Yesterday I had so many emotions. I was so excited to be heading back to a Disney park, to be experiencing the magic. I tried not to over hype it in my brain, but that obviously impossible after waiting so long to get back to our happy place. Yesterday lived up to every dream and hope. The magic was alive and well, completely untouched from the new rules and regulations. It was magical, wonderful, beautiful, and more important, I felt safe.
Getting into the parking situation was weird. I arrived an hour and a half before park opening, trying to beat the rush to get in. When I pulled up the magic kingdom entrance I was told they weren’t opening the parking lot until 8, different from what they had done with cast member preview days. I went and parked for a little bit and then headed back at 7:50. Getting into the parking lot caused a lot of confusion. To avoid rushes at the ferry and monorail, they only allowed 100 cars at a time to park. It caused the entrance to get pretty backed up, but the thought is that it’s better to wait in your air conditioned car where you can easily social distance. I have to say I agree with the decision. I would much rather sit in my nice cold car than out in the baking heat.
Once we got into the parking lot, we faced no issues. We parked quickly and then headed to the temperature check. It was exactly what we experienced at Disney Springs and there were no surprises. Security however was pretty different. They no longer go through your bag. They had me remove anything metal/electronic from my bag and then walk through the metal detector with my backpack. It was a different process, but still super quick and easy. We chose to take the Ferry, which is what I would recommend for anyone with a stroller. Right now the monorail has plexiglass dividers, so you would need to fold up your stroller to ride the monorail right now. For me it just didn’t seem worth the hassle and I have always enjoyed the ferry. If you take the ferry, make sure your whole party is together in line, otherwise you will he split up.
Entering the park, all they did was scan my magic band. They didn’t scan a finger print. Before entering there are hand sanitizing stations. They also were turning away people who were not wearing the proper type of face covering. Before coming to the park, I highly recommend reading Disney’s specific guidelines for face coverings. You can find them on Walt Disney World’s website.
I would be lying if I said it was not emotional walking on to Main Street. The castle’s new paint is absolutely beautiful. Cast members greeted us with kindness and the phrase that made tears come to my eyes: “Welcome Home”. For the first time in a long time, we were home, and that was something to celebrate. Photopass cast members were all around the park, happy to take photos. There were no large crowds and we could navigate easily.
Getting on rides was so easy. We walked on to everything. We even did Seven Dwarves twice. With such low crowds, you no longer have to worry about fastpass or long lines. Every line has social distancing markers set up, so everyone did a great job. Every ride had hand sanitizer and the entrance and exit. I also saw cast members wiping down rides. Cars are not completely filled and they are either only filling certain rows, giving each party their own car, or spacing out the vehicles. Nothing about the ride situation made me feel unsafe.
Ordering food also became a lot less painful. Everything is mobile order and when your order is ready you can go in and pick up your food and sit at a table. Tables are marked so you can only sit at certain ones to promote social distancing. They are also constantly cleaning the restaurant. My only complaint would be water. Even though they were cleaning the drinking fountains, that was the only thing available unless you bought bottled water or ordered one from Starbucks. The bottle fillers were closed and restaurants were only giving cups of ice water if you ordered food. With how hot Disney is, water definitely needs to be more readily available. My advice in the meantime would be to make sure you bring lots of water. We definitely will be next time.
Sit down dining operates differently as well. Instead of being given a menu you scan a bar code with your phone and a menu will pop up. I didn’t mind it for me, but I do miss having kids menus for the little ones. Moving forward I will be packing coloring pages for my kids if I know we have sit down dining. The restaurant was super clean and it’s nice being able to go sit inside and take the mask down for a bit, especially with the Florida heat. We were able to get into skipper canteen without a reservation and I will be interested to see if that continues or not.
There are several cool off places around the parks. One of them is an indoor location and is in Sideshow Pete’s. There is also one in the tent area next to it which is a cool down area. The cool down areas are nice, but they are not large-family friendly. You can only have 4 people per table. Our group had 7, so we would have had to split up or little ones would have to lap sit, so that is definitely something to keep in mind. We didn’t feel the need to go into the cool down areas at any point. Instead we just took our breaks from the mask when we sat down to eat.
Characters are still out and about, you just have to social distance. We saw stitch in Tomorrowland, the country bears up on a balcony in Frontierland. We also loved the “cavalcades” or little mini parades. We saw Gaston riding his horse, Tinkerbell on a float, the fab five, and so many more. Seeing them out and about was so fun and added to the magic.
Overall, I would say only having one issue (the water) is pretty impressive considering all the new things that had to be put in place. We will definitely be going back to Disney and sharing everything they have to offer! Feel free to message me with any questions you may have and check out all our adventures on Instagram!
Marvelous Mrs. Morin 