In summary: We went to Walt Disney World in January 2021, while our world was entrenched in the Covid pandemic. Despite all our fun (and we did have lots of fun), we felt the impact that Covid has had on the Happiest Place On Earth more than we expected.
Our original Disney blueprint had been to set up camp for two weeks in January at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground, an early leg on our full-time RVing adventure. We wanted to give our six newly adulting children a really fun reason to visit us! When Covid crushed upon the earth, Disney World closed and we decided that even when it reopened, we would postpone any unnecessary plane travel for our loved ones until we had more answers, safety protocols or even a vaccine. If we were going to visit WDW, this trip would have to be without our long-distance loved ones.
Months later, when we had fully launched our FT RV life, I kept an eye on information coming out of newly reopened Disney. I held off on cancelling the Fort Wilderness Campground reservations. What I read and saw was really positive. It appeared that in addition to establishing strong policies to assure guest and cast member safety, they were also taking that important step and HOLDING THE LINE with enforcement of their safety policies! In true Disney fashion, we found that they were doing what we wished that many other big businesses would do (are you listening Walmart and Sheetz?).
I was convinced. We purchased a four-day park pass and kept our entire two week campground reservations in place for January 2021. At the end of our fourth day in the parks, we felt absolutely comfortable and safe with our experience, and extended our park fun for four more days with another four day park pass that was now even more deeply discounted (FL residents, $199 per person!). From a safety perspective, they have this thing pretty darn well figured out. That safety comes at a price, however.
At the end of this blog post is the detailed break-down of our experiences, but here is the BOTTOM LINE:
If you are “Disney-experienced” and simply looking to fill your Disney-love tank, a trip to Walt Disney World during Covid precautions may be a great option that is more affordable than ever. Go for it! However, if you are a Disney Novice or Disney Virgin, I would advise that patience is important – wait a while for our post-Covid world to emerge before visiting (sorry, Disney) to fully experience the magical world of Walt Disney World.
To be clear, we are not “Disney Super Fans”, but we are both fairly Disney-experienced. My DH, Andrew, had previously been to WDW on three occasions – a trip for each child in his growing family – the late 90s, and twice in the early 2000s. Each time they stayed in a different hotel on Disney property, and each trip was in the busy summer season.
I have been blessed to have the opportunity to travel to Disney nine times in my life, spanning a variety of “life phases” – as a child, a teenager, as a young adult, as a parent and now as an empty-nester!
When my husband, Andrew (married five years in August 2020!) and I ventured to the Happiest Place on Earth in Jan 2021, this was going to be a very different trip in several ways. We knew Covid would have an impact on our experience, but we were very excited (perhaps me a bit more than him!) to “do Disney” as empty-nesters – sans ANY kid’s influences or interests! YIPPEE (Sorry kids, it was also great when we took you as little ones to the land of Mickey Mouse, but being in our nearly-mid-fifties now, we were ready to explore it all as just a couple, making all decisions just for our own enjoyment!)!
There are many things at Disney that are blissfully the same in a Covid world. First among them is that cast members continue to amaze us with their courtesy, kindness and expert guest services. So if you go, know that we observed cast members that checked off all the stellar service boxes that we have come to expect from WDW. We chatted with young and not-so-young, including some that had previously been “separated” from the company (aka laid off) in 2020, and even others that were still separated and hoped to return (we met them off property, of course). They were all pleased to be a part of the organization and focused on doing a good job.
The only difference that we noticed as it relates to cast members, was in EPCOT. The international flair, complete with cast members from around the world and working in their native “EPCOT country” was missing a bit. Missing were the foreign accents and opportunities to chat with cast members from Norway or Italy (we did meet a gentleman in EPCOT Japan that was a native of Japan, and we had one server in EPCOT UK that also must have emigrated to the US, because we noticed her beautiful lilting English accent. Overall, however, the park felt much less international. The reasons are obvious (folks just cannot travel internationally and get work visas like they used to), but we had not anticipated how that would make our visit to EPCOT feel noticeably different.
Similarly, the complement of guests in the park was missing so many international guests, that on the rare occasion we overheard another language being spoken, it stood out more than in previous trips. I don’t know the current statistics, but I would imagine that a much larger percentage of guests today are actually residents of central Florida (not a bad thing, just different!).
So what else was missing and different? Here is the quick list: no fireworks, no laser/night shows, no parades, no street performances, no “single rider” lines, no Fastpass, limited Park Hopper hours, no new Annual Passholder sales, no Extra Magic Hours, many closed stores, many closed food options, limited transportation options, no dining plans, no pop-up street performances or entertainment, shorter park hours, no character visits, and many closed live shows (Mermaid, Nemo, Lion King, etc).
Disney has made some good attempts to keep some of the feel of these missing components alive in our visits. They have surprise “cavalcades” that pop up in each park every hour or so, with several characters, music and waving from a distance. They are gone again before any crowds can gather dangerously. Also, there are secret corners where some characters are strategically placed at a distance, while guests stand perhaps 15 feet in the foreground to have their photo taken “with” the Disney princess or character of their dreams.
The challenge that is created with all of these missing magical Disney pieces is that the remaining attractions have much longer lines than might be expected for a park that isn’t even 35% filled (Disney’s current park capacity limit during Covid). We were in the parks on weekdays in the middle of January, for a total of eight days. On some of those days, the most popular attractions had 65-95 minute waits! Even some of the less popular attractions on those days also had what seemed longer than they might normally be in January, at 20-30 minutes. We also had some good luck – there was one day in Animal Kingdom where we could walk on to nearly every attraction with hardly any wait at all! We couldn’t figure out the Covid trick to make sure we were in the right park on the right day (I used one of the Disney Crowd Calculators available online to pick “historically least crowded” days and parks, but clearly, those tools are less useful during a pandemic).
Disney has started to pivot somewhat on their various requirements, and are getting push-back in every direction. Some reports indicate that they have started loading every row on a ride, something that we saw very little of on our visit (but I did see it on Expedition Everest). These changes are surely to try to reduce wait times for attractions, but may come at the cost of people no longer feeling safe (or worse yet, not ACTUALLY being as safe). It is all part of the delicate balance Disney is trying to find to remain open and mitigate their massive financial losses.
Here is a another quick list of things you may want to note if you decide to visit Mickey during Covid:
- Mickey doesn’t wear a mask. It seems that Disney will make sure you will never get within six feet (probably not even within 15 feet) of any Disney star, so don’t worry about any unintended virus sharing with the characters, lol.
- Mobile food ordering is the way to go when your stomach starts to growl. If there isn’t a crowd, it seems that at least some of the take-out food kiosks would also take your order in person, but be prepared to order on your mobile phone if you want to have a shorter wait (you can order food for a future time and then just update your order online when you have “arrived” to pick up your food.
- You really are not permitted to be moving while eating or drinking (no standing in line for an attraction while eating or drinking either). Don’t bother to try – we saw active enforcement of some of the sneakier guests. Late in our visit, we discovered a little trick – use eating and drinking time as an opportunity to snap a couple of photos without a mask on. Find a pretty place to sit/stand and eat/drink, then also snap some photos while there! Update: In February 2021, WDW further updated their mask requirements to state that while at your table, waiting to order, or waiting for food, you must still wear your mask.
- You may not remove your mask for photos (or for any other reason other than while standing still while actively eating or drinking. Not on rides, not for a Disney Photopass photographer, not in front of the castle or anywhere else! We also saw active enforcement of this rule and have also been told that any ride photos without masks will NOT be made available to guests! Each day is a long day with a mask on ALL. DAY. LONG. (I have renewed appreciation for anyone that works every day in a job that requires them to wear a mask). Disney is surely receiving some push-back on this rule, but after living through 14 days on property, I cannot see how this rule could be relaxed any time soon, especially as the parks start to hit their 35% capacity in spring and summer. It is a slippery slope, and there just isn’t enough physical space to assure enough distance between people, be they guests or cast members. As much as I want better photos, masks are unfortunately going to be needed in our everyday lives for quite some time.
- If you are part of a group, you may very well be split up for attractions. Many of the theatre seats are set up for parties of four, so if you are a family of five or more, you will need to decide quickly how you want to be split when entering the attraction.
- I am not sure if this is accurate, or simply my perception, but it seems that there are more attractions closed for “refurbishment” than I recall from past visits. When we were there, the entire train station at the front of Magic Kingdom was covered in a giant tarp (which was beautifully decorated like the train station it covered). The trains were obviously not running also. Additionally, Tom Sawyer Island and all the surrounding water was under refurbishment. It was jarring to see the previously giant body of water turned into a pit of dirt and construction vehicles. Tom Sawyer Island, the giant paddleboat and the rafts that ferried guests to the island were all missing. Most of the front of EPCOT was covered by construction-hiding walls. This is a huge project and will be gorgeous when complete, but certainly made the first half of EPCOT fairly unimpressive. Refurbishment is a necessary part of life, but it certainly seemed to be easy to spot and had a large visual impact on the luster of Walt Disney World.
- The pre-show of many rides was eliminated. Because the queues need to make sure guests do not come within six feet of each other, they need to wind in, out, around and through some unusual places. While waiting in line for Peter Pan’s flight, part of our line weaved through the closed quick-serve restaurant next door. This need for space and distance means that the pre-show of the Haunted Mansion is eliminated. No stopping in the room where the ceiling stretches higher in front of your eyes before getting in your ghostmobile. The line just walks you straight through the room…it’s a bummer. Similarly with the Tower of Terror, Test Track, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and many more – no pre-show. These are some of the details that make WDW stand out as the best amusement park out there. Each attraction has a story to tell and creates a mood and anticipation as you wait in line. We weren’t expecting it, and we really missed it.
- The shorter hours and lack of Extra Magic Hours made each day a much longer day. Strategy for a good day at the park for me pre-Covid included an early start to the day in a park, followed by a midday break back at our campsite or hotel for lunch and a rest, and then a 2nd visit to a park (the same one or a hopper to a 2nd location), to enjoy the park as many guests were leaving. With much shorter hours (even for January), and longer lines (for January), our park visits turned into one long trip, more eating out (without a dining plan option to save a bit), and no break in between. We headed home each day, greatly missing the evening “big show” – no fireworks, no laser show, no big finale to give you those magical Disney goosebumps.
Now that Disney is gearing up for their busier and warmer time of the year, I cannot imagine how much more crowded the parks are going to feel, even with their continued limited capacity. It will be tougher to be “safely distant” from others, and it will be really tough wearing a mask for eight or more hours, from hotel door – to hotel door in the humidity and heat of central Florida.
Disney is doing it all the right way. They are doing it all very well, in really difficult circumstances. What had been my biggest concern when visiting, SAFETY, was barely a concern at all (although it did get uncomfortably jammed in the Magic Kingdom with the many families with strollers and little ones zigging and zagging all around)!
However, with the aforementioned changes they needed to implement to assure our safety (and be allowed to even open), there was enough missing Pixie Dust for us to say “We REALLY look forward to returning. We hope that our world will bounce back to our next “new normal” quickly…and we will be thrilled to return after Covid no longer has quite as strong of a stronghold on their operations”.
Walt Disney himself was right about what they do – then, now – in a pandemic, and in the future: “We create happiness”. Thanks, Walt!
Whether you find your happiness in a trip to WDW during Covid, or decide to be patient and instead find happiness in the PLANNING of a future trip when some of these limitations can be lifted, we hope you enjoy it all!
Safe travels, to infinity and beyond!
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