It’s been a heck of a year, and what better way to celebrate the return of domestic and international travel than a trip to the Happiest Place on Earth? Disney World officially reopened in July 2020, and you might be wondering exactly how COVID-19 has affected the Florida theme park. After making a last minute trip to Disney World last month, I’m here to give you the full breakdown of everything you need to know when planning a Disney vacation!
To be honest, I had no idea what to expect from a post-pandemic trip to Disney World. I’ve been to Disney several times and have loved my experience each time, despite being at drastically different phases of life during each visit. This trip was certainly unlike any other, but so is the nature of our current times.
Current restrictions at the time of this article:
Disney is following current CDC guidelines and all parks now have social distancing, enhanced cleaning measures, and reduced physical contact. While we were at Disney, masks were mandatory at all times unless stopped while eating and/or drinking or taking an outdoor photo. HOWEVER as of May 15th, guests are no longer required to wear a mask outdoors!
- All guests (regardless of vaccination status) are still required to wear a mask indoors (including during all attractions) and while entering the park.
- If you are indoors, you can take off your mask if you are actively eating or drinking while maintaining social distancing.
- The mask policy applies to everyone ages 2 and up.
- Remember to bring several masks to switch out, as it can get pretty sweaty after a full day in the Florida sun.
- Disney also recently did away with having guests undergo temperature checks before entering the park.
Disney currently has a reservation system in place for crowd control at the parks. You must buy tickets AND make a park reservation-yes these are two separate things!
Don’t be like us, schedule in advance! We decided we wanted to go to Disney probably 4-5 days before we went. This clearly didn’t leave us much time to plan, but thankfully everything worked out just in time! Park reservations may be booked up for a month or more, so planning early is definitely to your advantage! Disney ticket hack: if a specific park is already booked for reservations during your trip, do a hopper pass. You’ll be able to go to any park you want after 2pm as long as you attend your reservation at the first park earlier that day. We had no idea about this little hack until we were already on our 2nd day, but shoutout to Will for this discovery! If one of the parks is fully booked up for reservations, keep checking the website for reservation openings. We were pretty lucky in that animal kingdom and magic kingdom opened up when I was checking the website late one night.
What was the atmosphere like at disney?
Disney is not currently offering fast passes for any rides. As far as I understand, Disney cited COVID restrictions as the reason for shutting down fast passes, honestly this doesn’t really make sense to me. I would think of fast passes as a great way to help with crowd control, but what do I know? Overall the lines to get into the more popular rides were long, but not as bad as I thought they would be. Each party was spaced out 6ft apart in line, so the lines felt like they were constantly moving. It was probably a mind trick to make us think we weren’t waiting that long, and I’ve gotta say, it worked on me. I honestly don’t think we ever had to wait the full wait time that was quoted on the app or at the front of the ride. I’m quite happy to report it wasn’t the other way around!
Speaking of, the app was the best. I was constantly checking wait times on the app to figure out when we should hop on our favorite rides. Disney is encouraging guests to utilize the features in the app to provide a more hands-free experience. We also made all of our restaurant reservations on the app, which was a lifesaver! Many of the restaurants had fairly long wait times without a reservation. We would have LOVED to snag a table at Oga’s Cantina in Galaxy’s Edge, but they were booked up for weeks out.
Galaxy’s edge
I have to talk about Galaxy’s Edge. This was the first time I got to experience Galaxy’s Edge, as it was under construction when I went to Disney World back in 2017. I’ve recently finished watching the entire Star Wars series, so the timing for our trip was perfect. It was truly like stepping onto the set of the movies, and Will and I were blown away by how immersive the whole experience was. As this is the newest attraction at Disney World, it was by far the most crowded area we went to. Galaxy Edge offers two main attractions: Millenium Falcon: Smugglers Run and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. Rise of the Resistance is the most popular choice by far, offering a virtual queue because the demand for the ride is so high. I was pretty confused about the virtual queue process, so I’ll break it all down for you!
- Guests can try to enter the virtual queue either at 7am or 1pm.
- Guests have a park pass for Hollywood studios in order to “board” the virtual queue.
- You must actually be inside the park to be eligible for the 1pm queue (this does not apply for the 7am queue).
- Have the app ready and open, as it’s a first come, first serve process.
- Guests may only enter the queue once per day.
- Once you successfully enter the queue, the app should give you a time estimate of when you will be able to enter Rise of the Resistance.
- When you’re called to head to Rise of the Resistance you’ll have an hour to check in at the ride.
Overall, we had the best time at Disney, and were able to enjoy all the activities we wanted to despite the lack of fast passes. If you’re dying to go to Disney right now, go! You’ll still have a great experience. If you’re able to wait, I would recommend going when fast passes return. Less time spent waiting in lines means more time enjoying everything the park has to offer.
I’m so glad we chose to take this last minute Disney trip! Through the pandemic, I’ve learned to be much more go with the flow when it comes to traveling. Some of our favorite trips have been very last minute, with very little planning beforehand. But hey it’s, all part of the adventure, right? Are you more of an organized vacation planner or a last minute adventurer? What’s been your favorite last minute trip? I would love to hear from you in the comments down below!
