We don’t often do a mini mid-week blog at the moment – things are difficult everywhere and whilst we are remaining positive and upbeat, it’s always on our mind that our trip this summer will probably be postponed. We are keeping positive by talking about and laughing and enjoying our many many previous visits to the Orlando area and telling our followers about our plans, our favourite rides, foods, places to stay, places to visit, Disney snacks, queues, you name it we’ve covered it.

There have been a lot of positive new signs over in Orlando this past week which makes us extremely happy, not only to know that Orlando and Florida are beating and getting over this shocking virus that has put the whole world on pause, but also because some of our favourite places are beginning to re-open and some of our favourite folks are going back to work – in the shops, restaurants, merchandise locations etc and some of our favourite vloggers and all round good guys are being able to go back to their fabulous jobs of reporting on the progress. We hope it will not be too long until they are also reporting from back inside the theme parks.

So we thought we’d do a little mid-week catch up to let you good folks in the UK know what is happening Stateside in the Orlando area and we are extremely thankful that our “guys on the inside” are reporting so well, positively and factually about what it’s actually like in the areas that have re-opened. They are answering questions, showing what’s around and open, talking about the new security and health screening protocols and generally providing some top information.

Rixflix, Ear to Ear Magic and Allears.net have all been out to CityWalk this week and we were delighted to see them all there – it gave us quite a thrill to see them back where they belong. Parts of CityWalk have re-opened this last week, with a few food locations, a couple of merchandise outlets and you can generally have a good walk around CityWalk to have a look around, even though a lot of the locations are not open yet. Parking is currently free there and there are limited hours of operation – but it’s still a baby step forward, and forward is the way we want to go. Guests are required to wear a face mask unless they are specifically seated at a table to order food, at which time they can remove them. Menus are paper and disposal, so you can take those home with you as souvenirs if you wish, and we are hearing that there are hand sanitizer stations in lots of locations in stores, restaurants etc, as well as stores selling sanitizer and also face masks. Children under three years old are not required to wear a face mask but everyone else must do so. There is also a temperature check as you go through security and any guests registering a temperature of 100.4 or over will not be permitted to enter the CityWalk area and will be asked to visit in the future. From what we hear from our wonderful vloggers the system was slick, and efficient and everyone was super friendly and happy and upbeat. Guests were also very mindful of keeping a safe distance from each other whilst walking around stores etc, so hopefully everyone feels safe and is safe, which is the main thing. The Universal theme parks remain closed at this time still with no office re-opening dates announced.

Today sees the start of the phased re-opening of the Disney Springs area. It’s mostly third part vendors, stalls, shops and restaurants at the moment. Dates have been released also for a few Disney-run stores/locations to follow suit towards the end of May. Again face masks are to be worn unless eating as far as we know and there is restricted parking with only certain locations being open and we look forward to our vlogging friends reports on the Disney Springs area to see how their experiences there compare with City Walk. Hopefully by the weekend some of our faves will have been over to Disney Springs to check it all out and we can update you all next week. Again there are no dates announced as yet for re-opening the Disney Theme parks or resort hotels, which currently are accepting bookings from 1 July, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that will actually be the re-opening date. We can remain hopeful though. (We have just watched Tim Tracker as a first look at the situation down at Disney Springs and no doubt we will watch many more. The safest measures implemented look the same as City Walk primarily and as we had expected).

From our social media interactions and pages we follow we can see that parts of International Drive have re-opened, again with social distancing rules in place, and we are seeing the start of the Icon Park area finding their ways to re-open and operate safely for locations such as the Star Flyer, The Orlando Eye and Top Golf and we are watching daily for updates on these. We are also seeing stores in the Orlando Premium Outlets and also the Malls re-opening little by little so it’s starting to seem a little more hopeful that things will get back on track in the near future. Our lovely friends over at Boggy Creek have also re-opened which is a delight to hear.

For us, we continue to watch and wait, and hope that Orlando picks itself up, along with the rest of the world. Orlando relies pretty heavily on the tourist industry and some of the nicest folks work in the hospitality sector here – we want to see them back on their feet, prospering and doing what they do so well. Of course we hope to see them all soon. The sooner the better for us, but we know everyone has to be safe and well and that is the most important thing.