This. His info was very helpful for me as well. I would likely be having the same questions as you for our upcoming November trip save for the fact that DH and I and our four kids already had Covid and the children were blessedly asymptomatic. DH & I have since had the vaccine, but the fact the kids have already handled it so well helps ease the mind re: their not having it.
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My trip is early August and I am also concerned. I have two college age children and we are all vaccinated. I am concerned that I am exposing my kids to COVID and they will be moving back to school and communal living situations. I have a little bit of time before I will need to pull the plug and would feel much better if Disney would put the indoor mask mandate back in place.
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We were there after the mask mandate was lifted and there was very little mask wearing (except on buses). i think it depends on how comfortable you are with people not being masked around your kids.
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Okay, trying to respond to everyone here.
First, a little bit more info about our trip:
We’re currently booked for the Yacht Club. We plan on making liberal use of Stormalong and the friendship boats for EP and HS. We’re NOT intending to try and do a lot this trip. Take it slow, rides for the kiddos. There is nothing we have to see. We also have two non-park days interspersed into the trip and aren’t planning on doing more than two consecutive days of parks without a rest day. (Arrival - AK- MK - Rest - HS - Rest - EP - MK - Leave)
And some quick thoughts to comments that came up a few times:
1.) Fleshing out my “Covid Profile” a bit here: I feel relatively comfortable outdoors, given that the data seems to indicate outdoor transmission is extremely rare. I’m also not quite as concerned about transportation as masks will still be federally mandated, though it’s still a concern. We will fly if we go, but haven’t bought tickets yet at this point. The airport and plane make me a bit anxious, but everyone else will be wearing masks (at least for the most part) and the girls are very good with their own (knock on wood), so I think that’s manageable. We’re also planning on doing our meals outdoors or in room, while also knowing we may have to be flexible with that because of the weather (e.g. pushing planned meal times back, heading back early, a late snack to hold people over, etc). So that leaves the indoor queues, attractions, and stores — anything without great ventilation — that we’re concerned about (am I missing anything?).
2.) We just ordered some Enro masks for the kiddos. They come highly recommended and have built-in filters with Virus Filtration Efficiency ratings that are close to an N95. Hopefully they fit, but that would certainly give us a little extra peace of mind. If we don’t use them for Disney, then we’ll have them for school/daycare come the fall (their first time back since Mar 2020, which is a whole other thing). We have no qualms with being the only people in line wearing masks (been there, done that).
3.) For those of you mentioning pregnancy, trust me, it’s a close second for us as far as concerns go. Our plans are what I would consider low-key — no rope-dropping or park hopping, very relaxed walking pace for our touring plans. Outside of MK day, we’ll be doing naps back at the hotel every afternoon. Definitely want to keep it manageable for DW (sidenote: if anyone has any reco’s for cooling implements, would love to hear them). Her OB has given her the green light, both in terms of Covid and pregnancy health. We greatly value her opinion and really think the world of her, so that’s been somewhat reassuring.
Now, trying to tackle some individual comments:
@Bubblez: not being a jerk at all — quite the opposite! Really appreciate your honesty, and trust me, I don’t disagree with anything you said. It all makes sense and multiple times over the past ~6 months I’ve had those exact thoughts. Covid risk calculus is exhausting.
@ninjasherrie: totally understand and appreciate the insight. My oldest was in virtual Pre-K last year. They were both daycare kids prior to Covid and they’ll both be going back come Sep. Also, always glad to hear from NJ folk!
@jwoandrews: that’s super helpful. Yeah, as I said before, we were really disappointed when they stopped requiring them as we knew it meant plenty of unvaccinated people would just say adios to masks, and here we are. It’s mostly the unventilated areas that I think will make us nervous. Glad it wasn’t on your mind the whole time at least. I feel like my wife and I almost subconsciously steer away from those situations now, so I’m hoping it won’t be too anxiety inducing. Re: overstimulation, for our youngest, I will say that living in a city she’s exposed to most of that on a regular basis — she is doing playgrounds and we do outdoor dining a modest amount, so I’m hopeful she’ll be relatively okay. Obviously we won’t know until the rubber meets the road though.
@knapp9er: for sure, and I definitely understand where they’re coming from. It really is unfortunate.
@shawthorne44: most definitely. I think the sticking point for me is going to be “how safe will I feel in an indoor crowd for an extended period of time with my family masked up?”, and that’s something we’re still trying to figure out.
@amvanhoose_701479: these are wonderful points, thank you. We did something similar last summer where we rented a beach house in NC for a little while, just to get away from the city and keep our distance from people. It worked out well. Your point about things go sideways is especially well taken given how much we’re banking on outdoor dining for this trip. To your other point, I think I’ll be cognizant of it, though outdoors I think it will mostly be background noise. Indoors will definitely be a bit more alert situation, depending on circumstances (i.e. not as worried about lines for Small World as I am for Dumbo).
Yeah, school is another one. They’ll both be finally going back to daycare for the first time in person since 2020. NJ is pretty high-up there as far as vaccines go, thankfully, and the school (we’re moving, so a new place) takes their Covid safety seriously. All the same, they’re going to be around strangers indoors several times a week, so there’s that. Not quite the maskless free-for-all I imagine WDW to be right now, but still.
@kjmollypup: I sincerely appreciate that, and your last lines in particular hit home. We did Sesame Place back in April and felt relatively comfortable — got there early, left around noon when it started to feel crowded — so we thought it was a decent trial run for WDW and at least made us think it was possible (though still obviously a completely separate beast). Hope you guys have an awesome trip (and rock on, NJ)!
@Sandyh: thanks for sharing that. Yeah, as I talk this through, that seems to be the common factor out of our control, so answering that feels like it would go a long way to teasing out overall comfort with this trip.
Very much appreciate everyone’s thoughts. I won’t lie, for the past few months, seeing what other people were doing on Facebook and Instagram, I was starting to get the feeling that my wife and I were the only ones still acting as if Covid was still a thing. Having posted here. it’s refreshing to see so many of you echo those concerns. Thank you all for taking time out of your day to comment. Means the world to me. Sincerely, thank you.
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I’m here now, live an hour away. We are fully vaxed, wore masks indoors and crowded areas which mean most places. You have to make your own risk assessment. Oh it will be HOT too 
Unvaccinated undaunted as delta variant spawns ‘pandemic within a pandemic’ in Central Florida
New COVID-19 infections have spiked 200% in Florida over the past two weeks, with the fast-spreading delta variant finding a home in swaths of unvaccinated people.
READ MORE
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I am here now and have been living a similar covid lifestyle. Husband and I are both vaccinated, DD14 is vaccinated, DS11 is not. They lifted the mask mandate around our 30 day mark and we decided to come anyway because the numbers looked good. If our trip was a month out from today, I would cancel. (We even debated not coming the day before.)
I also traveled for work last month on an airplane, and surprisingly felt very safe on the plane and airport. People generally socially distanced (other than deplaning) and wore masks.
At Disney, we are wearing masks indoors. (Not a lot of people are, but many people are).
We are from Texas so we are used to the heat and usually traveled here in August. The heat here is much worse right now because since fast pass is not in use, many of the lines are outside the (often air conditioned or fanned) queues. We are definitely spending less hours in the park and more time in lines and outside than we normally would. (I am not sure I will return before fast pass or some equivalent is reinstated.)
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It sounds like you have a solid plan. We also left each day around 1 for pool and quiet time and avoided the worst crowds. The touring plans helped a ton with minimizing times in indoor queues (for example, we sailed through dumbo, so were inside for all of the minute it took to walk through). The only queue that I felt uncomfortable in was Space mountain with our thrill-seeking oldest (lots of teens bad at distancing with rows close together).
So, admittedly, I didn’t read all of these responses (mostly the first ones). My two cents is that it is important to remember that vaccines do not protect one against how contagious the Delta variant is (meaning the Delta variant is highly contagious and just cuz you’re vaccinated, it does’t mean you won’t contract COVID-19’s delta variant)…what it does mean is that if you get COVID-19 as a vaccinated person, you are HIGHLY likely to be spared from the most serious consequences of the disease (hospitalization…death). It means vaccinated people don’t get as sick. I think it’s something important to consider, given you mentioned your wife is pregnant.
Also, “severe” disease simply means you end up in hospital. “Mild” disease just means you don’t have to go to the hospital, it doesn’t mean you don’t FEEL horribly sick.
My mom, fully vaccinated, has just been confirmed to have COVID-19 and she feels TERRIBLE and has been sick for almost 3 weeks.
Just sharing more context. I also will say that I went during Oct 2020 and felt Disney did a great job and I didn’t feel at risk. If you’re taking all the protocols (outdoor eating/masks), it is about you weighing the risk/benefit ratio and chances are you’d be fine! Good luck. Very difficult decisions (made more difficult because our nation hasn’t come together in its approach!)
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There have been times I’ve been home so long that I’ve lost a sense of time … but did I really miss 5 months and it is now Winter 2021/2022?!?
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We are in the same boat as you (though social distancing from you in the boat!).
We have been very careful about Covid in general since early March 2020 even though most of our friends and family have been much looser in their activities than us. It has been, and continues to be, challenging to be much more limited in our activities than those around us.
We have cancelled multiple WDW trips and recently decided to cancel our October 2021 trip due to Covid. DW and I were discussing it this morning and we have decided that we will wait to go to WDW until DD6 and DS3 have been vaccinated.
It was a tough decision, but DW and I believe this is what is best for our family.
The major reasons:
(1) We won’t be able to relax when inside knowing there are unmasked/unvaccinated people.
(2) If one of my kids ended up with long Covid after a WDW trip when merely months away from vaccination, we would have significant regrets.
(3) WDW planning is tough at any time, but planning will be even tougher for us now because we would try to avoid indoor situations when possible.
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I’ve been debating whether to share but I’ll go ahead, just in case my perspective is helpful to you (or anyone).
I’m probably in a different mindset than you. My wife and I and everyone at risk close to us is vaccinated. Our kids (ages 2-9) have all been exposed to Covid (probably had it but never tested) and didn’t have so much as a sniffle. They don’t have any other risk factors.
So at this point, I’m simply not going to worry about the pandemic in its current state anymore. By far the most effective thing anyone can do is get vaccinated. It pains me that so many have been duped by misinformation and refuse to do so. Almost every death from this point is entirely preventable. It’s the tragedy of our time that conspiracy theories spread easier and faster than the truth.
Anyway, so at least for now, I’m trying to just live my normal life, picking up after ~14 months on hold. I’m keeping my eye on the news, but mostly just hoping that children under 12 get approved quickly.
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As with so many of us, we cancelled our trip for December 2020 for 5 adults and my 2 grandchildren who are now 5 and 2 years old. We then cancelled our April trip 2021. By the time of our May reservations, all 5 adults were fully vaccinated, but obviously not the children. With the lower numbers in restaurants, social distancing, masking required by Disney, we went on our May trip. Our first full day there, the manager at Ale and Compass at breakfast stopped by our table to ask if we had heard the latest. As of that morning, masks were not required outside except for in queues or on attractions, masks still required indoors. We found mask compliance to be very good and the vast majority of people followed social distancing.
Now that Disney has relaxed the mask requirement and removed social distancing markers, increased capacity in restaurants, we will not be going again until the grandchildren are vaccinated.
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Thank you for this. I can’t operate like this simply because of how my brain is wired but I wish I could. (I find it hard to be in the present and not constantly prepare to avoid worst-case scenarios. It’s a curse at a time like this, though a strength at other times, sometimes.) Anyway I followed your trip report and was wondering why you can do that for your kids now and I can’t. (Like why can’t I get it together and make it happen for them.) This context was illuminating and made me feel better — like I’m just not wired to do that. I’ll be sweating things until my kids are vaccinated and it’s just who I am. (Though I have learned lots of coping strategies for the meantime, but coping and changing one’s personality wholesale are two different things.) Also nice to hear your kids got through exposure so unscathed — I like hearing those positive anecdotes! Since my two are similar ages.
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It’s great for you to have an awareness of this so you can be responsive to it. I’m fully supportive of everyone respecting their own boundaries of what they are comfortable with, whether in the context of Covid or whatever the situation is.
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Guys, can I just say - this is why I love the Liner community. This is a hard topic and everyone is so great about sharing their views, but also understanding that those are their views and not everyone’s. I’ve been around here for six years I think - found this place when researching for my first family trip. So glad I did and so grateful for all of you. 
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So before I go into anything else, I just wanted to emphasize this. I really debated whether I should make this post or not because I was worried about what people might think, but I’m glad I did. Thank you all for being so level-headed, understanding, and respectful. Seriously, thank you.
@SkylinerKate: First and foremost, I hope your Mom has a swift and full recovery. Wishing her nothing but the best. Re: vaccines, yeah, I’ve been keeping tabs on that, especially with Delta. Honestly, we wouldn’t be even discussing this if DW’s OB hadn’t said she feels comfortable with our plan. DW is actually seeing her again tomorrow, so we’ll see if anything changes. And to your last parenthetical, yeah, that’s something that has frustrated me to no end throughout this entire pandemic. I don’t understand it, and it’s really shaken my worldview a bit.
@davej : Very much appreciate you sharing that and your decision makes a ton of sense. As I try to unpack all of this, I’ll be honest in saying I think if there wasn’t baby #3 in the mix, we’d be quicker to do the same as you guys did. I think there’s a little part of me that wants to do one more thing for our girls before they have a baby sister and we shelve WDW for 2-3 years (neither DW or I have much interest in bringing an infant. Totally respect people who do, it’s just not for us). So it seems there’s this physiological aspect of trying to give them something back after having asked them to sacrifice things for so long. I don’t know if that’s me subconsciously trying to justify this — very possible — but it’s there.
@Jeff_AZ : thanks for weighing in! I remember seeing the beginning of your posts a few months back. I value all perspectives here. This is all data to me, so every little bit helps. Agree 100% on your points about the vaccine — tragic is a great way to put it. Yes, we’re also lucky that both our kids are healthy as well as everyone around us being vaccinated. I forget where I read it recently, but I saw data that says kids have a much higher risk driving in a car than they do from Covid. If it weren’t for the specter of long Covid, I’d be feeling much more comfortable with things. I definitely think there’s merit to how you guys are going about things, for sure. While we’re obviously worried about their safety, there’s also been more studies about the mental/social impacts this could be having on the kids and that’s something we’re worried about, too. I can’t even imagine what that’s like for older kids. It’s all just seriously heartbreaking.
@illini74 : I’m really glad your trip went well. Yeah, we would have loved to do May — seems like that was sort of the sweet spot of vaccine availability + numbers falling + still some restrictions in place. I’m wondering if perhaps given the uptick in cases, WDW or even just the people traveling there might be a bit more cautious, but I think that’s me just being naive.
We’ve got a little bit of time still, so I’m going to keep following the numbers closely. The trends are… not good. But let’s see what this week brings. I doubt WDW will restore any previous safety protocols, but requiring masks indoors again would be really great. Here’s to hoping things take a positive turn.
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Covid-cautious mom of a 6yo here. Husband and I (and all adults in our family, and my co-workers) are all vaccinated, obviously DD6 is not.
We went mid-June (14-23). They lifted the indoor mask requirement three days before our trip (to be effective the second day of our trip). The indoor masking was one of the things keeping me feeling relatively safe at WDW. Too late to cancel, so I decided to go and make the best of it and my family would mask up and we’d try to do a lot of things outside or in more open spaces and stay socially distanced as much as possible. There was almost no one wearing masks. It was okay, we didn’t get Covid, and I felt reasonably safe while we were there (my husband was not as comfortable as I was). There are a few things that, if our trip was coming up, might make me think differently this time around.
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Delta, obviously. I think we don’t know enough yet about how contagious Delta is in the previously-thought safe-ish conditions (outdoors, distanced ~3ft+, both or one party masked, etc.) for me to be comfortable being around that many people right now.
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Crowds. When we went in June, it was still possibly to stay relatively distanced. People were pretty good about staying a little bit spaced out in lines. They were starting to eliminate social distancing at attractions but it was still not so crowded that we had to be up close & personal with other parties. That has changed. I am not sure I would feel comfortable in indoor situations now, and with it being the dead of summer, those indoor breaks are really needed.
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Sort of like 2, wait times. Would I feel comfortable being in a line/enclosed space for an hour? Probably not.15-20 minutes was a lot easier to swallow, especially since we were constantly moving in most lines, but wait times have gone up a lot.
I really feel for people who have trips coming up and who have to make this decision. It sucks.
ETA: another thing I would take into consideration (and kind of related to the reasons above as well) is how comfortable we would be sitting outside in the heat. We ate outdoors most places except Topolinos and San Angel Inn. We ate outdoors at Tony’s and for QS, or we got DoorDash or carry out from the resort dining and ate in our room. It was hot but not unbearable in the shade. We absolutely had to spend time indoors of course, but tried to minimize it in the situations where we could.
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We are also going mid august. If my kids (12 &15) weren’t vaccinated, we would be pushing it off again. It don’t trust those around us to do the right thing at this point. The last year has driven that point home.
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I’ll throw in my perspective as I was in WDW last month with a 6month old and 7 yo. In the months leading up to the trip all the signs were pointing to covid being under control by June and WDW still having precautions in place. We still planned to only eat outside and drive our own vehicle to avoid crowds especially inside.
I was just thinking how lucky we ended up bring with timing as June now looks like the low point for covid numbers and Delta variant wasn’t here yet. While there the indoor mask rule ended and physical distancing was pretty much over.
If I had a trip coming up in a month or 2 right now I’d very much be considering canceling it with the current spread happening in the south particularly. I fear the most for those who can’t have the vaccine which in my case is my kids.
You will have to prepare yourself to see little if any mask use in places like the Land Pavillion and other indoor spots. If that will stress you out definitely consider postponing.
And personally for me as my wife was recently pregnant, there’s NO way she would have gone to WDW pregnant or really anywhere for that matter. She couldn’t handle that much risk much less the heat of summer.
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Not trying to convince you to change your mind because every family is different on this, but here is our story on this issue.
When DW was pregnant we had a Disney trip planned for DD2. But then Zika hit Miami, and we decided to cancel our WDW trip over concerns that Orlando might be a Zika risk (in our minds, we thought how could we risk it with DW being pregnant). We originally did not plan to go to WDW until DS turned 2, but because we cancelled the original trip, we decided to go when DS was 13 months.
We were a bit concerned about how things would play out with a 13 month old, but those concerns were quickly dismissed on our first night when we went to MK and our first attraction was the Tinkerbelle meet and greet. DD (then 3.5) was talking with Tinkerbelle and I was holding DS. Then DS started squirming like he wanted me to put him down. I put him down and he crawled up to Tinkerbelle, smiled, and started spinning in a circle while sitting. He was so happy. The trip was great and DW and I are very happy we took him. Again, every family is different but we were pleasantly surprised.
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