From the Evolv Technology website, the equipment allows visitors to pass right through and their bags will be scanned without even being opened. As mentioned, video and photography of the equipment at Disney Springs is prohibited. Below is an image of how the equipment works from the Evolv Technology website.
Another postponement due to the Covid-19 pandemic is that Disney Cruise Line has suspended all Disney Magic trips through October 2, 2020.
Below is the release from Disney Cruise Lines:
All of us at Disney Cruise Line hope you are staying well. While COVID-19 continues to impact all our lives, we are inspired daily by the stories of care, compassion and resilience around the globe.
With the wellbeing of our Guests and team members as our top priority and in line with direction from health experts and government officials, Disney Cruise Line is extending the suspension of Disney Magic up to and including the October 2, 2020 sailing. This means that your sailing has been cancelled.
In light of this cancellation, for guests who are not paid in full, we will automatically refund any payment made toward the booking. This refund will be processed back to the original form of payment, but may be delayed due to the high volume.
For guests who are paid in full, we are offering them the choice of a 125% future cruise credit to be used for a future sailing that commences prior to March 31, 2022, or a full refund. The credit has been automatically added to their account.
For guests who purchased the Adventures by Disney Cruise or Escape Package on six of the sailings as part of their vacation, the package will automatically be refunded back to the original form of payment.
Impacted departures include:
8/5 – 8-Night Northern Europe
8/13 – 7-Night Northern Europe
8/20 – 10-Night Northern Europe
8/30 – 7-Night Norwegian Fjords
9/6 – 7-Night British Isles
9/13 – 5-Night Western Europe
10/2 – 10-Night Westbound Transatlantic
Adventures by Disney Cruise or Escape Packages
8/5 – 8-Night Northern Europe: 8/2 Copenhagen Escape and 8/5 Northern Europe Cruise Package
8/13 – 7-Night Northern Europe: 8/10 Copenhagen Escape and 8/13 Northern Europe Cruise Package
8/20 – 10-Night Northern Europe: 8/17 Copenhagen Escape
8/30 – 7-Night Norwegian Fjords: 8/28 London Escape
9/6 – 7-Night British Isles: 9/4 London Escape
9/13 – 5-Night Western Europe: 9/11 London Escape
If you’ve been following this Blog, you know that we originally had a vacation planned for April, 2020 that Covid-19 totally obliterated. Those plans were to celebrate the 20th Wedding Anniversary of my wife and I. It was to also celebrate our oldest daughter graduating high school as her class’ Salutatorian and it would have most likely been our last vacation together as a family with my daughter leaving for college in September. On a longshot that the parks would reopen in late June or early July, we rebooked our vacation for the last week of July. As you can imagine, we were excited when Disney announced that they were reopening Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom on July 11, then Epcot and Hollywood Studios on July 15 seeing that our flight to MCO in Orlando is on July 25. We were able to rebook our FastPasses and Dinner Reservations, and, yes, we were able to rebook Cinderella’s Royal Table for my Graduating High School Senior.
But since then it has been one disappointing notice after another. We understood that there would be social distancing required. We also understood that facemasks would be required for entering any of the parks, we were not thrilled of the thought of wearing a mask in the 90° Florida heat and humidity, but we understood. When I started worrying was when Disney Announced that only 20% of capacity would be allowed in each park. I started to think that they now have almost four months of backlogged reservations that they are going to need to rebook and with a 20% capacity, how are they going to do this.
The next disappointment was that all of the FastPasses that my family spent an entire evening planning and calculating were all of the sudden gone from the MyDisney App. Next were our dinner reservations at Cinderella’s Royal Table, 50’s PrimeTime Cafe and Story Book Dining at Artist Point with Snow White… Poof! gone in an instance!
Next we learned that park hours are going to be reduced and Extra Magic Hours are being suspended. On top of that, there would be no fireworks, parades, nighttime shows, character meet and greets, and more.
We also learned that the Resort that we booked and paid for already, All-Star Music Family Suites, may not be open when the parks open. So far it looks like just the Deluxe and DVC Resorts will be opening $$$.
Guests were informed that even if they are staying at a Disney Resort, they are not guaranteed that they will be able to enter any of the parks, WAIT, WHAT???
I know this next one seems small, but for my pride, it is important. It was announced that pin trading with cast members will no longer be allowed. Like I said, it may seem small, but it is the straw that broke the camel’s back.
At no point has there been any mention of a discount on the price of admission and/or price of staying at one of the Disney Resorts.
Let’s take a look at what Disney is expecting everyone to pay full-price for admission and lodging (and that is if you can even get into a park.).
All of the following have been cancelled
I don’t know, maybe its me, but right now visiting the parks looks more like going to Six Flags with the ridiculous Disney price of admission. Also, I can only imagine how much the cost of snacks, drinks, meals, souvenirs, etc are going to be when the park’s reopen. I would not be surprised to see a 20oz bottle of soda costing in the area of $7.
Well, that’s it for us, we’re tapping out, we’re done. At this point it is not worth gettin on a plane, flying 3hrs, paying for a rental car and then MAYBE having a hotel room and MAYBE being able to enter one of the parks… It is just not worth the financial investment.
Let’s face it, everyone knows that Disney Parks are WAY overpriced, but when 2/3 of the things that make Disney World, Disney World are taken away, Why would you waste your money?
All of the Disney Blogs and Vlogs are in a hype right now because Disney World has announced that Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom will be reopening on July 11 and Hollywood Studios and Epcot will be reopening on July 15. I have to admit that I was excited about the reopening of the parks too, but when the details of how the parks are going to reopen, I had to wonder if it will be worth it to go to the parks when they reopen.
Please don’t get me wrong, I still think that it is a wonderful step for Disney, the Orlando and State of Florida’s economies and the general moral of the United States that a large entertainment area is reopening during the Covid-19 pandemic. I think that it will show everyone that the light at the end of the tunnel of this global economic shutdown is quickly coming to an end. But will you be getting your monies worth going to Disney World in July of 2020?
Here is what we know so far:
With all of the above restrictions and limitations, we really need to see if it is financially worth visiting the parks. With no firework shows, parades and character meet and greets and with parks only open about 9 hours a day, if you are able to get a reservation to the park you want, it may not be worth the amount of the ticket to enter the park. If you step back and look at it logically and not as a Disney Fanatic, you are basically getting only half, if that, of the experience of Disney World that you would have gotten before the shutdown back in March.
Not only the fact that you will not be getting the value of which you paid for, I think that wearing a mask at all times in the July and August heat and humidity of Lake Buena Vista, Florida may cause other health concerns for park visitors. Even without masks, the heat and humidity of Central Florida in July and August can be brutal and slow down even the healthiest of persons. Heat Exhaustion and Heat Stroke may be MAJOR decision for those with health issues.
The biggest decision to make will be if you believe the parks are going to be safe. Nobody really knows what this virus is doing or going to do. Right now, it looks like the warmer weather is slowing it down. That could change, like I said, nobody really knows. At the time of this post Osceola and Orange counties (Where Disney World is located) in Florida has had a total of 2,576 confirmed cases of Covid-19 which has resulted in 59 deaths. Once the parks start to open and tourists are coming into Florida from other parts of the country, it can be assumed that the number of cases will increase in these two counties.
Not only the medical aspect of safety. How is Disney going to handle those that refuse to wear the masks. You know that there will be some that do. How will Disney handle this and how will they handle those that confront the ones that are refusing to wear the masks. There have been many documented instances of violent encounters over mask wearing and social distancing throughout the country. When you add the stress of navigating a “new” Disney World and the heat and humidity of Central Florida in Summer, confrontations will be inevitable.
At this point it is actually personal preference on whether a trip to Disney World in Orlando is actually worth the price. I do believe that Disney should be making some compensation to those guest that are actually visiting the parks when they reopen. Paying full-price for less than half the experience seems a little outrageous to me, but I guess it all depends on what someone would consider value.
This morning, Disney Springs entered phase 2 of the reopening process. In this phase, Disney owned stores, shops and restaurants are now open including “World of Disney” which is the largest of all souvenir shops on any of the Disney properties in Florida.
At last check (around 11:30am) there were healthy crowds and an approximate 2 hour wait to get into World of Disney.
Disney Springs reopened last week on May 20th for phase 1 of reopening. This allowed 3rd party stores and restaurants to open with a limited capacity. Also, only one of the parking garages are open and all guests MUST go through a temperature screening process. Any guest with a temperature above 100.4° will not be allowed on property along with all guests in their party.
Until today crowds have been on the light side at Disney Springs with overall good compliance with social distancing, facemasks and proper sanitation. Phase 2 will be a huge test for Disney now that the more popular Disney destinations will now be open.
Disney World announced today and released plans to Orange County’s economic recovery task force regarding the reopening of all four Disney Theme Parks.
In this presentation, Disney announced that Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom would be reopening on July 11. Epcot and Hollywood Studios will follow a couple of days later on July 15. Parks will be at a very limited capacity and you will need to have reservations along with your park tickets to enter any of the theme parks. As with Disney Springs, temperature monitoring will take place and anyone with a temperature above 100.4° and their party will not be allowed to enter the gates. Disney also introduced signage that will be installed within the parks to promote hand washing and social distancing. They also will be promoting non-contact payment methods such as the MyDisney app or MagicBands but did not say if they will totally prohibit cash transactions.
As of right now, Disney has not mentioned how they will distribute the reservations for entrance into the theme parks. I also hope that they will be making a statement regarding how the FastPass+ system will work during the opening and if they will be using Virtual Queues as with “Rise of the Resistance” in Hollywood Studio. Also, I am assuming that the Water Parks will remained closed for the time being… When would they reopen.
There are still so many questions that need to be answered by Disney, but at least at this point, we have a date in which the parks will officially reopen to the public.
Disney World officials have announced a press conference scheduled for 10am on Wednesday, May 27th to announce plans that have been submitted to Florida Government and Health officials on their plans to reopen Disney World.
Follow DisneyDawgs for a recap of the press conference and what the specific plans for the parks will be.
Universal Orlando has announced an opening date!
Now the waiting game for those of us that have Disney vacations scheduled for this Summer begins. We originally had scheduled our vacation for April, but Covid-19 took care of that. Beginning of May it was looking as though Disney would be reopening the parks in Orlando sometime in the beginning of June, so we rebooked our vacation for the last week of July. So with the Universal Orlando announcement last week of an opening date, we were hopeful that Disney would follow, but nothing. With Disney Springs opening 3rd party resturaunts and stores on May 20th we thought there would be an announcement, but nothing. We thought with Disney opening Disney stores in Disney Springs on May 27th there would be an announcement, but nothing.
As of the time of this post, Disney has cancelled all reservations up until June 15th and with the smaller theme parks in the Orlando area opening this past week (Gatorland and Fun Spot) we are assuming that Disney Parks will open on or around June 15th. We understand that Disney World will take a little longer to open than the other parks in the Orlando area, including Universal, due to the share size of Disney. There are so many working parts that they need to get perfect in order to open during the pandemic. If one thing goes wrong and an outbreak is traced back to one of the Disney Parks, the damage could be unrecoverable. Remember a few years ago when a Mumps outbreak was traced back to Disneyland? The bad PR toward the Disney Corporation took months to recover from, even though the outbreak was not Disneyland’s fault.
I am quite sure that Disney is crossing its T’s and dotting its I’s to make sure that they are doing everything possible to keep their Guests and Castmembers are safe as possible from the Covid-19 virus.
That being said, we are still waiting for word on when the parks are going to open and when we can start to book FastPasses and Dinner Reservations. We would also like information on whether the NBA will be playing the remainder of their games and playoffs at the Disney World of Sports Complex near Pop Century and Art of Animation. We would also like to know if the rumor that the players will be housed in the Disney Resort Buildings and how that would effect those of us whom had reservations for months in those buildings.
Even with this, as long as the virus is held in check, my family is still planning on visiting Disney World at the end of July. We have a couple of celebrations that will be well overdue to celebrate.
If the virus does not behave or if there is a spike of Covid-19 cases in Orange and Osceola Counties, then we will be forced to, out of abundance of caution, cancel our Disney Vacation once again.
Check out our Vlog regarding our July Disney Vacation with several other factors that are giving us optimism that the Disney World Theme Parks in Florida are very close to opening.
Check out our Blog regarding rebooking our trip from April until July HERE
Nope, this didn’t get me misty… Someone must be cutting onions here.
A new video released by DisneyMagicMoments.com under “At Home with Olaf” will make you want to grab some tissues.
A very touching song for our times that we are going through right now.
All guests must wear face masks and have their temperatures taken at the park’s security entrance. Social distancing will be enforced within the parks and extra staff was hired and will be constantly wiping down and sanitizing all surfaces of the park. As of right now, the park will be operating at a maximum of 30% of capacity. Many hand-washing and sanitizing stations have been installed for guests to use.
It is believed that the Disney Corporation will monitor the information coming out of the Shanghai, China park and use the strategies that work on their other parks throughout the work. Disney has already announced that 3rd party restaurants will be allowed to open on May 20th, with very strict rules and regulations to limit large crowds.
Disney, and the rest of the world, will be monitoring to see if the opening of Shanghai Disneyland causes another wide-scale outbreak in the area. If it does, everyone is back at square one until a reliable vaccine is developed. If an increase does not occur, then we will most-likely see other entertainment and sports venues start to very slowly open their businesses back up to customers.
As a huge fan of Disney, we here at DisneyDawgs are crossing our fingers and hoping with all of our being that this quite be the beginning of the end of this pandemic that has brought to world to a standstill.
DisneyDawgs is in the process of re-booking our 2020 Disney World Vacation and we are crossing our fingers that this one will happen.
Our first attempt to get to Orlando was thwarted by the COVID-19 virus and cancelled and we thought that our last change at a family vacation was taken from us. But, Disney has announced plans for reopening the parks in stages and we are taking a guess that the first stage will take place on or around June 1, 2020. There will be strict distancing guidelines with only 50% of normal capacity allowed within the parks and extreme changes on how Castmembers and Guests interact. If all goes well, phase two will loosen up on some restrictions and allow parks 75% of capacity.
After reviewing the guidelines and the estimates of the transmission of the virus after June 1 we decided that the first week of August would allow us the safest and fullest Disney experience that we could have this Summer.
Before re-booking even crossed our minds, we currently have Southwest ticket credits and 6 day Magic Your Way tickets for the four members of my family that we would loose if we do not use them… Well over $3,000. So we are booking for August. Don’t get me wrong, if it is not safe for my family to travel from Rhode Island to Orlando in August, I will cancel the trip in a heartbeat. My family’s health and well-being is the most important thing. To be honest, I would not be surprised if the parks are not open at all this Summer.
Well, hoping for the best, this is what we have done so far…
Our original flights from Rhode Island (PVD) to Orlando (MCO) and back home were cancelled in early April. This gave us a credit for the price of the flights to be used at a later time. A little heads up for anyone booking flights with Southwest Airlines, if you choose and pay for the Early Boarding Option ($25 ticket) and you cancel your flight, you do not get that money back either as a refund or a credit. So keep that in mind if you are thinking of purchasing this option when flying with Southwest Airlines and you are not 100% sure that you will be on that flight.
So we used the credit and now we have flights books from Rhode Island to Florida. We fully know that if we do have to cancel our trip that we will again be credited for the amount of the tickets only with a limited time to use those funds.
With the great customer service that we received from Undercover Tourist, how could we not use them again to book our hotel room. I also found out that Disney’s All-Star Resort has suites… My family has been going to Disney for fifteen years now and never knew that… You have to understand, I have two daughters. My oldest will be 18 at the time of the trip and my peanut will be 16, they are both quite tall (over 5’9″) and not the little girls like when we started going to Disney World. I knew that having them both sleep in the same bed this year, as we always did, would not work. It would have resulted in two miserable pups (have you dealt with two teenaged girls that did not have enough sleep, enough said), which would have resulted in one major miserable Papa Dawg. We decided to spend the extra money and get the suite. Through Undercover Tourist, the suite was not that much more per night than the what we paid for the original room and viewing a video on YouTube, they look quite nice and roomy. If we do go on this vacation, I will do a full review of the room and let you know if I think that it was worth the extra cost.
Our park tickets have already been purchased and are non-refundable so we will be using them for when we go down in August. The only issue that I think that we will have is that the tickets were purchased to be used April 15 through April 20. We are now going down in August and I think that there is a price difference between April and August, but I am not sure what I will need to do for this. I will try call the WDW-DISNEY phone number and see if they can give me any guidance on this issue.
I will begin looking into car rental prices shortly. Prices for rentals are quite high right now, I think due to the State of Florida discussing starting to reopen the economy as early as May 4th. When to rent a car in Orlando is quite a gamble. You have to really keep an eye on the trends at the parks and if there is anything special going on in the Orlando Metro area. This is a little different. I think if people are hesitant going to the parks this Summer, prices will drop as they did in late March and early April. But if people flock to Central Florida, the price of renting a car could be astronomical. I am guessing that I test the waters sometime around the second week of June
What’s next? That is a really good question. I guess that it is based on what the COVID-19 virus does this Summer. If the outbreaks dissipate like all of the government models suggest they will, then it is full steam ahead and we hope to have a great vacation. If not, then we will be right back where we started and I will be cancelling the above reservations again. I hope the latter is not true.
Second to the deaths and illness that 2020 has brought us is the disappointment and confinement that everyone has faced for the past eight weeks. The cancellation of the remainder of the school year has been disheartening for students, let alone the High School Seniors that have lost their Proms, Senior Activities and Graduations. Setting up and booking the airline and hotel room last night helped my pups forget about what is going on in the world, even if it was only for about and hour.
This is where DisneyDawg stands on another attempt to visit Disney World in Orlando. I will keep you up to date on any steps that are taken or any news regarding the opening of the parks.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post. May you and your families stay safe and healthy through these extraordinary circumstances.
Well, it has been quite a year so far. Obviously our Disney trip that was scheduled for April 14 through April 21st was cancelled due to the worldwide pandemic that we are currently in the middle of right now. My family was quite disappointed due to the fact that this would have most-likely been our last family vacation.
This trip was two-fold. It was celebrating my oldest pup graduating from high school as her school’s Salutatorian and it was also to celebrate me and my wife’s 20th Anniversary. For these we had dining reservations at the 50’s Primetime Cafe, Story Book Dining at Artist Point with Snow White and the big one that my pups have always wanted to do… Cinderella’s Royal Table!!! My oldest pup has wanted to do this since she was 6. We also had great Fast-passes, the coup de gras was for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway which had opened on March 4th. Along with that the typical Thunder, Space and Splash Mountains and Slinky Dog Dash. But due to the virus, the parks have closed and all reservations and FastPasses were cancelled.
It was very disappointing at first, but you have to understand that we do not give up that easy. It looks like there may be a light at the end of the tunnel with the COVID-19 outbreak. Daily cases and deaths have been lowering for the past week, as predicted, and it looks like some of the states are starting to open back up. The state in which I live, Rhode Island, will be lifting the “Stay at Home” order on May 9th and gradually loosening restrictions where it is possible that by the beginning of July, all restrictions could be lifted if everything goes well. Knowing that the Northeastern portion of the United States was the hardest hit with the COVID-19 outbreak leads us to believe that it is possible that Florida would be along the same timeline, which has given us optimism for later this Summer.
Looking at how bad the Orlando and Florida economy is right now as a result of all the theme parks closing, along with the decline of new cases of COVID-19 throughout the country, I would not be surprised to see Disney World in Orlando to start “waking up” in early June. I could see Disney gradually opening some of the hotels and Disney Springs to limited guests at first. If that goes well, then I could see restaurants opening next, followed by the remaining hotels and some attractions such as golf courses. If all goes well, I could see the parks opening one at a time by mid July. Possibly starting with Magic Kingdom, then Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. I think that Epcot will be the last park to open due to the fact that it may take a while to staff the countries in the World Showcase. Taking a guess, I would assume that Epcot would be around the first week of August at the extreme earliest.
When and if this scenario does happen, the amount of guests that are allowed in the park will be extremely limited (25% of normal) with masks and temperature readings required to enter any of the Disney properties. WDW News reported yesterday that Remote Checkin will be required for hotel rooms. Others have reported that Standby lines will be eliminated and you will need to use a virtual queue to gain access to rides and attractions, which Disney had been using before the shutdown for Rise of the Resistance in Galaxy’s Edge in Hollywood Studio.
All of these scenarios are dependent on the rate of spread of COVID-19 tremendously slowing down, if not stopping and when the State of Florida reopens and allows the theme parks to reopen. Right now, it is wait and see.
I am confident that the virus is going to slow down rapidly this Spring to the point where it may be very minimal by the beginning of Summer. Believing this, I think that I may restart the planning process for my family’s 2020 Disney Vacation for mid August. I believe that the majority of Disney attractions will be back in operation and that if we do not book early enough, we may not be able to get into the parks due to reduced admissions to the park. I am not foolish enough to take my family into a situation that I do not believe is safe, so, even if the parks are open in August, and I don’t believe that it is safe we will cancel… again and hope for something towards the end of the calendar year.
Thanks for taking the time to check into DisneyDawgs. We will bring you any information that becomes available regarding the opening of the parks and Disney itself.
You must be logged in to post a comment.