We’ve had the dates picked for our next Orlando trip since late 2019: the first week of March 2021. Our last trip was January 2018, we had great weather, but my thought was adding in some extra daylight.
I very much enjoy the planning. I had a good idea of my touring plans, even before Covid. In prior conditions, you could pretty much nail down your plan/day many months ahead. But, wow, did everything change. Now I have to tell myself that I may not have my plans nailed down until the week before the trip! I’m just a little bummed that so many things are up in the air and I won’t be able to finalize my plans well in advance.
Picking a park for a specific day
Old way: Crowd calendar and EMH were factors to consider. A mid-week day was always best for the most popular parks in order to avoid the worst crowds.
New way: Not a big difference currently, but how about 6 months from now? What will capacity look like and who know what else could be changed by then. Also, will I be able to park hop?
Making Touring Plans
Old way: Choose reservations, plan FP+, rope drop. Get a good estimate on wait times months ahead. (I was so looking forward to FP+drops )
New way: Do I even need a TP? Will there be some kind of ride reservation system that replaces FP+ by March? Who knows what the wait times will be. Will there be more shows and special tours running by then?
Oh well, guess I have to keep telling myself to have patience! Anyone else feel like they are being jipped out of your normal trip planning habits?
Yes, but I booked my trip AFTER i knew of all the differences. Im excited and panicking at the same time. Im looking at Dec. I just dont know but it will be an experience. And Ive made my peace, lol. Just me and hubby so it will be easier to go with the flow… i think.
I got to pick my dining reservations and get my FPP before they were all canceled for my May 2020 trip. Now it’s May 2021 and I’m happy to not have to go through that again. The window opens way too early on the west coast!
Wouldn’t call it jipped. But perhaps uncertain. Everything changed in terms of planning for this trip…for the better, as far as I am concerned. I have never really liked FPP, nor the fact you needed to have ADRs booked 180 days out. That was insane. So it was much nicer this time around to be able just go with the flow more.
I think it will remain this way until they can lift social distancing measures on rides.
I might have been except this was me last year, when Star Wars Land opening was announced for 3 days before our arrival of about 20 people for a big birthday bash. Off property.
ALL planning out the window cuz no one knew what to expect. Even when DL opened theirs, no real help in planning HS. 3 out of 4 parks with early openings. About July I took a moratorium on all planning. By August I realized the hotel bookings were a good indicator of crowd levels and began general planning. Having a hurricane in the area helped keep crowds down as well. Plus, we’ve never needed to go on a new thing immediately.
eta: maybe because of last year, I’m fine with just hanging around until closer to dining reservations to start planning for our December trip.
I do! All the meticulous (aka obsessive) planning is one of my favorite parts of any trip, but especially a Disney trip. All the tricks and skills I’ve developed for it are kind of out the window for now. I’m interested to see how my September trip goes with things having to be more spontaneous (or as close to spontaneous as I am capable of). And ultimately just means learning new tricks!
I feel lost. Re-booked our perfectly planned April 2020 trip to Sept 2020. I don’t see us going end of Sept but don’t know when we will find it safe enough to return, so I don’t have the heart to cancel it without re-booking. With just a glimmer of hope that we may go end of Sept, I don’t have the heart to fully plan that one either.
I originally thought masks would not prevent us from going, but my 2yo refuses and my 5yo has asked to take it off when she gets annoyed with it. So does that mean we wait for a vaccine? But we have to go before Sept 2021 when our tickets expire. I also don’t want to go in the summer since I don’t handle heat well, so that really means we need to go before May 2021. That doesn’t seem like long enough for mask requirements to go away completely and my comfort with social gatherings to return. Just so hard not having a game plan, even if it is plan A, B, and C. I need some sort of a plan to feel like this trip will actually happen. Lost…very lost.
You know - this just hit me. We’re looking at going early next year, too, for the same reason. We already have tickets, and we don’t want to go in the heat of the summer. If nothing changes with Covid (I sure hope it does!), I wonder if there will be a spring burst of travel, and then NOTHING for a very long time. Everyone who already has tickets feels the need to use them next year, even if we’re not totally comfortable with it.
Having just been back from 9 days in parks (Universal and Disney), I have no hesitation recommending anyone to go now if you can! I don’t see how it could be any safer.
And on this trip the ONLY people I saw having issues with masks were adults. Kids seemed a unfazed, even the 2 years olds.
This is exactly my thoughts after going in late July/early August. I was blown away by how compliant kids 2 and up were with the masks. They did not seem bothered at all! I am already trying to figure out another trip.
Popping in with a PSA. I know nobody here would ever want to offend anyone or use a slur, but it turns out the word being used up above meaning “shortchanged” is quite the slur:
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