Walt Disney World is preparing to reopen this weekend. Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom are opening on July 11, followed by Epcot and Hollywood Studios on July 15. All four parks are opening in a limited capacity. Many regular entertainment features and special experiences have been cancelled for the foreseeable future. Disney Vacation Club resorts are open at this time, with other resorts gradually opening over the coming months. Not all resorts are scheduled to reopen in 2020. When Disney opens this weekend, it will be a very different Disney World. So the big question: If you were planning to visit, should you cancel your 2020 Disney World vacation?
It’s Not an Easy Answer
The short answer? I don’t know. It depends on your unique circumstances. There are pros and cons to both visiting this year and to waiting next year.
For some of us, this is a more difficult decision than for others.
If you have been planning your trip for a long time, or are a huge Disney World fan, the thought of postponing your trip into next year (or even the following year!) may make you feel very sad.
On the other hand, if you have been financially affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, you may find it a lot easier to postpone your trip.
Florida Coronavirus Cases are Spiking!
Particularly troubling for many people is that Covid-19 is not yet contained in the United States. While some states have successfully slowed the spread of Coronavirus, other states have seen dramatic increases in new cases as the states have reopened their economies. Florida is one of the states seeing the most dramatic increases in cases. Almost every day, the state is setting new records for new cases.
Some states are requesting that residents returning home from Florida self quarantine for a minimum of 14 days before returning to normal activities.
Hopefully this is a short term situation, and Florida will soon have the spread of Coronavirus under control. But until they do, the rapid increases in new cases will continue to be an alarming factor that you should definitely consider when deciding whether to visit this year.
A Possible Second Surge in the Fall?
Related to the concerns of Covid-19 continuing to spread right now throughout Florida is the prediction from many medical experts that we may see a nationwide surge in the spread of the disease this Fall, when flu season returns. We don’t KNOW that this will happen, it’s pure conjecture. However, to date, more than 130,000 people have died in the United States from the Coronavirus. As much as I love Disney World, I’m not sure it’s worth risking lives.
Financial Considerations
Another factor that must be considered is your financial investment. I love to talk about all the fun stuff you and your family can do on a Disney vacation. I love to focus on the memories you’ll create together. My favorite thing in the world is watching Disney work its magic on guests of all ages.
However, there is no getting around the fact that a Disney vacation is an expensive investment. Worth every penny? Absolutely. But it is expensive. For many of us, a Disney vacation may take years to save up for.
Given the large financial investment necessary for your vacation, we have to look at value received. Normally, I think Disney wins on value all day every day. There are so many experiences and attractions. You can watch shows and meet characters. There are fireworks and musicians from all over the world. There is truly an astounding amount of entertainment available to you and your family on a Disney vacation. Normally.
However, right now, many of those experiences have been dramatically reduced or eliminated. You need to take that into consideration when you consider the value you will receive for your vacation. If your vacation is planned for 2020, it is highly likely that you will receive a lot less value than you would in different circumstances.
What Should We Expect?
If you are planning to visit in July, August or September, it is highly likely that you will encounter shortened park hours. You will have to wear masks throughout the theme parks and the resorts. There will be no nighttime entertainment at all, and many shows will not be happening. Social distancing requirements will make many activities either impossible, or very, very different. With attendance at each park limited each day to ensure there is room for social distancing, you may find you can’t visit the park you wanted to visit on the day you wanted to visit it. Park hopping is not allowed at this time. You will need to have your temperature taken each time you enter a theme park.
Is it possible that in October, November and December, park capacity will be increased and some normalcy will return? Certainly. Anything is possible. However, I expect that Disney will be extremely cautious moving forward. They don’t want to have to shut down again.
This is my personal opinion, based on my experience and research over the years. I don’t think the parks will return to normal during 2020. If there is a new outbreak of Covid-19 in the Fall, I’m not even sure we will see the parks return to normal by Spring 2021. I could, of course, be completely wrong about this. It is entirely possible that Covid-19 will be contained, and visitors to Disney will not encounter or spread the virus among other guests or cast members. It is also possible that Disney will find that each park can handle a larger capacity than this initial plan calls for, allowing more park reservations each day for each park. However, I still believe that it will be months before many of the nighttime entertainments, daytime shows, fireworks and character greetings return.
Our Family Vacation – A Case Study
Our family faced this exact decision this week. For more than a year, we have been planning a big family vacation for October 2020. Our vacation included grandparents and three families, including several children, aged 6-17.
We carefully chose our dates around school institute days. We all were saving for and making payments towards the trip. Last summer, we had a big planning meeting where we reviewed lots of options and chose our resort and ticket options.
Everyone was excited about the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival. (Well, to be fair, I’m not sure the kids were excited about THAT, but the rest of us were!). My mom made this amazing calendar for all of us for 2020 with notes and reminders and special pictures, all leading up to the trip in October. We’ve all be having “family movie nights” to make sure the little kids were familiar with Disney and Pixar characters they might not have known about yet. Everyone was watching Star Wars and Avatar in preparation for our big trip.
We had scheduled another big planning meeting for this summer.
When the Coronavirus pandemic began, we all immediately worried whether we’d be able to take our trip. However, I was sure that the pandemic would be controlled quickly and our trip wouldn’t be impacted. When Disney made the decision to close their theme parks “until further notice”, I got nervous. But still, I believed we’d be able to take our trip as planned. After all, October was months away.
Reality Bites
Unfortunately, as time wore on, it became all too apparent that our trip was probably going to be affected in some way. I continued to work on planning our trip, drafting itineraries and back up touring plans. We planned dining options and drafted our fast pass+ strategy. Disney cancelled all our carefully scheduled dining reservations, but still we didn’t give up.
However, once the parks announced their reopening schedule and strategy, it became very obvious that many of the things we all love about Disney would probably be missing if we pushed through and visited in October. For our little kids, this would be the first trip to Disney that they would remember. For our parents, this would be a family reunion and a special celebration of the whole family.
We all wanted it to be amazing . We wanted character meals and character greetings. We wanted to see the dragon in the afternoon Magic Kingdom parade. We wanted amazing fireworks and other nighttime entertainment. We wanted my niece to be a princess and my nephew to be a pirate. In short, this was going to be a once in many years (or perhaps a lifetime) trip for many in the group. When we looked at the value and talked about the options, the group made their decision pretty quickly.
We have postponed our family vacation until October 2021.
Reasons NOT to Postpone or Cancel
For our large family, postponing the trip until next year is the right decision. We don’t know when or even if Disney will return to “normal”. However, it seems likely that 14-15 months from now, we’ll be a lot closer to normal than we are now.
However that may NOT be the right decision for your family. There are some visitors that absolutely may want to visit during this year:
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- Florida residents: If you aren’t traveling far, or if you live within a short driving distance, it may make sense for you to still visit. Especially if you visit often, and aren’t as likely to be upset by some of the missing features or experiences.
- Frequent/Annual Visitors: If your family visits every year, or multiple times per year, it might be the right decision to still visit. In this case you’ll have a “new” experience that might be super memorable and unique.
- Annual Passholders: Similarly, if you are an Annual Passholder, and visit frequently, it may make sense to visit during this time. Note: Many Annual Passholders have voiced dissatisfaction with the return on their investment for their current annual passes. Many are upset that they paid full price for their pass and will be receiving limited value. While Disney did credit passholders back for one month due to the closures, many passholders feel this wasn’t sufficient. Some passholders are electing to cancel their passes and get refunds. So your mileage may vary.
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Benefits of Visiting This Year
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- Limited capacity means fewer people in the parks. It has been YEARS since I’ve been in the parks and had lots of room to comfortably move around. When was the last time you were able to photograph landmarks without tons of other guests in your photo? I want to visit this year purely for the novelty of lighter crowds, even if I do have to wear a mask to do it!
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- Limited capacity and no Fast Pass+ reservations should (at least theoretically) mean shorter lines for attractions.
- Merchandise sales? Potentially, fewer guests will mean a lot fewer merchandise sales. Perhaps this will result in theme park stores putting more merchandise on sale sooner? I’d like to think there will be bargains to be found. However, that may just be a fantasy!
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- Unique experience. Many, many people have cancelled their 2020 trips due to concerns related to Covid-19. Those guests that visit this year will most likely have a very unique experience. While some of that will be negative as favorite experiences will be missing, some of that will be positive. Everyone wearing masks, lighter crowds, using Magic Bands and your phones more frequently to order and pay. If you live nearby and visit frequently, you will likely see operations and rules change as time goes by.
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What’s the Right Answer for YOU?
Disney vacations for both 2020 and 2021 are now available for booking. If you’d like help planning your next Disney vacation, I’m here to help. If you’d to discuss your decision further, I am here for you. I know it’s a tough decision. Every family has unique factors they must consider. Vacation time, flying versus driving, everyone’s overall health and emotional well being. The considerations are almost endless.
I want to be very clear: I am a HUGE Disney Parks fan. I am THRILLED they are reopening, and personally am very excited to return to the parks.
For my family’s big reunion vacation, the best decision for the entire group was to postpone the trip until next year.
However, my husband and I will be visiting the parks in November on our own. We are planning to drive down rather than fly. Also, we are frequent visitors and Annual Passholders. This won’t be a regular trip for us, but the changes will be less impactful on us as we visit so often.
While I am certain I will be disappointed at some of my favorite experiences being limited or missing, I am still looking forward to visiting this year.
As an added bonus, I am looking forward to doing some “boots on the ground” research for all of you. I will keep you posted as our planning on that trip moves forward.
Should You Cancel?
So…what do you think? Should you cancel your 2020 Disney World vacation? Please like this post and comment below!
If you want my help with your decision, or with planning your next Disney adventure, please email brooke@disneycastledreaming.com.
Happy Dreaming,
Brooke
