August 2020 Reservations-still going?

[Disneylover99]

If you have seen the Walmart shopper memes, well that pretty much sums up what shopping at most of the big box box stores (not just Walmart) is like in my area. I have been to other areas of the country and not had the same experience in big box stores, but around here it's interesting, to say the least.

I work at a very busy grocery store. Honestly it’s not the safest place to work but nothing has happened.

I know grocery experiences are sure to be different around the country, but if you make an effort to shop at off hours, social distance, wear a mask, use sanitizer, etc....I can't imagine a 30 minute trip to the grocery store is riskier then travelling to Florida at the moment to go to a theme park for a week, even with all the protocols Disney has put into place.

 

[Disneylover99]

I have a trip planned in late August and am on the fence but will wait longer to see what happens. Regarding grocery stores, in my area we are in Phase two with limited capacities in stores. During phase one, the grocery stores were cleaning carts, had hand sanitizer and wipes out for customers, someone at the door counting customers, reduced hours, and senior hours. Once we went to phase two, they expanded back to the old hours, discontinued senior shopping hours, stopped cleaning, and have no one at the door to enforce reduced capacity. It's like they think it all went away with phase two.

That's ashame. We've been in phase 2 for a few weeks now and they finally just made masks mandatory in stores. I'm happy about that.
As they open more and more up, I'm finding stores in my city are being more vigilant then ever about disinfecting and encouraging/enforcing social distance.

 

[Herding_Cats]

In a word, yes. I believe Disney has created an ideal model of how we can get back to normal. Full mask compliance, regular hand washing, regular sanitation of hands and touch surfaces

I agree with all of this. I don't know where else I could go on vacation right now (we live in a rural area, so doing a "less people-y area vacation" isn't really appealing) that has such stringent requirements of its guests.

I know grocery experiences are sure to be different around the country, but if you make an effort to shop at off hours, social distance, wear a mask, use sanitizer, etc....I can't imagine a 30 minute trip to the grocery store is riskier then travelling to Florida at the moment to go to a theme park for a week, even with all the protocols Disney has put into place.

Wow was that close to me having coffee all over my computer. 30 minutes? With all of the one-way aisles and everything else our grocery stores are trying (but no longer enforcing) to get people to use, and having 4 kids (2 teenage boys!), we grocery shop for around 2 hours once a week. Mask wearing was getting ridiculously poor (soooo many people wearing them blatantly wrong) to the point that our governor just made them mandatory again for all stores. So yeah. I feel like an outdoor theme park where people understand that in order to be there they have to follow the rules is as safe ir not safer than the grocery store where people are worried about getting the last package of chicken legs, and are pulling their mask down to sneeze.


DH and I had a long talk last night about what it's going to take for this trip to get cancelled. I'm the one keeping up with what's happening in FL right now. We are going to try to make a decision in the first week of August, if it hasn't been made for us already. And it'll be a straight cancel. With his work schedule and our kids' school schedule there is no "good" time to re-book in the next 12 months.

 

[Disneylover99]

Wow was that close to me having coffee all over my computer. 30 minutes? With all of the one-way aisles and everything else our grocery stores are trying (but no longer enforcing) to get people to use, and having 4 kids (2 teenage boys!), we grocery shop for around 2 hours once a week. Mask wearing was getting ridiculously poor (soooo many people wearing them blatantly wrong) to the point that our governor just made them mandatory again for all stores. So yeah. I feel like an outdoor theme park where people understand that in order to be there they have to follow the rules is as safe ir not safer than the grocery store where people are worried about getting the last package of chicken legs, and are pulling their mask down to sneeze.

OK. You shop for 2 hours.

But you will presumably be eating, drinking, waiting with people in indoor queues, going on rides inside, etc.... at Disney for days at a time.
I'm in no way trying to dissuade anyone from going. I just think if people are saying it's safer or feels safer to go to Disney then their own grocery store, it's time to shop online. lol.

 

[Epcot242]

Full mask compliance, regular hand washing, regular sanitation of hands and touch surfaces, what would you improve? It has to start somewhere, and I've lost all faith in our government on all levels.

I agree--it's the most we can expect right now. What's holding us back, rightfully so, are the insane case numbers coming out of FL. If the state had actually not opened as early as they did I don't think so many of us would be debating this right now as cases wouldn't be nearly as high.

We're going to keep an eye on things and see how it's all going 2 weeks out from when DW opened. If cases skyrocket even more (though it might be hard to tell at this point) then it's a good possibility we'd cancel.

 

[puffkin]

OK. You shop for 2 hours.

But you will presumably be eating, drinking, waiting with people in indoor queues, going on rides inside, etc.... at Disney for days at a time.
I'm in no way trying to dissuade anyone from going. I just think if people are saying it's safer or feels safer to go to Disney then their own grocery store, it's time to shop online. lol.

I think this is a case of you just shouldn't comment if you aren't in this situation. I have the exact same experiences with shopping. With all the COVID restrictions, having to make alternate decisions in the stores because items are out of stock, a teenage boy and preteen boy that eat a ton, eating pretty much every meal at home now, etc....the amount of food I buy each week is insane, and it takes me twice as long as a pre Covid trip. I'm lucky to get in an out in less than 2 hours. Good luck being about to find a pick up time or Instacart time for delivery/pickup. They are booked at least 2 weeks out. The stores aren't doing substitution, so if they are out of the brand or size of (lets just say Milk) that you ordered, they will not substitute. So you are lucky if you even get half the stuff you order resulting in a trip to the store anyway. Stores are packed because they are open much shorter hours due to staffing, local mandates, restricting times for at risk groups, etc and there aren't as many stores open. Things are starting to normalize here as our COVID numbers have gone way down, but it was a pretty miserable experience trying to grocery shop here during April and May!

I agree with Herding_Cats too. We live in a fairly rural area. While day trips are doable for us, and probably safe, I think the restrictions and relaxation of people and inconsistency of enforcement locally actually may put us at more risk. We have a 2 week schedule to vacation every year with school/work/sports schedules, so if we cancel, we have to wait a whole other year. And there are no guarantees what next year will look like. I know what this year looks like now, and I am ok with what is in place. I know Disney isn't going anywhere, but my kids only have a few more years at home for family vacations, and time is slipping away. It will take a lot for us to cancel.

 

[koquinn]

We have a 2 week schedule to vacation every year with school/work/sports schedules, so if we cancel, we have to wait a whole other year. And there are no guarantees what next year will look like. I know what this year looks like now, and I am ok with what is in place. I know Disney isn't going anywhere, but my kids only have a few more years at home for family vacations, and time is slipping away. It will take a lot for us to cancel.

This is us too. We already missed a Disney cruise in March. Our family struggles to find time off together that's truly meaningful and my oldest is an incoming sophomore this year. Very little time left to make these memories. I get the irony if one of us gets sick and dies... I'm not stupid and do realize that's a possibility, however remote. But given our careers (physicians) and the fact that our school district is intending to fully open without a mask requirement, I honestly feel safer going to Disney and spending a week trying to get a much needed mental health break from all of this than I do going to work and school when we get back.

 

[Disneylover99]

I think this is a case of you just shouldn't comment if you aren't in this situation.

Our shopping experiences may differ, but we are all in this situation.

 

[puffkin]

This is us too. We already missed a Disney cruise in March. Our family struggles to find time off together that's truly meaningful and my oldest is an incoming sophomore this year. Very little time left to make these memories. I get the irony if one of us gets sick and dies... I'm not stupid and do realize that's a possibility, however remote. But given our careers (physicians) and the fact that our school district is intending to fully open without a mask requirement, I honestly feel safer going to Disney and spending a week trying to get a much needed mental health break from all of this than I do going to work and school when we get back.

I just feel awful for my kids. Last year we had an amazing trip with cruise/disney/universal drastically changed at the last minute to a quick 5 day trip that I had to fight tooth and nail for at work due to a project overrun and vacation freeze. My kids were so disappointed. Then we had a big transportation mess flying down with a cancelled flight, then 2 hour wait at the airport for a rental because all the computers were down so we lost the whole first day. This year, we were supposed to do a big once in a lifetime trip to California/Disneyland for August. We cancelled all that and switched to WDW back in May, figuring California wasn't happening and WDW/Universal were a safer bet. My husband and I haven't been able to take a day off of work since Christmas break. We have basically been quarantining since mid-March. I know there is risk, I am not naive. But mentally, we need something because this isn't healthy living like this either.

 

[koquinn]

I just feel awful for my kids. Last year we had an amazing trip with cruise/disney/universal drastically changed at the last minute to a quick 5 day trip that I had to fight tooth and nail for at work due to a project overrun and vacation freeze. My kids were so disappointed. Then we had a big transportation mess flying down with a cancelled flight, then 2 hour wait at the airport for a rental because all the computers were down so we lost the whole first day. This year, we were supposed to do a big once in a lifetime trip to California/Disneyland for August. We cancelled all that and switched to WDW back in May, figuring California wasn't happening and WDW/Universal were a safer bet. My husband and I haven't been able to take a day off of work since Christmas break. We have basically been quarantining since mid-March. I know there is risk, I am not naive. But mentally, we need something because this isn't healthy living like this either.

That's terrible, I'm sorry!! My kids' big Christmas present was the cruise - luggage, etc to go with it. They're still wearing their "I can't keep calm, I'm going on a Disney cruise!" shirts I got on etsy, even though I have no idea when or if we'll ever cruise again. I realize to a lot of people a Disney trip is a stupid thing to do in a pandemic, or even something they loathe in normal times for a whole host of reasons, but for many of us, looking forward to these vacations is the one thing that gets us through the stresses and challenges of life. And certainly for us it's the memories of time spent together that we can never replace. No work demands taking our attention away from each other, etc. It's just one of those things that I think most of you here understand. It's a lot more than just going on roller coasters.

 

[Kmedders]

We are supposed to leave August 29. If parks are open.... we will be there. I am fine with the restrictions and modifications.

 

[Kmedders]

This is us too. We already missed a Disney cruise in March. Our family struggles to find time off together that's truly meaningful and my oldest is an incoming sophomore this year. Very little time left to make these memories. I get the irony if one of us gets sick and dies... I'm not stupid and do realize that's a possibility, however remote. But given our careers (physicians) and the fact that our school district is intending to fully open without a mask requirement, I honestly feel safer going to Disney and spending a week trying to get a much needed mental health break from all of this than I do going to work and school when we get back.

This. I work in healthcare, husband is a cop. After the last six months, we need this. And honestly I feel safer going to Disney than I do being in and out of our hospitals and my husband feels safer going to Disney than answering calls.

 

[ksueboo]

This. I work in healthcare, husband is a cop. After the last six months, we need this. And honestly I feel safer going to Disney than I do being in and out of our hospitals and my husband feels safer going to Disney than answering calls.

Thank you for your service! I completely understand this as I am in healthcare and my husband is a Firefighter. We need this too. And we will stay as safe as we possibly can and diligently take all the necessary precautions.

 

[koquinn]

This. I work in healthcare, husband is a cop. After the last six months, we need this. And honestly I feel safer going to Disney than I do being in and out of our hospitals and my husband feels safer going to Disney than answering calls.

Thank you for your service! I completely understand this as I am in healthcare and my husband is a Firefighter. We need this too. And we will stay as safe as we possibly can and diligently take all the necessary precautions.

Thank you guys!!! Both for your service as well as for your opinions. I'm feeling so guilty knowing the risks and still thinking of going (and getting so much flak from my parents), but I do feel like there's a different level of stress for all of us right now and at some point something has to give or we can't continue to do the jobs we're doing without some mental relief.

 

[Kmedders]

Thank you for your service! I completely understand this as I am in healthcare and my husband is a Firefighter. We need this too. And we will stay as safe as we possibly can and diligently take all the necessary precautions.

Thank you for yours and your husbands service!

 

[Kmedders]

Thank you guys!!! Both for your service as well as for your opinions. I'm feeling so guilty knowing the risks and still thinking of going (and getting so much flak from my parents), but I do feel like there's a different level of stress for all of us right now and at some point something has to give or we can't continue to do the jobs we're doing without some mental relief.

Thank you for yours! I think that in our fields we understand the risks better than most. I feel confident I will be able to enforce all of the requirements within my family and am fully prepared to self quarantine for two weeks after we return. We have even opted for the online option for school for the first six weeks so our kids can quarantine. I feel better going in August than I would in December. I am worried about what the cold/flu season will being professionally on top of COVID. The highest stressor for me right now is not knowing for sure that we will get to go on the trip! I get nervous Disney will shut down again.

 

[koquinn]

Thank you for yours! I think that in our fields we understand the risks better than most. I feel confident I will be able to enforce all of the requirements within my family and am fully prepared to self quarantine for two weeks after we return. We have even opted for the online option for school for the first six weeks so our kids can quarantine. I feel better going in August than I would in December. I am worried about what the cold/flu season will being professionally on top of COVID. The highest stressor for me right now is not knowing for sure that we will get to go on the trip! I get nervous Disney will shut down again.

I totally agree. This winter is going to be awful. Hubby and I are supposed to go to Sandals in Oct for our anniversary but I have no idea if that'll happen. I just want to squeak this one before things get worse in case it's our last for a year or more!

 

[Darcy03231]

I hope all of you going have great trips and stay healthy!

I have to admit I'm a bit envious. We cancelled our trip as DH has an underlying health condition that puts him in a higher risk category. It was the right decision for us, but I was really looking forward to the trip.

 

[Govolz1]

I had reservations for first week in August. Cancelled once already but was thinking of trying it again. I am watching the opening of hollywood studios live today and it is very crowded looking. Over an hour wait for rides right now. Don't know if that is worth it with the increasing rates of covid in fla. I was hoping to see less people in the parks.

 

[Leigh L]

Thank you for yours and your husbands service!

I'd like to add my thanks as well to the both of you! Best wishes for a safe and magical trip!