Disneyland during COVID restrictions

As a big Disney fan, I was ELATED for the park reopening. And with my kiddo having a big birthday, we decided to make a quick trip to celebrate and get what we hoped would be a little sense of normalcy.

While we did have a great time, it was by no measure anything like the magic of a pre COVID trip. And the tips on how to prepare were pretty limited, so I wanted to share based on our experience.

We flew down the day before and enjoyed some time exploring Downtown Disney. We did a full day at Disneyland park - open to close. We did not park hop over to California Adventure. Then we slept in the morning after before heading home.

Here are my Disneyland tips from our visit on 5/26:

1. Neck gaiters are not an approved mask at Disneyland. They of course will sell you a replacement at the entrance. The mask has to hook on your ears to be approved. When I went back to look at the rules there is also language about layers but I did not see that enforced. 

2. Arrive early, like way earlier than usual. We like to be in the park for rope drop and are typically there early, but with the prescreening line I would suggest arriving 1.5 hours before the park opens. The health screening began at 8:10 for a 9 am opening. The screening is quick but the line to get screened is the slow down. 

The great news is they are opening the park earlier than advertised so we were actually riding Millennium Falcon when the park technically opened. We were inside the gate at 8:30 and proceeded directly to Star Wars land. And we got more rides in the first two hours than we did all of the mid day. 

3. Stay late and get the popular rides in quick. This is always true but seemed especially useful while there were no fireworks to stay for. I hear fireworks are back soon so perhaps this will be different.

4. Get in the queue for Rise of the Resistance promptly. The 7 am time filled within 30 seconds and we just missed it. I was faster at clicking buttons at noon and we got a spot. The ride was really cool so don’t miss it. There is not a walk up option for this ride. 

See my screenshot from 7:01 am. 

5. Order your afternoon food way ahead of time. Most food requires mobile ordering. You order for a pickup window and then have to check in when you are close. When it says the food is ready then you get into another line to wait for your food. This was a mess at the dole whip location. The dole whips had sold out for the day by about 4 pm. The kids meal milks, yogurts and applesauce also appeared to sell out by the afternoon. So at noon you need to be thinking about dinner and ordering. Only churros and popcorn seemed to be served after 8 pm. It appears there is an option to cancel your order but we did not try that feature.

6. Planning for the sun is more important than ever. The distancing requirements mean than there was a time when we stood in the direct sun for 30 minutes and weren’t allowed to drink water (see mask rule) per the cast members constant reminders. That was bizarre. So have your sun hat and sunscreen ready to go. 

7. They aggressively enforce the mask rule. You cannot eat or drink in lines for the rides. In fact you can only eat or drink in approved areas of the park. These approved areas are marked in person but not marked on the map. So you have to just search for allowed eating areas. We snuck in some drinking with a straw since we didn’t have to remove our mask for that. This is also important for kids. Cast members were stopping even children whose mask had fallen below their nose. They were as pleasant as they could be and we didn’t see any altercations, but they are very strict about the masking.

8. Bring a battery backup for your phone. You have to mobile order food.  They no longer hand out maps at all, so you will need the app more than ever. It will eat away your battery. My 2 month old phone did not have enough battery for our day. 

9. The lines appear longer than they are since the lines are kept outside. By the time you reach the interior of a building, you are minutes from the attraction. They are not lining people up indoors hardly at all. So don’t be alarmed that some of the lines will appear to be the longest you have ever seen. It is just all the spacing.

10. The character experiences are fairly limited and in some cases hard to get photos with because the character is located high up. The only ‘loose’ character we saw was Goofy. The princesses were behind a fence but they were speaking with kids so the interaction was much better there. 

11. Bring lots of food and water flavor packets. We usually bring more food but with a short trip and limited hotel food (by the way apparently Orange County is limiting the ability of hotels to serve food so breakfasts are limited or completely eliminated at hotels) that was hard to do. That became an issue in the evening when they ran out of food. We actually ordered a pizza to be delivered to the hotel when we returned. And water flavor because I swear the water tasted worse than normal. H even noticed. Rancho Zocalo and Hungry Bear were both closed but were approved areas you could sit and eat. They appeared much less crowded than other areas.

12. Don’t expect the amazing food. There are fewer food service options and the menus appear to be reduced. I was really hoping for a Monte Christo sandwich but that was not to be. That restaurant wouldn’t even indicate online if there were tables open until you were in close proximity. And the general quality of the food was just not up to the normal standard. 

13. Buttons are no longer picked up at City Hall but instead can be found in any of the stores. 

14. Pack your patience and go with the flow. It won’t be like your trips before COVID. So plan on that ahead of time. But it will still have some of the Disney magic and I expect it will get better as restrictions lift.