Christina78
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2002
I know this is an uncomfortable topic for some, but I read these boards religiously prior to my trip looking for tips to stay healthy, and something worked. So I wanted to return the favor by summarizing all the precautions we took in the hope that it helps someone else in a similar situation.
Who: DH & I, 40s, vaxxed; DS 13, vaxxed; DS 9 & 8; my mom 60s, vaxxed. No underlying health conditions.
BCV 8/18 - 8/25; AKL 8/25 - 8/29; Riv 8/29 - 9/1; BLT 9/1 (we weren't feeling the magic at BLT so asked and were transferred back to AKL - 9/6)
Everyone in KN95s (from Costco) at all indoor locations, mixed indoor/outdoor queues, and any outdoor location in which we could reach out and touch someone. My kids are fantastic about wearing their masks, and often had them on before I did when things started getting crowded outdoors.
No indoor dining whatsoever, either we ate outside or back in the room. Kids would wait outside while I went inside to pick up food.
I wouldn't ride elevators with other people when the kids were with me. The hotels weren't crowded, so it wasn't a matter of me making a line form. If a little crowd formed at the elevators, we would wait it out until we were the only ones left. Never more than 2-3 minutes. However, there were times when we were already in the elevator, doors were closing, and someone would try to jump into our car. This meant me unfortunately being a little confrontational and getting into it with other guests. The vast majority of people were super cool about it.
I only rode WDW transportation at non-peak times, so we got gondolas to ourselves or mostly busses that weren't full. However, this was the area where I felt that I was at greatest risk of exposing the kids. We had one bus driver who was wearing her mask below her nose, which triggered many other passengers to take their masks off and she said nothing as they walked right past her. Other drivers also said nothing as guests walked on the busses with no masks on. Also on the monorail, several guests just strolled on with no masks and the CMs said nothing. I complained A LOT to WDW about these instances, and maybe I'm not the only one, as mask enforcement seemed to get better towards the end of the trip. I saw a family being removed from the Remy preview for refusing to put their masks on (then feigning ignorance that they were supposed to wear masks in WDW...?)
Mask compliance wasn't great in queues when CMs weren't around, but I can't police 20 people. If there was a party of nose-peakers either in front or in back, I'd put myself between them and the kids, and leave 6 feet of distance in the queue between us. I only saw a few others doing this, so maybe I'm a weirdo, but you can't argue with results.
There were a couple times when we were in queues near a person who was clearly visibly sick, and we bailed on the line and came back to the ride later.
We had Binax home tests that we bought from CVS with us. No one experienced any symptoms, so never had to use them.
Copious hand sanitizer any time the kids got in contact with surfaces. Disney sanitizers were usually full, except at the very end of the day, they often ran dry.
Everyone showered/bathed and clothes went in the washer as soon as we returned from parks or pool (even if it meant 2-3x/day).
Probably TMI, but on the drive down from NY, we avoided rest stops and took bathroom breaks in secluded areas. We also requested first floor hotel rooms on the way down so that we didn't have to walk through hotel lobbies or take hotel elevators with the kids (mask compliance is TERRIBLE in the South, outside of WDW. We were often the ONLY ones wearing masks in the hotels).
We avoided our usual plan of rope dropping, because it looked like that was the height of crowds, plus the transportation issue. So we slept late, hung at the pool, then hit the parks when it cooled down late in the day, and either came back just before park close, or well after, so that the busses/gondolas/boats cleared out.
We took COVID tests when we returned, and all of us tested negative. It's been almost 2 weeks since we came home and no one caught so much as a cold. Although, my TMJ is flaring, likely due to the stress I felt constantly policing the environment around the two little ones.
Would I do it again? When we got back, I said, we are not doing Disney again until this pandemic is firmly under control. And then...I just booked for April. However, we have DVC points that will expire, Southwest miles that will also expire, and annual passes. So in essence, the trip is free (until I factor in all the Genie stuff). Would I pay full price for a drastically watered down Disney vacation? Probably not.
Who: DH & I, 40s, vaxxed; DS 13, vaxxed; DS 9 & 8; my mom 60s, vaxxed. No underlying health conditions.
BCV 8/18 - 8/25; AKL 8/25 - 8/29; Riv 8/29 - 9/1; BLT 9/1 (we weren't feeling the magic at BLT so asked and were transferred back to AKL - 9/6)
Everyone in KN95s (from Costco) at all indoor locations, mixed indoor/outdoor queues, and any outdoor location in which we could reach out and touch someone. My kids are fantastic about wearing their masks, and often had them on before I did when things started getting crowded outdoors.
No indoor dining whatsoever, either we ate outside or back in the room. Kids would wait outside while I went inside to pick up food.
I wouldn't ride elevators with other people when the kids were with me. The hotels weren't crowded, so it wasn't a matter of me making a line form. If a little crowd formed at the elevators, we would wait it out until we were the only ones left. Never more than 2-3 minutes. However, there were times when we were already in the elevator, doors were closing, and someone would try to jump into our car. This meant me unfortunately being a little confrontational and getting into it with other guests. The vast majority of people were super cool about it.
I only rode WDW transportation at non-peak times, so we got gondolas to ourselves or mostly busses that weren't full. However, this was the area where I felt that I was at greatest risk of exposing the kids. We had one bus driver who was wearing her mask below her nose, which triggered many other passengers to take their masks off and she said nothing as they walked right past her. Other drivers also said nothing as guests walked on the busses with no masks on. Also on the monorail, several guests just strolled on with no masks and the CMs said nothing. I complained A LOT to WDW about these instances, and maybe I'm not the only one, as mask enforcement seemed to get better towards the end of the trip. I saw a family being removed from the Remy preview for refusing to put their masks on (then feigning ignorance that they were supposed to wear masks in WDW...?)
Mask compliance wasn't great in queues when CMs weren't around, but I can't police 20 people. If there was a party of nose-peakers either in front or in back, I'd put myself between them and the kids, and leave 6 feet of distance in the queue between us. I only saw a few others doing this, so maybe I'm a weirdo, but you can't argue with results.
There were a couple times when we were in queues near a person who was clearly visibly sick, and we bailed on the line and came back to the ride later.
We had Binax home tests that we bought from CVS with us. No one experienced any symptoms, so never had to use them.
Copious hand sanitizer any time the kids got in contact with surfaces. Disney sanitizers were usually full, except at the very end of the day, they often ran dry.
Everyone showered/bathed and clothes went in the washer as soon as we returned from parks or pool (even if it meant 2-3x/day).
Probably TMI, but on the drive down from NY, we avoided rest stops and took bathroom breaks in secluded areas. We also requested first floor hotel rooms on the way down so that we didn't have to walk through hotel lobbies or take hotel elevators with the kids (mask compliance is TERRIBLE in the South, outside of WDW. We were often the ONLY ones wearing masks in the hotels).
We avoided our usual plan of rope dropping, because it looked like that was the height of crowds, plus the transportation issue. So we slept late, hung at the pool, then hit the parks when it cooled down late in the day, and either came back just before park close, or well after, so that the busses/gondolas/boats cleared out.
We took COVID tests when we returned, and all of us tested negative. It's been almost 2 weeks since we came home and no one caught so much as a cold. Although, my TMJ is flaring, likely due to the stress I felt constantly policing the environment around the two little ones.
Would I do it again? When we got back, I said, we are not doing Disney again until this pandemic is firmly under control. And then...I just booked for April. However, we have DVC points that will expire, Southwest miles that will also expire, and annual passes. So in essence, the trip is free (until I factor in all the Genie stuff). Would I pay full price for a drastically watered down Disney vacation? Probably not.