Last week I made a number of posts on these very forums indicating that — after having made an overnight visit to a UK theme park — I was now intending to proceed with my October trip to Orlando.
With perhaps extraordinary vanity, I was expecting a slew of positive, encouraging responses. “Can’t wait to hear all about your plans!” Etc.
Instead there was mostly deafening silence, along with some negative comments about how leaving your house during a pandemic is an act of violence against other people. (I may be exaggerating.)
This genuinely (I’m being serious now) plunged me into quite a depression. Having made the decision to press ahead with my plans the night before, I’d been on a real Disney high. The response / lack of response on here was a hard slap in the face.
I have (partially) recovered thanks to a conversation with a friend. She said, “f*ck them — it’s got nothing to do with them”. Her view is that one of the bad aspects of the pandemic is that it appears to have given everyone the right to judge everyone else.
So I’m still going ahead with my plans, but I either have to spend half my time justifying myself, or I just shut up altogether.
Which is sad because the pre-game is as much a part of the vacation as the being-in-the-parks part itself.
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Funnily enough, that was an argument in favour of me sticking with my October plans. Who the hell knows what the US will be like from November onwards.
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I should have consulted you before I locked in that week right after election day. What was I thinking?
Also how is the UK handling the quarantining. I have no idea what US is doing. However my friend who is a Sri Lanka national said everyone coming off a plane who tests negative is sent to a hotel for 14 days and they are not allowed to leave the room. The positive tests are sent to some other forsaken place (including false positives). I know US will never get this extreme.
I never know of your posts are serious or tongue-in-cheek.
(I know I feel judgement bc I’m just not super concerned about Coronavirus and have gone about as many normal life activities as possible. IRL I find way more people willing to ditch the precautions than I do on the forum.)
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This map shows, in red, the countries from which you can fly to the UK and not be quarantined when you arrive. You may notice one particularly notable absence.
Incidentally, there are seventy countries in red.
My October trip is not guaranteed. It requires the US to let me in (which it currently isn’t doing, I believe) and then to not quarantine me when I do get in. And it probably requires the UK to not quarantine me when I get home.
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I get that a lot.
I’m generally being tongue-in-cheek unless (a) I explicitly say I’m being serious, or (b) I suddenly jump to DEFCON 1 and get wildly over angry (because you didn’t pick up on any of the imperceptible warning signs in the immediate run-up to the explosion that is now raining down upon you).
I love social distancing. I hope it stays forever. And the handwashing thing — what were we thinking in not doing that? I reckon we’ll see a drop in minor illnesses as a result. Masks? Ugh, but I’ll do what I’m told. And let’s hope handshaking is dead and buried. It’s gross and awkward.
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On this forum??? That’s disappointing. Sorry you were affected by that.
Also candles on birthday cakes. Looking back, can you believe we used to make our guest stand around and watch us spread germs all over a dish we would them serve to them to eat??!!!
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Definitely still alive and well here! Just went to a party yesterday where the birthday boy took four tries to blow out the candles. I still let my kids eat it. It never dawned on me it was gross.
No!!! My boys are super handshakers. I’m always being pulled aside by adults saying what nice boys I have.
And hug! I want hugs back. Saw a bunch of friends yesterday and we followed the rule of “no hugs” printed on the bulletin. It was miserable not hugging!
ETA yesterday’s party was one of those indoor outdoor Funhouse things. Arcades and bumper cars and all that. While there were wipes available for people to use before they played with the game, I did not see a single person use them all day. And the place was packed. IRL I see lots of this. I think the self selection happens at home. Before people even leave their house they’re deciding if they want the risks associated with going out. The same thing goes for traveling. The other people at Disney World have already decided if they want to be there or not.
We struggled with this as well. We went for the AP preview last week and are going back this week. I wrote a trip report and all of the comments were positive and non-judgemental. However, I did go dark on social media because I didn’t want the judgement. I created a private FB group for a few of my friends who love disney - they all supported the idea and loved seeing the park but no public posts, it just isn’t worth it to feel like I have to justify to people why we are going (even though mask compliance was near 100% at Disney and it is maybe 30% where I live).
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wow! thanks for all the responses. My state “urges” people to quarantine when they get back from other states, but I don’t exactly know how strict they are. Judging by all the traffic up to maine and NH every weekend since memorial day, I don’t think people were really being super strict. I do not need to due to my job in healthcare, just need to monitor symptoms daily. My DD is another story, since schools starts shortly after we get back. We have not got any guidance as to how school is going to be next year. But I don’t think she will be able to quarantine the full 14 days. That’s where I struggle the most. I want to be responsible not only for us but for our community. However on the other hand, I do feel as though the precautions we have been taking all summer,( not going to restaurants, bars, wearing masks everywhere) in addition to the precautions at Disney, will allow little room for infection. In reality, no one really knows what anyone else has been doing with their family and kids all summer anyways, we are just trusting that people are being careful /responsible. I do feel like I am being as responsible as I can given the situation. At some point I have to throw a little caution to the wind.
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After seeing what Disney looks like over the last week, I’m wishing I had a trip planned. Just be safe and smart when you go. It looks like compliance for masks and social distancing is better at Disney than my local grocery store.
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Jumping in at the bottom here, and I’m probably not going to be super well liked for what I’m going to say:
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Going to WDW is unnecessary right now. Given there’s a pandemic on, and that some of the worst of it is right now in Florida, it is pretty irresponsible to go. We should only be doing the necessary things right now: work, essential shopping (groceries and similar), and that’s about it.
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If you are upset by lack of stay-at-home in your home state/town, but you are going to go to WDW right now, you are a hypocrite.
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If you are concerned about what others think, and about being judged, then you are not strong enough in your conviction that the exception to go is okay. You should probably either get there or stay home.
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If you can acknowledge that both 1 & 2 are true, even in some small part, but you have decided that you are okay with the risks to yourself, your family, and those with whom you will interact both during and after the trip, then pull an Elsa about what everyone else thinks, and “let it go.”
For our part, at this time we have agreed that 1&2 are true, and so we adopt #4 as a result. We are going forward without concern about whether it would be comfortable for others to go. If that changes between now and 8/28, we will bail. But we will bail because of our own comfort level, not that of others.
(disclaimer that work and school policies have the potential to override this)
I can’t worry myself over what other people think of me about almost anything, really. I’m too much of my own harshest critic on a minute to minute basis to allow anything more in my head. Eyes on your own page.
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My advice: do what you feel is right for you and your family and keep this vacation to a select few people you trust (to avoid people being rude and ruining it for you). Everyone feels differently about how to deal with this and a lot of it has to do with how it has affected you as a person and the area you live in.
Just please dont be afraid to cancel if you do feel sick, unlike those streamers who were sick and still live streamed at Disney for 2 days last week. That’s not fair for the CMs and other park attendants
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I appreciate your points. I can’t argue with any of it, really. Unfortunately, I reached a breaking point and had to just cancel our trip 9 days before our arrival date. This was a very tough decision. Until recently, the pros and cons were about even:
Pros:
- (Much) lower crowds
- 35% room discount with Recovery 2020 Deal
Cons:
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Really don’t want to deal with masks all day in FL weather
- Were hoping for Beach Club and Stormalong Bay
- Some of the restaurants we planned on won’t be open
- No fireworks
- No After Hours Events (although normal crowd level right now doesn’t look much different than this)
Then within the last week, two people at my work have tested positive, one of whom is in my office quite a bit. After the first positive, our company shut down for a couple days to deep clean. I probably need to go get tested based on the second case. There were already policies in place for out of state travel, and having to self quarantine for awhile if going to a hotspot (which FL shows itself being more of every day). Now with actual cases in my semi-small company in suburban WI that hasn’t been hit very hard to this point, I would feel quite irresponsible to take my family to WDW, in spite of how well WDW is managing things so far. I’d be both legitimately concerned to travel there right now, and worried about the look of it. I had to bail for now. We will hope to go Spring Break 2021, even knowing the price and crowds will be higher. There are so many factors to weigh, and this becomes a very personal decision. I have great respect for those who are still able to go and have thought through all the risks and how to mitigate them as much as possible. I was looking forward to doing one of the first trip reports here, but I will be content and excited to read others’ reports and be a team player.
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Being judged by neighbors for a trip we have planned to Yellowstone in September.
I think this is a very valid post with good breakdown. I am right there with you, 1&2 are probably true (I’m a hypocrite, but to what degree 
), and #4 is where I’m at. I still have a good 40 days before my travel date, and plenty of time to keep an eye on things. Cancellation is always the option should things in my personal life change.
Being a science nerd I really am interested in looking at the science and statistics. I will be waiting to see how the opening has affected % positives. I also know that for the most part, the large outdoor crowds from the recent protests had only a small effect on % positives in my state- mostly which has been credited to the fact that almost everyone wore masks! So there is a degree of safety I feel will be there in the Disney bubble.
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oh no I wouldn’t ignore symptoms in place of a trip. I’m not THAT irresponsible!
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Yeah, I can definitely understand all those concerns. I also just wonder what the virus will look like in Oct/Nov. I know that it was expected that the heat in AZ would kill the virus, but it turns out that the virus has been thriving. I think it’s partly due to the fact that when the heat comes, everyone goes inside. And maybe that’s part of why the virus has been having less transmission in more temperate climates…when the weather is nice, people spend more time outdoors where the virus has a harder time spreading.
As far as politics go… I want to say I wouldn’t let it bother you too much. I used to get super emotional about the elections, and when my candidate wouldn’t win I would get so depressed and anxious. Over time I have learned to roll with it a little bit. Although the elections definitely impact the direction our country heads, we are a very slow moving ship…and most changes don’t happen dramatically. That being said, we are certainly living in a very charged period of time. And civil unrest is definitely a concern. I hadn’t even thought about the fall-out from the elections. Yikes. Now you’ve got ME worried about it.
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On think about this is every day.
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