID should you go?
There were two instances that stick out where I felt Disney World could have done better.
- Dinosaur at Animal Kingdom: once you get through the winding line you are brought into a room to watch a short clip that gives a story line for the ride. Cast members repeatedly asked us to “fill space” in the room, I have no idea how many people they put in the room at a time, but it was upwards of 50 in that room. Everyone figured out pretty quickly that we would need to exit into another area after the video. The crowd started squeezing their groups towards the exit door. It was weird and honestly even without being in a pandemic people pushing towards anything is not my scene. We hung back and watched some speed walk trying to pass each other and I’m not talking a few giddy kids, it was full grown adults leaving their own teens to push through to the front. There has to be a better way to keep people from being on top of each other to get to the ride.
- Festival of the Lion King at Animal Kingdom. You are ushered to stadium style seating once you get to the area a cast member will direct you to again “fill the space” in each row. They basically want you shoulder to shoulder with the person next to you. Even though you are required to wear a mask the entire time, not everyone did. It looked like a sea of people squished into the rows like sardines as we entered. I wasn’t sure if we would be able to stay the entire show so I quickly asked a cast member if there was seating that would be accessible if we needed to leave early. She happily accommodated and put us at the end of a row which felt less claustrophobic and had us with no one in front of us. I don’t know if they should have skipped rows or at least allowed people to space out, but the lack of space was uncomfortable to watch and I was just glad we didn’t get stuck in the middle of a group and cringed at the idea of it all.
I know it’s all about personal decisions, so we just made sure we did things that didn’t put ourselves in uncomfortable decisions. We ate outdoors, didn’t invade anyones space as much as possible and pretty much kept to ourselves.
Masks On
Don’t forget your mask. Every queue line, indoor area, bathroom, and ride required a mask. It was pretty easy to mask while we were there because the temps were high 80’s, overcast, and breezy. If it had been scorching hot, we may have had different opinions on masks while in queue lines because Florida is just so incredibly hot, but we happily wore our masks.
Is the memory maker worth it?
I didn’t pay for the memory maker and I highly regret it. Photographers are sprinkled through the parks and that means you don’t have to play photographer the entire time. The app tells you where the photogs are so you can map out your day with that included. My one regret was having to get my camera out all the time and not paying for the memory maker. I didn’t realize how many opportunities there would be to see photogs. They even add those magical touches of animation shots. If you connect your family & friends in the app you can all have access to memory maker and even more pictures.
Mobile Orders
Take advantage of the mobile orders. Especially if you have down time in queue lines. You can order ahead and use the app by clicking on the plus sign and then the order food tab. The app then sends you a message telling you what line to get in to and you just show them your order number. If you happen to come up on a long food line check the app, if they do mobile orders, try ordering in line. We got in line for Dole whips and the line was extremely long. I used the app and having only moved up two people I had ordered and received a text to pick up the order at another window and the line was still at a crawl.
Rain all day?
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