Summer of 2022

[MudQueen22]

We are considering a trip to WDW for June of 2022.

What are your thoughts on what WDW will be like at that point with regard to the Coronavirus, and measures necessary for its control?

Please know that I am not here to complain about measures taken to keep it under control; I'm simply trying to figure out whether it would be a good time for our family to visit, and what to possibly expect if we do.

 

[GBRforWDW]

We are considering a trip to WDW for June of 2022.

What are your thoughts on what WDW will be like at that point with regard to the Coronavirus, and measures necessary for its control?

Please know that I am not here to complain about measures taken to keep it under control; I'm simply trying to figure out whether it would be a good time for our family to visit, and what to possibly expect if we do.

Just to be clear, you're looking at June 2022, 18 months in the future, and not this June, 2021.

I think June 2022 will be way better. Everyone that wants vaccinated will have done so by then. More people will be back to traveling etc, which should allow more shows and entertainment to return. I would hope masks mandates are gone by then. I'd like to see social distancing lines stick around though

There might be some aspects not back to normal, but the majority,in my opinion, will be back

 

[MudQueen22]

GBRforWDW, yes, I meant June of 2022. We enjoy planning almost as much as we enjoy the visit; we always begin planning over a year in advance. We often book our lodgings between 9-12 months prior. By six months out, we have chosen each park and which day(s) we will visit each park. We have chosen the restaurants, and dh gets up early to make the reservations.

We are currently at that stage where we are deciding if, indeed, we want to go. We are deciding off-site or on-site. We are deciding whether we want to pull our camper or stay in traditional (fixed) vacation accommodations. We're deciding duration. Definitely deciding budget since we are educators and cannot drop $8k on this. lol

Do you think fast pass + will return?

My husband and I plan to get the shots once they are available to us. Since no trials have been completed for people under 16, we do not know when the kids will have access to a safe vaccine. I'm not sure if lagging vaccine access in the under 16 crowd will affect WDW's operations in the Summer of 2022.

Although we gladly wear our masks to work and while moving about in the community, I do have a pulmonary condition that would make it difficult to wear outdoors during the Florida summer heat and humidity. I would rather push the trip back a bit further than deal with the risk and/or misery.

 

[PlutoTheDog89]

If masks are still a thing in Summer 2022, we have bigger things to worry about than a Disney trip.

FastPass+ Return: The return of FP+ is no longer a question of when, but if. And based on EMH going away and all the cuts, I could see Disney bringing back a modified FP. Maybe some type of paid system or virtual queue. It's all just opinion right now.

Definitely hear ya on the money side. We always loved on-site, but we're debating doing off-site for our next trip (Christmas week). Although Christmas is probably not the best time to stay off-site if crowds are back to normal, they money we would save far outweighs skipping MK for a day or two if we can't get in.

 

[GBRforWDW]

GBRforWDW, yes, I meant June of 2022. We enjoy planning almost as much as we enjoy the visit; we always begin planning over a year in advance. We often book our lodgings between 9-12 months prior. By six months out, we have chosen each park and which day(s) we will visit each park. We have chosen the restaurants, and dh gets up early to make the reservations.

We are currently at that stage where we are deciding if, indeed, we want to go. We are deciding off-site or on-site. We are deciding whether we want to pull our camper or stay in traditional (fixed) vacation accommodations. We're deciding duration. Definitely deciding budget since we are educators and cannot drop $8k on this. lol

Do you think fast pass + will return?

My husband and I plan to get the shots once they are available to us. Since no trials have been completed for people under 16, we do not know when the kids will have access to a safe vaccine. I'm not sure if lagging vaccine access in the under 16 crowd will affect WDW's operations in the Summer of 2022.

Although we gladly wear our masks to work and while moving about in the community, I do have a pulmonary condition that would make it difficult to wear outdoors during the Florida summer heat and humidity. I would rather push the trip back a bit further than deal with the risk and/or misery.

Ha, just wanted to make sure we were talking same year, as I really don't expect the two years to be alike at all. I think FPs will return soon, but like Pluto above, do see it possibly being modified from before. ADRs will remain a 60 day out thing. Masks will be gone as will plexiglass on rides. The majority of entertainment should be back, and no social distancing for audiences. I think park reservations will still be around though.

Unfortunately a lot of on-site perks are gone, but the 30 minute early entry perk coming back will be nice if you can get there early. Still have the ADRs at 60+ length of stay as well. Might be worth it to pull your camper to fort wilderness if that's something you like to do.

All In all, I think 2022 summer will be a good time to go, if the budget allows.

 

[nursejackie]

Can you imagine how many of us will be visiting in 2022 to make up for all the missed trips? We'll be there as well, possibly twice. Then again, when I booked February 2021 last June, no way did I think we'd still be in this state (more fool me!). I don't feel able to book anything for a long time but I'm requesting time off work and saving up ready to go when Boris and Biden allow us to travel to the US again.

 

[Ricguz]

I think it’s smart on your part. I think the world will be back to close to normal and therefore Disney should be up and running. As a veteran Disney attendee, that’s my next time to stay at Disney. From the middle of 2022 and beyond.

 

[MudQueen22]

Can you imagine how many of us will be visiting in 2022 to make up for all the missed trips? We'll be there as well, possibly twice. Then again, when I booked February 2021 last June, no way did I think we'd still be in this state (more fool me!). I don't feel able to book anything for a long time but I'm requesting time off work and saving up ready to go when Boris and Biden allow us to travel to the US again.

Oh, goodness! I hadn't really considered that!
I will need to watch the boards between now and then and see if we don't need to push our trip back one year.

We don't go every year, but we like to make the trip nice when we do go. Our July 2019 trip was a favorite for everyone in my family. We enjoyed the Fort Wilderness Campground (too expensive, but nice experience, and we liked sleeping on our own personal beds and bedding). Also, we found it to be much less crowded than our previous trips. DisBoards members hit the nail on the head with that recommendation--it's not that crowded in the summer because people would rather go when it's not so hot.

However, if there is a lot of chatter on the boards about making up for lost time in 2022, I think we might push that to 2023.

 

[holden]

I think summer 2022 will be pretty much back to normal. Not sure about international travel though. WDW might be extra crowded if we have to stick with domestic travel (as would national parks, etc). That’s just my prediction.

 

[gharter]

2022 is way too far off to make any real guesses.
Hopefully, things are much better and back closer to normal.
Really just too many unknowns to make a good guess at this time.
I don't even know what our April or October 2021 trips will look like.

 

[sethschroeder]

Wait until December then ask. 0% of being able to remotely guess accurately.

 

[boop0524]

I am optimistic things will be in a much better place by then tho it’s so hard to say. I think Disney is going to be extra cautious moving forward.

We have family members wanting to go this year and looking for the Disney experience with meet and greets, etc. I am trying to explain it’s going to be awhile before that happens again, but they’ve never been and just want what they want!

Anyway, I think for your trip, you should be fine. I would absolutely keep it and just anticipate it may look a little bit different than before but will still be magical!

 

[Amy11401]

I am hoping things are closer to normal then. Most likely we will be going in Summer 2022. We were going to go in Summer 2021 but for now have held off on booking. The last time we went was October 2018 so we don't go super frequently.

 

[Feberin]

I'm hoping that things will be closer to normal. I read they're hoping to have a pediatric vaccine by the end of 2021. We were supposed to go in April/May 2020 then August/September 2020, then February 2021 and now are thinking May 2022. My kids really want to do the meet and greets and my Dad who is in his 70s is traveling with us. Hopefully he'll be vaccinated soon though and Disney will have more stuff back to normal by May 2022. We haven't been since 2014 and I want to go so badly but once we go it'll be awhile before we can afford to go again so we keep waiting.

 

[disneytraveler]

I am planning on going to Disney in 2022 also

 

[wdw&sonny]

We will learn a lot in the next month or two from Israel. They are farthest with mass vaccination. As data emerges, we'll start to know what comes next for the US and rest of the world.
We are literally just beginning to fight this. We are at week 1 of people receiving the complete, 2 dose regimen.
I expect that in the next month or two, our certainty of summer 2022 will be much clearer.
I am optimistic that we will achieve herd immunity by late summer 2021.

 

[bookwormde]

Just an educated guess, but I think a lot of the sanitizing and air exchange/filtration efforts will still be ongoing but distancing will be just used in limited situations and mask wearing (n95) will also have transitioned to recommendations for those who can not or have chosen not to be vaccinated eg haunted mansion for Disney CYA

The things that could change this would be an vaccine resistant covid strain with significant outbreaks or a much shorter or highly variable vaccine lifespan

 

[Grasshopper2016]

I am pretty optimistic that Summer 2022 will be . . . not back to normal exactly, but settled into the new normal. By then, everyone who wants a vaccine will have one, and society will have moved on to whatever is next. Hopefully, that new normal won't be all that different from what we used to have.

My big fear is that one of the new mutations that have arisen in South Africa or Brazil, or some other new mutation yet to come, will prove resistant to the vaccine. My understanding is that most scientists are cautiously optimistic that the vaccines will still be reasonably effective against the new strains. But there is legitimate reason to be nervous. If the virus manages to evade the vaccines, we would need to start all over again. But, of course, the world can't afford to stay quasi-locked down for another two years or more! Scary to think about what the path forward would be at that point. I suspect that it would be a new normal that looks a lot different (and a lot worse) than life as we used to know it. But I guess we would have to get used to that and make the most of it.

 

[Wild4Walt]

While no one knows for sure at this point, I think we are marching in the right direction for more normalcy with Disney ( if not 100% back by Summer 2022 ). I'm sure the Disney 'think tank' is anticipating that time period already. Here's my thoughts on where we'll be in Summer 2022: ( these are just my thoughts based on what we have seen Disney doing so far and the hopefulness that the vaccine takes off and is successful )

• Park capacity limits around 80% of park capacity vs. the 30% we have now.
• Fireworks have returned, but we may not see the grand spectaculars daily ( because this is budget driven ).
• Face masks are now optional.
• 65% of live entertainment is back ( because this also is budget driven ).
• Social Distancing in lines is still a think in 2022 as a precaution.
• Plexiglass partitions will start coming down on rides, but will remain in standby lines.
• The parades of old are iffy - I think the cavalcades have been successful so there may be a hybrid of these events. Cavalcades during the week and Parades on weekends, Special events or Holidays only?
• Fast Passes - this is another iffy area. I think the pandemic has given Disney an opportunity to look at other ideas, both as they were and for a cost. I, personally, would love to see something different so I don't have to plan by days so far out. I had hopes for the virtual style but find the Boarding Group thing with RotR to be more stress than I want to deal with on vacation.

This is all speculation but I love the discussion! I'd love to see @Ryno and Deni tackle this subject on an episode of Best and Worst.

 

[disneycat321]

We are thinking about June or July 2022 as well. Our last trip was also July 2019, and it was amazing. As DH just reminded me, if we go in summer 2022, we're already half way there from our last trip! Like you, we are wanting to wait for a more normal experience. Coming from CA, WDW trips are expensive and longer, so we want to wait until we feel like what's offered is worth it to us. (Highly subjective, of course!) We would also really like to add our first Disney cruise as part of this trip, and we're assuming cruising will take even longer to get back to a range of normal that we would be comfortable paying for.