The "things" we did to sanitize during our March Trip

[leeniewdw]

Hi,

I figured I would write out what we did when we traveled to WDW on March 12-13 (was supposed to be 3/15 as well, but we left early). Truly it seems like March 11-12 was when everything changed. College basketball tournaments went on w/o fans and then shut down, the NBA and the NHL suspended their season, WDW and DL announced their closures on 3/12. I had much trepidation on 3/11 (the evening before out trip) about if we should go. We went ahead and went but made some modifications to our plans and packed additional supplies.

We came up with some routines that made me feel like we were doing what we could to limit exposure. Some of it is common sense, other were things I'd read among the boards here. I figured I'd list them there in case it's helpful to someone (and my apologies if this thread already exists somewhere!?):

• Rented a car and skipped DME so we had ultimate flexibility for transportation to/from the airport and to/from hotel/parks. In the end, we really only used it the first day to head straight to DHS on our arrival morning (we landed at 6:30am) and to run to the store the following day, but it was nice to know we had the option.
• We opted not to do any Rope Drops for standby lines. We did get to DHS on Day 1 at 7:57am (since we landed so early we decided to attempt a RotR BG) and were able to get a boarding group, but we had no intentions of getting to parks early to RD a ride and stand in large crowds for long periods.
• Obviously we wiped down all surfaces and knobs in the room when we arrived. We also made sure to wipe down the TV remote! I'm sure that room sanitation will be serious when they re-open, but I can't imagine not doing this in every hotel room I ever use in the future.
• When we returned to our hotel room, we took our shoes off outside the room and then sprayed them down with Lysol and took them in a little bit later. We did not wear them in the room at all.
• I also sprayed my small cross body bag before bringing it in the room.
• I took all small items (phones, watches, magic band, gel, sunglasses, etc) and wiped them all down with clorox wipes and left them all in one designated place in the room each time we returned. I typically washed my glasses/sunglasses with soap and water as well. We did not bring a separate camera and I tried to limit how many times I used my phone as much as possible. I took exactly 2 photos the entire trip. I also took my phone case off as I found it easier to clean w/o a case.
• Washed our hands in a bathroom anytime we passed one. I know they will have more sanitizing stations when they re-open, but we found the add'l stations few and far between in March, so we just decided we'd use bathrooms and santizing stations every time we saw one. Of course we gel'd our hands with our own gel after every ride as well.
• We opted to "hang back" in any 'gathering' room in a ride queue so that everyone would be "in front" of us. ToT, RnRC and others have those rooms where everyone knows if you go to a certain corner of the room you'll be among the first to exit and get further in the queue, but we just hung back and let the crowd do its thing. It goes w/o saying that we didn't touch a single rail in the queues.
• Used a napkin or wipe when using soda station at hotel or PIN pads at check outs (how wonderful if they got rid of the PIN requirement and just allowed magic band payment).
• It's quaint to think of now, but we did pack a few N95 masks we had and did use them on the flight home as the man behind us was coughing frequently. Of course, everyone will travel with masks now. We also brought some plastic gloves (did not use) and pain/fever meds + thermometer. The latter was more in case one of us became ill on the trip (from prior exposure) and we'd need to travel home via car as to not expose others.
• We always took the path less traveled (like the sidewalks in the studios are often less crowded than the streets), or the "long" or less crowded way when there are 2 options to get to the same place.
• Wiped down all surfaces at the pool side tables/chairs. Used 2 towels to cover lounge chairs after wiping the edges that we'd touch.

I guess that's it. We really did very few rides w/o FPs so I never felt too stressed in lines. I did wipe ride handles a few times, but that's pretty impossible to do thoroughly so that was hit and miss.

It was nice to discuss this before the trip so we both knew what the expectation was. I think it's important for everyone in the traveling group to know what to expect and I think it's only fair that everyone agree to go along with whatever the person most uncomfortable would like done for precautions. It was a relief to discuss this before our trip as I know my DH was not as freaked out as I was, but he willingly went along. He admitted later that he thought I was a little overboard, but in hindsight he's so glad we did it. He never let on that he thought (at the time) I was a bit overboard, which is great because I probably would not have responded very well to any criticism.

Anyone else have tips they used or plan to use?

 

[e_yerger]

This is super helpful! Thank you for sharing your experience!

 

[dismom58]

Hi,

I figured I would write out what we did when we traveled to WDW on March 12-13 (was supposed to be 3/15 as well, but we left early). Truly it seems like March 11-12 was when everything changed. College basketball tournaments went on w/o fans and then shut down, the NBA and the NHL suspended their season, WDW and DL announced their closures on 3/12. I had much trepidation on 3/11 (the evening before out trip) about if we should go. We went ahead and went but made some modifications to our plans and packed additional supplies.

We came up with some routines that made me feel like we were doing what we could to limit exposure. Some of it is common sense, other were things I'd read among the boards here. I figured I'd list them there in case it's helpful to someone (and my apologies if this thread already exists somewhere!?):

• Rented a car and skipped DME so we had ultimate flexibility for transportation to/from the airport and to/from hotel/parks. In the end, we really only used it the first day to head straight to DHS on our arrival morning (we landed at 6:30am) and to run to the store the following day, but it was nice to know we had the option.
• We opted not to do any Rope Drops for standby lines. We did get to DHS on Day 1 at 7:57am (since we landed so early we decided to attempt a RotR BG) and were able to get a boarding group, but we had no intentions of getting to parks early to RD a ride and stand in large crowds for long periods.
• Obviously we wiped down all surfaces and knobs in the room when we arrived. We also made sure to wipe down the TV remote! I'm sure that room sanitation will be serious when they re-open, but I can't imagine not doing this in every hotel room I ever use in the future.
• When we returned to our hotel room, we took our shoes off outside the room and then sprayed them down with Lysol and took them in a little bit later. We did not wear them in the room at all.
• I also sprayed my small cross body bag before bringing it in the room.
• I took all small items (phones, watches, magic band, gel, sunglasses, etc) and wiped them all down with clorox wipes and left them all in one designated place in the room each time we returned. I typically washed my glasses/sunglasses with soap and water as well. We did not bring a separate camera and I tried to limit how many times I used my phone as much as possible. I took exactly 2 photos the entire trip. I also took my phone case off as I found it easier to clean w/o a case.
• Washed our hands in a bathroom anytime we passed one. I know they will have more sanitizing stations when they re-open, but we found the add'l stations few and far between in March, so we just decided we'd use bathrooms and santizing stations every time we saw one. Of course we gel'd our hands with our own gel after every ride as well.
• We opted to "hang back" in any 'gathering' room in a ride queue so that everyone would be "in front" of us. ToT, RnRC and others have those rooms where everyone knows if you go to a certain corner of the room you'll be among the first to exit and get further in the queue, but we just hung back and let the crowd do its thing. It goes w/o saying that we didn't touch a single rail in the queues.
• Used a napkin or wipe when using soda station at hotel or PIN pads at check outs (how wonderful if they got rid of the PIN requirement and just allowed magic band payment).
• It's quaint to think of now, but we did pack a few N95 masks we had and did use them on the flight home as the man behind us was coughing frequently. Of course, everyone will travel with masks now. We also brought some plastic gloves (did not use) and pain/fever meds + thermometer. The latter was more in case one of us became ill on the trip (from prior exposure) and we'd need to travel home via car as to not expose others.
• We always took the path less traveled (like the sidewalks in the studios are often less crowded than the streets), or the "long" or less crowded way when there are 2 options to get to the same place.
• Wiped down all surfaces at the pool side tables/chairs. Used 2 towels to cover lounge chairs after wiping the edges that we'd touch.

I guess that's it. We really did very few rides w/o FPs so I never felt too stressed in lines. I did wipe ride handles a few times, but that's pretty impossible to do thoroughly so that was hit and miss.

It was nice to discuss this before the trip so we both knew what the expectation was. I think it's important for everyone in the traveling group to know what to expect and I think it's only fair that everyone agree to go along with whatever the person most uncomfortable would like done for precautions. It was a relief to discuss this before our trip as I know my DH was not as freaked out as I was, but he willingly went along. He admitted later that he thought I was a little overboard, but in hindsight he's so glad we did it. He never let on that he thought (at the time) I was a bit overboard, which is great because I probably would not have responded very well to any criticism.

Anyone else have tips they used or plan to use?

Man your hood only wish you posted this three years ago when I came home with the flu probably could have skipped that experience with your program! One thing you didn’t mention only use your own pen don’t use public pens!

 

[Joy70]

We have a possible trip in August, so I appreciate you giving us your perspective and tips. This sounds a lot like steps we are following at work right now and knowing that makes it feel less overwhelming. I realize they will add additional items such as temperature checks and masks, but we also have those there as well. My only concern is the heat and having to wear a mask may be too much. As summer progresses we will have a better idea of its manageable for us. Thanks!

 

[leeniewdw]

One thing you didn’t mention only use your own pen don’t use public pens!

Great point! The first time we got take out once we were back at home (about 2 weeks after returning), I paid over the phone with my CC and was shocked they still made me sign something when we did curbside. I had to use *their* pen! Haven't left home w/o one since!

I don't think we needed one at WDW, but we didn't do any table service dining, we were on the QS plan.

 

[BadPinkTink]

thank you for this, going off to Amazon to put some things on my list

 

[leeniewdw]

I guess WDW doesn't really have a choice to have the proper sanitizing stations available for re-open, but I figured I'd mention that we only had the small travel sized sanitizing gel with us -- we used more than I would have thought. Perhaps that won't be as much of a big deal if they truly have stations at every entrance/exit, but for our trip sometimes it was just a pump bottles sitting on a table. Some were touchless. Some where these water/soap stations where you pumped the water with your foot. I'm presuming they will be more uniform.

(For example, there was one "wash station" out side of Mission Space, but not one outside The Land. The "wash station" was over sort of between Imagination and The Land. If you'd ridden Soarin', that's a long way to go to find the first "station"!?)

 

[JLemaire7]

Thank you for sharing these tips. We were in Disney from Feb 29-March 7. All we did at that time was wash our hands constantly. After switching planes? Wash hands. After getting off a ride or attraction? Wash hands. After eating? Wash hands. It got to a point where in addition to deciding which were the best meals on the trip, we also had decided which were the best bathrooms! Hollywood Studios had the cleanest and best sinks and water flow. Of course now that they’ve been deep cleaning the parks (hopefully) and putting other sanitary measures in place it may be different. At the time we were not as concerned about coronavirus but would definitely be more careful in the hotel too now.

 

[leeniewdw]

It got to a point where in addition to deciding which were the best meals on the trip, we also had decided which were the best bathrooms! Hollywood Studios had the cleanest and best sinks and water flow.

Ha! We did the same thing. Also had trouble in some places (I think GE in DHS) trying to figure out where the hand towels were or how to get the air flowing for the dryers!

For us, hands down best bathroom experience was the one right near the International Gateway in EPCOT. Empty and huge!

Oh -- another recommendation is a Skyliner resort. Being able to ride that to 2 parks instead of busses is priceless!

 

[DL1WDW2]

Well you obviously did not use Epcot IG during the final days. The ladies Was now in the men’s and the men’s was now at the SkyLiner or better be able to hold it on the boat... A lot of shocked looks on everybodys faces as in Oh Oh .
I actually walked in absentmindedly and was confused to see the urinals and panicked and embarrassed walked out to read the sign explaining change. Very confusing. Hope it is back to normal.

 

[leeniewdw]

Well you obviously did not use Epcot IG during the final days. The ladies Was now in the men’s and the men’s was now at the SkyLiner or better be able to hold it on the boat... A lot of shocked looks on everybodys faces as in Oh Oh .
I actually walked in absentmindedly and was confused to see the urinals and panicked and embarrassed walked out to read the sign explaining change. Very confusing. Hope it is back to normal.

I can promise you we used those bathrooms on Friday 3/13. Once upon entrance (around 4pm) and upon exit (9pm -- we watched some of the fireworks from our skyliner ride). I can't vouch for any other days or times.

 

[DL1WDW2]

Good to know... totally weird to see those urinals all gift wrapped in paper to shut them down temporarily. I felt sorry for the young man that ran in their with a bloody nose and actually apologized .
And then it seemed the SkyLiner restroom doors were shuttered the next day . So I guess it was temporary. The ladies room did look like it was undergoing something major but any plumbing repair looks major to me.

 

[Mathmagicland]

A couple of other things I don’t see specifically noted -

For years, I’ve always had antibacterial wipes on the airplane to wipe down the seat, arm rests, head rests, tray table, entertainment screen and controls, climate & call buttons, seat belts, window shade, and the seat pocket for the seat ahead of me. Always got some funny looks but not so on my last flights in March.

If using MDE, do the same wipe down for your seat there.

Or, book private transfers which are likely to be cleaner than a cab.

Wipe down your luggage & handles after picking up checked luggage, and after a bell services or MDE luggage delivery.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

But did you wipe down the rental car? Lots of places hands touch in a car by lots of people. We always travel with clorox wipes rubber gloves and wipe down every thing in the room. Put the remote in a ziplock bag.

 

[leeniewdw]

A couple of other things I don’t see specifically noted -

For years, I’ve always had antibacterial wipes on the airplane to wipe down the seat, arm rests, head rests, tray table, entertainment screen and controls, climate & call buttons, seat belts, window shade, and the seat pocket for the seat ahead of me. Always got some funny looks but not so on my last flights in March.

If using MDE, do the same wipe down for your seat there.

Or, book private transfers which are likely to be cleaner than a cab.

Wipe down your luggage & handles after picking up checked luggage, and after a bell services or MDE luggage delivery.

Yes! I forgot about the airport stuff. But yes! I have to admit I was not a "wiper" on airplanes until this year (although I think I wiped down a few things on our last trip of 2019). I traveled to Canada at the very beginning of February, so some of the cases had made it's way to N America by then. I wiped everything down on that trip, but also noticed an 'off duty' flight attendant on our flight. An "on duty" attendant stopped by her seat (across from mine) and handed her a wipe. She wiped everything down, including the back of the seat in front of her, where the tray table is stowed. I copied her then and have ever since.

We wiped down the luggage immediately, but also sprayed those down once we got to the room (outside). When we got home, we left the luggage in the garage, took out all the clothes and went inside, took off the clothes we were wearing and they all went straight into the wash and us straight to the shower. Literally everything else stayed in the garage for days.

But did you wipe down the rental car? Lots of places hands touch in a car by lots of people. We always travel with clorox wipes rubber gloves and wipe down every thing in the room. Put the remote in a ziplock bag.

Also YES to this. We got in the car, each took a wipe and wiped down everything you'd ever touch inside the car.

The Ziplock bag idea is great. We even traveled with some ziploc bags!

One thing that's unavoidable is the bag check where the CM takes everything out of your bag (and everyone else's). Perhaps it would be a good idea to put your things in a ziploc bag so they only touch that (and your bag itself)? Then just wipe down the ziploc after bag check? I wonder if those clear bags that are now required at most arenas is the best option? I presume they don't even have to open anything if you have one of those?

I truly didn't bring much to the parks: my phone, my sanitizing gel, clorox wipes, sunglasses, regular glasses. I took a small "croakie" eyeglass tether and just would swap what I was wearing (sunglasses if outside, glasses for indoor/dark stuff) onto the strap. I have no idea if this makes any difference, but I didn't want to have to carry a case and keep grabbing it in/out of my bag all day to change which glasses I needed. That's one of the reasons I would wash my glasses/sunglasses each return to the room. Then I'd spray my croakie/tether as well.

 

[Best Aunt]

One thing that's unavoidable is the bag check where the CM takes everything out of your bag (and everyone else's). Perhaps it would be a good idea to put your things in a ziploc bag so they only touch that (and your bag itself)? Then just wipe down the ziploc after bag check? I wonder if those clear bags that are now required at most arenas is the best option? I presume they don't even have to open anything if you have one of those?

Ever since Disney started bag checks at the parks, I have put a Jumbo (2.5 gallon) zip loc bag in my tote bag. Everything goes in the Zip loc bag. When I get to the bag check, I take the Zip loc bag out so they can see everything without digging around. It had nothing to do with germs, it just sped up the process.

 

[LovesTimone]

I worked in health care, and am a bit of a germaphobe...

When we travel anywhere domestically or internationally. Yes I am the woman that people would give the side eye to on planes, as I wipe everything down, tray tables, TV, seat backs, window, and the armrest... I also take a wipe to the restroom for the door handles, and any touch points... I even bring my own soap and hand sanitizer with us with us, how many times have you been in a restroom and there is no soap... I like to be prepared...

I wipes down the hotel rooms, from the door to the bathroom and back again, and I do it daily when returning to the room... and here's why, DH and I were walking by a hotel room that was being cleaned and the door was open and the housekeeper was sneezing and coughing all over everything... she had the ice-bucket in her hand and sneezed all over it and then sat it back on the stand... gross and ewwwww... so I wipe daily when returning to the room...

I also will wipe down tables, and chairs and think nothing of it... I just keep a travel size wipe pack in my bag, or a baggie with a few in them... I don't make a big deal of it, just wipe and be done... Not just when traveling but all the time.

Above all wash your hands often really often, and use hand sanitizer in between...

 

[Disneyfan754321]

We were there 3/8-3/15 a few beach days at the end...
We left for vacation reading how Disney had all these sanitize stations. I was very disappointed that everytime i came across one they were empty.
Sounds like you had a really good plan better than i had.
We tried to eat in the room and outdoor park eating areas stay away from indoor spots.. did not go in walmart only curbside.

 

[nycdisneygal]

For years we always used lysol wipes to wipe down the plane seats , tray etc. Were always the only ones!
We always clean those remotes in hotels. They are so nasty!

We are debating keeping our beach hotel ressies for july - 1 hour drive - we can all wear diapers on the way there ! hahah just kidding. Will wipe down the entire room like one of the PPs. Of course, still waiting to see if the hotel re-opens...

 

[Disneyfan754321]

For years we always used lysol wipes to wipe down the plane seats , tray etc. Were always the only ones!
We always clean those remotes in hotels. They are so nasty!

We are debating keeping our beach hotel ressies for july - 1 hour drive - we can all wear diapers on the way there ! hahah just kidding. Will wipe down the entire room like one of the PPs. Of course, still waiting to see if the hotel re-opens...

We put the remote in a sandwich bag.. they are gross at any time