Disney Vacation Cancelled… AGAIN

Published: June 25, 2020

In the fifteen plus years that my family has been going to Disney World we have never had such a heart-wrenching year as this year.  For the second time this year, we have cancelled reservations to Disney World.

Our first trip was planed for the week of April 15th and Covid-19 obliterated those plans, not only for our family vacation, but for everyone’s life around the world.  We then rebooked our trip.  We were looking at the numbers and we took an educated guess that Disney would try to reopen in the middle to end of June.  So on April 30th, we booked reservations at All-Star Resort for a suite for July 25 – August 1.  We also rebooked our plane tickets through Southwest for those same dates.

Even though Disney had yet to announce an opening date, on May 25th, we booked our FastPasses and made diner reservations at Cinderella’s Royal Table, 50’s Primetime Cafe and Story Book Dining at Artist Point with Snow White.

When Disney first announced that the parks were reopening, we were happy but cautious.  When we found out that there would be no Fireworks, no parades, no character meet and greets, we started to get nervous.  In the time since the reopening announcement we have learned that the will be no Park Hopping, Pin Trading, Extra Magic Hours, Resort Hopping among many other things that you will no longer be able to do, we were now contemplating whether it was financially worth going to parks when they reopen.

We have also been monitoring the virus numbers for Florida, particularly Orange and Osceola Counties in which Disney World Resort sits.  When we first rebooked the trip, they were averaging 15 and 10 cases a day and 0 deaths respectively.  As of yesterday (Wednesday, June 24, 2020) Orange County reported 554 cases with 2 deaths and Osceola County reported 75 cases with 1 death.  This is the main factor that made us come to our decision.

We have again postponed our family vacation.  We are hoping to rebook again next June, if there has been a vaccine released or if the virus subsides.

I really hated having to make the decision to cancel our trip again, but my family’s health and well being is the most important factor.