I’m not saying that posters to these forums are necessarily guilty of what I’m currently feeling the need to rant about, but I do get the sense that elements of the wider Disney community are losing it right now.
There has long been a frothing urgency for the parks to reopen, coupled with a naive expectation that the reopening would (a) be soon and (b) everything would be back to normal.
The tone has recently shifted to “I don’t care how awful things will be when the parks reopen, I just want them open.”
This is perhaps best exemplified, by the view illustrated below, which seems quite prevalent:
The two are — of course — not the same thing. Cast members dressed as characters do so for very limited amounts of time, with significant breaks. They are typically young, healthy people, who are habituated to the Florida climate. I’m an overweight 51 year old with borderline asthma whose pearly white skin burns the instant the sun emerges from the clouds that usually blanket the UK year round. I don’t even know what 90 degrees means, and never experienced humidity before 2017.
The more Disney stuff I read the less inclined I am to go at all in 2020. I made a point on another thread that I was fearful of making a trip that would be less than other trips I’ve made. Entirely delightful well-meaning people then observed that Disney is forever changing and this is its great strength. Well, sure. In my Disney lifetime, they added Pandora, Toy Story Land and SWGE. Adding temperature checks and face masks and social distancing markings is a whole different type of change.
To which the response is likely to be “Well don’t go then. No-one’s forcing you.”
I’m genuinely interested to see footage and reportage of the reality on the ground of WDW when it eventually reopens. I don’t imagine it will have me scrambling towards the airport, bags in hand.
But then, when I was growing up and even into my early marriage, Disney didn’t make anyone go through metal detectors or have security checks. Today, it is just accepted as a normal part of the Disney experience.
Change happens in a myriad of ways. We will definitely see changes to Disney for at least the short term (next year or two, if not beyond) as a result of COVID-19. These changes will never be considered “positive changes” to the Disney experience, to be sure. I’m unsure how I’ll feel about the experience if/when we go in August. I’m not looking forward to wearing masks.
But then I watched bits of Shanghai Disneyland opening, and the fact that people were there having all kinds of fun with masks on, excited to be there, etc. It may not be the “new normal” we want…but it is, nonetheless, the new normal.
Now I just have to wrap my head around it and keep myself from going, “Oh, but it would have been better if only…” because that just sets me up for disappointment.
Truth is, I’m SUPER excited to be back to Disney after four years. And the idea of wearing masks isn’t going to deter me from going back.
I agree. I don’t want a lesser experience and I don’t want an experience that reminds me at every turn that there’s an invisible killer on the loose. I’ll wait until things are genuinely back to normal.
We took our first trip this January and had so much fun that we were ready to go back. Now we will wait because I do not want our second trip to be so different than the first. Also my kids are little 3,4, and 7 so I do not think the experience would be enjoyable with new restrictions.
Right, I’m in the same place. Ready to wait for no masks and for it to change. But I want to see Epcot completed And other projects put on hold. That will be a great change to return too.
But some people don’t have to travel far and have APs, so I can see them wanting to go despite any limitations.
I keep going back and forth. I was planning to take my niece and nephew along with DS for an amazing trip in June. Rented DVC. Had a ton of fun things planned. What I know right now is if they do by some miracle open, I won’t be bringing my niece and nephew. I paid a lot of money for their tickets and I don’t want to give them a modified Disney experience that is lesser than I want it to be.
However, I may decide to go myself. I already have sunk costs in the DVC rental (if they open). I have an active AP, so I’m not spending additional costs there. I have had to cancel so many flights, I have a ton of ‘travel credits’ and stocked up points I will never be able to use them all by the time they will expire. And quite frankly, I could use a change of scenery. I’m not 100% decided (and I’m actually hoping Disney makes the decision for me to take care of the DVC rental), but I would consider going.
This is much more apparent on some Facebook Disney groups I’m in. This board is staid and laid back.
For ourselves - my extended family - Disney is escape. It’s been escape for decades, and when there wasn’t as much to do in the parks that existed when we all first went to WDW.
The escape is probably not from reality - jobs, news, etc - but to a childhood we didn’t really have. An escape to a brief magical moment when the yoke of disbelief was lifted at Disneyland, long ago, and we caught a glimpse of what might have been.
Powerful stuff to us. We’ll likely go with mask wearing, no fireworks, no character hugs (sniff sniff) and despite my nearly overwhelming anxiety on I-95.
As always, mileage varies. It’s the spice of life.
We frequently go to the parks (usually DLR) during the winter and summer breaks, but we won’t even consider it until summer 2021. We do not plan to fly anytime soon (which eliminates WDW). After a measles outbreak a couple of years ago at DLR and the COVID-19, there many not be another choice for the next couple of years. I think masks will be the new normal.
There is a world of difference between the minor inconvenience of a bag-check, which happens — what? — twice a day during a trip and adds five minutes to the wait to get into a park, and having to wear a mask all day long. This is a whole different order of magnitude of change for the worse.
Well, you and I are in very different positions, of course. I’ve taken five trips in the last three years. I can — and increasingly believe I should — wait. I can understand why you take a different view on that as regards your own trip.
If they ever do. But, yeah, I think I may well do so, too.
Yeah, I hear that. I keep flirting with visiting a different park. Last week I was all about visiting DLP — which I can get to by train. This week I’ve been half-planning a trip to DLR. I’ve been to both before, but not for a long time and I have no special memories that I’ll be desperate to recreate. Also, both parks offer a lot of things I’ve never done before, which may make up for the new inconveniences.
It’s possible that they won’t, but if they don’t then we’re probably going to get very used to wearing masks, social distancing, constant hand washing etc so maybe then it won’t be quite as big a deal as it is now.
Is it? Or have you just accepted it as normal? For me, when we first experienced metal detectors and security at Disney, it was foreboding feeling and it changed the very way we bring things into the parks…worrying about what we can or can’t bring in that we never had to do before.
Right now, the idea of masks seems unfathomable to us because we never had to do it. But what about 5 years down the road, if it persists that long? We will hardly blink. And we will love the Magic of Disney regardless.
I don’t understand why the wearing of masks is such a big issue. If you don’t want to or can’t wear a mask then just don’t go. Wait until it’s not longer required and then go and have a great time! If you don’t mind wearing a mask then go now and have a great time! It is your choice if you want to attend while the rule is in place. It’s not going to be forever.
It actually is, yes. There is a huge difference between queuing for 5 mins so someone can look in your bag for 30 seconds (though it was a big change I agree) to spending 8-12 hours wearing a mask in the Florida heat, unable to see the expression on a single person’s face. Would we get used to it? Yes, you can get used to anything. But you can’t say it’s no different to a bag check.
One of the cruelties of the current situation is we now actively avoid other people. When I’m walking my dog if I see someone approaching on the same side of the road as me, I cross the road to avoid them.
Now I know I “joke” about hating everybody and being a hermit and so on, but even for me there is something very profoundly wrong about going out of your way to avoid other human beings. The few local friends I do have I made because we were both walking our dogs and that led to a conversation which led to a friendship. Boom. Not any more. All gone.
Disney World is a happy place. Wearing masks is ghoulish. I want to see people smiling. It rubs off on me.
Although I love my solo trips, will social distancing mean I can’t strike up conversations in the lines for rides? I’ve often enjoyed those brief friendships.
Wearing masks is grotesque. It is utterly antithetical to Disney World.
Is your dog as confused as mine is as to why all these people aren’t coming up to pet him and tell him what a good boy he is? He looks defeated whenever we pass someone and he doesn’t get acknowledged.
I don’t really mind bag checks. It has been around since before 9/11 in some places. It is a minor inconvenience. You stand in line and you bag gets checked. Airports have had metal detectors for as long as I can remember. A mask is not a minor inconvenience to me. I have only been able to tolerate one type of mask, which according to the CDC is not one they highly recommend. And that is to go in stores, not a theme park all day. I almost had a panic attack with a thicker one. I cannot stand to have things on my face.
I do not want this part of the “new normal” and I hope it is not here to stay long term.
And yes, I will cancel my October trip if a mask is required and reschedule for a time when it is not required.
I hate that about my walks too - avoiding people. I especially worry because I don’t want it to seem racially or ethnically motivated. I do still smile and nod or say hello. But the worst is not being able to pet all the dogs! I do often acknowledge them, but a word of greeting (to the dog) without a pet is not what they really want.
