Opinion if you can, wait till things fully reopen

[disney dumbo]

Leaving today. You are paying full price for less than full price experience. No fireworks, no real parades (an occasional impromptu float/street car/boat with characters), no character interactions, masks make it much hotter, some things closed for refurbishing or covid reasons, took 30 minutes to get coke with ice due to having to order online. If you could get a discount, then fine. But just feels like a different (lessor) experience for the same price and energy.

But, Disney is doing great job making it covid safe. Amazing. Buses have seats separated, love the distance separators in lines, tables spacing, online ordering, etc. Good job Disney during difficult circumstances.

Soooo great if you just need Disney fix and getaway. But warning, it isn't the same.

 

[Disbug]

Agreed! That is why (for the most part) I am staying at Disney but going to Universal. USO and IOA are are closer to the original theme park experience. Longer hours. Park hopping. Character selfie spots. Shows. Food has been really decent, as well!

 

[nw6675]

Agree. We had a good time, but left a day early. We enjoyed the cavalcades more than the regular parades and liked the castle projections, but everything else was kind of ho hum.

 

[David G Farr]

My parents are going next week with my older brother, his wife and their 2 year old daughter. they planned the trip pre-Covid and the only saving grace is that my niece is going to be too young to remember how limited things are. My wife and I went last fall and had a blast doing an adults only trip, and my mom was asking about places to meet characters and eat, but they’re all mostly closed right now.

 

[RanDIZ]

Can’t wait to go in Dec. I will say I’ll miss MVMCP and some of the closed restaurants. My other option was to stay home and watch YouTube park videos. Hahaha. It is what it is at this point. I’m not letting the Rona stop me. It’s not the first virus and certainly won’t be the last.

 

[ngl]

Leaving today. You are paying full price for less than full price experience. No fireworks, no real parades (an occasional impromptu float/street car/boat with characters), no character interactions, masks make it much hotter, some things closed for refurbishing or covid reasons, took 30 minutes to get coke with ice due to having to order online. If you could get a discount, then fine. But just feels like a different (lessor) experience for the same price and energy.

But, Disney is doing great job making it covid safe. Amazing. Buses have seats separated, love the distance separators in lines, tables spacing, online ordering, etc. Good job Disney during difficult circumstances.

Soooo great if you just need Disney fix and getaway. But warning, it isn't the same.

Appreciate the feedback. We have been holding out too because of the reasons you mentioned but we have tons of DVC points from various cancelled trips this year and not much planned for next year so thinking about a quick night or two next week just to get away (we live 1 hr away). What is the current transportation like? Is the EPCOT monorail still closed? Kids are off of school the full week and we took vacation (to use that up too!) so just trying to do something!! Thanks in advance for any information.

 

[bakerworld]

The cost I resent the most is the ticket. The resorts are so nice and provide plenty of amenities, even with the reduced food offerings. DS basically seems the same operationally to me. The ticket cost for one park a day is ridiculous. The only good part was the extremely long lines are actually a rather short wait for every ride.

 

[Heather07438]

We booked 11 months ago for Jan 8-16 with hopes of hitting Festival of the Arts our last weekend. Already been pleasantly surprised it's starting a week early on Jan 8 (probably since marathon cancelled) and we're thrilled! We saw the 1st Art Fest, this time's 5th Anni. Love it 47 days to go.
For guests who go every 3-5yrs then it may be a good year to pass. We'd probably regret passing up pandemic mode WDW. You need something to talk to your future grandkids about.

Stuff we'd love to return in order of importance to us-
Hoppers (X)
Fireworks
FP+
Longer Hours
Fantasmic!
Maskless (AGH*)
Disney Dining Plan
People Mover
Motorized Boat Rentals
TTC to EP Monorail
Electric Water Pageant
Fest of the Lion King
Parades
Character Meets
Voices of Liberty (X)
Crystal Palace (X)
MK Resort Boats (X)
*aint gonna happen

New stuff that's open & we haven't seen yet-
Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway
Awesome Planet in the Land Pavilion
Cinderella Castle's new spiffy paint job
Riviera Resort
Imagineering presents Epcot Experience
Circle Vision 360 Canada
Regal Eagle
Gran Destino Tower
Beauty & the Beast singalong
Tron construction and Ride Vehicle

Old Stuff to see before it updates-
Spaceship Earth
Splash Mountain

New Stuff on the horizon-
HarmonioUS
Space220
Ratatouille
DuckTales World Showcase Adventure
Grand Floridian Walkway (X)
HarmonioUS Fountains
Streets of Paris

Some things are a bummer but overall WDW's still worth visiting for us as it stands. Not crazy about all the plastic dividers obstructing the rides now tho the trade off is quicker standby lines. Slowly but surely things are coming back and getting checked off our list.
A couple more may happen... who knows

 

[MonkeyKnifeFight]

Thanks for the review. We are going because we have expiring points, but we changed the trip around and are banking everything we can to use later. What you said is kind of what I expected. Should still be fun enough but not the same. The shorter waits will be interesting. Might try the new park hopper. Unsure right now.

 

[DVCSunDevil]

We booked 11 months ago for Jan 8-16 with hopes of hitting Festival of the Arts our last weekend. Already been pleasantly surprised it's starting a week early on Jan 8 (probably since marathon cancelled) and we're thrilled! We saw the 1st Art Fest, this time's 5th Anni. Love it 47 days to go.
For guests who go every 3-5yrs then it may be a good year to pass. We'd probably regret passing up pandemic mode WDW. You need something to talk to your future grandkids about.

Stuff we'd love to return in order of importance to us-
Hoppers (X)
Fireworks
FP+
Longer Hours
Fantasmic!
Maskless (AGH*)
Disney Dining Plan
People Mover
Motorized Boat Rentals
TTC to EP Monorail
Electric Water Pageant
Fest of the Lion King
Parades
Character Meets
Voices of Liberty (X)
Crystal Palace (X)
MK Resort Boats (X)
*aint gonna happen

New stuff that's open & we haven't seen yet-
Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway
Awesome Planet in the Land Pavilion
Cinderella Castle's new spiffy paint job
Riviera Resort
Imagineering presents Epcot Experience
Circle Vision 360 Canada
Regal Eagle
Gran Destino Tower
Beauty & the Beast singalong
Tron construction and Ride Vehicle

Old Stuff to see before it updates-
Spaceship Earth
Splash Mountain

New Stuff on the horizon-
HarmonioUS
Space220
Ratatouille
DuckTales World Showcase Adventure
Grand Floridian Walkway (X)
HarmonioUS Fountains
Streets of Paris

Some things are a bummer but overall WDW's still worth visiting for us as it stands. Not crazy about all the plastic dividers obstructing the rides now tho the trade off is quicker standby lines. Slowly but surely things are coming back and getting checked off our list.
A couple more may happen... who knows

"We'd probably regret passing up pandemic mode WDW. You need something to talk to your future grandkids about." This is a great point. I haven't thought about it this way. We are going in April and I haven't been able to get over my worry about how different (i.e. less magical) WDW will be. Especially with soooo many less cast members to make the experience special. Because, let's face it, it's the people who work at WDW that make it such an amazing experience. I have heard that the World Showcase (my personal favorite) at Epcot isn't even close to the experience it was pre-Covid. All that being said, experiencing WDW in these very unique circumstances may itself be the experience. Years from now when WDW is back to pre-covid staffing and everything is humming along, the story of going during the pandemic will be a story in itself and an experience worth the trip. As a side note, this will be our first Welcome Home trip (we closed in February and our first trip was originally supposed to be last April) so we can't wait!!

 

[Heather07438]

All that being said, experiencing WDW in these very unique circumstances may itself be the experience. Years from now when WDW is back to pre-covid staffing and everything is humming along, the story of going during the pandemic will be a story in itself and an experience worth the trip. As a side note, this will be our first Welcome Home trip (we closed in February and our first trip was originally supposed to be last April) so we can't wait!!

Have an awesome trip!

When I start to think too deep about what our trip could've been, I try to remember the uniqueness. It will be an experience in itself, and many of us who visit WDW frequently enjoy planning bucket list trips. At some point we want to try Christmastime, or the Halloween Party, and a million other things. But this opportunity won't likely be available again if we pass it up.

 

[Ronaldo17]

I think we'll just wait, rented out all our points. No travel from UK for the foreseeable anyway.

 

[anncro54]

I have decided to wait until full reopen. Am renting out all my points for 2020.

 

[Cheburashka]

On the positive side I'll say that I have enjoyed it being less crowded. We were at Disney World the week before Christmas and it never felt crowded. How often can you say that? I also like that there is no FastPass slowing down ride lines.

 

[MeridaICR]

On the positive side I'll say that I have enjoyed it being less crowded. We were at Disney World the week before Christmas and it never felt crowded. How often can you say that? I also like that there is no FastPass slowing down ride lines.

We missed our opportunity to go in December before Christmas as well. We chickened out and decided to cancel. I can see your point about the crowds and that is the main reason that I wanted to go. What discouraged me, other than COVID, was the prices of the tickets considering that the experience was less than normal. I would've expected the prices to be more reasonable considering that many things are not available. We are planning to go in August so we'll see how things are by then.

 

[Climhazzard]

Went late September and it was a great time for us. Lower crowds, had some leisurely days at Epcot and was honestly nice to go back to the hotel at night to swim (stayed at BCV) as opposed to feeling like we had to be out all night for fireworks. Everyone has different priorities though.

 

[tripgoerNS]

Thanks for the report. We have been going back and forth on it before my son turns 2. After that, we wont be going for awhile because I wont be able to ensure the mask compliance.

 

[DL1WDW2]

I agree about the Mask Memory Trip to share someday.
I forced myself to purchase a small photopass picture before I departed at MK Main Street & they placed the year on the border frame. I have one copy for each grandchild
Hopefully they will like it someday Wearing a mask under the holiday tree and Happy New Years Hat 2021 with mask....priceless.

 

[DL1WDW2]

We also took the time to discover all the places you normally walk past. It’s our Discover Disney Day So let’s play... Figment is now Fun in a funny new silly way Just use your imagination
.. Awesome Planet is awesome Especially if you walk all the way down to the front row.
Take the time to enjoy the Disney that is hidden in front of your nose Especially by looking up . Disney detail as you walk thru Castle WOW

 

[oufpat]

We've been to WDW so many times since purchasing DVC in 2010, but it wasn't until our trip 2 weeks ago, that we realized how many of the little things we had been missing. First time seeing Planet Awesome, and it was! Yes, we still miss Parades, Fireworks, meet and greats, but we truly were able to appreciate all the little things we take for granted!