Pandemic Trip to DW with a 6 year old

CoachTrent

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jul 28, 2020
My wife, six year old son and I just got back from a weeks trip to Walt Disney World. I figured I would provide some feedback as to what our trip was like with a younger child. For some background, we were originally scheduled to fly out to Disneyland at the end of May. Obviously, Coronavirus changed plans for us. First, we pushed our date back a couple weeks, then a couple more weeks. I always tried to keep the positive attitude that the virus would die down in the summer heat. Unfortunately that didn't happen. Long story short, we had a feeling after researching that Disneyland was not going to be open and that Disney World would be our better shot. We go to Disney World every year anyway, some times more than once a year. Long story short, one thing led to another and we had a reservation at Pop Century from July 18th- July 26th. We have annual passes, and were lucky because our expiration date was extended due to the closer so we were able to make reservations using passes rather than tickets.

We based our decision to go on a few things. First and foremost, the health and safety of our family. I am 29, my wife is 27, and our son is 6. We are all relatively healthy, but my son and I both have asthma. We weighed the risk, and felt as though we thought we could keep ourselves as safe as possible, while also still enjoying our vacation. My father passed away in January which was tough for us, and that combined with the lock-down and not being able to get away for a while, also weighed heavily on us. We decided that although we would go, we would set our own boundaries. At any point if any one of us felt uncomfortable or unsafe we would leave. It didn't matter if it was the transportation to the parks, or in a queue.

We live in Ohio and decided to drive down. It's about a 14 hour drive for us. We always drive, just because we usually consider the cost of driving compared to flying. The extra factory this time is that we felt more safe driving compared to flying. We drove to Pop without stopping other than for bathroom breaks, food (drive-through only), and gas. A little spoiler-- I felt more comfortable most of the time at Disney, than I did walking into gas stations to use the restroom. We left in the middle of the night so we arrived at Pop Century right around 3PM. That is typically check in time, but our room was not ready until 3:45PM. That has happened to us before and did not previously bother us. It was a little frustrating this time, because I went to the front desk to ask if how long it might be for our room to be ready. This kind of defeated the purpose of them wanting you to go straight to the room. We were in line with A LOT of people, although everyone was masked and staying socially distant. I assumed that part of why it was taking a little longer was due to the new cleaning procedures, so I wasn't too upset. Once the room was available, I went in ahead of my family, and sanitized the entire room. I wiped down all surfaces with clorox, and sprayed surfaces like beds and sheets with disinfectant. I want to trust that every thing in the room was already cleaned and sanitized, but this is just something we did that made us feel more comfortable. We turned down housekeeping for the week, so we took care of our trash and dirty towels while asking for new ones when needed. However, we tried to reuse towels as much as possible. Knowing that I had completely cleaned our room and no one else was in there gave us our own personal "relaxation zone" to feel safe in when returning from the parks. We picked up all of our meals from the food court, which was mobile order only and took it to our room to eat. Again, another option that made up feel safe. We had decided we would not eat any meals indoors besides for in our room. The hotel itself seemed relatively safe, although we did not feel comfortable swimming because of the no mask requirement. Also we had neighbors on each side of us. That wasn't the end of the world, but I had heard of universal using every other room, which would have been nice.

THE PARKS
We went to all four parks. Getting to the parks was one thing we had discussed, and we decided to drive to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. We also decided we would try the Skyliner to Epcot and Hollywood Studios. We thought the Skyliner would be better since they were only allowing one party per "cab". We just did not feel comfortable riding the buses. Riding the Skyliner ended up being great and my son loved it. There was hardly ever a line except for at park openings. Every morning there was a long line to get on the Skyliner, but the line was socially distant and everyone was wearing their masks properly.

Rather than going park by park, I will talk about them as a whole. The crowds seemed relatively light (especially from what we are used to). Some rides that had wait times posted at 45 minutes and looked to be really long lines ended up only being around 20 minutes. There was hand sanitizer everywhere, and hand washing stations scattered throughout. It seemed as if most people were using them, but it would be nice to see them making you use it before each attraction. The mask compliance was great. Almost everyone is the parks were wearing the masks properly, especially the children! Our son never had a problem wearing his mask, and we kind of treated it like a superhero mask, which really encouraged him to wear them. The few people that weren't wearing them properly that we saw, were adults. We constantly sanitized our hands but made sure to wash often. After using sanitizer so many times, it starts to feel a little gross, so its good to wash as much as possible and thoroughly. We were able to ride every attraction in every park, which was something that just seemed unachievable before. That was awesome. Social distancing was working really well, with the exception of a few places in parks. Star Wars land was a good example of that. Not all the time, but occasionally you would head in that area and have a bunch of people. Every once in a while in a line, someone would not be abiding by the markings on the floor. In those cases, I politely asked them if they could space out more while pointing at the marking. Every time the people were polite, although I'm sure that is not the case with everything. Children seemed to do a good job, but kids will be kids. They aren't going to always be paying attention to the markings on the floor or the social distancing. That's where as a parent, it is your responsibility to remind and guide your children to follow the rules as well. We had to remind our son more than several times but after a while, they start to get it as well! I even had to remind myself a lot! Of course, there will always be those people that do not care about the guidelines, but luckily we did not run into anyone of that nature.

Getting food was easy and quick. Along with sanitizers everywhere, we also had our own, along with hand wipes, and disinfectant wipes in case needed. We always washed our hands before eating rather than sanitize, it felt "cleaner" that way. The way they are doing mobile ordering worked well to space people out, and hopefully that continues to be the case. We always made sure we were eating outside at any of the quick service locations.

With the rides, we never sanitized the lap bars, handles, etc. It's not that we didn't think it would be effective, but rather we though it would be just as effective if we sanitized our handles before and immediately after all attractions. The rides felt safe and spaced groups our well. In the lines the only times that it became a little confusing was when there was a big group. That group would take up one whole six foot area. In that case, we just simply gave them an extra markers' distance.

We never wore the same mask twice during vacation. We had a new mask for each day. Although the were sweaty, it was not unbearable, and our son never complained about wearing them once. Most of the time we wore Disney Park masks, but put a filter on the inside of it using double-sided tape. Again, just something to give us a little more peace of mind.

Overall, we had a great trip. We felt comfortable knowing that other than being in a theme park, we took every precaution necessary as well as maybe going overboard on a few things to give us a little more safety or an extra layer of comfort. The only thing I would say that could be construed as negative is the crowd capacity on our last day. I'm not sure how or why, but our last day was at Magic Kingdom and we had spent a day there earlier in the week. Although it was still nothing like a normal day in the parks, there were definitely a lot more people there. I'm not sure of the cause of that, whether it was because it was a Saturday, or maybe more people are feeling comfortable to go now. What I will say is this, I'm glad we had the week we did before that day. If the crowds were anything like they were our last day there for our entire vacation, I'm not sure exactly how comfortable I would feel being there.

My son had a great time and I asked him afterwards if he would go again if it meant wearing the mask the entire time like we did. He belted out "YES!" without hesitation. I'm not going to say whether you should or shouldn't go, because that is such an individual decision. We all felt very comfortable throughout the week and more and more comfortable each day there. I'm not sure if that is a good or bad thing! It definitely felt more safe than our local grocery stores, or even my workplace! It provided us with a well needed vacation and mental break. It wasn't the "same" magic as before, but yet a different magic and one that I loved and will cherish as a special time and memory for our family. I am no medical expert, but I feel as if you go, and abide by rules and regulations, clean your hands often and make sure you set boundaries, I think you will be at a low risk. You have to make the decision that is right for you and most comfortable with. The biggest thing I learned that is that the safety compliance is great with the kids, and there are very few problems. However, the problems we witnessed were from adults, or children whose parents were not paying attention either! That was not at all what I expected.

I hope this provides some kind of insight or information to help anyone and am happy to answer any questions!
 
Sorry for your loss. Sounds like you needed a break. Thanks for this report. We're in Wisconsin and my husband refuses to drive anywhere more than 4 hours away. So we're flying down in a couple weeks. I definitely plan to post a trip report!
 


My wife, six year old son and I just got back from a weeks trip to Walt Disney World. I figured I would provide some feedback as to what our trip was like with a younger child. For some background, we were originally scheduled to fly out to Disneyland at the end of May. Obviously, Coronavirus changed plans for us. First, we pushed our date back a couple weeks, then a couple more weeks. I always tried to keep the positive attitude that the virus would die down in the summer heat. Unfortunately that didn't happen. Long story short, we had a feeling after researching that Disneyland was not going to be open and that Disney World would be our better shot. We go to Disney World every year anyway, some times more than once a year. Long story short, one thing led to another and we had a reservation at Pop Century from July 18th- July 26th. We have annual passes, and were lucky because our expiration date was extended due to the closer so we were able to make reservations using passes rather than tickets.

We based our decision to go on a few things. First and foremost, the health and safety of our family. I am 29, my wife is 27, and our son is 6. We are all relatively healthy, but my son and I both have asthma. We weighed the risk, and felt as though we thought we could keep ourselves as safe as possible, while also still enjoying our vacation. My father passed away in January which was tough for us, and that combined with the lock-down and not being able to get away for a while, also weighed heavily on us. We decided that although we would go, we would set our own boundaries. At any point if any one of us felt uncomfortable or unsafe we would leave. It didn't matter if it was the transportation to the parks, or in a queue.

We live in Ohio and decided to drive down. It's about a 14 hour drive for us. We always drive, just because we usually consider the cost of driving compared to flying. The extra factory this time is that we felt more safe driving compared to flying. We drove to Pop without stopping other than for bathroom breaks, food (drive-through only), and gas. A little spoiler-- I felt more comfortable most of the time at Disney, than I did walking into gas stations to use the restroom. We left in the middle of the night so we arrived at Pop Century right around 3PM. That is typically check in time, but our room was not ready until 3:45PM. That has happened to us before and did not previously bother us. It was a little frustrating this time, because I went to the front desk to ask if how long it might be for our room to be ready. This kind of defeated the purpose of them wanting you to go straight to the room. We were in line with A LOT of people, although everyone was masked and staying socially distant. I assumed that part of why it was taking a little longer was due to the new cleaning procedures, so I wasn't too upset. Once the room was available, I went in ahead of my family, and sanitized the entire room. I wiped down all surfaces with clorox, and sprayed surfaces like beds and sheets with disinfectant. I want to trust that every thing in the room was already cleaned and sanitized, but this is just something we did that made us feel more comfortable. We turned down housekeeping for the week, so we took care of our trash and dirty towels while asking for new ones when needed. However, we tried to reuse towels as much as possible. Knowing that I had completely cleaned our room and no one else was in there gave us our own personal "relaxation zone" to feel safe in when returning from the parks. We picked up all of our meals from the food court, which was mobile order only and took it to our room to eat. Again, another option that made up feel safe. We had decided we would not eat any meals indoors besides for in our room. The hotel itself seemed relatively safe, although we did not feel comfortable swimming because of the no mask requirement. Also we had neighbors on each side of us. That wasn't the end of the world, but I had heard of universal using every other room, which would have been nice.

THE PARKS
We went to all four parks. Getting to the parks was one thing we had discussed, and we decided to drive to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. We also decided we would try the Skyliner to Epcot and Hollywood Studios. We thought the Skyliner would be better since they were only allowing one party per "cab". We just did not feel comfortable riding the buses. Riding the Skyliner ended up being great and my son loved it. There was hardly ever a line except for at park openings. Every morning there was a long line to get on the Skyliner, but the line was socially distant and everyone was wearing their masks properly.

Rather than going park by park, I will talk about them as a whole. The crowds seemed relatively light (especially from what we are used to). Some rides that had wait times posted at 45 minutes and looked to be really long lines ended up only being around 20 minutes. There was hand sanitizer everywhere, and hand washing stations scattered throughout. It seemed as if most people were using them, but it would be nice to see them making you use it before each attraction. The mask compliance was great. Almost everyone is the parks were wearing the masks properly, especially the children! Our son never had a problem wearing his mask, and we kind of treated it like a superhero mask, which really encouraged him to wear them. The few people that weren't wearing them properly that we saw, were adults. We constantly sanitized our hands but made sure to wash often. After using sanitizer so many times, it starts to feel a little gross, so its good to wash as much as possible and thoroughly. We were able to ride every attraction in every park, which was something that just seemed unachievable before. That was awesome. Social distancing was working really well, with the exception of a few places in parks. Star Wars land was a good example of that. Not all the time, but occasionally you would head in that area and have a bunch of people. Every once in a while in a line, someone would not be abiding by the markings on the floor. In those cases, I politely asked them if they could space out more while pointing at the marking. Every time the people were polite, although I'm sure that is not the case with everything. Children seemed to do a good job, but kids will be kids. They aren't going to always be paying attention to the markings on the floor or the social distancing. That's where as a parent, it is your responsibility to remind and guide your children to follow the rules as well. We had to remind our son more than several times but after a while, they start to get it as well! I even had to remind myself a lot! Of course, there will always be those people that do not care about the guidelines, but luckily we did not run into anyone of that nature.

Getting food was easy and quick. Along with sanitizers everywhere, we also had our own, along with hand wipes, and disinfectant wipes in case needed. We always washed our hands before eating rather than sanitize, it felt "cleaner" that way. The way they are doing mobile ordering worked well to space people out, and hopefully that continues to be the case. We always made sure we were eating outside at any of the quick service locations.

With the rides, we never sanitized the lap bars, handles, etc. It's not that we didn't think it would be effective, but rather we though it would be just as effective if we sanitized our handles before and immediately after all attractions. The rides felt safe and spaced groups our well. In the lines the only times that it became a little confusing was when there was a big group. That group would take up one whole six foot area. In that case, we just simply gave them an extra markers' distance.

We never wore the same mask twice during vacation. We had a new mask for each day. Although the were sweaty, it was not unbearable, and our son never complained about wearing them once. Most of the time we wore Disney Park masks, but put a filter on the inside of it using double-sided tape. Again, just something to give us a little more peace of mind.

Overall, we had a great trip. We felt comfortable knowing that other than being in a theme park, we took every precaution necessary as well as maybe going overboard on a few things to give us a little more safety or an extra layer of comfort. The only thing I would say that could be construed as negative is the crowd capacity on our last day. I'm not sure how or why, but our last day was at Magic Kingdom and we had spent a day there earlier in the week. Although it was still nothing like a normal day in the parks, there were definitely a lot more people there. I'm not sure of the cause of that, whether it was because it was a Saturday, or maybe more people are feeling comfortable to go now. What I will say is this, I'm glad we had the week we did before that day. If the crowds were anything like they were our last day there for our entire vacation, I'm not sure exactly how comfortable I would feel being there.

My son had a great time and I asked him afterwards if he would go again if it meant wearing the mask the entire time like we did. He belted out "YES!" without hesitation. I'm not going to say whether you should or shouldn't go, because that is such an individual decision. We all felt very comfortable throughout the week and more and more comfortable each day there. I'm not sure if that is a good or bad thing! It definitely felt more safe than our local grocery stores, or even my workplace! It provided us with a well needed vacation and mental break. It wasn't the "same" magic as before, but yet a different magic and one that I loved and will cherish as a special time and memory for our family. I am no medical expert, but I feel as if you go, and abide by rules and regulations, clean your hands often and make sure you set boundaries, I think you will be at a low risk. You have to make the decision that is right for you and most comfortable with. The biggest thing I learned that is that the safety compliance is great with the kids, and there are very few problems. However, the problems we witnessed were from adults, or children whose parents were not paying attention either! That was not at all what I expected.

I hope this provides some kind of insight or information to help anyone and am happy to answer any questions!
Thank you so much for this post, we are driving down to Disney World at the end of the month also from Ohio and I was starting to get discouraged and doubting if we should go. After reading this I cant wait!
Thank You!
 
Thanks so much for your report. We have a trip that was rescheduled from April to June and now to October. I’ve really been on the fence but we really want to go, and my plan is to do exactly what you described. On your last day, did you feel like there were just too many people to make social distancing doable? Were there any rides that you didn’t feel comfortable? We’ll be there Presidents’ Day wkend so that’s why I’m a tiny bit worried about crowd levels.
 

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