So, the parks are all opening up as we speak – so far, so good. We’ve been glued to YouTube the last 2 weeks watching EVERYTHING…and it’s looking good! In the main it looks like folks are behaving and using the social distancing measures put in place.
The parks are nowhere near normal operating levels and capacity and we have never seen them so quiet. Will it last? Who knows. We think that once folks see the amount of work WDW and Universal have done before opening it will reassure them and hopefully they will return.
Let’s start off at the airport. Masks are the order of the day. When flying with any carrier you will be wearing a mask unless you are eating and drinking and it’s the same when you are at the terminals and that will be in place for some time to come we imagine. In Orlando you HAVE to wear a mask while in a public place not just the parks so you had better get used to them I’m afraid. No one knows how long the masks are going to be mandatory for, but if it helps knock down the rate of infection amongst people we are all for them. (As we are writing this, masks in the U.K. will become compulsory in shops etc from July 24th and they already are on public transport).
In and around the theme parks you will be required to wear your masks at all times, ensuring you cover the nose and mouth. Depending on what park you go you may have to alter your choice of face coverings. In Universal you can use a ‘neck tube/gaiter’ – they’re are a little like a snood if you can remember these, BUT over in WDW/all parks (M.K A.K. H.S. AND EPCOT) YOU MUST be wearing a mask, one that loops around the ears and covers the nose and mouth. They have been turning folks away with the neck tubes and re directing them to somewhere they can buy the ‘surgical’ style of mask. Material and home made ones are allowed, but they have to hook over your ears.
Most of the big players in the industry have jumped onto the ‘themed’ mask selling point. In WDW you can buy a Pooh Bear one, Hulk, Stitch and obviously a Mickey Mouse one. In Universal there are Harry Potter “house masks” and different version of the Universal logos. In WDW the masks are $6 each or 4 for $20.
Next, how to get into a park. It’s very similar in most of the big players. You MUST go through temperature screening first. Anyone who is over the allowed temp will be given a second chance after a ten minute ‘cooling off’ period (because obviously the Florida heat is in play here and you may also have had a bit of a walk from your transport option), you are given some chilled water and stand in a cooler part of the temp check area then re-tested. If you fail again you, and the whole group you are travelling with WILL NOT be allowed entry to the park.
Hand sanitiser Is there to be used on entry, and from what we’ve been seeing its at the start of a ride/attraction and at the exit, so use it when you get on and another squirt when you get off! You don’t have to pay for it so use as much as you can. No excuse really. It’s been really interesting seeing how they are are cleaning the attractions down. In some instances it’s been a wipe with anti-bacterial wipes, or as we saw on one vlog they literally spray all of the ride vehicles with sanitising solution =, send the ride around empty to dry it off, then re-load the ride vehicles. Brilliant. We cannot fault the way the companies are doing this. Yes it will be an extra five minutes wait, but in the long run its worth it if it keeps you safe. From what we’ve been seeing in “high touch” areas they are constantly cleaning and wiping and the vlogs we’ve seen seem to indicate the people are generally happy with the measures being taken and feel safe enough to be in the parks.
At Universal parks, neck-gaiters or face masks must be worn, temp screening in the main bag check area as per normal. Please, please be patient with the staff if the queue is longer than normal, it will soon move and you’ll be on your merry way quickly. Hand sanitiser must be used before and after the rides. At Universal they have created the U-rest zones, where you can sit down, and remove the mask whilst here. You must stay in your little ‘safe zone’ with all the members of your party. We would say treat this as you would with a normal park visit, as a rule you wouldn’t be running around all day with out sitting down and chilling out for half hour? It just means now you will be doing your thing around the park and stopping a little more frequently to take off the mask and relax. You could use this time to update your social media etc, instead of walking really slow and getting in everyone’s way….(just saying…).
The Floridian summer is very humid anyway, so most people if they have never been there before will get very ratty and tired, this will be double with the heat and a mask. Take you plenty of little breaks and have a drink of water, sit down and cool off for five mins and take in all the fabulous sights around you.
Things are different at the moment. Normally when the characters are in the parks you can walk right up to them and pose and grab an autograph, now sadly that is not going to be available. From what we’ve seen they are still doing the ‘photo ops’ but now the characters are either on a raised stages or behind a roped off area. You will have to become the king (or Queen) of the selfies, as the cast members WILL NOT use your phone or camera to take pictures. They of course still have the photographer who will do the ‘’photo pass’’ pics that you can buy. It may be a good time to invest in this? At least you will get some high standard pictures.
Food in the parks is being done via the mobile app ordering. This looks like the standard everywhere now, some restaurants are letting you do ‘walk ups’ but these are very few and far in between. So try to avoid the main rush hours/peak times, just like any other visit to the park really.
Now lets ‘pop’ over to WDW. First off the car parks. They are parking ‘every other’ space. When that row is full. They are then filling in the empty parking slots. This is to avoid people milling around the cars and bumping into separate groups, a simple but effective idea. As it stands at the moment the small trains that run from the car parks to the park entrance (or the transport and ticket hubs in the Magic Kingdom) are NOT running, so you will have the ideal chance to get extra steps in. There is no word as yet to when these will be operating again. We’d love to think it won’t be too long.
There is social distancing in queues and cast members to direct and guide you. As we’ve mentioned earlier queues may look really long but they are not really, they are just pretty spaced out. As far as we can tell still no parks have reached capacity on any particular day so it seems to be relatively easy to keep your distance from people.
Like Universal there is a temperature screening stop first before you pass through the new bag check. We have no idea what this entails as a yet, WDW are keeping quiet about this, suffice to say it’s still very quick and easy… then you are in the park! Yay!! There are constant announcements about washing hands and social distancing at all times. From what we’ve seen as well the cast members are very VERY politely telling people to cover their noses with masks and making sure the rules do not get in the way of the fun. As with Universal there are many hand sanitising stations before and after rides, and also an abundance of mobile sinks, so you can also wash your hands and then re-apply hand sanitising gel.
Queues are way different now, lost of distancing markers everywhere, so if you see a huge queue for say Peter Pans flight, yes it maybe busy as per, but remember they are spreading everyone out 6feet apart. The inside of the queues are very different as well. A loft of rides with a ‘pre show’ are now just a normal queue, think Tower of Terror, where you all stand in the lobby, then you all squeeze into the lift to the basement. That no longer happens, its just a normal queue (if there is such a thing in the parks??) so stay calm, remember everyone is in the same boat as you.
Food in WDW is being done via the mobile app, you place your order then wait for confirmation before entering the restaurant, you will not be allowed in unless you can prove you have placed an order and it is ready for collection. On entering you are directed to a window tin pick up your food, any extra condiments, salad bar topping etc are no longer out for you to pick up, but simply ask a server who will do all of this for you before you pick up your food. The cutlery is not available either in the normal fashion, there are some new fancy dispensers that allow you to get each item one at a time, genius! This should have been rolled out yers ago. We were talking a few nights back and we both said that we think a lot of the new changes will stay in place. For example there Is definitely going to be less waste, as folks used to load up with tons of extra items only to leave them of just throw unused things into the trash. If you require extra of anything all you have to do is simply ask a server who will be more than happy to help. Hooray for less waste we say!
One thing that has changed at WDW is there is no park hopping at the moment. As it stands you must make a reservation for the park you wish to visit. One park per day. That’s ya lot, for now. We managed to book ours for every day we wanted when this new system was introduced a few weeks back but alas our trip for this year is cancelled. (Sobs…). So again it seems that WDW has so far has been well below it’s normal capacity – of course WDW will not release any numbers as to how many they’re allowing into the parks but whether they have reached what they were expecting or anticipating we cannot say. All we know is that from the footage we’ve seen from the parks you’ll never take as many good photos as you can currently with hardly anyone around you! Amazing. Neither do you need to worry about Fastpass currently not being available because queue times are low! Very low! Posted wait times are unbelievable – even for the most popular rides, and again from what we’ve seen, even the posted wait times are over-exaggerated. So it seems for the moment at least things are running just great – and if we were lucky enough to be going on our trip this year we’d be OK with the safety measures in place.
Transport to and from the parks is up and running again. You can use the Skyliner or the ferry boat or Monorail. The only difference at the moment being the Monorail is not available for park hopping. At the ticket and transportation hub there are social distancing markers everywhere, if for example you are directed to stand on the “number 3” spot at the monorail or ferry boat, the number denotes how many rides away you are away from reaching the destination. So, #3 means you are on the 3rd boat or monorail into the parks.
Once in the parks there is social distancing in queues and there are also a great many flexiglass panels that have arrived so where the queues switchback over and over again and where usually you would be standing with people either side of your party, you will now be separated by clear screens to keep you safe. As with Universal they are not loading every row on the ride cars to keep you safe from other parties.
There are also no parades and fireworks in the Disney parks at the moment as they are obviously keep not to have people crowding or congregating together – so they have instead opted for random character cavalcades. You don’t know when they are going to appear and so you don’t stand and wait. You just hear the change in the music have a look around and – standing pretty much where you are – you’ll see various different characters on their floats merrily going by. There are several – princesses, Goofy and the gang and of course the main mice! They pass by close enough to interact with you, and Gaston on his giant horse was definitely in his usual playful mood on some of the footage we saw. Fun! The characters are on boats at Animal Kingdom and in their own cars in Hollywood Studios. All very well done we think given the limitations and restrictions that are in place. We even see that they have reintroduced character dining in Garden Grill – one of our fave character hotspots! Again they are not allowed to approach the table but they are on a level slightly above you as you’re eating so they pop by and interact quite closely and quite well and the selfies you can take with them look pretty good. Definitely a little closer contact than Topolino’s Terrace. One of the cutest things we have seen this week was Winnie the Pooh running about on the grass at Epcot with his butterfly net. Totally impromptu he just appeared and started skipping about. Wonderful stuff.
It’s been a week of high emotion as the Disney parks have re-opened. We have seen lots of our blogging and vlogging friends and colleagues really moved finding themselves back where they belong, and we must admit to filling up a bit ourselves as we heard the cast members lining up on Main Street waving and calling out “welcome home” as the guests made their way in and towards Cinderella Castle – I’m not crying you’re crying!!
So all in all – good things are happening. Hopefully we are at the start of things edging towards a more normal world in a future point yet to be determined. We all need to take a bit of responsibility for ourselves – if you feel someone is too close to you feel free to move away, if you feel like an area is too crowded avoid it, wash and sanitise your hands regularly and follow the guidelines and safety measures put in place to protect you. It’s everyone’s responsibility to get us through this and we can and will do exactly that.
The magic finds a way through – and we couldn’t be happier about that.
Stay safe and have a good week.
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