Once upon a time, a pretty princess vacationed at Walt Disney World twice a year before moving to work at Disney World everyday and then transitioning to be a weekly visitor. Needless to say, going 8 months without a Disney parks visit is likely the longest she has ever gone without experiencing the magic. Spoiler alert: it's me and I'm here to tell you that is is *weird* living 30 minutes from Disney and not going for so long. My last visit was in February as I had been working two jobs and as covid-19 became more prevalent and not much known about it, I chose not to go in March before the closure. When the parks re-opened, I will admit I was judging people choosing to go. Theme parks seem so utterly unnecessary as hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives and jobs. I didn't like that with the parks open, they serve as a tourist destination and reason for people to travel to my state. Florida has always had some of the highest number of cases, so we don't need tourists carrying more in.
I consider myself an empath, so I put the feelings of others above what I feel or think the majority of the time. I kept hearing that Cast Members being called back to work weren't comfortable going back to work and I couldn't blame them. As a CM for 5 years, I know that Disney guests can be some of the most entitled and clueless people out there. How the heck was Disney going to enforce social distancing and mask wearing when people can't stay behind the yellow line or follow smoking rules on a *normal* day? That's the same reason I didn't want to visit the parks. Disney would be taking all precautions, but they can't control what guests do. I don't trust other people to do the right thing. I've worked weekends in a store and watched people not wear a mask properly for the 10 mins they were in there. I've grocery shopped and watched people not wear a mask at all or go the wrong way down one-way aisles. There's no respect for covid-19 by a large chunk of the American population, so I have chosen to stay away from theme parks.
I watched friends lose their jobs at Disney and it hurts to see. I want Disney to do well again and I miss the parks, so I poked my head into Magic Kingdom for 3 hours yesterday.
First Impressions:
Parking is handled well. I got there at 12 noon and still was only 5 rows back from main entrance to monorail. Cars are parked with a space in between them so that when people get out, they're not too close to each other. I like this strategy and honestly enjoyed not having someone bang into my car door while I was still sitting in it. :)
Temperature check and security line was easy peezy and no wait. I like the new security strategy of just walking through a metal detector.
Monorail ride was awesome. They seem to be putting only 1-2 parties per car because they only want one party per bench (and obviously no standing). There was a curtain divider separating monorail cars and I ended up being the only person in my car.
Entrance - no more biometric reading of the fingers for entrance right now.
The reduced capacity was awesome. It was nice to walk down Main Street and through the park in general without worrying about being tripped by a stroller or run over by an ECV.
Critiques:
Not everyone follows the rules, just as I thought. It was rare to see people completely wearing their mask wrong or not at all, but other rules weren't being followed well. A lot of people were not stationary while eating/drinking. It does feel strange to have to stay in one spot to sip a milkshake, but it makes sense to me why you can't move among people with your mask down. In almost every line I was in, people didn't respect the please stand here markers. They weren't breathing down my neck, but 6 feet often started to be 2 feet. People still prioritize aesthetics of pictures over rules. I saw a couple of people take their masks off for photos.
Wait times. I didn't even ride any rides because I was wanting to reduce surfaces I touch (even if it's just my butt), but the 4 food locations I went to were soooooooo slow. I went to Auntie Gravity's to get a pumpkin spice milkshake. Only one register was open and they were only taking customers on one side. Anyone who has done Disney quick service before knows that each register has a line on each side. Waited a little under 10 minutes here. Then, at Gaston's Tavern, we waited about 5 minutes. Not bad, but this one had more registers open. Sleepy Hollow Refreshments was about a 20 minute wait with a line wrapping around the building twice over. The Confectionery had a 10-15 min wait to get in and once we were in, 10 more mins to get up to the caseline to buy a cupcake. I saw the mine train line say it was 60 minutes and I overheard a guest say that the small world line was longer than the current wait time for Flight of Passage.
General vibe and attitude. Completely different. Cast members seem to be working out of obligation and fear, but not because they love being there. Rules seem of utmost importance over magic. I get it and I'm glad for this, but it makes for a different Disney and the reason I was scared to go during a pandemic. I don't want to experience reality in my magical oasis.
Final Thoughts:
I am so happy I cancelled my Annual Pass and I have no regrets about it. For the same price that annual passes have always been, you are getting a completely reduced experience and increased wait times for the most asinine things, like getting into a store. Overall, outside I felt safe and inside I felt moderately safe since they were limiting how many people in a building at a time. Talking to cast members was kinda sad since their attitude seemed different and it was often hard to understand them behind their mask and face shield. I have crowd anxiety and absolutely loved finally having personal space and my own monorail car, etc. But if given the choice to keep things how they are or go back to "normal" with no pandemic rules and getting clipped on the heel by a stroller, I'd choose "normal" 1000 times over. I can't claim to know why people have chosen to keep their Annual Passes and it's not my business, but sometimes it feels like a lot of the Disney instagram community kept them just to be able to keep creating Disney content. I loved taking photos in the parks yesterday for sure, but the cost of an annual pass is just too expensive to have the privilege to take masked photos, as the rest of the park experience is worse than normal.
If you're thinking to yourself that my post is contradictory because it sounds like I want to be safe, but hate the reduced building capacities and increased wait times, I don't blame you. I want to be safe and I understand why waits are longer, but that's not the Disney I know or care to be in.
Let me know if you've been to the parks since covid and what you think.
xx Ashley
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