Are you headed on a Disney vacation anytime soon? Like many of us, we know you’ve wondered if your family will enjoy it as much with the new COVID rules.
Here are some helpful Disney tips and recommendations we’ve gathered from local moms!
DISNEY APP & WEBSITE
- Get familiar with the My Disney Experience app because you will use it a lot! Room key, ordering food, checking wait times, etc. (Ordering food through the mobile app was a lifesaver because those narrow lines for quick service are rough with four kids, strollers, etc. in tow)
- The Disney website is super helpful and updated frequently.
RESORTS
- Stay in a resort with walking access to a park or monorail/skylift access, now is the time to splurge. Socially distancing made waiting on buses a little daunting. We ended up driving our car to a few of the parks because of the wait times for buses.
- Now is a great time to upgrade and stay at a moderate or deluxe resort.
PARK CHECK-IN
- Temperature checks going into the parks and Disney Springs are no longer mandatory.
- Disney lets people in the actual park before opening time. This allows for social distancing.
MASK REQUIREMENTS
- Disney STRICTLY enforces mask wearing. If a cast member sees you with it off and you are not stationary and eating/drinking you will be asked to put it back on. This is the same for adults and children.
- Make sure you have a good comfortable mask! The ones we found to be more breathable are the Pomchies brand. Cast members WILL stop you and ask you to put them on. Please do not get annoyed with them, they’re just doing their jobs.
- We wore disposable masks and changed them out every 2 hours.
- Do some mask “trials” to make sure you have the most comfortable mask since you will be wearing it allllllllll the time (no neck gaiters allowed).
- Invest in a good lanyard for every one so you don’t lose masks.
- Masks can be removed for pictures.
- These fun light up masks are perfect for night events!
SANITIZER
- No need to pack a ton of hand sanitizer because they literally have it every where. Or….
- They have hand sanitizer everywhere, but we found them to be slow to dispense, so we preferred to use our own.
- Pack wet wipes.
FAST PASSES & LINES
- Lines are marked for social distancing, so they look A LOT longer than they appear.
- Lack of fast passes means you will be waiting in some lines so pack your patience and think of some ways to keep the kids entertained.
- We found most lines to be a much shorter wait time than the listed time.
- A bubble wand is THE BEST entertainment for littles. It kept my 5 year old daughter very content for both of our trips this year.
TAKE A BREAK
- You cannot walk and eat/drink. You must be stationary.
- Plan on taking lots of snack breaks so the kids can take some time to sit away from the crowds and take their mask off for a bit. We never need an excuse to stop everything and eat a Mickey pretzel.
- Disney has Rejuvenation stations in the parks where you can sit with your masks off. You can sit inside and enjoy the AC if it is hot. We did this and were the only people in there. It was nice. Good break for the kids too.
CHARACTERS & CHARACTER DINING
- Characters pop up all over the parks so don’t worry too much about lack of character meet and greets. You can’t get close to them, but the kids were happy just to see them and wave from a distance.
- We personally wouldn’t spend a ton of money on character dining right now since you don’t get the full experience and they are so costly, but some may disagree with that.
- The character parades were really fun!
- There’s not much character dining, so we went to Garden Grill, and the kids loved it. It’s more like a parade of characters through the restaurant now instead of them coming to each table. It’s was my littles first time so they loved it…and it was all good with my 10 year old who’s been several times.
SHOPPING AND DINING
- Not all restaurants and shops are open.
- Check times for mobile food ordering as soon as you think you may want something, the wait times could be long depending on the venue.
SHOULD WE STAY OR SHOULD WE GO? MIXED REVIEWS!
- I felt safer all day at Magic Kingdom than I do at a local restaurant for lunch.
- It was my son’s first time going and it was still magical.
- Without fast passes the lines were miserably long. Standing in multiple 2 hour long lines with 4 kids is beyond my level of sanity. I was so ready to leave and I have no intention to go back until fast passes return. I love Disney. But there aren’t enough tips and tricks in the world to get me back there any time soon.
- We have decided to take a year off which we have literally never done.
We hope you found these tips helpful! May you and your family have a magical experience!
