Disney during a pandemic is different from regular Disney. I talked about a lot of the differences in my post, Visiting Walt Disney World During the Pandemic and I wanted to help you prepare yourself with these ten tips.

Here is my list of things to do, plan and bring on your trip to visit the parks of Disney right now.

Disney App : If you haven’t done it yet, right now download the Disney app on your phone – it’s a necessity for visiting the parks. I already thought it was pretty indispensable, but with the new adjustments – everything you need runs through the app.

Set-Up Cashless Pay on Your Phone : Aside from parking, Disney is pushing guests to use cashless pay throughout the park – some registers actually only accept cashless pay.

Skip Photo Pass : What I usually consider a must when visiting the parks is completely unnecessary right now. There are far fewer photographers wondering around, and also, with no character interactions, way less photo opportunities.

Food Plan : Take a second before you go to figure out how you want to eat while at the park. If you want to do a sit-down meal at one of the more upscale restaurants, make your reservations before the day of your visit or first thing on the day. If you are planning on stopping at one of the more informal restaurants, familiarize yourself with the way ordering works through the Disney app. It will only take you a second to walk through it on your phone, and you’ll be ready to order up with no pressure when your group gets hungry. 

• If you are ordering food in app (which you have to do), our experience was that the food took about 10 minutes to prepare once the order was placed. So, you can place your order from across the park and go ahead and check in as you are making your way to the restaurant to save wait time. (We checked in from Tomorrowland for our food by the Thunder Mountain Railroad and still ended up waiting about 5-10 mins)

Don’t Assume Pandemic Means Empty Park : As I mentioned in our Pandemic Disney post, going during Covid doesn’t mean you should abandon your crowd planning. There are still more people and longer lines on weekends and on holidays than mid-week. The weeks before and right after holidays are usually less active.

Divide and Conquer : With the queues extended to allow for social distancing, much of the wait time is on the sidewalk. If you’re waiting in a long line (say Epcot’s Frozen at a cool 60 mins), several members of your party can go get food or even ride a shorter ride and still rejoin the remaining members in line before it heads inside. (For us, many of the queues were approx. 10-15mins faster than their expected wait times.)

Catch a Parade : There isn’t a typical parade schedule anymore. Instead, characters appear on floats throughout the day seemingly unannounced. Your best chance at catching a spontaneous character appearance is at the Magic Kingdom – near the roundabout in front of the castle. We grabbed popcorn at the nearby vender stand and caught three parades in about :30 minutes.

Epcot and Animal Kingdom Are Great Options : Epcot and Animal Kingdom have several huge benefits over Magic Kingdom and even over Hollywood Studios:

• Epcot and Animal Kingdom are significantly less popular than Magic Kingdom
• Throughout our entire stay, lines had shorter wait times at these parks than at either Hollywood Studios or Magic Kingdom
• The guest experience at these parks right now is closer to the guest experience prior to 2020 than anywhere else in Disney.
• They were both really outdoor focused before 2020 and so are better suited for the present situation.

“Filler Attractions” Have Waits : Simple – ‘no wait’ – attractions now have sizable lines. For instance, we always considered the carousel a great experience to ramp up total ride time while minimizing line time. However, the line for the carousel during our stay was well over :40 the entire time, and the ginormous theater for Bug’s Life took over :30 to get into.

The Shortest & Longest Wait Times : Throughout our stay, the shortest wait times were found on dark rides.

Top shortest wait time rides:

• Kali River Rapids (Animal Kingdom) : No Wait
• Soarin’ Around the World (Epcot) : 0-5 min wait
• Kilimanjaro Safari (Animal Kindgom) : No Wait in the afternoon
• Haunted Mansion (Magic Kingdom) : 5-10 mins – line moves very quickly
• Tomorrowland Speedway (Magic Kingdom) : 5-10 mins
• Dumbo (Magic Kingdom) : 5 mins
• Mission : SPACE green (Epcot) : 0 – 5 mins

Top longest wait times:

• 7 Dwarfs Mine Train (Magic Kingdom) : 60+ mins
• Na’vi River Journey (Animal Kingdom) : 45-60 mins
• Frozen Ever After (Epcot) : 45-60+mins – the only constant line in Epcot
• It’s a Small World (Magic Kingdom) : 30-60 mins
• Mickey & Minnies’s Runaway Railway (Hollywood Studios) : 60+ mins

Best wait times: (the waits that made the trip worth it)

• Avatar Flight of Passage (Animal Kingdom) : 20-35 mins (usually hours)
• Peter Pan’s Flight (Magic Kingdom) : 30-45 mins (usually hours)
• Test Track (Epcot) : 30 mins in the evening

Of course, if you compare all this with the longest wait times, it’s clear that any wait right now is only a fraction of what it usually would be.

Things to Bring

Back-Up Phone Charger/Battery : The new Disney experience relies heavily on your phone. Bring a charged up extra battery to make it through the whole day with no worries.

Back-Up Phone Charger/Battery : The new Disney experience relies heavily on your phone. Bring a charged up extra battery to make it through the whole day with no worries.

Sanitizer Wipes : As I mentioned in our Pandemic Disney post, there are numerous times you’ll find yourself needing to sanitize yourself. Whether you are wanting to clean your kids hands off from where they rubbed the ground, wipe down a bench before you sit, or sanitize a dining table that you swooped in and grabbed right as the previous guests stood up – sanitizer wipes will make this all super simple.

Extra Mask : There are several cases where you might want to change masks mid-day. For us, the second our masks got wet from the raft ride, they became tortuous. There are other reasons we changed as well – comfort – fit – change of pace after wearing one continually for 5 hours.

Sunscreen : With many experiences limited and cues for shops and dining, visiting Disney now means spending more time outside than usual. 

Water bottle : I’ll accept that this is a controversial choice, but with some longer queues in lines and usually queues even at food carts – having a bottle of water handy makes sure you know your family is drinking enough water as well as makes sure you have water on hand as soon as someone needs it. 

The water fountains are operational and can refill a water bottle.

Poncho : It’s Florida – you never know.