Disney is getting ready to reopen its hotels at the Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resorts. Today, the company detailed some of the new procedures that guests will encounter when they check in for their stay.
At Walt Disney World, select Disney Deluxe Villa Resorts and Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground will reopen on June 22, in advance of the phased reopening of Disney World's theme parks on July 11. Disney's Magical Express service to and from the Orlando International Airport will remain available, though Minnie Vans and valet parking at the resorts will not be during the initial reopening period.
At the hotel, guests are urged to download the latest version of the official My Disney Experience app and to use it for online check-in to their room. Bell services will be available to bring up luggage, but they will not escort you to your room. Club-level services and in-room celebrations will not be available, nor will valet laundry.
Pools and fitness centers will operate with reduced capacities, and arcades, playgrounds, marine rentals, spas, salons, and Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique will be unavailable.
In your room and throughout the resort, Disney will be using enhanced sanitation procedures, including increased cleaning of high-traffic areas including elevators, handrails, benches, tables, door handles, and restrooms. Rooms will get an enhanced cleaning between guests, with a light cleaning service every other day during the stay. DVC gets service on the fourth and eighth days of a stay. Here is Disney's latest promo video on its hotel changes:
In the parks, Extra Magic Hours and Fastpass+ service are suspended for now and reservations will be required to visit the parks. Disney World is not currently accepting new hotel reservations while it works to clear the backlog of guests who had been booked for visits during the parks' closures.
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With all of these changes, I don't understand why anyone would book a trip to WDW unless you're just popping in for a quick weekend or live within a short driving range. Maybe the thinking is that the parks will be dead, and access to attractions will never be better than it will be over those first few weeks of opening. However, I fear that the reduced capacity and other procedural changes will dramatically impact a visit and further reduce its value.
Even if you're "pot committed", it makes far more sense to just hold off on a big WDW vacation until next year, particularly with #WDW50.
The single biggest reason to pay the premium of staying in a Disney hotel is the extra magic hours, so until those return, forget about it.
I think if you want to go, you'd better hurry, because the second wave is coming as we speak, and unlike South Korea--which has advanced contact tracing that can be used to trace infected people--America has no means of segregating the sick from the well. When the first superspreader hits a theme park and infects 40+ people in a day, the parks will be shut down again indefinitely.
Wow! That sounds like a total blast of a vacation?
I totally agree with you Russell. (And add to that the recent headlines about Florida's infection rate on the rise again...)
Russell get out of my head lol. Now I'm sure it's for trial purposes, but I'm interested to see how many people are actually willing to stay at any WDW resort with such limitations and no accessibility to any of its parks for weeks. IBD.
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Thanks for this, my mom still hoping to get going in August and has been checking out deals at their hotels so this info is helpful.
Yeah, everyone talks about airlines suffering but it's overlooked how tricky the hotel industry is going to be for a while with tourism down. And even though most places make sure to keep things ultra-clean, now it's a new level as well as doing away with the old stuff for a while (folks just allowed to hang around lobbies in large numbers) so it's going to be tricky.