I just posted a longer post on another thread but I would NOT return to Disney until they fix this- ESPECIALLY for Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. It KILLS me to say this- I am a HUGE Disney fan, but it is too crowded at these parks and you just can't escape that feeling. I sent an email of my post along with some other comments to Guest Communications, something I never thought I would do. Here is a copy of my other post-
Okay, so we are home from our 7 night 8-day trip. I LOVE Disney, was a Guest Relations and Tomorrowland attractions CM and have never had a bad Disney vacation, including this one. However, I have to be honest and say that I would not recommend going right now. It isn't that I felt unsafe (although I do think they could do more), but it just isn't as magical right now. My family has been 100s of times as well as to
Disneyland Paris and Disneyland, and while we of course enjoyed this we also have been on everything tons of times and know we will be back. To be specific, I would stay away from Magic Kingdom (we did it Friday 10/9) and Hollywood Studios (we did it Tuesday 10/6). The size of these two parks is considerably smaller than the other two and you can definitely feel it as you move from place to place. The wait times you are seeing online for these two parks are accurate, and I would say that in general, after reading all of these posts and other sources, all of the wait times you are seeing are becoming more and more accurate. You feel more of that "herding" now than is typical as you stand in lines on the walkways and outside and just move from one line to the next. With FP I can grab 3 and usually pick up 2-3 more during the day- at Epcot, HS, AK that would just about give us everything we want to ride and free us up to hang out. There are some definite pros to no FP- the lines move again- no more stand and stop- and you can do a more orderly visit without as much park crossing (that lovely jog from Kilamjaro Safaris to Dinosaur back to FoP KILLS me lol!). But, overall, I just did not enjoy it as much. I have to admit, I am surprising myself writing this, I really thought I would never criticize "my" mouse, but it just is awkward.
As for safety- I would say there was a 90+% mask compliance and people did try to follow the markings. But, Disney did this wrong. Basically, they just measured every 6 feet and slapped down a strip. But, we had a party of 6, we can't all stand on that little strip so we stretched back to the strip behind us, and, of course, the next group was standing right there. And, if there was a party in front of us more than 2, they stretched back toward us. So I would say in most lines we were never more than 2-3 feet from other people. Plus Disney didn't make sure that the group in the row next to us, as the switchbacks happened, didn't also stretch out to being right next to us. I NEVER felt this at Universal in June they planned every line out perfectly, didn't attempt to add weird dividers, and made sure switchback standing next to each other didn't happen. Disney needs to go in and remove basically every other line. Yes, I know this is going to put more lines in the sun and outside, and that does suck. But when you are in line for 60-90+ minutes (as many of the waits were at HS and MK- and yes, they really were that long), right smack next to other people, the virus can spread even with masks. We are all hot and sweaty and moving those masks up and down all the time and every time you do that you expose yourself and others. Another thing Disney needs to do is give everyone a squirt of sanitizer before every boarding. While my family did this before and after, when you pull down on those lap bars, you have no idea what germs are on it. At Universal, I felt very safe knowing EVERY person got sanitizer on their hands right before they stepped on board. It didn't increase wait times and was super easy. This would also eliminate the need for "cleaning cycles". Also, at Universal, at every moving walkway, there was a person standing there with sanitizer and a rag constantly whipping down the handrails, I NEVER once saw this on any Disney moving walkway and didn't see it as much elsewhere as I did at Universal either.
I have no idea what Disney is doing with park capacity but I can tell you when all the lines are 50-90 minutes for E-rides and you still have that many people out and about walking around you have too many. I feel literally TERRIBLE saying this as so many of my friends just got laid off, but I'm sorry it just isn't good. While I don't think any of us will get the coronavirus from this (we were very consistent with well-filtered masks, distancing, hand washing, sanitizer, etc.), there is just an "ick" factor you can't help but feel when walking around with everyone wearing masks. It's like you can't get away from what is going on because it is constantly in your face. It just hurts the magic when you feel so herded and you feel too enclosed in the corona world. We will go back again when this is over. I WOULD consider going back to Universal during the virus but not Disney.
Again, this hurts my heart and soul in a way I am surprised about. I have always felt a traitor to Disney visiting any other park, and have never felt the magic quite like I do at Disney, but they let me down on this one.
