Disney World is Safer Than Your Local Grocery Store During the COVID-19 Pandemic
I’m sure you read this title and thought “there’s no way it’s safe to go to Disney World right now.” Trust me, I thought the exact same thing before my friend Abby convinced me to go to Magic Kingdom with her while I was in town.
I would also like to note that none of Abby’s friends, co-workers, or anyone to her knowledge that works for Disney has tested positive for COVID-19 due to working at the parks. A few people she knows tested positive, but they were not working at the time and contracted the virus from a bar or local restaurant.
Park Capacity
Before entering the park, every cast member and visitor must pass a temperature check.
I’ve been to Disney World too many times to count (thanks to Abby), and I have never seen the park so empty, especially for August. Just to give you an idea of how crowded the park normally is in August, let’s just say when walking through Magic Kingdom, you cannot move without brushing elbows with someone. Before COVID-19, Magic Kingdom alone can hold up to 90,000 attendees. Right now, Magic Kingdom is only reaching 10-17% capacity. Now, that is still 9,000-15,000 people a day, but Magic Kingdom is around 107 acres.
So to put that in perspective, the CDC recommends 113 square feet per person to maintain social distancing for indoor businesses (most of Magic Kingdom is outdoors). So let’s do some math.
43,560 square feet or 1 acre / 113 square feet = roughly 385 people per acre.
107 acres x 385 people per acre = 41,195 people can be safely distanced in Magic Kingdom.
Even on days where the park reaches 15,000 attendees each person would still have 310 square feet of distance of their own. That’s 3 times the recommended amount.
Masks
So the biggest question I had was “How does Disney make sure everyone wears their mask CORRECTLY in the park? Especially the Karen’s they might encounter?”
Well Karen, Disney is a privately owned company and is considered private property, so if you don’t want to wear your mask or you refuse, Disney has no problem having security escort you out to your overprivileged horse drawn carriage and castle.
Now as for making sure everyone in the park is wearing their mask properly, Disney has cast members (I like to call them the mask police) walking throughout the park and their entire job it to make sure every single person has their mask on and covering their mouth and nose.
Mask Rest Areas
The park also set up designated “mask rest areas.” These are outdoor areas where guests can sit and relax with their mask off *gasps.* Yes, I know. So scandalous. Don’t worry, each table is more than 6 feet apart and only allows 5-8 people per table.
Park and Ride Sanitization
“What about the rides? How do they keep those sanitized?” Well, before every ride the cast members encourage you to sanitize your hands before hopping on. As far as I saw, every single person used the sanitizer. I can only image the looks you would get if you declined the sanitizer. Each ride also had hand sanitizer at the exit of each ride. Throughout the entire park, there were hand sanitizer stations and hand wash stations.
Not only has Disney created “the mask police” job in the parks, but they also have cast members sanitizing the park every few minutes. Their job is to literally make sure everything is sanitized and sparkling clean at their one location whether it be outside of a ride, in a restaurant, or common walk ways.
Overall, with the large amount of space and safety procedures Disney has put in place, you are more likely to contact COVID-19 at your local supermarket than at Disney World.
