August 2020 Reservations-still going?

[P'colaBeachBum]

I had a late August trip that was a rescheduled trip from April and I canceled it—for the good of society, I think the goal should be to reduce community spread as much as possible before school and flu season starts. That being said, while I recognize other people have a different tolerance for risk (or a different assessment re: the risks involved), saying that “Disney could be the safest place on earth” is just not reality based. And I feel like being fact and reality based is more important than ever now! A vacation in a theme park in Florida, a COVID hot spot, in a country where 41/50 states are facing increases in cases, is just...not the safest thing to do. Even if cases in FL start to decrease, they certainly won’t be flattened like NY now is by next month. If people want to accept the risk, it’s of course their prerogative! But framing it as potentially the safest place or thinking there’s some anti-COVID bubble that protects tourists in it is odd to me.

I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out why people in states that are doing better want to rush into a Covid hotspot to vacation. Most of our stores here are now requiring masks to enter. I wish there was a mask mandate for the entire state of Fl.

 

[Figvention]

I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out why people in states that are doing better want to rush into a Covid hotspot to vacation. Most of our stores here are now requiring masks to enter. I wish there was a mask mandate for the entire state of Fl.

This times 1,000

 

[ScubaCat]

I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out why people in states that are doing better want to rush into a Covid hotspot to vacation. Most of our stores here are now requiring masks to enter. I wish there was a mask mandate for the entire state of Fl.

We have pretty much reached full community spread. Adjusting your life based on a paint by numbers map to avoid the darker squares is getting a little silly. My state and county is lighter on many of those maps but it means nothing. Your odds depends on your behavior, not a map with intense background music and a TV news person trying to scare us.

 

[ScubaCat]

I wore a mask yesterday to. It’s made it pretty hot around my face from my breath. I think I will be going to every resting place at Disney to take my mask off

I'll see you there! Heat exhaustion is my big concern. I'm a northerner so adjusting to the heat is a challenge even without the mask. I'm sure I'll have spent time in and be very familiar with many of those areas by the end of my visit.

Well crazy how life works, we are rescheduling not because of Covid, but because I’m in the hospital for a severe herniated disk. Don’t think it would be wise to go walk around theme parks after this. Have fun you guys! We are probably rescheduling for next year.

Yeah, I think that'd be a deal breaker for me, too . Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

 

[Jen81NYC]

We have pretty much reached full community spread. Adjusting your life based on a paint by numbers map to avoid the darker squares is getting a little silly. My state and county is lighter on many of those maps but it means nothing. Your odds depends on your behavior, not a map with intense background music and a TV news person trying to scare us.

I truly don’t want this to get off-topic but this is just not true and I really think it’s important to stick to the facts. Again, if people want to visit in August because they’ve fully accepted the risks, that’s one thing. But trying to twist the facts is not a responsible approach—suggesting peak community spread has been reached is like suggesting we’re at herd immunity and we are nowhere near that. One’s risk depends on *both* one’s behavior *and* the prevalence of the virus in one’s area. The more people in one’s area have it, the higher the chance that even relatively low risk behavior could expose you to somebody infected. By contrast, if community spread is very low, even riskier behavior like indoor dining or an indoor party may not lead to interacting with an infected person, because there are so few infected people. This is why in some other countries where they’ve been much more successful in suppressing the virus, life is, for now at least, relatively back to normal.

 

[Randy Miller]

We cancelled . Really wanted to go. We were bringing our 2 foster dudes, but the county we are in ( the foster care department of CPS) is not allowing the children in foster care to leave the state . We were also scheduled at AKL Kidani and there really just weren’t enough QS options for us. I know that’s a weird, but we like to grab a QS breakfast in the morning, then like to be able to get lunch or dinner while little ones are at the pool or napping. So, with those 2 things in play ( plus most TS menus limited, or closed...Jiko and Boma ) we just opted to try again next year.

 

[puffkin]

Thanks for the first hand updates on the planes. We aren't worried about the parks for our trip, we practice good COVID precautions everyday here with hand sanitizer/washing, masks, and distancing. My only real concern about the trip was the airplane. We are flying Southwest so we know we will get 2 sets of seats to ourselves (4 of us) and I plan to wipe down the armrests, belt buckles, trays, etc with my own wipes. Something I have learned during all this is to take precautions into our own hands and not just expect someone else to do it for us! We are Disney veterans, so if something doesn't feel safe, we will move onto something else. We have prepped our kids about that as well.

 

[dreynolds1982]

I will say this, just looking at numbers in a state doesn't tell the full story. It's not like just crossing the state lines into Florida is gonna get you sick. There are still LOTS of ways you can minimize your risk. As someone who lives in a pretty dang hot hotspot (Charleston, SC), a lot of the increase in numbers are due to younger people (30 and under) being irresponsible, going to crowded bars/clubs, parties, etc. We've made the decision that hiding in our houses waiting for this to go away ain't going to work, BUT we still 100% want to be as safe as we can reasonably be. So, we wear our masks, wash our hands, use our best judgement to avoid situations we don't think are safe, etc. We go to a restaurant that isn't socially distancing, we'll go elsewhere. We see a big group of people clumped together, we walk the other way. With the extensive precautions they're taking, I honestly think theme parks like WDW and UO are safer than a lot of grocery stores or gas stations I've been to.

At the end of the day, yes, there's risk involved no matter what you're doing, short of just staying at home, but if you're smart and responsible, you can really minimize that risk not only for yourself, but for others, while still living your life and maybe having a little fun too.

 

[maryj11]

We have made our final decision for our August 6-12 trip. We are going! We have masks, but would like some more comfortable ones.
We have alcohol wipes to wipe plane trays, arm rest,and whatever I think we need to. We are only doing carry on bags so we won’t have to go to baggage claim.
We have plenty of hand sanitizer and plan to social distance as much as possible.
We made dining reservations at off times like 2:00 or 3:00 hoping not to many people will be in there.

 

[MomOTwins]

The whole airplane sanitizing thing cracked me up a little because I've been taking sanitizing wipes to wipe down armrests and tray tables for years. I WISH people had to wear masks on planes all the time and that they would space out seats like SW is effectively doing with the no middle seats rule--the number of times I've been stuck on a long flight right next to a person coughing and sneezing all over me... ugh. Going to be kind of nice to travel with some actual safety measures in place for once!

We're still on track to go in August. The main factors that push me to continue to want to go are the (1) 35% discount we got from free dining; (2) low wait times on rides; and (3) the need for a little joy in our lives after a very hard year that included me being horribly ill for two months (see next paragraph) and us missing out on three planned vacations, and (4) celebrating a big milestone birthday for our DH as well as two other birthdays in our family and our wedding anniversary (we call it our "birth-iversary week").

Full disclosure, we THINK we have immunity from getting it in March/April so that makes us more comfortable than most, though I know people are saying there are no guarantees that having it once makes you immune (though those same people seem to be holding out for a vaccine, which I don't understand, since a vaccine works by causing you to produce antibodies too). And we have work-from-home jobs so have no issues self-quarantining 14 days upon our return.

We have masks, but would like some more comfortable ones.

I think the consensus seems to be that disposable ones are the comfiest on hot days. I've definitely found those feel easy to breath in. Plus no need for laundry and if they get wet or the elastic snaps, they are easy to replace with another.

 

[CAQDaddy]

Thanks for the first hand updates on the planes. We aren't worried about the parks for our trip, we practice good COVID precautions everyday here with hand sanitizer/washing, masks, and distancing. My only real concern about the trip was the airplane. We are flying Southwest so we know we will get 2 sets of seats to ourselves (4 of us) and I plan to wipe down the armrests, belt buckles, trays, etc with my own wipes. Something I have learned during all this is to take precautions into our own hands and not just expect someone else to do it for us! We are Disney veterans, so if something doesn't feel safe, we will move onto something else. We have prepped our kids about that as well.

We flew Southwest earlier this month and I thought they did a good job. Flight attendants were reminding travelers to keep their masks on during the flight and, for the most part, folks obliged.

 

[zebrastreyepz]

I was wanting to use some airfare credits and gift cards and booked a short stay for August 29-31st. And then I read the eyewitness account in another thread about teens licking the water fountains and water bottle refill station spouts and I just couldn't. Yes, I could purchase bottled water and yes this could happen anywhere at anytime....but A) I don't want to pay the exorbitant prices for bottled water at Disney and B) I just couldn't get the image out of my head and it soured the whole thing.

I finally just started spending the gift cards on Christmas to keep me from being tempted to try to book another trip until things settle out. Not sure what I'll do with the airfare. I'm not concerned about flying just deciding where to go that maybe isn't quite so "busy."

 

[wdwlver]

I was wanting to use some airfare credits and gift cards and booked a short stay for August 29-31st. And then I read the eyewitness account in another thread about teens licking the water fountains and water bottle refill station spouts and I just couldn't. Yes, I could purchase bottled water and yes this could happen anywhere at anytime....but A) I don't want to pay the exorbitant prices for bottled water at Disney and B) I just couldn't get the image out of my head and it soured the whole thing.

Yikes. That is so gross. What is wrong with people?

 

[zebrastreyepz]

Yikes. That is so gross. What is wrong with people?

I don't know. It made me very, very sad, though. My 15 year old granddaughter was not surprised by this at all which surprised me. I can't picture my friends and I as teens ever conceiving of such a thing.

 

[Lumpy1106]

Well crazy how life works, we are rescheduling not because of Covid, but because I’m in the hospital for a severe herniated disk. Don’t think it would be wise to go walk around theme parks after this. Have fun you guys! We are probably rescheduling for next year.

Really sorry to hear - been through this - twice. If it just "went out" you may be OK in a week or so. If you've had sciatic pain and you've been dealing with this for a while, probably not. Surgery is a last resort but don't be scared to do it (because, like I said, I've done it twice, 10 years apart). To give you hope, my biggest challenge right now is re-learning to surf - you need a surprising amount of lower back mobility to get to your feet quickly. I'm otherwise as healthy as can be. PM me if you like.

 

[Sandiz08]

Really sorry to hear - been through this - twice. If it just "went out" you may be OK in a week or so. If you've had sciatic pain and you've been dealing with this for a while, probably not. Surgery is a last resort but don't be scared to do it (because, like I said, I've done it twice, 10 years apart). To give you hope, my biggest challenge right now is re-learning to surf - you need a surprising amount of lower back mobility to get to your feet quickly. I'm otherwise as healthy as can be. PM me if you like.

Thanks for your encouraging post. I will definitely reach out if I have any questions. Love these Boards and all the nice folks on here. I’ll be back to to Disney world next year and will be doing it big!

 

[NLKim]

I don't know. It made me very, very sad, though. My 15 year old granddaughter was not surprised by this at all which surprised me. I can't picture my friends and I as teens ever conceiving of such a thing.

I am a high school teacher. Unfortunately I will have to say that this is extremely common in school regardless of ages or flu season so I don't expect it to be any different anywhere else. I have always recommended my family/friends/students to never use public drinking fountains because of this.

 

[zebrastreyepz]

I am a high school teacher. Unfortunately I will have to say that this is extremely common in school regardless of ages or flu season so I don't expect it to be any different anywhere else. I have always recommended my family/friends/students to never use public drinking fountains because of this.

Oh, I see it now. It's depressing, but I see it.

 

[TinkB278]

I have a trip for the week of Labor Day booked and am almost 100% sure we aren’t going but I still can’t get myself to hit the “cancel” button. Is anyone else having this problem?

 

[wdwlver]

I have a trip for the week of Labor Day booked and am almost 100% sure we aren’t going but I still can’t get myself to hit the “cancel” button. Is anyone else having this problem?

I did for the longest time. In the end canceled because its a limited experience for same money and when we go back I am hoping it’ll be normal again, or at least approaching normal.