By Soarin’ Diva
When Walt Disney World finally opened for operation after initially closing due to Covid-19, there were quite a lot of rules and stipulations the guests were required to follow if they wanted to attend the parks. My family went back for the first time since its reopening at the end of May 2021. We were prepared to follow the mask guidelines and social distancing rules. It was quite a change from the last time we had been there, but we knew that Disney was doing all they could to keep their guests and Cast Members safe.
Masks were required on all attractions, whether they were indoors or outside
Imagine our surprise when social distancing rules changed literally from day to day while we were there. One day, shows were seating every other row with spaces between groups, two days later, the same show was seating every row with spaces between groups.
Making sure we wore our masks on rides
The most recent update is a huge one. If you are any type of Disney Parks fan at all, you already know that the mask mandate has been virtually lifted for all vaccinated guests. This means, everywhere except Disney transportation, vaccinated guests can remove their masks. This was amazing news. Some of those attraction lines were so stuffy with no air flowing through that wearing a mask in the lines was quite brutal. Please remember though, that Disney does expect non-vaccinated guests to continue to adhere to the mask guidelines.
I love that things are actually getting back to normal. By normal, I mean the old normal, not the “new normal”, a term that I learned to loathe within the last year.I love seeing smiling faces in Disney vacation photos. I love seeing more things open up and I love the fact that at this time, all of the Disney Parks across the world are finally reopened!
Circles were used throughout all the Disney Parks for social distancing
There is one thing, though, that I will miss about the old pandemic guidelines. Social distancing. I’m not a touchy-feely person anyway and I really hate having complete strangers crowd into me and breathing on me. For the first time ever at Walt Disney World, when we hit the parks at park opening, we were able to walk…not run, not speed walk, but just walk directly to whatever attraction we chose to start the day off with & hop right on without having to worry about being trampled in that rush of people that used to run into us at rope-drop.
Getting to Pandora during social distancing at park opening was much less stressful
Just the act of walking to Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom has always been a “take your life into your own hands” situation in the past. Not this last visit though. We were able to walk at our own pace without worrying about people shoving us aside, walking into us, ramming us with strollers or their own body weight. We just walked straight through the park, into Pandora and right onto the attraction without any near-death experiences at all.
It was amazing. It was incredible. It was, possibly, the absolute best thing to come to Walt Disney World as a result of the pandemic. And now that there are basically no social distance guidelines even in play at Walt Disney World, it could be gone. We could be back at the rope-drop, take your life into your own hands, fight your way through the throng of running herds of people situation again. I’m not sure if they have changed park opening procedures completely back to the old way yet or not, though I have read a few grumbling comments from people about the way EPCOT has been opening lately.
Magic Kingdom at park opening was much easier to navigate with social distancing
I will ask, though, that if Walt Disney World has completely gone back to the old park opening rope-drop procedure, please, for the sake of all of us five foot one (and a half)inch miniature bodies out there, please take it easy when heading to your first choice of attraction for the day. Please keep some semblance of social distancing intact, just enough to keep us shorties from being trampled. It sure was a nice feeling to not have to fear for my life every morning, I would love to hold on to that feeling.
How about you? Do you want every detail at Walt Disney World to go back to the old way, or are there any Pandemic guidelines you would like to see stick around? Are you finally ready to take that much-needed post-pandemic vacation and are thinking about Walt Disney World?
Patricia at All for Dreams Travel can get you there! Her services are FREE to you, so contact her today to make your Walt Disney World Resort reservations!
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