Disney World During the Pandemic

• 

• 

What started out as a fun spring break trip for our junior year of college, managed to turn into our fall break trip of senior year. How you may ask, and that is because two days before we were supposed to leave every Disney in the world managed to shut down due to the global pandemic. Changing a whole Disney trip in a matter of one day is exactly how it sounds, stressful and chaotic, but after what felt like days we managed to change our trip to June. This ended up being wishful thinking as well since we then had to change the date again to October, hoping for the best again. Thankfully in October we were able to finally go on our trip that we planned almost a year ago at this point and it was amazing. The four of us were nervous about doing this at first, but we really didn’t have an option with graduation right around the corner and not knowing when we would be able to go again. The correct precautions were taken the whole time by all of us and to our surprise at times in Disney I felt safer than I did in a store here in New Jersey. They were so on top of everything in Disney and nothing was left unnoticed or unaccounted for which made us feel safe the whole time. I’m so happy we decided to go because it was unforgettable and definitely a trip for the books. Since the capacity limits were only around 25% when we went it felt like no one was in the parks at times and it was weird actually being able to walk around without feeling like a sardine in a can. Granted there were some parts of the park that felt more crowded than others, but that only happened when you were in the more bigger areas such as the castle and places to eat. Other than that we just walked around freely and did all the rides we could. How they worked the rides was super smart as well since they moved all of the ride queues to be outside with 6 feet markers in-between where guests stood. Masks were also required the whole time, even while riding the rides. They made sure to shut down each ride for cleaning every 30 minutes as well to ensure cleanliness as much as possible throughout. This did make some wait times longer than others but not by much since they kept everything moving as quickly as possible. Also, a lot of the ride lines were half of what they actually said they were since they didn’t account for the 6 feet markers in-between and they kept the wait-time it would have been if it was a normal day in the park, pre-covid. For example, Test Track said the wait-time was 120 minutes, but in reality it was only around an hour instead. That was also one of the longest queues we stood in since a lot of them managed to be around 30-45 minute waits instead. Another aspect that was implemented in order to keep everyone safe was that the busses to and from hotels to the Disney Parks were marked and blocked off so people weren’t next to each other unless they were in the same party. Disney also took away character meet and greets and the firework shows at night to lessen crowds. This did not take away from the whole experience though because I have luckily seen the firework shows before, and the characters were still social distance driving around the parks in cars or boats waving and saying hello to everyone throughout the day. Since we went during Halloween too we actually still got to see a parade of the villains as well in Magic Kingdom which usually never happens because they rarely make their way out. For Epcot as well since we are all 21 years old we actually got to celebrate their Food and Wine Festival while we were there which was also exciting. Overall, the change in plans ended up working out for the best since it could ensure our safety more than it could have last March and we also got to celebrate not only a holiday down there, but one of their biggest events as well.