Disney Parks in Orlando, Florida took a lot of safety precautions to be able to open the gates. The parks are still not open to full capacity but just to be able to go makes a big difference right now. We had made our plans last Spring break but the shutdown put our plans on hold. Once Disney opened back up, we decided to try it again and we learned a few things on our trip that may help you if you decide to visit this year.
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1 – You have to plan ahead and buy your tickets early because you need to reserve what day you are going for each park. Because Disney parks are at limited capacity, you will have to make a park reservation for a specific day to go to the park. I can’t stress enough to plan early because all the reservations for Hollywood Studios for the week of our trip were gone and it was booked up until the next month. You can check park reservation availability here.
2 – Verify what time the park you are going to actually opens. For example, the website has that Animal Kingdom is open at 8:00 am but when we arrived, the park actually didn’t open until 11:00 am. Now we went on a Sunday so I don’t know if it opened up late because our reservation was on a Sunday or if it opens up at 11:00 am everyday but either way, we didn’t expect it so I suggest finding out ahead of time.
3 – You have to wear a facemask the whole time unless you are eating or drinking. This includes while you are taking photos which is really hard because who wants every picture to be of a facemask? On top of that, it’s really hot in Florida so you really need to stay hydrated because wearing a facemask all day makes it worse. You can read more about the facemask requirements here. (FYI, you can’t wear gaiters either.) Disney employees closely monitor everyone and if they see your facemask down, they will politely remind you to put it back up.
4 – If you plan on dining inside the park, you will need to either make a reservation ahead of time or place an order online unless it is a food cart. You can download the Disney app or you can scan the digital menus that are set up at the dining locations. With only select dining options available inside the park, you definitely want to plan ahead because the lines are long and inside seating reservations go quick.
5 – Disney put a lot of effort in safety precautions beyond the masks. Before you enter the park, there is a temperature check so I suggest making sure no one has a fever prior to arriving. There are hand sanitizer dispensers placed all over the parks and to promote social distancing, there are markers to stand on for every line including food carts. For the most part, everyone stayed on their marker until the line moved but this also made the lines seem very long. There were only a couple of rides that we rode that actual wait time was as long as the line was which means the lines move pretty quickly.
If you are planning a trip to Disney in Orlando, Florida this year, I hope these 5 tips help you know what to expect. We had a fun time visiting the Disney parks but I believe we will wait to visit again until the facemask requirements have been lifted.
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