Well, Disney World is officially open!  After the first time in history where the Walt Disney World parks and resort were closed down for months.  I had the opportunity to go during the Passholder Preview days and experience the Magic Kingdom park like it never had been before.  I will say that during my experience it was sad to see so much of the park closed off because of the safety precautions.  Most of the rides are operating on a normal schedule but there are a lot of events like Parades, Character Meet N Greets, Fireworks shows, Restaurants, and Special Events that are temporarily suspended.

While attending the Passholder Event I will say that there were plenty of safety protocols in place that I felt as safe as I could have been during this pandemic.  Cast members wore face masks and shield, rides were cleaned on a routine schedule, the park crowd was small enough so there was plenty of room for social distancing, and the queue lines for the rides were updated to maintain social distancing.  I understand that there are people that will read this and disagree with the parks opening or going to the parks.  That is ok but there are plenty of people that are willing to wear mask, social distance, and wash their hands constantly to go to Disney.

For those who are planning or thinking about going below are the three pieces of advice I would recommend after experiencing the Magic Kingdom.

Don’t Go Right At Park Opening

One of the biggest critiques people have had about the reopening is the long lines to get into the initial entrance of the parks.  That is because before you can enter Cast Members are right there to greet you and take your temperature.  The process does go somewhat quickly but with hundreds if not thousands of people trying to enter as soon as the park opens the lines do get backed up.  It is difficult to maintain social distancing in that scenario.  If you are concerned about being to close to people or being stuck in that line for too long then I would recommend waiting at least an hour after the park opens before trying to get in.  During the preview day the park opened up at 9:00 am with people lining up at 8:30 to go in that I waited closer to 10:00 am before getting into the park.  I was able to walk right up to the screening station and get into the actual park within 10 minutes. I opted to take the busses to the main gate instead of the monorail or ferry boat.

Bring Multiple Masks

So, I brought one mask with me the day I went to the Magic Kingdom and I wasn’t bad at all.  The only issue I ran into was at Splash Mountain and a quick afternoon rain shower.  My mask ended up getting soaked and became really difficult to breath through it.  Unfortunately I didn’t have a spare mask and I couldn’t take off my mask to dry out so I had to wait about 20 minutes for my mask to dry off while breathing.  I had a very comfortable mask and it was never really a problem throughout the day.  Even the little kids didn’t seem to be bothered about the mask as I only witnessed a couple kids playing with their mask but not complaining about it.

Bring A Portable Phone Charger

I always bring a portable phone charger with me when I go to the parks.  Usually the only times I actually use the phone charger is when I rope drop and stay til close.  This time I ended up having to use my charger in the mid-afternoon.  The reason is that you are more dependent of you phone than before the park closure.  Every restaurant in the park uses a digital menu as well as ordering.  If you are ordering from a quick service restaurant then you must order from your phone using the Disney Parks app and then you will get a notification when you meal is ready.  Once it is ready you can proceed inside the restaurant and pick up your meal.  Disney Parks are also pushing for cashless payments for transactions so I ended up using Apple Pay a lot more than I previously had in the parks.

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While visiting the parks at this point in time was a once in a lifetime opportunity, I understand that people will wait to go to the parks when it is back at normal operating hours.  If you are thinking about going please do some research and know that social distancing while encouraged at the parks can’t always be maintained.  There are definitely some people that are just excited to be in the parks that they forget about the current rules and procedures.

If you have any questions or concerns let me know and I will try my best to answer them. You can email me at [email protected]

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