Disney World Vacay, During COVID 2020

Yes we did it!!!!!

We got the heck out of California and went on a week long trip to Florida.

Hurricane season you say?

Well after months of “lockdown”, still not being able to dine indoors, finally being able to do somethings outside but then weeks and weeks of fires forcing us back inside again due to hazardous air, the mental decline I saw in my children with their BS distance learning, we said screw it. We will chance hurricane weather, because it’s 2020. Why not?

Now I have many many other thoughts I could go into on what I think about distance learning, mask wearing, and the fear driven agenda going on, but the real info I am sharing is our overall Disney World experience.

My family of four has been to Disneyland more times than we can count and we have lived in California forever. So my comparison here is based on almost 40 years of personal Disneyland going experience, compared to Disney World for the first time during the “pandemic”. (Which again, yes there’s a virus, but my kids have gotten sick from going to Disneyland with everyone’s nasty germs during “normal” life, so there’s that.)

IF YOU NORMALLY HATE CROWDS, THIS IS THE TIME TO GO!

The upsides to Disney World:

  • It’s actually open! Disneyland is not.

  • We booked through Disney Vacations and it was about $2,000 less than trying to book air, hotel, and park tickets separately. It was also overall less expensive than when we have looked into going before too.

  • They are not open at full capacity so less crowded.

  • Thanks to “social distancing” you have to stand on designated spots on the ground while in line that are marked 6’ apart. Which I personally LOVED because I hate when weirdos stand too close to you in line for anything!

  • While sitting indoors, YES I SAID INDOORS, every other table is marked off so that people are not sitting right next to you. Which again, I loved!

  • We stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort and from that location you take the bus to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom, then can hop on the Sky tram to Hollywood Studios and Epcot.

  • The buses had groups of seats marked off and only allowed so many people on, had partitions in between marked off seats, and were air conditioned.

  • There’s hand sanitizer stations and hand washing stations EVERY WHERE. Which common guys, we should already be washing our hands normally.

  • There were temperature checks before you could get into any park or the Disney Springs (which is like Downtown Disney), which I actually wouldn’t mind them keeping because like I said, my kids have gotten sick from nasty people’s germs at normal life Disneyland.

  • After all the heat and fires this Summer in California it was awesome to walk around the parks and be enjoying the tropical rain.

  • On the actual rides they left at least one row between you and other people on the ride, or they just gave you the whole ride/boat/seats to your group only.

  • Every so often they close they ride for just a few minutes, usually we were in line and it was no big deal, and they would sanitize the whole ride before letting more people go through. (see video)

The downsides to Disney World:

  • compared to Disneyland, you can’t just walk every where. You have to take a bus or sky tram or boat to get to anything that your hotel is not next too.

  • due to Covid, they are enforcing a SUPER STRICT mask rule. Like you can’t even have your nose poking out or someone will stop you and tell you you tuck it in. Almost like your privates are hanging out. (I kept telling my kids, don’t get caught with your mask/pants down. lol)

  • You can only remove your mask to eat or drink in designated areas only! You can’t be walking around eating or drinking or they will ask you to step off to the side and stop moving while you eat or drink.

  • It’s humid. Try breathing through your mask in humidity and rain too. Can we say waterboarding?

  • It was very dehumanizing to not see smiling faces and there’s of course the difficulty of not being able to understand what people are saying when we all have our faces covered.

  • If it wasn’t for the social distancing rules and they park was open to full capacity I think it would have been miserable. It got a little crowded in the afternoon, but I have no doubt it was nothing compared to normal crowds there, which would be awful.

  • You can only go to one park per day and must reserve which one in advance, with the hours the park is open being limited as well compared to Disneyland.

JUST GO!!!!

Yep. If you are from California and have wanted to go to Disney World at some point in time, I’m telling ya, go now!

If you were wondering which parks to go into, I’d say do a day in all of them because really when will you be back again?

In order of best to least from my crews review-

  1. Magic Kingdom

  2. Epcot

  3. Animal Kingdom

  4. Hollywood Studios

Hollywood Studios got the last rank because it was the MOST crowded with the lease amount of shade. Magic Kingdom was the most like Disneyland and had plenty of shade walking around and while waiting in line. Epcot had great food and was not as crowded. Animal Kingdom was the closest I will ever take my kids to an actual animal safari and there was tons of shade all over the place.

Ok, so hopefully I have given you enough insight as to what Disney World during Covid times looks like!

And seriously, just go.

If I missed any info that you were still wondering about you can totally email me at balancedaylife@gmail.com and I would be happy to answer any other questions you have!

Otherwise go!

And then let me know how it went.

Susan Rogers