Please enjoy this post by Haley Brown!
Last week, I had the unique opportunity to visit Disney World amidst a global pandemic. As someone who has always tried to be part of the solution rather than the problem, I was very hesitant to tell people about where I was going. I, for one, am guilty of judging/shaming people when I see groups of people on social media without masks on so how could I go to a theme park during all of this? However, we ultimately decided to go and here is that story.
Haley and her boyfriend, Cory
Historically, my family has taken a trip to Disney World every couple of years. My grandparents have a timeshare and we pool points together to cover the rooms for the whole family. We had this trip booked for a little over a year (and probably had the itinerary for close to six months because that’s just how we are). Obviously when COVID-19 hit, things were up in the air because nobody knew what August would look like back in March. When Disney opened back up in July, we soon learned that our trip was not able to be rescheduled and if we cancelled we would lose all of the points (and all the money that went into it).
After 10,000 (give or take) calls with Disney and reading every single Disney travel blog available online, we decided we were going to do it. They had enough safety precautions put in place that we felt as long as everyone followed the rules we would be safe.
Since the rest of our family was traveling from Ohio, we flew into Orlando and met everyone at the resort. Of course, the anxiety began the second we walked into DCA. We were locked and loaded with Clorox wipes, hand sanitizer, and a ridiculous amount of reusable and disposable masks. We flew American and had a whole row to ourselves.They even provided anti-bacterial wipes in lieu of peanuts when we got on the plane. After landing in Orlando, we made our way to the Magical Express buses that would take us to our resort. We had not even made it to Disney property yet and there were 6 ft. markers on the ground EVERYWHERE. We shared the bus with one other family but had about 20 rows in between us.
Upon arriving at our resort, we learned we did not have to check-in at the front desk and everything could be done through the Disney app and our magic bands. Since we cancelled all of our indoor dining reservations, we would also end up using the app to order all of our food throughout the week. The app made it super easy to place an order and wait outside until your food was ready to be picked up and taken to a table outside.
Our first day at the park was a much different Disney experience than anything we had previously encountered, starting with a temperature check before entering the park. Disney has limited capacity at all of the parks so there was little to no wait to enter the park. During the whole week I think the longest we waited for a ride was 30 minutes (the new Star Wars ride, of course.) During that 30-minute wait in line, we passed approximately 10 hand sanitizer dispensers and were never closer than 6 ft. to another party. Masks were required in every part of Disney properties (except in the pool) and there were constant reminders over the loudspeakers about it! We were never put on a ride with another party unless we could safely have 6 feet in between us and every few hours rides were stopped for cleaning purposes. Our hands were peeling by the end of the week due to the excessive hand sanitizer use, but wearing the masks 24/7 was definitely easy to get used to after a couple of hours. In another safety measure, Disney has eliminated the Park Hopper feature for the time being.
I am not sure if Disney expanded capacity, but for whatever reason, our last day at the parks was a little bit more crowded than what we had experienced the rest of the week. We decided to call it a day around noon and went back to the pool to soak up some sun before heading home on Saturday.
I think if we had been able to reschedule the trip I would have, but at the end of the day, it was definitely a privilege to be able to take a vacation and try and relax for a week. While walking the dog yesterday here in D.C. I passed 5 different people on the sidewalk without masks on and was shocked because I had been so used to the masks for a week. Now going to the grocery store (after our two week quarantine period, of course) is going to feel weird without getting my temperature checked!
In Other MAA news…
As previously mentioned, MAA is going to adopt a different local non-profit organization each month. We will highlight what they do and how they serve our local communities. And more importantly - inviting you to join us!
We are still vetting our first partner so we would also love to hear from those of you who serve on boards for any local non-profits. Tell us if you know of an organization that we can help and connect us! Click here to fill out a google form or email Molly directly with your suggestions.
Lexi kindly dog-sat for Shorts and he settled in nicely during his week away.
Sonny Ritacco on the farm! So happy holding that chicken :-)