Disney World During COVID

“No matter what happens always remember, that it all started with a mouse.” -Walt Disney

After 8 months of no Disneyland and 16 days of my husband being gone on his second wild land fire, I decided it was time for some magic. So I jumped online and found roundtrip airline tickets to Orlando Florida for $84 per person and booked it as fast as you can say Mickey Mouse!;) I missed the parks so much and needed a good dose of Disney to get me through the rest of the year.

I am breaking down this article into 2 parts; the safety precautions that Disney World is taking to keep everyone safe and healthy, then our overall experience while we were there. We did all 4 parks in about 5 days, with one rest day in the middle.

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Safety Precautions:

*Lower park capacity – Each park is only allowed to have a certain number of reservations per day. So you will have to not only purchase a ticket, but then reserve a spot for which park you want to attend on each day. You can do all of that on the Disney World app.

*Face Masks for all employees and park goers – You must wear a face mask unless seating having a snack or drinking.

*Temperature checks – Each member of your group/family will have to pass a temperature check before entering any park or Disney Springs.

*Lines spread out/distanced – Each line, whether it is for a ride or for food, you will find markings on the ground to make sure groups are staying 6 ft. apart.

*Partitions in cues – They have added tall partitions in lines to help keep people more separated.

*Mobile Ordering only at most walk up restaurants – to reduce contact, most walk up restaurants are only doing mobile ordering. I’ve always been a fan of moiling ordering so that you don’t have to wait in a long line. My tip would be to order your food well in advance of “rush hour” times otherwise you could be waiting for a while.

*Tables for eating spread further apart and wiped down more frequently – I saw cast members constantly wiping down surfaces and making sure things were sanitized.

*No large parades, shows or fireworks to avoid large gatherings of people in one place – Although there were no scheduled parades or shows, there were still some “surprise” calvacades.

*Designated mask break areas with ground markings to have people spread out 6ft. apart – We found a great break area inside the Star Wars Launch Bay at Hollywood Studios. We were able to sit inside with air conditioning and have a snack. You can find these break areas at each park.

Overall Experience:

So, how was our overall experience? It was…different. Let me explain. We have been to Disney World with the kids twice before this trip and have had pretty incredible experiences. From using fast passes to avoid long lines, to snagging some awesome dining reservations, to hugging our favorite characters, to watching the best fireworks ever! Our trips to DisneyWorld have been nothing less than pure magic.

Before I go any further, let me just say that I am the type of person who always looks for the good in things. I choose to see the glass as half full, but I also want to be as informative as possible for anyone considering or about to go to DisneyWorld. Also, these are just my opinions/experiences, which will be different for other people.

This trip was STILL MAGICAL, but different. We had to plan out our day by watching wait times for lines because there are no fast passes. We had to hunt down open restaurants for food since not all of them are currently open. There were no fireworks or large performances to watch and no characters to hug. It was, at times, a hard pill to swallow. It was also difficult to hear over the loud speaker every 10-15 minutes that if you are not properly wearing your face mask, you could be asked to leave. It seemed to put a bit of a damper on the mood (again, this is just my opinion). I also just missed seeing the kids expressions when they had their masks on, so we had to make sure to take a lot of snack breaks (the only time you are allowed to take off your mask).

Now, if you had never had any previous experience you may not notice the things that we did. There are still “character experiences” where you might see a character waving from a balcony, or spontaneously riding down Main Street. Every ride was open and running, you just had to be patient if there was a long line. There were also still a few shows, which I will highlight below, so for the first timer, nothing may seem amiss.

Here are some of the highlights that I believe the Disney company is doing the best they can with a sticky situation…

*You can still see CHARACTERS you just don’t know exactly where or when. Because they are trying to avoid large crowds from gathering they can’t advertise a certain character to be in a specific spot. Employees can give you a general idea of where and when to try to see a family favorite character. I found the Winnie the Pooh gang hanging out near Main St. at Magic Kingdom.

We lucked out, especially at Magic Kingdom, they had lots of “Character Calvacades,” which are like a miniature size parades. We were able to see Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, all the Princesses and even Santa. I cried as they played music and saw these characters slowly going past us on Main Street.

At Animal Kingdom they had characters going down the river in boats waving to people, but they sailed by pretty quickly it was hard to even get a photo. At Hollywood Studios they had Santa rolling down Main Street with a few dancers, which we really enjoyed. There were also a few Star Wars characters on higher grounds that we could wave to from a distance. At Epcot we did happen to catch Mary Poppins tucked in the England area, there might have been others, but because they are not advertised anywhere, it is easy to miss.

*There are still a few live SHOWS you can catch at some of the parks and they were a real treat for us. We love live entertainment and Disney always does it so well, which is why I was so happy there were still a few options. At Hollywood Studios we stumbled upon the Frozen Sing-a-long at Hollywood Studios, it wasn’t on the app, but showtimes were listed outside the theater. Same thing for the Disney Junior Dance Party, it wasn’t advertised on the app, but it was running throughout the day. We have that one at Disneyland, so we opted for the Frozen sing-a-long and it was EXCELLENT! I highly recommend going, there were even live characters in the show.

There is also the Lightening Mcqueen show at Hollywood Studios that is super cute for little ones. At Animal Kingdom we stumbled upon the bird show and that was a HUGE HIT with our entire family! I highly recommend going and seeing these amazing birds do unbelieveable tricks.

At Epcot the Beauty and the Beast Sing-a-long is still running, back in the France area. We went to this last time and the kids enjoyed it. There are no live actors in it, unlike the Frozen one, but it’s still cute.

*ALL RIDES ARE OPEN & wait times are typically shorter than what is posted on the app. Don’t get me wrong, not every line was shorter, but I would say 7 out of 10 times we waited a shorter amount of time.

*Other highlights…We got to ride Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway for the first time and it was fantastic! The visuals were so awesome, the ride is so smooth and it even had some unexpected twists and turns. I highly recommend riding it. Our wait time did say 110 minutes, but we probably only waited a little over an hour.

I am so glad we got to visit our Happy Place, but I do think we will wait until things (hopefully) get back to normal a bit more the next time we go. If we lived closer I probably wouldn’t have the same feelings, but because we have to fly all the way across the country, that is another reason why I think we will wait.

Wondering where to stay on your next visit? Check out our stay at The Riviera Hotel or The Four Seasons Orlando. I also have lots of other helpful tips for must do items at each Disney World park, you can check them out HERE.

What do you think? Would you like to visit Disney World right now?