Intensive care beds at many Florida hospitals are as hard to come by as getting a Disney resort room at the height of tourist season during normal times. Yet despite the pandemic crisis in the Sunshine State, the world’s most popular tourist destination is resuming theme park operations this weekend (Saturday, July 11), albeit at a significantly reduced scale. Universal Orlando, Seaworld, and Busch Gardens in Tampa preceded Disney, as those theme parks reopened in June.
While Disneyland in California postponed its summer reopening indefinitely due to a spike in the number of COVID-19 cases in that state, Disney World is moving ahead with its phased-in reopening. Early previews for Disney Passholders of a re-imagined experience at the Magic Kingdom and the Animal Kingdom show a much different world at The Most Magical Place On Earth. Park reservations are required, and masks are mandatory in the parks, including on all rides and attractions. The only mask exception is for eating and drinking. Social distancing is also mandatory. The line queues leading to rides and attractions are dotted with floor markers, where people and families stand at least six feet apart. Disney has also reconstructed attraction entry and exit areas with plexiglass barriers to limit contact. Some attractions where groups of people ride together either have plexiglass barriers or rows are blocked-off to maintain distance. Forget about having your child hug their favorite Disney character and snapping a picture of the moment. Character encounters are at a distance, meaning no close contact. A Disney visit is often a break from reality and an escape from life’s everyday worries, but now there are public reminders throughout the theme parks and resort alerting visitors to do their part in reducing the spread of infection. Some die-hard Disney fans will flock to Orlando to take advantage of the smaller crowds and the shorter lines. For them, the reward is worth the risk. Just know many of our nation’s leading public health experts believe a theme park visit is not yet a low-risk outing, especially in a COVID hot spot state like Florida.
Here is a sampling of social media reaction from Disney Passholders who attended the reopening preview at the Magic Kingdom. (Photos: UG Series/Instagram)
My last festival visit was many years ago at this time of year and I longed to return, but a busy life just got in the way. I was committed to being there in 2020. May is also a great time to visit Disney World because it is considered a gap month between the spring break and summer seasons when crowds swell. I pouted internally like a 12-year-old at missing, yet again, this year’s opportunity to go. (A man of a certain age should never pout openly to the rest of the family. Be strong, I told myself.) So, instead of driving to Orlando, I did the next best thing: I pretended with childlike imagination at home. I have a Mickey statue and he’s made in the form of a gardener. It was gifted to me several years ago. So, I placed Mickey at several different locations in my garden and snapped a few photos with my iPhone. I retouched the photos a bit in an app called 
