Am I crazy to wanting to travel to Florida from Maine right now given Covid numbers? In a strange way I feel safer traveling to the world than most other places right now due to their strict face mask and distancing policies. From what I’m reading and hearing from my flight attendant friends air travel is essentially safe. Also I may plan to wear N95 masks during travel. Last year this time we went on a last minute Universal trip and had an absolute blast. I’m thinking this trip maybe similar. We would stay on a great DVC rate at Contemporary. I’ve already booked ADR for SciFi and Yak and Yeti (must do’s). It would be a short 3 night trip with 4 park days. But with the low wait times and our location, I expect for us to get to do all that we want including pool time.
It would be myself and 3 kids (DS15, DS12, DD9). We have been before and kids are really just interested in rides, pool time, and food. They love the idea of no need to get up early to RD. We would plan MK on arrival day (early flight in from Boston), then AK, HS, Epcot. Late flight out on day 4. If we end up wanting second HS day we would skip EPCOT and go to HS instead.
We would not have time for required 2 week quarantine on return before school starts so would need to be tested. I know this group is full of enablers but any naysayers out there? I tried reading through the “is it safe to travel “ thread but it had over 9000 posts. I’ve seen others recent trip reports and all sounds good but I keep hesitating anyway.
I’m in the “go for it” camp. The one thing that I would suggest is to make the park reservation for HS for both days you are considering HS. If, on the penultimate day you decide that you would rather go to Epcot then it will be easy to switch from HS…but if the last day reservation is for Epcot and you instead decide you want another HS day, it might not be available at that late time.
Thanks for your response. That is definitely a good idea and something I would not have thought of. Now DH is feeling really unsure of us going. Ugh. I just want to be in Disney! But my rational side is telling me it’s probably not the best time to go 
You asked a for a “naysayer” so here I am…
It’s a decision you have to make for yourself, but IMHO - is it worth the risk of being ill for weeks / months just for a few days of fun?? (or possibly worse) Because that’s the real risk. There are people here that have gotten it and can tell you how miserable it is.
There is no “safe” place to go in our current environment - only areas that try to be “safer”. That’s a big distinction. Can you really have as much fun while constantly having to think about COIVD concerns all day long? I go to WDW to “escape” the real world. For me, constantly having to be reminded about masks, social distancing and such would never give me a moment to relax.
On top of that, one of your main interests is “rides”. WDW has turned off ALL the preshows and a LOT of the effects on the rides, which to me are what make them better than a typical “amusement park” . This includes even the new hits like MMRR & RotR
Your other interest is food - so many of the restaurants & quick service places are closed or are only serving a a fraction of their menus.
Furthermore, the park hours are cut by so much - they are going to be even shorter right after Labor Day. The WDW experience is so limited right now & Disney still expects you to pay FULL PRICE for all this!
I’ve had to cancel my plans for this year and for a while I was severely tempted to go when I saw the insanely low crowds. I spent a lot of June really trying to make peace with “should I pop down for a quick trip?” For me it came down to it’s still going to be there next year / later and I will get full value without having to even be concerned about COVID.
(Plus, I can hold on to those funds & add to them to an even better / bigger trip for the 50th Anniversary! I’m even considering getting a Premier Passport so I can go to both WDW & DLR when things get back to normal because I’ll have those extra funds.)
I’m going to be in the “enabler” camp on this one. We are keeping our trip the last week of December (me, DH, DD 17, and DD 10). We live in the Atlanta metro area so we are driving instead of flying. Georgia has a pretty high positivity rate right now so it’s not that different for us to be in Florida vs Georgia. The mask policies at Disney are probably better and allow us to be safer than probably 90% of the places where we live.
We all need the break that Disney is going to offer, as it is our “happy place”. My husband and I have been working harder than usual during the pandemic, and the kids have started yet another school year virtually. This has been a disappointment for both (they do understand why), especially for my senior in high school.
Life is full of risks. We are very conscious of others, and we have been compliant with social distancing and masks. However, we feel that moving on with proper pre cautions in place is necessary for both mental health and for the sake of the economy.
Only you can determine what is right for you and your family. We are really looking forward to having family fun with reduced crowds and a more relaxed experience in September. Good luck with your decision!
I also am an enabler. We went to Florida from Washington State 7/27-8/4. We had a great trip, and we did not catch nor transmit Covid (DD18 has now had 3 negative tests in the last 2 weeks for college). We felt perfectly safe there. Go for it!
If I were in your shoes I would definitely be going too. The ability to be able to drive and then not have to quarantine when you come back are huge. Have a wonderful trip!
Maine is tough. Will the trip interfere with school? Are you confident you will be able to get your test results back in time?
This.
I’m usually the enabler and the “go for it” type of person, however for only 3 nights it would not be worth it for me. (especially considering flight cost/risk) Just think of possible flight delays on your arrival day?..then your down to only 2 real full days - and then still have to fly home and covid test.
If you decide to go, I hope you have a blast!
To be clear… for me it’s way more about not getting my money’s worth than COVID.
I think it is crazy that WDW is charging full price for what they are offering. (They don’t even offer a true value resort right now - just Pop & AOA at $200 / night)
Plus, I haven’t seen RotR & MMRR yet. I don’t want to do those for the first time & have them not do the preshows. Heck, today according to BlogMickey, ALL the effects on MMRR are turned off right now. That would truly be a negative first experience!
I totally get the impulse to go though!
Of course, the decision is completely up to you to make. Listen to the legitimate points both sides bring up in the pro/con categories. What is right for one family may not be right for another. But don’t listen to anyone who judges you either way.
Some considerations:
- If you do get sick, does your party have any risk factors that could indicate a more severe case?
- Can you get a test timely? If not, are you comfortable missing school / work in order to quarantine?
- Are you willing to follow all guidelines?
- Are you aware of higher risk activities (indoor dining, crowds, bars, etc.) and willing to avoid them and/or take steps to make them as safe as possible?
- Are you willing to avoid contact with elderly or compromised family members upon your return?
After considering all these and other factors, if you think you are a good candidate to go, I am fully in the enabler camp. I would love to read a trip report!
I’d go. My extended family would go.
For years we’ve felt that we help make the magic.
But we’re also easy guests.
We’re not compulsive ride folk.
We don’t see fireworks every trip.
If our favorite restaurant is closed we figure we’ll see it next time.
I’m sitting here thinking - before seeing this thread, what if @Jeff_AZ did a poll: which would you do? with Lewis & Clark, or Apollo 10, or 3 months on a submarine, or guided tour up Denali or a week at WDW in September, what would people answer.
Value, fun, magic, safety are all in the eyes of the beholder.
I read your trip report. It sounds like you had an amazing trip! It was one of the reasons I am wanting to go to Disney so badly!
We would get tests back in plenty of timed for kids starting school. I’m considered an essential worker so I could still go to work but would want to be tested. Results may not get back in time for me however, so I would likely want to take extra time off to be certain. In the end, I think that is really the big reason to not go.
This true and I could add extra time but am then torn with needing Covid tests to come in once we are back home. So another time will really be best for us.
We are all healthy and low risk but needing to quarantine/Covid test once we get home is a hurdle. If, no when!, we go in the future I will write a report! Thanks for sharing your insights.
Another enabler here. We went for the AP Preview of MK and then went back a week later to do all four parks and had a fabulous time.
For us, it was a calculated risk. We didn’t go into it blindly or ignore the fact that there is a pandemic. But, we were coming from a place that at that time, did not have mandatory masks so compliance was less than 30% at best. Disney felt 100 times safer.
For us, the reduced hours were actually a blessing because we got to slow down and relax in the evenings (we are normally park open to close people). I wasn’t exhausted at the end of my vacation!
I know some talk about the reduced offerings and getting no value at the same price pre-COVID but for us, this was a non-issue. For us (everyone’s mileage will vary on this one), it was worth it to have fewer crowds. 8 hours in a practically empty park IS getting value out of my price of admission. I would rather have 8 hours with low crowds doing everything I want vs 12 hours of waiting in lines and shoulder to shoulder people, tons of strollers and ECVs clogging pathways and acting as battering rams.
We don’t have kids so for us, not having the character meet and greets was no loss. I love the pop up cavalcades and hope they remain! The things I missed: no park hopping and no fireworks. The reduced food offerings didn’t bother us either, we just adjusted to what was available and never felt like we “missed” anything.
I wrote trip reports for both of my trips if you want to get a feel for the crowds and atmosphere.
I will also say that we go frequently so even with the reduced offerings, it didn’t bother us. If this were a once in a lifetime trip or if you this would be it and you wouldn’t be back for a few years, then you might want to consider waiting, if the things that are missing are important to you and whether you would have a good time.
This would be my only negative based on what you wrote. But I have no qualms recommending people go. We enjoyed it, aside from the heat.
But my wife and I had a COVID test a few weeks ago due to a funeral, and it took 12 days to get the results…so keep that in mind. May attention to how long it is actually taking for results. Ours said 2-4 days, and it was 12.
I feel the same way that it may be a blessing for us to have reduced park hours. I usually can’t help myself and keep pushing to do more. I think the lower crowds and slowed down pace would be welcome for us and increase the value. I’m also excited to see the cavalcades!
I think we will wait for now. Maybe until our quarantine requirements possibly lesson. If kids go in to distanced learning again though, we may head down to the World!
We’re very much in the same camp as you, trying to decide on a late September-early October trip. We’ve already decided we would only eat outdoors and our only real “concern” would be indoor queues and rides, so we would try to avoid any with longer wait times. We’re going to wait until about two weeks out to decide, hoping Florida numbers keep trending downwards, if the state percent positive is the same as VA then I see no point in not going, same risk factor in my mind. I actually think Orange County % positive may be less than where I live. As for testing, a lot of places have slower turn around 3-7 days+ but I was tested a couple of weeks ago at my Drs office and I received results in 15 minutes, so YMMV.