After saying no to a Disney visit during COVID, I decided there was an unusual window of opportunity in Dec/Jan…35% capacity during the holidays is relatively uncrowded, and we thought it would be a unique opportunity to see the parks decorated. Also, the impact of mask wearing would be limited in the cooler winter temps….of course 35% is still a lot of people…especially with restaurant/attraction/entertainment closures, and we got 80+ degree temps most days.
Lots of observations from the week:
Hotel: we stayed in a non-Disney hotel for the first time in many years. We chose the Swan because it we could get adjoining rooms for less than a single room at YC next door. With the COVID protocols in place there isn’t a lot of benefit to booking Disney. 2 bedrooms and 2 baths were really nice to have. This is definitely not a Disney hotel though. Room design lacks storage and outlets common in most Disney resort hotels. I would put the room above a moderate, but below deluxe.
The hotel also really suffers from the withdrawal from Disney transportation. Nobody really likes the Disney bus system, but you may re-think it if you stay at the Swan and Dolphin….theirs is much worse. After several tries with extended waits, we opted for self-driving or Lyft. Lyft and Uber are really degraded in service response times. They consistently showed relatively quick pickups, but when you hit confirm, the times changed significantly. If you are going to rely on them for rope drops, I would highly recommend pre-ordering your ride.
Restaurants have been well covered and are generally considered better than most Disney counterparts. We didn’t eat there a whole lot, but no complaints.
Pool: These are big hotels, and the capacity of the signature pool was pretty stretched on warm days in Dec/Jan. I imagine it is a real challenge in summer. I would prefer any Disney pool I’ve been to over the Swan and Dolphin.
Parks: 35% is still a lot of people…especially when there is no way to force even distribution of the crowd. Avatar and SWGE are always going to draw a significant proportion of the crowd to relatively small areas. Most of what I am going to say is totally anecdotal/opinion/unscientific observation…..we don’t need to fight about this stuff. Your differing opinion is just as valid as mine.
Disney is doing what they can for COVID and I felt pretty good about being there. That said, I think a large majority of the protocols in place are more optics than substance. If your threshold for feeling or being safe is to always have a 6 foot bubble around you, I would stay home.
I knew there was line spacing in place, but seeing it is much different than reading about it. Queues for major attractions stretched literally everywhere in the parks. While the lines were much longer, I did not observe any correlation to distancing. People would expand and contract as the line moved. The lines usually paralleled other walkways, so people in transit walked close to you. The ground taken up by these lines often force bottlenecks in other areas. I did like the feeling of almost constant progress in these longer lines….you were almost always moving. In my opinion spacing didn’t accomplish much. The worst impact of line-spacing was to the non-attraction experience in the parks. Tomorrowland is a queue for Space Mountain. Frontierland is dominated by extended queues for Splash and BTMRR. Fantasy Land is a bigger mess than normal. Pandora is largely closed off by the FoP and Navi queues. It was hard to enjoy the themed lands on their own merits.
The worst area by far was EPCOT. With no entertainment and closures of some attractions/retail/restaurants, there is significantly more pressure on what remains. Mexico, Norway, and China are completely dominated by queues for the two rides there. We avoided or got out of that part of the World Showcase as quickly as possible. EPCOT is normally one of my favorite parks, but I felt ripped off on both of my visits there. They simply do not have enough to justify the time and money invested. Test Track was down extensively during our visit, and having something that big down just pushed more people to what remains.
I did not get ride spacing. After watching waits in excess of 2 hours for Mine Train, it was hard for me to understand how one empty car made everyone safer. I felt the same about other attractions with limited capacity. I just spent 60-120 minutes in line with people all around me. I don’t think the 90 seconds on a moving ride would add to my risk factor in any real way.
Rope drop is still a thing in the parks. It may be more important with the suspension of Fast Passes. There are now a lot more variables in how to be successful. During our visit, parks opened about an hour prior to posted time. Lines started forming prior to that. Parking, buses and walkways to the parks appeared to open at different times. Attractions usually started running about 30 minutes prior to park opening.
On the good side: the cavalcades were great. Disney should continue this beyond COVID. Some concepts and situations were better than others…the boat performances in Animal Kingdom were the best. Disney did a great job in the restaurants and with hand sanitizer. Mask compliance was pretty good across the board and I saw no gross misbehavior anywhere in the parks. I don’t get the militant anti-picture stance though. If you can take a mask off for a second to take a drink or eat, I don’t see how a quick photo snap is more risky. Still, rules are rules and we complied.
Disney did a great job with the new rides. Mickey’s Run Away RR is really solid. This is going to really aggravate the traditionalists, but I would love to see that type of ride system used to update things like Poo and Peter Pan. SWGE is also a huge hit. The food is very good and both attractions are extremely solid. If they aren’t planning a major expansion, they are missing the boat.
Wrap Up: I am really glad we went, but probably won’t go back until things are back to normal. Masks were tolerable in the 80 degree range, but not fun. I can’t imagine doing that in summer. I think a lot of the COVID protocols are for appearance and tend to just shift the problems elsewhere. I have to wonder if Disney returned to normal ops, but limited capacity to 50-60%, would this actually be safer than current protocols. Like almost everyone, I am not an expert on any of this, but have my own opinion.
This was a quick morning-after take on my observations over the last week. I’m sure I’ve left out tons of relevant material. Feel free to ping me if you want me to expand on something you are interested in.
Lots of observations from the week:
Hotel: we stayed in a non-Disney hotel for the first time in many years. We chose the Swan because it we could get adjoining rooms for less than a single room at YC next door. With the COVID protocols in place there isn’t a lot of benefit to booking Disney. 2 bedrooms and 2 baths were really nice to have. This is definitely not a Disney hotel though. Room design lacks storage and outlets common in most Disney resort hotels. I would put the room above a moderate, but below deluxe.
The hotel also really suffers from the withdrawal from Disney transportation. Nobody really likes the Disney bus system, but you may re-think it if you stay at the Swan and Dolphin….theirs is much worse. After several tries with extended waits, we opted for self-driving or Lyft. Lyft and Uber are really degraded in service response times. They consistently showed relatively quick pickups, but when you hit confirm, the times changed significantly. If you are going to rely on them for rope drops, I would highly recommend pre-ordering your ride.
Restaurants have been well covered and are generally considered better than most Disney counterparts. We didn’t eat there a whole lot, but no complaints.
Pool: These are big hotels, and the capacity of the signature pool was pretty stretched on warm days in Dec/Jan. I imagine it is a real challenge in summer. I would prefer any Disney pool I’ve been to over the Swan and Dolphin.
Parks: 35% is still a lot of people…especially when there is no way to force even distribution of the crowd. Avatar and SWGE are always going to draw a significant proportion of the crowd to relatively small areas. Most of what I am going to say is totally anecdotal/opinion/unscientific observation…..we don’t need to fight about this stuff. Your differing opinion is just as valid as mine.
Disney is doing what they can for COVID and I felt pretty good about being there. That said, I think a large majority of the protocols in place are more optics than substance. If your threshold for feeling or being safe is to always have a 6 foot bubble around you, I would stay home.
I knew there was line spacing in place, but seeing it is much different than reading about it. Queues for major attractions stretched literally everywhere in the parks. While the lines were much longer, I did not observe any correlation to distancing. People would expand and contract as the line moved. The lines usually paralleled other walkways, so people in transit walked close to you. The ground taken up by these lines often force bottlenecks in other areas. I did like the feeling of almost constant progress in these longer lines….you were almost always moving. In my opinion spacing didn’t accomplish much. The worst impact of line-spacing was to the non-attraction experience in the parks. Tomorrowland is a queue for Space Mountain. Frontierland is dominated by extended queues for Splash and BTMRR. Fantasy Land is a bigger mess than normal. Pandora is largely closed off by the FoP and Navi queues. It was hard to enjoy the themed lands on their own merits.
The worst area by far was EPCOT. With no entertainment and closures of some attractions/retail/restaurants, there is significantly more pressure on what remains. Mexico, Norway, and China are completely dominated by queues for the two rides there. We avoided or got out of that part of the World Showcase as quickly as possible. EPCOT is normally one of my favorite parks, but I felt ripped off on both of my visits there. They simply do not have enough to justify the time and money invested. Test Track was down extensively during our visit, and having something that big down just pushed more people to what remains.
I did not get ride spacing. After watching waits in excess of 2 hours for Mine Train, it was hard for me to understand how one empty car made everyone safer. I felt the same about other attractions with limited capacity. I just spent 60-120 minutes in line with people all around me. I don’t think the 90 seconds on a moving ride would add to my risk factor in any real way.
Rope drop is still a thing in the parks. It may be more important with the suspension of Fast Passes. There are now a lot more variables in how to be successful. During our visit, parks opened about an hour prior to posted time. Lines started forming prior to that. Parking, buses and walkways to the parks appeared to open at different times. Attractions usually started running about 30 minutes prior to park opening.
On the good side: the cavalcades were great. Disney should continue this beyond COVID. Some concepts and situations were better than others…the boat performances in Animal Kingdom were the best. Disney did a great job in the restaurants and with hand sanitizer. Mask compliance was pretty good across the board and I saw no gross misbehavior anywhere in the parks. I don’t get the militant anti-picture stance though. If you can take a mask off for a second to take a drink or eat, I don’t see how a quick photo snap is more risky. Still, rules are rules and we complied.
Disney did a great job with the new rides. Mickey’s Run Away RR is really solid. This is going to really aggravate the traditionalists, but I would love to see that type of ride system used to update things like Poo and Peter Pan. SWGE is also a huge hit. The food is very good and both attractions are extremely solid. If they aren’t planning a major expansion, they are missing the boat.
Wrap Up: I am really glad we went, but probably won’t go back until things are back to normal. Masks were tolerable in the 80 degree range, but not fun. I can’t imagine doing that in summer. I think a lot of the COVID protocols are for appearance and tend to just shift the problems elsewhere. I have to wonder if Disney returned to normal ops, but limited capacity to 50-60%, would this actually be safer than current protocols. Like almost everyone, I am not an expert on any of this, but have my own opinion.
This was a quick morning-after take on my observations over the last week. I’m sure I’ve left out tons of relevant material. Feel free to ping me if you want me to expand on something you are interested in.
