I think we are going! But I’m also only like 75% sure.
We are twice a year visitors. I’ve canceled my August 2020 and now February 2021 trips. We have been taking this whole COVID deal seriously (I’m a nurse and I teach nursing) so it felt like the right thing to do to cancel those trips. For some reason I feel differently about April. Something is telling me we should go. Maybe that something is my naivety, but my gut says go. My only other options this year are June or August but I think crowds will be higher then, and then there’s the heat 
. Plus, we live in NY and we are always desperate to escape the winter for a week or two, while we don’t mind hanging around in summer.
Anyway, I think we can do this safely. We plan to drive straight through(we’ve done this a number of times before) and eat in the car. I have BWV booked for the first 3 nights, then BLT for 3 nights. Once we are in the world, I have heard that they keep things pretty safe, so I’m not too concerned. We can walk to HS and Epcot from the BWV, and we can walk to MK from BLT, so minimizing use of transportation. We will plan to make breakfast in our room and do a TS dinner each day.
We would obviously wear our masks and use lots of sanitizer. Plus none of us are high risk, or would need to be in contact with anyone high risk when we get home.
Still there’s that feeling of you probably shouldn’t travel to an amusement park (ok, I hear the gasps…I get Disney is much more than an amusement park, but you get the picture 
) during a pandemic. What if I regret the decision after we arrive? I’ve read lots of trip reports and threads where folks felt real safe. Has anyone not felt safe, or have you had moments of questioning your decision to go? I always like to hear both sides.
Also, what are your thoughts on Spring break (week after Easter) this year? I guess I would anticipate higher crowds, but at only 35% capacity, what does that look and feel like? TP says CL 1-3. Is that deceiving? What do you think I am looking at in regards to wait times for rides?
Help me decide to go y’all!
Many of us have gone during the Pandemic. We’ve been twice, actually. Once in August with the family, and a second time just me and my DW in early December. I wouldn’t say I ever questioned our decision to go. But I didn’t feel totally comfortable in DS some of the time because crowds there are more troubling. But at the resorts and in the parks, we were fine. There were occasional moments we didn’t like how close people were getting (particular with the young adults who were roughly college-aged, who seemed not to care two hoots at times), but they were few and far between. (In those cases, we just usually let them pass by us so we didn’t have to deal with them encroaching.)
Might I suggest reading through many of the trip reports posted here to get a feel for what people are experiencing?
This is probably as good as reason as any to not worry as much. In our case, I am responsible for taking care of my elderly parents, so upon our return, we remained self-quarantined voluntarily for about 2 weeks just as a precaution.
We live locally, moved here in July from Utah… BTW: moving in the middle of a pandemic was surreal. Anyway, I feel safer at WDW than my local grocer. It’s business as usual around FL and while mask usage has improved it’s not 100%. I was just at HS yesterday and thought mask compliance was better there than I’ve seen in the past months. They do have signage and announcements about wear it or be escorted out. My DH feels a bit differently but he’s dealing w/ poor ldrshp at wk that don’t wear masks and I think the constant fear of catching it and bringing it home really gets to him.
Basically, I think your plan of driving; to minimize travel exposure and choosing a safe place to visit is great!
I am planning to bring my kids about the same time, April 5-11. We went in July/August shortly after reopening and we felt safe with masks required and extra sanitizing going on. Planned on going with DH in November but cancelled as that was when Covid was spiking. We plan to make it up next week barring any last-minute crisis. Supposedly Presidents Day weekend is going to be very busy, so I figure spring break week will likely be comparable. I plan to see how it is and if it will be doable with the kids. Looking at projected waits on TP, as I recall the longest waits for that April week were around 30 minutes, so didn’t sound terrible especially if you choose your parks/days carefully. I think your plans to drive and stay within walking distance of most parks will minimize risk well.
I am having the same internal debate! We have plans to go mid/end of March, and, like you, I’m at about 75%. We’ve been pretty serious about our risks. Kids go to school, but they’re VERY good about distancing and masks. There has been zero in-school spread, fortunately. The kids also play hockey, but they’re required to wear masks all the time. We do not eat out - just takeout. We did not see family over Thanksgiving or Christmas. In fact, my parents did a gift drop-off, and we only stood outside, masks on, for about an hour. (boy did I feel like a bad daughter)
So, making a decision to do this - and fly for us - is really difficult. On one hand, all the safety people say no one should be travelling at all. On the other, we’re not high risk. We can quarantine on return. The mental break of going will be much appreciated. I won’t say we need it… but there are a lot less tears (from me) when I think about our trip as if we’re going. If I think about it as if we’re going to cancel, I don’t really have anything to look forward to. I probably won’t leave the house again until summer. That’s not good for my mental health.
So, I don’t really have any advice. Kind of wondering what others will say, too. I think, as it gets closer, we’re leaning more and more towards going. There are a couple of things that would change my mind, though. If we catch covid, if the kids must return to school the next week, if numbers spike back up, or if data comes out that planes/Disney IS a spreader then we’d cancel. That’s about it.
Our kids will have to quarantine for 10 days when we get home. But they are already doing remote learning 2 days per week anyway so I’m not too concerned about keeping them remote for a full week. My husband and I both work from home so we are fine to quarantine. That definitely makes it easier for us.
You are describing our situation to a T! Even down to your thanksgiving and Christmas practices:crazy_face: We did the exact same thing. I felt awful but also felt strongly that it was the responsible thing to do. We haven’t let anyone in our house at all. We don’t go out to eat, the only take out I’ll get is pizza because it’s hot and they don’t have to touch it after it’s cooked so carries the least risk 
.
So part of me feels absolutely crazy to be considering this, and I’m pretty sure my husband is concerned about what our parents will think (the ones who drooped off gifts for Christmas and stood outside 
). But I also feel like this trip is needed and for some reason I feel like we can do this safely.
I’ll let you know what we ultimately decide. I did make dining reservations this am though!
We are going to UOR April 1-4 and WDW April 4-9. Selfishly, I hope everyone stays home so the parks are empty! Unless we get it right before or something, I would put our plans at 99% going. We live in NC so we can easily drive straight down without too many stops. Will stay on property at RPR and then Boardwalk Villas so we can walk to some of the parks. I’m not really too worried. We were trying to get another family to go with us, but they are going to Amelia Island. I’d feel much safer at WDW than just about any other vacation destination right now.
I just hope they expand the park hours a little for that week!
If I could “heart” this multiple times, I would. It’s like you’re in my head!
You make a good point. I also keep thinking how is this different from kids going to school, playing sports, or going out shopping, etc. all of the same safety factors will be in place. I feel like we will be more in control in this situation actually. I cant keep my kids 6 feet away from others who refuse to wear a mask at school, but I can when we are together at Disney. There is a certain amount of risk in everything we do right now and I don’t see that changing for quite a while.
Just wanted to chime in…DH & I are booked for the week of April 11th and have the same concerns. We haven’t eaten in restaurants, no Christmas or Thanksgiving except an outside gift exchange, etc. We don’t have any kids at home anymore so school is not a concern. We have essentially been hermits. But we want to get away. We could drive but it’s 14 hours straight through vs. 2 1/2 hours flying. If we could be vaccinated by then, we will go for sure, but otherwise it’s still up in the air. Ugh.
You know - it makes me feel better to hear these same concerns and plans from people that are doing the same level of distancing that we are. I know everyone has their own level of comfort and their own risk calculation. It’s reassuring to hear from others with the same risk equation, that they are still thinking about going, if not fully comfortable with it.
Update: I’m 90% sure we’re going now 
Dining reservations made. Tickets purchased. Feeling pretty good.
We are watching the news about the new variants but I think we are really going!
Yay for you. We are there the 2nd to 11th!
Update from me.
I’m move up to about 90%-95%, too. Plans are made. One of my no-gos is potentially happening, though. I was told that our school district will not do a week of distance learning after spring break, like they did after Thanksgiving and Christmas. I said to myself that we wouldn’t go, then.
The school is saying that kids can’t switch between distance and hybrid at-will. However, I wonder what they’d do if we said we had a potential exposure after travel? They’d, of course, let the kids quarantine. We have teacher conferences in a couple of weeks and I’ll bring it up to them, then. I think we can make it work, even if the district is being weird.
I’m still hoping that those Ellume at-home covid tests will be available before we go. That would also ease my mind. I’ve bought kN95 masks for when we fly. And, I’m thinking about cancelling our few indoor ADRs. Those are disappointing, and I’m not really ready to bail on those yet. I’ll keep watching the numbers.
Yay! We are so ready for this trip over here!
My kids school is allowing them to go virtual for the week after so that one is easy for us.
I’m thinking about our indoor ADRs too. We have trattoria, liberty tree, 50s prime, and crystal palace. I’m not particularly excited about liberty tree or crystal palace so we’ll see.
I’ve been watching the crowds and wait times all week because I’m thinking this week will be comparable to the week we are going. I know it’s busier, but still doesn’t seem too bad to me. I’ve talked to the whole family about lowering expectations. If something we want to do is too crowded, we walk away and do something different. I think we will all just be so happy to be there!
I just got back on Wednesday from being there the 12-17 (so I got the trifecta of Valentine’s, Presidents’ Day, and Mardi Gras) and never felt unsafe, even eating in restaurants.
I just finished reading your trip report! Looks like it was amazing!
we are booked for june and i’m about 50% sure we will go…mainly because it seems crazy since we have done nothing except school since March. in fact our state just loosened things so we are going to hang out with friends tomorrow…inside, windows open, masks…kids are all in the same class at school everyday inperson so it seems ok. i am fully vaccinated and we can quarantine after our trip but there are days when it feels like this stupid pandemic is never going to end! reading everyone else’s thoughts made me feel better though! thanks!
It was so much fun!!!