4. Staying spread out on thoroughfares

Lower park capacity has been a fantastic boon for Disney visitors during this season—for the most part, 35% capacity has been a good number to ensure guests can still space out throughout the parks. Despite this, social distancing isn’t always simple for some guests while traversing the parks.

Most Disney guests are pretty well behaved when it comes to giving other parties space while walking through the parks, but there have been weird exceptions. I’ve come to notice that some people seem to have a magnetic pull to the nearest human being in vicinity—this has been a painful year for some of our dear extraverts, methinks. We’ve noticed occasions where there may be 30 feet of space for guests to spread out, but parties still draw weirdly close to others. We thought the days of involuntary “playing chicken” with fellow guests had passed, but that isn’t always the case.

I cannot begin to explain why this happens—it baffles me every time it occurs as usually it has nothing to do with lack of space. Perhaps some hitherto unstudied psychological effect is involved. Most likely, this comes down to the classic issue of people not paying attention. Some of that is understandable—there are a lot of wonders to take in at Walt Disney World, and it’s easily to let your eyes wander off the road. Still, this continues to be a weirdly frequent phenomenon.

What Can Be Done About It?

Like the other social distancing issues, it’s mostly a matter of paying attention. Connecting the dots by walking from one party to another is a… really bad idea on the best of days. You don’t need to walk on eggshells to avoid all other guests, but it’s best to resist the impulse to draw close to other parties if there’s plenty of space. If mistakes are made, just adjust course. For those who end up on the other side of this scenario, stay patient—adjust course as best as you can and continue on your Disney day. You will run into some instances at Walt Disney World where social distancing is difficult just due to space available—just do the best you can and try to stay patient.

5. What about masks?

This is one of those areas I think people expected to be a major issue with Disney’s reopening. It seems like we can’t go a single day without another shocking story regarding mask shenanigans somewhere in the country popping up on our news feeds. Are people dropping their masks left and right at Walt Disney World? Is the whole park full of noses peeking out as far as the eye can see?

Not really—actually, Disney has done a good job enforcing mask use throughout their parks.

What are the exceptions? We can’t say that every Walt Disney World guest we’ve seen gets at A+ on following mask rules necessarily. Most trips, we’ve seen a few scattered people who try to get around mask usage in queues, particularly if they think no people are close or cast members are watching. You still have the occasional person who lowers their mask to talk, and you may see noses peeking out on occasion.

 We’ve also seen a lot of cases of people trying to quickly pull down masks for family pictures, which is something Disney is trying to discourage. Less frequent but still dodgy is the fact people do sometimes try to push their luck on the “while actively eating/drinking & stationary” exception. Most people know to step out of the way and stay still when having a bite, but you may run into someone who tries to get away with eating or drinking on the go.

Overall, the cast members have done a really good job politely but firmly enforcing mask rules—many actually manage to do this with laudable charm, such as cast members who brief audience members before shows. You can’t go anywhere in the parks without running into signage reminding guests about mask rules, and even the relaxation zones (where guests can temporarily remove masks while distanced further than usual) are pretty well monitored.

What Can Be Done?

If you see someone breaking mask rules, I would personally advise against confronting them. More than likely, a cast member will deal with the issue. Keep your distance from offenders if you can. If a situation gets truly sketchy (like a whole family removing their masks in a tight queue—something we fortunately have not seen), do what you can to subtly catch the attention of a cast member for assistance.

Enjoy this article? Keep reading to learn what to expect right now if you visit Disney’s Animal Kingdom… and some of the incredible secrets of that park’s resident birds!