To Go or Not To Go

[johnkerryP]

thanks you for all the replies to my cruise/parks question. I think for myself,I feel more "in the soup" on a boat in general than on land,where I can move around/away from crowds if I feel the need but I understand a bit more now on the subject....

Totally understand that 100%. After working full time from home in the healthcare world and remote learning all last year, I think my most ideal vacation today would be to be locked in a veranda room completely alone for four days with room service and a few good books.

i still havent cancelled our hotel reservations, i gave myself until 9/20, but like most who have, I probably would feel a lot better if I just ripped the bandaid off at this point. Oct 2-9 with an unvaccinated child, i really think capacity is going to be wild compared to right now.

 

[Linkura]

I was diagnosed with COVID on Monday. I’m a health care worker and was fully vaccinated (Pfizer) in early January. I actually got my booster last Friday - but it was too late to protect me as I was exposed around the same time.

Thankfully, my symptoms have been mild. I had the monoclonal antibody infusion yesterday, and I believe that’s helping. My husband, who has MS, actually got his booster about three weeks ago (before it was technically authorized), and we’re so thankful, as he’s tested negative thus far - even though we literally ate ice cream with the same spoon the night before I was diagnosed (had zero idea I was sick).

All of this to say - we have a nine-day trip booked from Sept. 24-Oct. 3 for the 50th. We had planned to cancel. But now that I’ll have natural immunity and a booster and my husband has his booster, we’re on the fence about whether to go. Our biggest concern at this point isn’t COVID exposure. It’s what would happen if we needed a hospital for some other reason. My husband gets kidney stones - what if he needed ER care? That’s my biggest concern at this point.

I’m honestly not sure what we’ll do. We’re just going to let it play out for a few more weeks and then decide.

The hospital situation in Florida is only going to get worse. Cases haven’t peaked yet and hospitals are already overflowing. And hospitalizations lag cases. If you’re at all concerned about being able to get medical care in Florida in a month, don’t go.

 

[Ecomommy09]

For me, as a vaccinated person who lives in Florida, I am willing to go to Disney World during Covid times, but I'm not willing to go on a cruise. I've been to Disney hundreds of times, maybe thousands, and I've been on nearly 30 cruises, so I'm very familiar with and comfortable with both. I have been back to Disney in the past few months, but have not been back on a cruise yet.
My biggest hesitation with cruising now isn't a fear of it being unsafe or unclean - with their vaccine requirements, testing, and cleaning I'm confident in the safety. But if they decide to enact severe restrictions or lockdowns after positive cases onboard, there's nowhere you can go and you can't get off - it can become too prison-like for me. Locked down in your room, not allowed out to any common area, food being left at your door to eat in your room, skipping all ports, and even being told to stay onboard days or weeks after the ship returns to port (or not being allowed back to port)...it happened to many ships at the beginning of the Covid outbreak, and I'd be too worried that if they got a certain number of positive cases onboard, even with everyone vaccinated, they could go back into that lockdown mode, keeping everyone in their cabins and skipping all the ports. With Disney World, if things are tracking bad, outbreaks becoming too frequent, you don't like new restrictions introduced, etc - you can always just leave...and if you stay, you can avoid the parks, still have plenty of space around the various resorts to get out and breathe air and avoid other people. Just another perspective to consider on the Disney World vs Cruise discussion.

Amen!

 

[ThereYouSeeHer]

Well, we were supposed to leave for Disney in two more days, but we ended up cancelling. Oddly enough, it wasn't because of the situation in FL, but I do like that we have more time to keep an eye on everything. We were debating just pushing it back a week or two, but with hospitalizations possibly peaking after Labor Day, it's so hard to pick a good week. I'll miss the low crowds and our vacation discounts, but we'll have to try again later!

 

[Lilylogan]

fwiw..... We went last Dec before anyone was vaccinated. My 3 and 5 year olds touched every arm rest getting off the plane, every railing at WDW etc -- none of the 5 of us got anything, not even a cold.

 

[Kmedders]

fwiw..... We went last Dec before anyone was vaccinated. My 3 and 5 year olds touched every arm rest getting off the plane, every railing at WDW etc -- none of the 5 of us got anything, not even a cold.

Same here - two trips in the books, two more coming up. Nothing from our two trips... but got Covid from my kids who got it at school when masking, distancing, etc were all in place. So I don't feel any more unsafe at Disney than I do living our normal, every day life.

 

[iheartglaciers]

fwiw..... We went last Dec before anyone was vaccinated. My 3 and 5 year olds touched every arm rest getting off the plane, every railing at WDW etc -- none of the 5 of us got anything, not even a cold.

Although to be fair, Delta is a lot more contagious than the strain(s) back then, so going now is a little different. And Disney had more safety measures in place then (e.g., social distancing). I fell like trips August 2021 going forward fall into a different category.

 

[rangerxenos]

fwiw..... We went last Dec before anyone was vaccinated. My 3 and 5 year olds touched every arm rest getting off the plane, every railing at WDW etc -- none of the 5 of us got anything, not even a cold.

That was also before the Delta variant was in play, you really can't compare the two timeframes.

 

[RoseGold]

I think I had a different view of this before school started. School is such a disaster, that I have had to just accept that my kid is in constant exposure every day. When that's my reality, exposure at Disney seems like just another day.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

We're trying to make a Sept decision as well so have been looking at as many stats as I can (we don't have a go/no go date until early Sept as we have a room only reservation). When I look at Case Positivity Rate in FL as compared to where I live, it's double -- and I think where I live is high. Of course, people at disney are from all over, right? But how long have people been local/vacationing/dining indoors, etc. FL is also making it a little more difficult to know which direction they are heading since they only release once a week.

The problem my DH asks is yes you see the numbers in Florida maybe even Orange county are high. What that shows is people that went to take a test in Florida and it doesnt show what people went home and took a test... it's hard to read. We went when the mask mandate was all the time/ everywhere and we felt totally safe, safer than we felt at home. The new variants are really contagious with or without vaccines and no outdoor mask and people are everywhere. We had to tell the kids we could not go this month and probably not next month... and we will go from there. I live in South Florida and it's getting hard to just be homebodies all the time.... especially when you are three hours away and walk on rides and boarding passes available into the mid afternoon... its killing me!!

 

[Grasshopper2016]

walk on rides and boarding passes available into the mid afternoon... its killing me!!

This is killing me as well! The low crowds are taunting me every time I hover the mouse over the "cancel" button.

 

[tentaguasu]

fwiw..... We went last Dec before anyone was vaccinated. My 3 and 5 year olds touched every arm rest getting off the plane, every railing at WDW etc -- none of the 5 of us got anything, not even a cold.

That was also before the Delta variant was in play, you really can't compare the two timeframes.

Well, even without delta, it doesn't mean that much. It's a bit like saying, "My brother did two tours as a IED bomb specialist in Afghanistan, and he came back without a scratch!" Yes, that may be true, but that doesn't mean it's not risky to be an IED bomb specialist in Afghanistan. I'm glad it worked out for you and your family at Disney, but that doesn't mean it will for the rest of us.

Not saying that going to Disney is that risky (!) just pointing out that individual experiences don't mean much for risk assessment.

After all, *most* Americans haven't gotten Covid, including myself (I think!). That doesn't mean that I'd recommend that a time traveler pick 2020-21 as the optimum time to pop by for a visit.

 

[Sarahslay]

Well, even without delta, it doesn't mean that much. It's a bit like saying, "My brother did two tours as a IED bomb specialist in Afghanistan, and he came back without a scratch!" Yes, that may be true, but that doesn't mean it's not risky to be an IED bomb specialist in Afghanistan. I'm glad it worked out for you and your family at Disney, but that doesn't mean it will for the rest of us.

Not saying that going to Disney is that risky (!) just pointing out that individual experiences don't mean much for risk assessment.

After all, *most* Americans haven't gotten Covid, including myself (I think!). That doesn't mean that I'd recommend that a time traveler pick 2020-21 as the optimum time to pop by for a visit.

Yes, this! I just stopped working for a healthcare system doing crisis management, and I spent 90% of my time over the last 1.5 years dealing with the "It won't happen to me" mindset with both staff and visitors. So, so many people have this mindset right now and it's extremely dangerous. I actually had to deal with many doctors who didn't want to put restrictions in place in the beginning because they just didn't want to scare their patients. I along with many other hospital staff ended up getting very sick in the beginning because of it (right out the gate), and we still had doctors and patients going "yeah, but I didn't get sick...." until they did and it was too late. I could push mandates until I was blue in the face, but the "it won't happen to me" folks will brush them aside time and time again.

 

[TinkB278]

I have a dvc trip booked for 9/12-9/18. At this point I’m pretty freaked out and am not sure how I’ll get myself to go. My points expire 9/30 though so the idea of canceling the trip is killing me. I keep hoping for a miracle but I doubt much will change in the next 17 days.

 

[Kmedders]

Yes, this! I just stopped working for a healthcare system doing crisis management, and I spent 90% of my time over the last 1.5 years dealing with the "It won't happen to me" mindset with both staff and visitors. So, so many people have this mindset right now and it's extremely dangerous. I actually had to deal with many doctors who didn't want to put restrictions in place in the beginning because they just didn't want to scare their patients. I along with many other hospital staff ended up getting very sick in the beginning because of it (right out the gate), and we still had doctors and patients going "yeah, but I didn't get sick...." until they did and it was too late. I could push mandates until I was blue in the face, but the "it won't happen to me" folks will brush them aside time and time again.

There is a difference between the "it won't happen to me" people and the people who aren't worried about it happening to them.

 

[pigletto]

There is a difference between the "it won't happen to me" people and the people who aren't worried about it happening to them.

Or apparently giving to others.

 

[Kmedders]

Or apparently giving to others.

Not worth debating this comment.

 

[DisneyRunner2009]

At what point will it be worth the risk to go. That is the million dollar question. We cancelled two trips last year. You would think a year later it would be better. It's looking the same for this one. I'm okay with a check your expectations experience, but should I pay all this money when I am trying to constantly avoid crowds during the 50th. Making it harder is my sister is coming and the airfare she booked. She would end up with a credit. We have until Monday to decide. If we don't cancel, shorten the trip and pull my DH off the reservation. He has been working from home since this began due to his underlying health condition. This was suppose to be a retirement trip. The working from home has been one of the few positives that has come out of the Covid mess. So he plans to just sit up stairs, continue to work, and delay retirement. I'm seeing more and more resort availability, if anyone is interested.

 

[Sarahslay]

There is a difference between the "it won't happen to me" people and the people who aren't worried about it happening to them.

Nah, they’re the same, they aren’t worried about it happening to them because they think never in a million years will they end up on a vent. “The risk is low, I’ll be just fine if I get sick, I’m not scared…..it won’t happen to me”. They aren’t worried about it happening to them because they don’t think it’ll happen to them. They think if they get sick they’ll have it mild and they’ll be just fine in a week, and maybe they will….and maybe they won’t.

 

[newarknut]

Life is full of risks. We (wife and I) are scheduled to fly out Monday morning for a week at Boulder Ridge. We are planning a very chill trip and I don't care if we ride any attractions. We've rented a car for transportation. We're planning time by the pool, Geyser Point, and a little F&W time. It is stressful as Monday approaches. We're both vaxxed (April) but realize that doesn't guarantee anything. I've been working in the public sector this entire time. I'm very aware of my surroundings and try to be smart. I'm confident we can go down and have a blessed week of R&R. Everyone has to make their own choices, but, I choose to enjoy life as best I can. After spending 25+ years in the funeral business, I know that we aren't promised tomorrow. My faith is in the good Lord above and not in the talking heads telling us how full the hospitals are or when this thing will calm down.