I wrote about my experience visiting Disney World for the first time during COVID-19, you can find that post HERE.
I also wrote about the Top 5 Reasons why you SHOULD visit Disney World right now HERE.
And now I wanted to write about the Top 5 Reasons why you SHOULD NOT visit Disney World right now!
I’m gonna dive right in so here we go!
Reason 1 – Face Masks
If you’re not a fan of face masks, I mean, who IS a fan?! But anyway, if you think face masks are the worst thing ever, then you’re REALLY gonna hate wearing them at Disney – especially right now when it’s so hot!
You literally have to wear a face mask the ENTIRE time! And Cast Members have no problem calling you out, no matter if you’re 2 years old or 90 years old, you better keep your mask on!
Disney has gone as far as placing Cast Members in front of the most popular photo spots – like the Cinderella Castle for example – those Cast Members hold little signs with pictures telling you that you must keep your mask on at all times, and they’ll straight up tell you to put it back on if you try to sneak a picture.
You have to keep your mask on for all the rides, and if you take your mask off on a ride that has a photo, those photos are not published, if fact, they’re automatically deleted, so they will not show up on your PhotoPass and they cannot be recovered!
Reason 2 -Reservations Only
Because the parks are at a limited capacity right now, in order to visit a Disney Park, you must make a reservation in advance.
You can check the availability calendar here.
A lot of Annual Passholders are upset because lately it has been hard to get a day ticket – especially for Hollywood Studios!
A ton of Passholders are locals, meaning that on a regular day, they’d visit a park after work, on a day off, or just for a few hours to get their Disney fix!
That can be very frustrating because since the capacity is so limited, if you’re not quick to book a day, or you don’t plan way in advance, you’ll find it really hard to be able to visit.
It seems like Disney is giving priority to their Resort Members, which honestly makes sense! Could you imagine booking a resort stay, paying all this money to stay on property and then not being able to visit? Wouldn’t that suck?!
At the same time, if you’re local and already pay for an Annual Pass, I’m sure you don’t want to spend unnecessary money on a resort just to be able to visit a park!
Times are weird…
Reason 3 – No Parades, Fireworks, Shows, Meet & Greets
If this is your first time going to Disney World, or if you’re spending thousands of dollars on your trip – don’t come.
Seriously, do not spend the money, it’s not worth it.
While Disney is super freakin’ magical, even during a pandemic – it’s soooo weird there right now!
There’s definitely a lot of things missing, and I can’t imagine this being my first trip.
Being a local, I’m lucky to get to go often, so this weird, temporary way of visiting is ok for me for now because I’ve already experienced everything.
You definitely don’t want to miss out watching the fireworks show in front of the castle holding your babies tight and crying along with the music (I’ve seen the show 98 times and I STILL get teary eyed every single time!) or missing out on getting a big tight hug from Mickey.. All of that magic is gone right now – and you’d be paying the full amount!
Reason 4 – No Park Hopping
This sucks because I LOVE park hoping! Yes, even with kids – it’s so nice to be able to just go to one park, do a few things, then hop to the next one and end the night there.
No park hopping means that you’re literally stuck at one park for the entire day!
Take Animal Kingdom for example – sometimes I just wanna ride Flight of Passage, like that’s literally all I want to go to Animal Kingdom for (and to get some shredded pork & cheese fries, duh) and then ideally I’d head over to Epcot to drink around the world.. NOPE! Can’t do it! So I basically “wasted” a whole day for just 1 ride! It sucks!
Of course because the reservation system is the way it is, I plan ahead and either do something before we head to the parks, or plan something for after, knowing that I only need a small time frame at the actual park.
Reason 5 – You have to PLAN EVERYTHING in advance!
If you are the type of person who likes to be spontaneous or just “wing it”, visiting during this time isn’t for you!
You literally have to plan everything in advance!
From what park you’re going to visit, to where you’re going to eat, to how many extra masks and/or outfits you need to bring to change into cause it’s HOT – you gotta plan plan plan!
Quick service restaurants are only accepting mobile orders, so you can’t just go to the restaurant to order, you have to do so in your My Disney Experience App and wait until your food is ready to go pick it up at a window.
The same is for the resort quick service! You know their cafeteria? Where you’d usually stop by to either grab a quick breakfast before heading to the parks, or to get a night cap snack before heading back to your room after a long park day? Well, you better order that ahead!
Like I mentioned above, there’s no park hopping so you’d wanna plan your days carefully in order to make the most of them.
Oh also, NO FASTPASSES! Which trust me, it’s not the end of the world cause the wait times ARE pretty low, but there are no fast passes at all!
Again, if you want to see my Top 5 Reasons to visit Disney right now, head on over to this post!
I like to show the good and the bad!
I personally think it’s worth it to visit right now if you have been before and/or live close by.
I 100% do not recommend going if those 5 things above will annoy you, or again, if this is your first visit or if you’re spending a ton of money traveling from far away.
Whatever decision you make, keep a positive attitude! This is all only temporary!
