I feel like I have been doing this a lot lately but, let me preface this by saying. My fiance and I take COVID-19 very seriously and I am actually immune-compromised (did not become so until after I bought my nonrefundable tickets) therefore we did research, a shoutout to AJ from Disney Food Blog (DFB), and all precautions. It has now been almost two weeks and I am able to still walk 3 to 5 miles outside daily.
Like I mentioned in my last post (if you haven't read it, go back and read it first I'll wait....great, thanks for taking the three whole minutes to read that I appreciate it 🙂) we were not able to go back home do to the quarantine restrictions. My fiance is an essential worker and would not be able to take three weeks off to quarantine for two so there is that. So we decided to go to Orlando which is only a 2-hour drive and I got new Emerald Minnie Mouse ears to match my emerald wedding of course and wanted to wear them in a socially acceptable place.
So I booked these tickets during Black Friday (before) I found out I was approved for the drug for my chronic skin condition and was told the week before my first injection that I would be immune-compromised as long as I am taking the injections 🙄 (yay).
With this new information, I research the current status of the parks through DFB, a youtube channel that gives constant updates on any changes related to Disney Parks. Walt Disney World, at the time we were going on December 26th, eliminated Park hopping and you needed both a reservation and valid ticket for the same date and time. We chose EPCOT because I do not enjoy rides like I used to, I have high anxiety, plus I am all about the food especially from different countries. Two years ago, we learned to never go to Disney on Christmas day ESPECIALLY Magic Kingdom by being blockaded in a traffic jam of four strollers with overgrown toddlers in them for FOURTY-FIVE minutes next to Cinderella's Castle because the light show was about to start. (This was before COVID and the park reached 100% compacity 3 times that day.)
I packed five masks a piece for my fiance and myself as well as 5 pairs of gloves for me to avoid contact with all unnecessary surfaces and to change if I needed to use the bathroom or felt like they got too dirty. In the parks, you can no longer, walk around to eat and/or drink. Next to most food stations, there are distances benches or standing tables that can if two people to eat your food and move on to the next space. Not only were masks required over your nose and mouth, if you did not comply you would be ejected from the park and employees had hand sanitizer hat every cash register, plastic shields up and on. With an individual fork, knife, and spoon dispensers there was practically no reason for me to actually have to touch the food itself. The only exceptions were the holiday cookies with I only want the gingerbread which I took my gloves off for and place on a new pair once I was done.
The park itself was not even at 30% compacity because Epcot is more of an adult park (since they serve alcohol) it wasn't a crazy amount of kids running around and we were able to have plenty of distance between us and other guests. I never once felt crowded or clustered. If you did need a break, need to finish food before you got on a ride, or take off your mask, each country had relaxation stations that no one was using (I attached a video below) and it was perfect. This WAS NOT the case in Disney Springs. I still would recommend using a hotel shuttle, Uber, or Lyft to get to the park if you can. It was $5 to 10 dollars depending on where you stayed and with parking $25 dollars a car you are not likely to be close to the gate it's worth it.
Please avoid Disney Springs during the holidays, most garages meet full capacity and will not let you through unless you have a reservation at the restaurant and with it being free everyone flocked there first. There is absolutely no crowd control. We stopped there after the park, I still had my mask and gloves on of course especially since it was 30 degrees outside and I almost had an anxiety attack the 15 minutes we were there over the sheer crowd of people there.
Overall, I am happy about the experience and think at least in the parks Disney did an excellent job on protocol, cleanliness, and safety.
Comments