Anyone at WDW when the parks shut down?

[Animal]

The final weekend was PACKED also wasn't it?

I'm sure folks were trying to get a last hurrah in. We flew out that Friday as planned.

 

[staceychev]

Ha-have to laugh at the closed 3/16-3/31! I remember every couple weeks we’d sit listening to our Governor to hear if schools were going back, as if it would actually happen!

YES! We're in NJ, so we shut down earlier than other states. I think the 16th was my girls' first day of remote school. We actually thought they'd be back in school before Memorial Day!

 

[LoveToDisney]

We were there the full week that the parks closed down. The crowds were normal at the beginning of the week when we arrived on Saturday. As the week progressed the crowds thinned out as people were leaving early or not coming. We were in the Disney bubble near the beginning of that week and were not giving much thought to the virus. At that point, we really didn't think it was going to be much of a problem since we are usually careful to clean our hands. Our son was keeping up with social media and telling us that toilet paper was disappearing along with hand sanitizer, etc. When the 11th rolled around, many more hand sanitizers showed up at the front of the park and in various busy parts of the parks so you could use it repeatedly. When the announcement was made through MDE that the parks were going to close, it was unreal. We debated rather to leave early or finish our week. When talking to cast members at the guest help locations, they were using hand sanitizer but no one realized at that time that masks would help. Everyone concentrated on keeping hands away from face and clean. When we went to eat at Columbia Harbor House near the later part of the week, there was no one in line...it looked totally deserted which was rather strange. We waited to ride the newly opened Mickey's ride in the Chinese theater the last day we were there. The line was loooooong and we were crammed together as was usual with Disney at that time. I felt rather uncomfortable as we were getting more and more info about the virus at that point. I happened to have a face mask I keep for an allergy and decided to wear it while in line. I was probably the only one in line with a mask on....just wasn't something that anyone was prepared to do. When we spent our last day at the park and it closed down, we never imagined Disney would be closed more than a couple of weeks.The Magical Express bus was crowded when we left for the airport. Once home, we were faced with the realization that many things were no longer available at the store as you might imagine. Reality rushed in and hit us hard.

 

[TikiTikiFan]

"2 weeks to flatten the curve" they said!

Turned into 52 weeks.

And Disneyland still isn't open...

 

[hippiechicken]

We were there for my daughter's wedding on 3-10-20. Their in-park photos on 3-14 were the last ones that happened before the rest were cancelled.
I was at Epcot on Friday night and it was like I was the only person there! We tried to extend our trip since my work was canceled, but new reservations were not allowed to be made.
Here's a sample photo of the crowd-less Epcot.


We were the only ones on our Magical Express when we left.

 

[DisneyMama811]

I was there the week it closed down for spring break with my daughter and her friends. We arrived Sunday March 8th and left Thursday the 12th.
Crowds were a bit lighter then I anticipated and we had a great trip. Things started to change the 10th and eleventh. Signs started popping up all over and they stopped doing finger scans. View attachment 561992
We left Thursday morning andI have never seen the airport so empty. This was the security line in MCO at noon Thursday March 12th
View attachment 561993
There were only a little over 100 people on our flight homeView attachment 561994
then Pittsburg airportView attachment 561997

this is eerie

 

[Disney Boater]

We arrived on March 12th and we were staying at BLT. We were in MK when we got the announcement that they would be closing the parks Sunday night. We hit it hard the next 3 days, at MK, HS and AK. As the days went on the crowds got smaller and smaller. By Sunday most rides were walk on. Sunday evening we spent at MK. There were a lot of people upset, CM’s were crying and hugging each other at shift changes. The college program was shutting down and those CM’s were a mess. During HEA there was a lot of sadness throughout the park. We walked around MK after closing, no one asked us to leave and some rides remained open. Monday we went to DS for its last day, it was very crowded there. We spent the next couple days resort hoping, it was so quiet! By the time we left on Thursday we were told there were only 12 occupied rooms at BLT.