Is Disney safe to visit now? Visiting Disney World Post-Pandemic | 5 Contactless Tips for Your Vacation, with more enhanced safety measures to keep your family safe. This post is sponsored by Walt Disney World. All magical opinions are my own.
Visiting Disney World Post-Pandemic | 5 Contactless Tips for Your Vacation
During the pandemic lockdown, I used Walt Disney World as my barometer to how the world was doing. You know it’s serious when Walt Disney World shuts their doors.
Now with the world opening up and more people traveling these days, Walt Disney World is an obvious choice for families looking to bring a little magic back into their lives. But like many other concerned parents, we opted to let go of our annual passes, wear masks even when not mandatory and keep social distancing as our family “norm.” I was very hesitant to come back to Walt Disney World, no matter how desperately I wanted to give those memories to my family.
Is Disney World safe to visit now?
But sometimes, you have to trust the process, trust the magic, and finally rip off the proverbial Band-Aid. With our family 75% fully vaccinated, “it is time” (said in my best Rafiki voice).
Walt Disney World has gone above and beyond CDC guidelines to keep their cast members, guests and vacations safe. Ready to return to the magic? Thanks to technology and more contact FREE ways to enhance your Disney trip, here’s a list of 5 Contactless Ways to Make Your Disney World Vacation Safer and more stress-free for your family’s visit.
What Is Disney MagicMobile?
Disney MagicMobile is actually a part of the My Disney Experience app (like an app within an app – I know. Stay with me). Activating this feature on your device allows you to access a “digital wallet” to all of your vacation essentials – like theme park tickets, Disney Hotel room keys, PhotoPass and more, all right from your phone.
With easy setup instructions in your My Disney Experience App (make sure that your app is updated to the latest version), you’re only a few clicks away to more convenience and less contact with Disney cast members and other guests. With everything easily accessible from your mobile device, you can rely less on carrying more “stuff.” In short, Disney MagicMobile is an app within an app – just another way to enhance social distancing during your Disney World vacation.
Enter Disney World Theme Parks with Digital Tickets
Say goodbye to those glitchy fingerprint scanners, but NOT to Magic Bands. I repeat; Disney World is NOT doing away with Magic Bands. However, you no longer can receive a free ones with your hotel stay. But even though these fun theme park accessory is NOT going away, there are definitely times when having a digital ticket would be handy. Oh, like that time my husband lost his Magic Band at Epcot? Yeah, that happened.
Disney MagicMobile allows you to create and save digital theme park tickets right to your iPhone and Apple Watches, and your Google Pay Android devices. This includes everyone you are connected to has Family and Friends in your My Disney Experience app. So for instance, I had access to all 4 tickets for my family on my one phone.
Click Disney MagicMobile in your My Disney Experience App to create your digital tickets for your party. You can customize with digital designs for each ticket (with more designs available for DVC members and annual pass holders), or the system will pick for you. Once you complete the steps to create the digital tickets (this may take a few seconds as it creates an encrypted ticket for each ticket holder), the tickets are automatically saved to your iPhone wallet app or your Android Google Pay app on your phone (for offline access).
Express Pass is automatically added to your device (allows to work at touchpoints without unlocking phone/Face ID/tapping from sleep mode) and can be used by tapping your Apple Watch or your compatible device to the touchpoint at any Disney World theme park entrance. Everyone in your party does NOT need their own device to access the park. I was able to pull up all four of my family members’ tickets on my phone. I just swiped in my wallet to touch each ticket to the touchpoint. This is great for large families!
Even better, you can send a text message containing your digital tickets to anyone. So for my husband who does NOT have the My Disney Experience app, I was able to send him our digital tickets to save to his wallet, without having him go through all of the same steps I did in my app. Much easier for those who may be technology challenged/frustrated – just send them their ticket to their device!
Unlock Doors with Your Digital Room Key
Staying at a Disney Resort? Your Disney MagicMobile also works as your room key to unlock your door, allow vehicle access at property gates and access to charge to your room folio. Just click the “unlock door” button on your app and wait for the Mickey to show up on your screen. Hold up your device to the touchpoint. The words “door unlocked” show up on your device when complete.
Yes, I did verify that your Magic Bands and your Disney MagicMobile are both connected to your room – so they all can work at the same time during your Disney Resort stay. Remembering to click the “unlock door” button is key though. I forgot that step often!
Eat Faster with Mobile Food Ordering
I actually love that Walt Disney World is encouraging more and more mobile food ordering. Not only does mobile ordering allow you to pick and set a timeframe for your food order, your mobile order can also gain you earlier access to the beloved A/C restaurants for seating prior to those waiting in the standby line for non-mobile orders. Many folks don’t know about Mobile ordering, which help bypass the standby line, even at popular snack spots like Aloha Isle for a Dole Whip.
You will need location tracking enabled to ensure that you are at the correct Mobile order restaurant. AND, don’t forget to click the button “I am here” during your timeframe so that Disney can begin assembling your food order.
Skip the Merchandise Checkout Line
Contactless Disney shopping? Yes, please! Did you know that you can now shop for Disney merch without waiting in a store line too?
Merchandise Mobile Checkout allows you to grab your Disney merch in store, buy and checkout at any World of Disney or Mouse Ears store location. Use your Disney MagicMobile to online shop, checkout, and pick up at any Mobile checkout location in the store. Once you have paid for your items via your Disney MagicMobile, just verify with a cast member upon leaving the store. This helps diminish the amount of time spent in a possibly crowded indoor store, touching a credit card scanner, handling cash, or standing in a long checkout line, especially during hot summer days.
Note that Merchandise Mobile Checkout is in “testing phase.” Hopefully if this process is well-accepted, this will be expanded to other Disney World stores.
Other Contactless Tips for Visiting Disney World Post-Pandemic
Disney MagicMobile offers more ways to enjoy your Disney World vacation more while minimizing contact with people. Here are just a few more ways the MagicMobile features can help enhance your trip:
- Access to PhotoPass photos
- Join the ride queue for Rise of the Resistance
- Disability Access Service – allows easy return to ride lines and touchpoint access to rides
- Ride Swap – allows parents to easily ride swap with small children, with touchpoint access on their phones
- Genie+ – purchase your Genie Plus ride passes, park maps, ride times and more through this app within the app
- FastPass – while this option is NOT currently available (since there are NOT FastPasses at Walt Disney World as of now), I do see this as a future option, especially with FastPass signs up for the new Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure ride opening in October 2021.
Even If You’re Not Ready
Let me just sum up this post with the respect I have for you, no matter what your choice is on coming back to Walt Disney World.
Honestly, I wasn’t 100% ready. The summer crowds, even outdoors was a little too much for me. At times, I chose to wear a mask indoors. I wasn’t comfortable with all of the changes to my beloved happy place. But every plexiglass shield, every hand sanitizer station, every time I saw a cast member go out of their way to make magic happen for a child – even with their mask on, it was magical.
You may not be ready. That’s ok. You may not be comfortable yet. That’s fine. However, whenever you are ready, just know that there are a few more ways that Disney World is trying to take the stress out of your post-pandemic vacation.
Every contactless way that I can enjoy my Disney World vacation, I’m going to take advantage of it. It’s free. It’s easy. And it’s just another way I can keep my family safe and healthy – at the most magical place on earth. Learn more about Disney MagicMobile and stay up to date on more ways Disney World is keeping your family in mind at the parks.
Have you tried any of these contactless ways to make your Disney World vacation safer?
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