A physician’s thoughts after spending 16 nights at Universal and Disney

[DurangoJim]

A little bit about me, I’m a board certified family physician who has been practice for the past 15 years. We closed our practices to in person visits in mid March and I began seeing patients in person two days a week since mid May. My family and I are fortunate that we are able to go to Disney typically 3-5 times per year from Michigan. We fly 99% of the time. Last year we had made a Bounceback reservation at the GF for a theme park view room 7/12/20 for 8 nights and 4 nights at the Hard Rock Hotel starting 7/8/20 and planned to fly from Detroit to Orlando. Due to Covid we cancelled our flights in March and watched with baited breath as to what was happening in Florida. In early July we had a very frank discussion with our two children 12, and 14 about going to Florida and staying at Disney. By this time Disney had changed our reservations to 5 nights at the Contemporary and 8 nights in a 2 bedroom theme park view Villa at Bay Lake Tower. We had never stayed at either resort in the past. The Contemporary was the last Deluxe that we had not stayed at. Our family was in agreement that we needed a vacation especially for our well being. My wife and I are both in our mid 40s and I have hypertension. Neither of us are overweight and my BP runs 100s-110s/70s. We both exercise every day. We determined that we would accept the risk for going to Florida but would try to mitigate the risk as best we would. This meant no flights and we would not rely on Disney transportation and that we would drive. These were the hard rules that we would all follow:

1. If any of us felt that we were unsafe at the Disney Parks we would cancel our reservations and return home or try to find some other destination to go to.
2. We would wear masks as often as we possibly could even when not required
3. We would avoid situations where people were not wearing masks or following distancing requirements
4. We would use hand sanitizers or wash our hands as frequently as possible
5. We would not touch our faces without having used the sanitizer or washing our hands
6. We would not do any shows where we remained stationary for extended periods of time
7. If a ride broke down or the line stopped for more than a couple of minutes due to cleaning and people did not follow the distancing and mask rules we would leave and come back later

I’m happy to report that we all had a great time and had a highly enjoyable trip. Universal was great and I feel that they actually did a better job than Disney in terms of enforcing the rules. Universal only scans your temp once per day and gives you a wrist band which allows you to enter all of their facilities without being screened again. This is more convenient than Disney but not as affective. The biggest differences that I believe Universal has done a better job is that their CMs are more engaged and willing to tell guests to put on or pull up a mask, I’d say 95% of guests at Universal we’re compliant with the rules but about 98% at Disney however there were only two times I witnessed a Disney CM speak to a guest about a lack of a mask and one of those times was after I brought it up to the CM. Additionally Universal also has the CMs put hand sanitizer onto the guests hands very much like a cruise line experience whereas Disney has automatic dispensers but the guests themselves must take the initiative to use them. Over the two weeks that we were there the attendance steadily increased to where we are glad we’re driving home today and I’m not certain I’d be comfortable with more people in the parks. The shorter hours of the parks and lack of park hopping was a definite negative and I would not recommend that anyone with kids younger than 10 go during this period of time. I think with the rules it’s too difficult. We actually preferred the character cavalcades to the parades. Overall we had a great trip and felt about a safe as possible other than being in our home. I am not stating that it’s safe to go to Disney right now but I think if you follow the rules that we did you can greatly reduce your risk but of course you need to decide if you are willing to accept that risk. I think governments should look at the theme parks as examples of how society can still function relatively normally when following some very simple rules. If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask. Thanks!

EDIT: Some people are misconstruing this post as an endorsement that Disney is safe and that it’s fine to go. This is not the case. I am simply sharing my thoughts and rationale for going along with our concerns and experiences. It is up to every individual to determine if they are willing to accept risk for what they hope to gain.

 

[hertamaniac]

A little bit about me, I’m a board certified family physician who has been practice for the pat 15 years. We closed our practices to in person visits in mid March and I began seeing patients in person two days a week since mid May. My family and I are fortunate that we are able to go to Disney typically 3-5 times per year from Michigan. We fly 99% of the time. Last year we had made a Bounceback reservation at the GF for a theme park view room 7/12/20 for 8 nights and 4 nights at the Hard Rock Hotel starting 7/8/20 and planned to fly from Detroit to Orlando. Due to Covid we cancelled our flights in March and watched with baited breath as to what was happening in Florida. In early July we had a very frank discussion with our two children 12, and 14 about going to Florida and staying at Disney. By this time Disney had changed our reservations to 5 nights at the Contemporary and 8 nights in a 2 bedroom theme park view Villa at Bay Lake Tower. We had never stayed at either resort in the past. The Contemporary was the last Deluxe that we had not stayed at. Our family was in agreement that we needed a vacation especially for our well being. My wife and I are both in our mid 40s and I have hypertension. Neither of us are overweight and my BP runs 100s-110s/70s. We both exercise every day. We determined that we would accept the risk for going to Florida but would try to mitigate the risk as best we would. This meant no flights and we would not rely on Disney transportation and that we would drive. These were the hard rules that we would all follow:

1. If any of us felt that we were unsafe at the Disney Parks we would cancel our reservations and return home or try to find some other destination to go to.
2. We would wear masks as often as we possibly could even when not required
3. We would avoid situations where people were not wearing masks or following distancing requirements
4. We would use hand sanitizers or wash our hands as frequently as possible
5. We would not touch our faces without having used the sanitizer or washing our hands
6. We would not do any shows where we remained stationary for extended periods of time
7. If a ride broke down or the line stopped for more than a couple of minutes due to cleaning and people did not follow the distancing and mask rules we would leave and come back later

I’m happy to report that we all had a great time and had a highly enjoyable trip. Universal was great and I feel that they actually did a better job than Disney in terms of enforcing the rules. Universal only scans your temp once per day and gives you a wrist band which allows you to enter all of their facilities without being screened again. This is more convenient than Disney but not as affective. The biggest differences that I believe Universal has done a better job is that their CMs are more engaged and willing to tell guests to put on or pull up a mask, I’d say 95% of guests at Universal we’re compliant with the rules but about 98% at Disney however there were only two times I witnessed a Disney CM speak to a guest about a lack of a mask and one of those times was after I brought it up to the CM. Additionally Universal also has the CMs put hand sanitizer onto the guests hands very much like a cruise line experience whereas Disney has automatic dispensers but the guests themselves must take the initiative to use them. Over the two weeks that we were there the attendance steadily increased to where we are glad we’re driving home today and I’m not certain I’d be comfortable with more people in the parks. The shorter hours of the parks and lack of park hopping was a definite negative and I would not recommend that anyone with kids younger than 10 go during this period of time. I think with the rules it’s too difficult. We actually preferred the character cavalcades to the parades. Overall we had a great trip and felt about a safe as possible other than being in our home. I am not stating that it’s safe to go to Disney right now but I think if you follow the rules that we did you can greatly reduce your risk but of course you need to decide if you are willing to accept that risk. I think governments should look at the theme parks as examples of how society can still function relatively normally when following some very simple rules. If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask. Thanks!

Thank you for not only your transparency, but the non-biased report. I enjoyed reading it.

 

[DeeBee3]

I may counter that the shorter hours and lack of park hopping is better for little kids! However, I do think the masks would be a constant battle in heat. My kids haven't been out in public since March, so I have no idea how they would handle extended periods. They are also 6 and 2. The 2 year old would be the issue.

 

[lovethattink]

I have questions about your drive. We have a road trip planned in the near future. What precautions did you take? Did you bring your own food or do carry out? Were rest stops opened for restrooms? Did you drive the whole way in one day?

We were planning to pack food and only stop for gas and restroom breaks. Hoping to make it in one day.

My oldest son works at City Walk. He said he is required to wear a mask as soon as he steps out of the car. He also mentioned enforcement is strict.

 

[TestingH2O]

Were rest stops opened for restrooms?

Not the OP, but we recently drove from NM to MO. You’ll find great variation from state to state in terms of access to restrooms. In NM, TX, and OK, we had to use gas stations or Walgreens. MO, everything is open. A friend recently drove MO to FL. She found everything was closed except in MO and FL. So, yeah, I’d prepare for some less than ideal bathrooms.

 

[JM23457]

I may counter that the shorter hours and lack of park hopping is better for little kids!

Not when it's 95 degrees midday, and the parks are closed during the cooler times of day.

 

[augrad1993]

Thank you for your perspective! I have a trip planned for early September to celebrate my daughter's college graduation. I'm high risk, but as a result I'm quite the "expert" in social distancing and sanitizing and have been for quite a while, lol. Your absolute rules are exactly what mine would be. I'm considering going simply because in my area of the country, I'm surrounded by folks who don't believe the virus is "real," and the mask controversy is off the chain...and I honestly believe that I'd be safer and in a cleaner environment in Disney World than I am in my local grocery store. Oh, and I'm a healthcare worker as well (pharmacist), working in a hospital with COVID patients. Might as well go to Disney, this is a much needed trip. We will also drive everywhere. This will be our first stay at the Poly, so we're excited.

 

[Dismrk155]

Not the OP, but we recently drove from NM to MO. You’ll find great variation from state to state in terms of access to restrooms. In NM, TX, and OK, we had to use gas stations or Walgreens. MO, everything is open. A friend recently drove MO to FL. She found everything was closed except in MO and FL. So, yeah, I’d prepare for some less than ideal bathrooms.

Get adult diapers and plenty of spray. Enjoy your travels.

 

[mdsouth]

I have questions about your drive. We have a road trip planned in the near future. What precautions did you take? Did you bring your own food or do carry out? Were rest stops opened for restrooms? Did you drive the whole way in one day?

We were planning to pack food and only stop for gas and restroom breaks. Hoping to make it in one day.

My oldest son works at City Walk. He said he is required to wear a mask as soon as he steps out of the car. He also mentioned enforcement is strict.

I recently drove to the Southeast. As others have stated, it varies by state and within each state whether or not rest stops were open. The ones that were open worked for us, we had our own disinfecting wipes and spray that we used. And we avoided touching anything inside the restroom with bare hands.

Some of the fast food restaurants were not open to go inside and use restroom. They would have drive-thru but often were not open to go inside. Some were. We ended up one time stopping and buying some food and using a restroom in a grocery store when we could not find any restaurants to go into.

 

[tstein12]

Thanks for your insight! A couple of questions for you:
1. Did you feel the need to sanitize/clean your hotel rooms upon check-in? (i.e., wiping down high-touch areas, etc.)
2. Did you all fee the need to bring sanitizing wipes to the parks to wipe down lap bars on the rides? Or was hand sanitizer (or hand washing) before/after ride enough?
3. Did you feel comfortable eating indoors at restaurants at either park?

 

[DurangoJim]

I have questions about your drive. We have a road trip planned in the near future. What precautions did you take? Did you bring your own food or do carry out? Were rest stops opened for restrooms? Did you drive the whole way in one day?

We were planning to pack food and only stop for gas and restroom breaks. Hoping to make it in one day.

My oldest son works at City Walk. He said he is required to wear a mask as soon as he steps out of the car. He also mentioned enforcement is strict.

We took I-75 all the way down. We reserved a room in Lexington KY on the way down and wore a mask every time we stopped anywhere. We stopped every 3 hours or so to help prevent DVTs and we also take a 81mg aspirin daily. This is especially a concern because COVID has shown to increase the risk of blood clots. Yesterday we drove all 1200 miles home. We left BLT at 630am and got home just after midnight. Of course I got a speeding ticket 2 miles from my home after driving that far. Stupid me, I was just tired and eager to get home. Oh well.

With regards to sanitizing wipes, we took our own hand sanitizer but utilized Disney’s as well. We need to remember that our skin is there to protect us so even if you get the virus on your hand but wash it off before putting it near your face or touching other things that come near your face you’ll be fine. That’s the key. We did change our clothes every day and did laundry every 4 days or so.

We brought a small amount of food but primarily ate at a Disney sit down daily and then mobile order for the other meal of the day. We had yogurt or cereal for breakfast

 

[DurangoJim]

Thanks for your insight! A couple of questions for you:
1. Did you feel the need to sanitize/clean your hotel rooms upon check-in? (i.e., wiping down high-touch areas, etc.)
2. Did you all fee the need to bring sanitizing wipes to the parks to wipe down lap bars on the rides? Or was hand sanitizer (or hand washing) before/after ride enough?
3. Did you feel comfortable eating indoors at restaurants at either park?

1. My wife sanitized the surface of everything in our rooms. Little effort but big gain
2. See my post above this one
3. Varying levels of comfort at the restaurants:
Sci-Fi - comfortable
Brown Derby - comfortable
Skipper Canteen - comfortable
California Grill - so so, a little closer to other tables than I would prefer
Le Cellier - so so, a little closer to other tables than I would prefer
San Angel Inn - so so, a little closer to other tables than I would prefer
Finnegan’s at Universal - so so, a little closer to other tables than I would prefer
Amatista cookhouse at Universal - not comfortable, too close to others
Homecomin - not comfortable, too close to others
Kona - not comfortable, too close to others

 

[GeorgiaTiggerGirl]

Thank you for your post and perspective. It sounds like basic common sense. I have a trip booked for late November and am still on the fence as to if I go.. I am 59 with no underlying conditions and am being careful. I only have a four night stay, and I would probably go to only one park, enjoying Boulder Ridge the rest of the time. I will make a decision later but wish everyone the best with your trips!

 

[DeeBee3]

Not when it's 95 degrees midday, and the parks are closed during the cooler times of day.

True- I have not been down there in summer yet. It's hot and humid enough in NY! We just never stayed into the night because of earlier bedtimes. I could get there at 6:30am though!

 

[JJZMgailey]

Ryno recorded a video where he discussed this thread and I thought I'd share it here with you guys!

 

[disneyholic family]

We took I-75 all the way down. We reserved a room in Lexington KY on the way down and wore a mask every time we stopped anywhere. We stopped every 3 hours or so to help prevent DVTs and we also take a 81mg aspirin daily. This is especially a concern because COVID has shown to increase the risk of blood clots. Yesterday we drove all 1200 miles home. We left BLT at 630am and got home just after midnight. Of course I got a speeding ticket 2 miles from my home after driving that far. Stupid me, I was just tired and eager to get home. Oh well.

With regards to sanitizing wipes, we took our own hand sanitizer but utilized Disney’s as well. We need to remember that our skin is there to protect us so even if you get the virus on your hand but wash it off before putting it near your face or touching other things that come near your face you’ll be fine. That’s the key. We did change our clothes every day and did laundry every 4 days or so.

We brought a small amount of food but primarily ate at a Disney sit down daily and then mobile order for the other meal of the day. We had yogurt or cereal for breakfast

you drove all the way back in one day?????????????
OMG....that's a hell of a drive...and i'm assuming I-75 isn't in the best of shape, though perhaps that's only in the detroit area?
i can't imagine doing that drive in one day.

in any case, to add to things people can consider doing, not just in advance of a trip to WDW, but in general for covid is take vitamin D. There has been plenty of anecdotal evidence, but a big study came out the other day showing that at least statistically, those with a low level of D had worse outcomes.
.

 

[SteveH]

@WebmasterJackie would be good to have @DurangoJim on the DIS Podcast as a guest too.

 

[MOPNB]

A little bit about me, I’m a board certified family physician who has been practice for the past 15 years. We closed our practices to in person visits in mid March and I began seeing patients in person two days a week since mid May. My family and I are fortunate that we are able to go to Disney typically 3-5 times per year from Michigan. We fly 99% of the time. Last year we had made a Bounceback reservation at the GF for a theme park view room 7/12/20 for 8 nights and 4 nights at the Hard Rock Hotel starting 7/8/20 and planned to fly from Detroit to Orlando. Due to Covid we cancelled our flights in March and watched with baited breath as to what was happening in Florida. In early July we had a very frank discussion with our two children 12, and 14 about going to Florida and staying at Disney. By this time Disney had changed our reservations to 5 nights at the Contemporary and 8 nights in a 2 bedroom theme park view Villa at Bay Lake Tower. We had never stayed at either resort in the past. The Contemporary was the last Deluxe that we had not stayed at. Our family was in agreement that we needed a vacation especially for our well being. My wife and I are both in our mid 40s and I have hypertension. Neither of us are overweight and my BP runs 100s-110s/70s. We both exercise every day. We determined that we would accept the risk for going to Florida but would try to mitigate the risk as best we would. This meant no flights and we would not rely on Disney transportation and that we would drive. These were the hard rules that we would all follow:

1. If any of us felt that we were unsafe at the Disney Parks we would cancel our reservations and return home or try to find some other destination to go to.
2. We would wear masks as often as we possibly could even when not required
3. We would avoid situations where people were not wearing masks or following distancing requirements
4. We would use hand sanitizers or wash our hands as frequently as possible
5. We would not touch our faces without having used the sanitizer or washing our hands
6. We would not do any shows where we remained stationary for extended periods of time
7. If a ride broke down or the line stopped for more than a couple of minutes due to cleaning and people did not follow the distancing and mask rules we would leave and come back later

I’m happy to report that we all had a great time and had a highly enjoyable trip. Universal was great and I feel that they actually did a better job than Disney in terms of enforcing the rules. Universal only scans your temp once per day and gives you a wrist band which allows you to enter all of their facilities without being screened again. This is more convenient than Disney but not as affective. The biggest differences that I believe Universal has done a better job is that their CMs are more engaged and willing to tell guests to put on or pull up a mask, I’d say 95% of guests at Universal we’re compliant with the rules but about 98% at Disney however there were only two times I witnessed a Disney CM speak to a guest about a lack of a mask and one of those times was after I brought it up to the CM. Additionally Universal also has the CMs put hand sanitizer onto the guests hands very much like a cruise line experience whereas Disney has automatic dispensers but the guests themselves must take the initiative to use them. Over the two weeks that we were there the attendance steadily increased to where we are glad we’re driving home today and I’m not certain I’d be comfortable with more people in the parks. The shorter hours of the parks and lack of park hopping was a definite negative and I would not recommend that anyone with kids younger than 10 go during this period of time. I think with the rules it’s too difficult. We actually preferred the character cavalcades to the parades. Overall we had a great trip and felt about a safe as possible other than being in our home. I am not stating that it’s safe to go to Disney right now but I think if you follow the rules that we did you can greatly reduce your risk but of course you need to decide if you are willing to accept that risk. I think governments should look at the theme parks as examples of how society can still function relatively normally when following some very simple rules. If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask. Thanks!

Thank you! For all of this - post liver tx family here (15 yrs out) so super OCD about cleaning; but also - our 17 year old no longer wishes to be in a bubble and her HS band is still planning their Disney trip next year.
I made us (her dad and I) reservations at CBR. This truly gives us hope.
We're already used to living in a new normal, I suppose.
Thank you!

 

[MOPNB]

@WebmasterJackie would be good to have @DurangoJim on the DIS Podcast as a guest too.

Shut the front door - there's a podcast?!

 

[DurangoJim]

you drove all the way back in one day?????????????
OMG....that's a hell of a drive...and i'm assuming I-75 isn't in the best of shape, though perhaps that's only in the detroit area?
i can't imagine doing that drive in one day.

in any case, to add to things people can consider doing, not just in advance of a trip to WDW, but in general for covid is take vitamin D. There has been plenty of anecdotal evidence, but a big study came out the other day showing that at least statistically, those with a low level of D had worse outcomes.
.

Almost 1200 miles. Not something I'd want to do often, lol. I75 was in pretty good shape except for Michigan, but that's not surprising to me.