Being back in Florida for the winter, we had a couple of weeks planned in the Orlando area as John’s sister, Angie, has a condo nearby. The twins were about to turn four, and we wanted to celebrate their birthday in true princess style. We had heard visiting Disney World during the pandemic meant less crowded parks and shorter ride lines, which sounds magical to me!

“I was ready to brave a visit to Disney World with visions of many more magical moments.”

Full disclosure, I am not much of an amusement park fan. We visited Disney World in early January 2020 with the entire Nens Family, and it happened to be one of the busiest days of the year – literally – they closed the park to more guests! Basically, my definition of a nightmare is waiting in a 3-hour line for Dumbo! But the girls got to meet Merida, the curly-haired Pixar princess from Brave, and had a magical moment where the princess kissed them on the forehead. Seeing the girls’ faces light up gave me my first Disney Magical moment! I was ready to brave a visit to Disney World with visions of many more magical moments.

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Top Things you need to know before you visit Disney World

If you plan on visiting Disney World during Covid, you need to be aware of new park guidelines and rules. Disney has taken many measures to enhance health and safety measures.

Enhanced Cleaning

Cleaning procedures are enhanced throughout the Walt Disney World Resort. Extra attention is given to high-traffic areas, handrails, benches, tables, handles, restrooms, and more. While we were there, we saw many cast members cleaning and disinfecting throughout the park.

Physical Distancing

Disney has updated the term “social distancing” to physical distancing, which sounds better. We can still be social but at a distance. I like the idea but found cast members to be less social than ever before.

Disney has added several new physical distancing measures, which include:

• Signage and Ground Markings: those little stickers telling you where to stand.
• Physical Barriers: the plexiglass around cashiers.
• Parking: cars are asked to park every other spot, nice when you have a gigantic truck. But they don’t have the parking trams, so be prepared to walk a long way from the parking lot.
• Training: Cast Members are trained to engage with Guests and promote physical distancing guidelines in common areas and queues. This means you won’t see any of the characters milling about with guests: no meet and greets, no autographs.

Park Reservations

Park attendance is managed via the Disney Park Pass reservation system—To enter a park, both a park reservation and valid admission for the same park on the same date are required.

This means you have to go online and purchase tickets and then reserve the day you want to go. Some parks may be at park capacity on the day you want to visit – like Hollywood Studios, which is in demand because of the new Star Wars rides.

Face Coverings

Disney states: “Face coverings are required for all Guests (ages 2 and up). You must wear masks at all times, except when dining or swimming.”

This means, when you exit your car in the parking lot, you need to be wearing a mask and cannot remove it until you leave the parking lot. The only exception to the rule is if you are actively eating or drinking, but you should be stationary and cannot walk around the park eating a corndog sans the mask. 

I get we live in a new world controlled by masks, and I wear my mask. This is Disney’s strictest rule, and while we were visiting the park over three days, we witnessed several cast members challenge guests about their proper mask-wearing, including my still three-year-old daughter Daisy. Twice her mask slipped down to her nose. Twice she was “yelled” at to put her mask up. I feel a cast member could have addressed the issue to me as the parent or said something nice like, “Hey princess, don’t forget to keep your nose covered with your mask!”

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Temperature Screenings

You will be required to undergo a temperature screening with no-touch thermometers before entry to Disney World, including Disney Springs area and table-service restaurants at Disney Resort hotels. We found the line to move quickly and not be a big deal.

My Disney Experience App

If you don’t already have the My Disney Experience app, I strongly recommend that you have the latest version of this app on your phone before leaving for the park. Disney requires the use of the app in many areas, most especially for food service. While I can see this being an issue for older guests, I rather enjoyed ordering food ahead of time and arriving to pick it up.

Disney Mobile App is handy for:

• Mobile Order Service for Dining: Save time at select dining locations using mobile order service. We were not allowed to enter a restaurant unless our order was already placed and in the queue.
• Table Service Restaurant Menus: Not only can you see the menu with a scan code, but you can also make reservations or be added to the waitlist for restaurants such as “Be Our Guest” and “Cinderella’s Castle.”
• Online Check-In at Disney Resort Hotels: When your room is ready, you’ll get a room-ready notification. You can then use either a MagicBand or the app’s digital key feature to enter your room!
• See Line Wait Times: Check out the queue line wait times before hiking across the park to find out “It’s a Small World” has an hour wait. We were able to run around to the 10-15 minute wait rides and skipped any long lines.
• Park Maps: you can see park maps and your current location. The app has a feature giving directions on how to get to areas in the park. Handy for when your hubby asks how to get somewhere – I looked like a Disney genius!

Limited Capacity

This may seem like a deterrent, but I rather like the idea of limited capacity at the parks. We found the reservation system easy to use and we were flexible enough to play around with the dates to visit Disney World.

Disney at one time stated they were at 25% capacity over the summer. Since then, they have slowly dialed up the attendance around the holidays. We benefited from this increased capacity as we originally were not able to make Hollywood Studios reservations. But when Disney released more capacity, we were able to snag a reservation. I don’t think Disney is saying what the capacity is now, but I would guess it’s around sixty percent, based on how quickly lines form. We would easily see lines over a 1-hour wait within five minutes of a park opening.

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Not available at Disney

With the increased capacity, the benefit of visiting Disney World during a pandemic diminishes. I’m not too fond of crowds and found visiting early December in the middle of the week to be more crowded than expected. Yet, many attractions and things are still not available to guests “due to Covid.” We found the following areas to be unavailable:

• Impossible Virtual Queue: you are allowed to do a virtual queue specifically for the Star Wars Ride, but only this ride. You must have a ticket and reservation. In your app at 7:00 am on the day of your reservation for Hollywood Studios, you may press the button to try and join the virtual queue. Good Luck, as I pressed the button at exactly 7:00:00 and then 7:00:01, 7:00:05, 7:00:07, and 7:00:11. At 7:00:12, I was told the virtual queue was closed. In 12 seconds, all the spots were gone. No worries, Disney says, you have another chance to try a 2:00 pm. I tried again with similar results. Fortunately, no one in our family is Star Wars crazy, so there were no tears….but I am preparing you now if this will be the case in your family!
• Things were closed – We found many things closed like shops, little food kiosks, or certain restaurants. I get Disney is not at full capacity and therefore may not have the cast members to staff everything, but I also am not getting a discount on entrance tickets and would expect 100% of the park available as I am paying 100% of the price!

So many “No’s”

• No Park Hopping – I’m not a park hopper kind of girl, but if I wanted to jump over to Epcot after the morning a Magic Kingdom, park hopping is forbidden. Update: This is rumored to change in April 2021 with a few new rules.
• No Fast Passes – Forget about making plans for fast passes. Disney states the areas dedicated to Fast Passes are needed for longer line queues to accommodate physical distancing. While there, we found this rule wasn’t exactly true for everyone. If you are traveling with a disabled guest, you were allowed to use the Fast Pass line. If you had purchased a VIP experience (meaning you shelled out mucho dinero), you could use the Fast Pass line. We also heard, starting early in 2021, guests staying on property will be able to make Fast Pass reservations.
• No parades – Don’t expect to see any Disney parades. Parades have been canceled as they don’t want crowds forming. On occasion, they will do surprise pop-up parades, but these are not announced beforehand, nor is the route. So if you happen to be in the right place at the right time, you will see a very scaled-down version of a small parade.

Not done with the “No’s”

• No characters – As addressed before, the days of having your princess or prince run up and hug Cinderella or Buzz Light Year are over. You will not see any characters except maybe a quick wave from Mickey far, far away in Cinderella’s castle. So strange to wander the park and not see Belle, Minnie Mouse, or even Goofy!
• No 🎆Fireworks – Much like the parade issue, Disney has canceled all fireworks (think how much money they are saving – seems like they could afford to staff closed areas fully!) due to not wanting crowds to form. The same goes for many of the little shows. We did find shows with theatre seats were available with a group of four seated together. Note: families with more than four will have to separate during the show.
• No parking trams – This one really aggravated me. What is with not having the parking trams? Can’t they physically distance guests as they do on the amusement park rides? It seems like a great way to make a bad first and last impression for guests who have spent a lot of money on a “magical vacation .”

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BDA Tips for your visit to Disney World

Few quick tips we learned during our days at Disney:

Prepare beforehand

• Florida Pass – For those with a residence or domicile in Florida, Disney offers discounted tickets. You can enjoy 4 days of theme pars fun for $50 a day (total of $199 plus tax). Get Details (For those looking at where to domicile if you are a full-time family, Florida might be attractive for discounts like these!)
• Get there early – Plan on getting everyone up early and kiddos loaded in the car. You can park and get to the gate to try and be one of the first through the gate when the park opens. This isn’t just for a pandemic, but you want to make sure to take advantage of the “limited capacity” and fewer people to fight for the first chance at popular rides.
• Skip the super popular rides – This sounds like I am being Scrooge, but if you want to maximize your ride time with littles, skip the popular rides and hit up all the lesser know rides and attractions. Rides like “Aladdin’s Carpet Ride” or “Winnie the Pooh” delighted our girls, and they didn’t even know they missed “Space Mountain.”

Things to bring to Disney World

• Take a stroller – Even if your tykes are on the cusp (like four-year-olds) of being too old for a stroller, there is a ton of walking. At Animal Kingdom, my smartwatch logged 5 miles. We took the stroller to mitigate whining and having to carry tired feet. Plus, the stroller gives kids like Daisy, who don’t love the stimuli all the time, a chance to escape in a little stroller cave. Note: Disney does require strollers to be parked in designated stroller parking, or they will move it for you. Also, no strollers are allowed in ride queues. Be sure to put a big sign with your name on the stroller, as there will be 102 strollers looking exactly like yours.
• Snacks – Thank you, Disney, for your generous policy for outside food allowed. We brought lots of snacks and drinks. I know families who pack a lunch too. This not only saves a ton of money, but it helps keep cranky kids (or hungry hubby’s) from going ballistic.
• Happy Campers Only – Make sure you have the right attitude before going to Disney. I admit, last year I had a bad attitude because I knew how crowded it would be. I didn’t have a joyful heart, and because of it, I soured not only my experience but also those around me (sorry, Nens Family!). This year, even with all the new rules, I was determined to have a good attitude. As I tell the girls, “Only happy campers allowed” at Disney. So if you are not prepared to joyfully wear masks, physically distance, or walk a ton, then you may want to skip Disney. With my attitude adjustment in place, we really enjoyed seeing Dinsey through the eyes of our daughters, Brighton and Daisy.

Overall Experience 

You may be nervous visiting Disney World during a pandemic, but rest assured Disney is doing a great job of protecting guests’ health with enhanced safety measures. I am glad we experienced Disney as the girls were really looking forward to their visit. Masks didn’t seem to diminish any delight in seeing the “real Cinderella Castle” or riding on Dumbo.

My unsolicited feedback for Disney World is they need to find their own “happy camper attitudes.” I feel like some of the magic is lacking from the cast members. Between the masks and shields, it was difficult to hear them, let alone see them smile. We witnessed several Disney “police” the policies and safety guidelines in not a very friendly way – yelling at guests, barking orders, pointing, and just in general not give a friendly vibe. I was actually quite shocked as this goes against Disney’s core values and cast member training! Even with a mask, you can still “smeyes” – smile with your eyes and have kind words for fellow guests.

And really, that’s good advice for everyone in 2021. “Smeyes” and have kind words so we can all enjoy Bright Dais Ahead!

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What has been your experience at Disney since Covid?