Will you be taking your family to Disney before a cure/vaccine is found for Covid 19?

Pediatric ICU doctor here.

Have a trip planned for this fall.

Really not worried about my kids getting particularly sick as they are both healthy (now would not be the time for a Make-a-Wish trip though...have a friend in the PICU of one of the Orlando Children's hospital who has some horror stories of those kids getting sick on vacation...not great). While not a complete count, the best available PICU database for North America (www.myvps.org) shows only 250 PICU admissions of children <18 as of today (May 5th). The dashboard doesn't show it but most of the reported deaths are of adults who were placed in pediatric ICU's as overflow. So based off of this understanding, it's very low risk for them.

Risk factors for my wife and I are low, though not zero, but truthfully, I'm likely at significantly greater risk going to work compared to the parks/hotel/restaurants.

Other than diligent and frequent disinfection, I struggle with the utility of other social distancing measures being worth it almost to the point of nihilism. Temperature scans are too easily circumvented with Tylenol/Motrin, 6 feet spacing is nearly impossible to enforce at the hardware store let alone for a theme park, people are terrible with wearing masks properly. Getting on ride vehicles or sitting in show theaters seems to destroy the spacing argument almost immediately. Reducing capacity sounds great from a parks experience standpoint, but at some point, the overall risk of large groups plateaus - is there that much risk increase between 50 people and 500? It's certainly not a linear increase. 50000 people sounds like a lot, but is it that much different than 10000? The most important thing I think Disney can do to decrease their liability is to take care of their Cast Members, and make sure that they have a lenient enough sick policy that CM's don't come to work ill.

I'm not counting on any treatment options to become available anytime soon. There are some flaws in the remdesivir data that I think will come out in the larger post-approval data collection. The critical care literature is littered with drugs that were supposed to be the saving grace for critically ill patients that did well in early trials only to be found useless once exposed to larger, more diverse patient volumes/pathophysiology. From a healthcare resource utilization standpoint, some sort of post-exposure prophylaxis to prevent hospital admission would be the best thing but with so many people having "mild" illnesses it would be really hard to get a study together that can demonstrate that effect. And that still wouldn't necessarily change your risk for feeling like absolute garbage for 2 weeks, just that you could stay home and not need the hospital.

Vaccines are the best hope, and I'm more encouraged by their promise. I believe the worst case scenario will be a seasonal SARS CoV-2 vaccine that'll be like the flu vaccine. Hopefully it'll only be yearly and not every 6 months but that wouldn't surprise me either.
 
Pediatric ICU doctor here.

Have a trip planned for this fall.

Really not worried about my kids getting particularly sick as they are both healthy (now would not be the time for a Make-a-Wish trip though...have a friend in the PICU of one of the Orlando Children's hospital who has some horror stories of those kids getting sick on vacation...not great). While not a complete count, the best available PICU database for North America (www.myvps.org) shows only 250 PICU admissions of children <18 as of today (May 5th). The dashboard doesn't show it but most of the reported deaths are of adults who were placed in pediatric ICU's as overflow. So based off of this understanding, it's very low risk for them.

Risk factors for my wife and I are low, though not zero, but truthfully, I'm likely at significantly greater risk going to work compared to the parks/hotel/restaurants.

Other than diligent and frequent disinfection, I struggle with the utility of other social distancing measures being worth it almost to the point of nihilism. Temperature scans are too easily circumvented with Tylenol/Motrin, 6 feet spacing is nearly impossible to enforce at the hardware store let alone for a theme park, people are terrible with wearing masks properly. Getting on ride vehicles or sitting in show theaters seems to destroy the spacing argument almost immediately. Reducing capacity sounds great from a parks experience standpoint, but at some point, the overall risk of large groups plateaus - is there that much risk increase between 50 people and 500? It's certainly not a linear increase. 50000 people sounds like a lot, but is it that much different than 10000? The most important thing I think Disney can do to decrease their liability is to take care of their Cast Members, and make sure that they have a lenient enough sick policy that CM's don't come to work ill.

I'm not counting on any treatment options to become available anytime soon. There are some flaws in the remdesivir data that I think will come out in the larger post-approval data collection. The critical care literature is littered with drugs that were supposed to be the saving grace for critically ill patients that did well in early trials only to be found useless once exposed to larger, more diverse patient volumes/pathophysiology. From a healthcare resource utilization standpoint, some sort of post-exposure prophylaxis to prevent hospital admission would be the best thing but with so many people having "mild" illnesses it would be really hard to get a study together that can demonstrate that effect. And that still wouldn't necessarily change your risk for feeling like absolute garbage for 2 weeks, just that you could stay home and not need the hospital.

Vaccines are the best hope, and I'm more encouraged by their promise. I believe the worst case scenario will be a seasonal SARS CoV-2 vaccine that'll be like the flu vaccine. Hopefully it'll only be yearly and not every 6 months but that wouldn't surprise me either.
Thank you for sharing your perspective and insight. Everything I’ve heard says we will have a second wave this fall/winter, which is what worries me about rescheduling our spring break trip to fall. I feel similar to you as far as my kids go; they are healthy and would probably get a mild case. But I worry about bringing it back to other family members. Although you are right that shopping and eating out pose the same risk.

As I’ve thought about it more, I also realize that going to Disney and dealing with temperature checks, masks, and social distancing just doesn’t sound like a vacation to me. I don’t disagree with any of those measures, but it takes some of the magic away. I’d rather spend vacation funds to go to the beach where we could keep to ourselves more easily. The kids keep asking if we’re going over fall break, but I just don’t know.
 
Pediatric ICU doctor here.

Have a trip planned for this fall.

Really not worried about my kids getting particularly sick as they are both healthy (now would not be the time for a Make-a-Wish trip though...have a friend in the PICU of one of the Orlando Children's hospital who has some horror stories of those kids getting sick on vacation...not great). While not a complete count, the best available PICU database for North America (www.myvps.org) shows only 250 PICU admissions of children <18 as of today (May 5th). The dashboard doesn't show it but most of the reported deaths are of adults who were placed in pediatric ICU's as overflow. So based off of this understanding, it's very low risk for them.

Risk factors for my wife and I are low, though not zero, but truthfully, I'm likely at significantly greater risk going to work compared to the parks/hotel/restaurants.

Other than diligent and frequent disinfection, I struggle with the utility of other social distancing measures being worth it almost to the point of nihilism. Temperature scans are too easily circumvented with Tylenol/Motrin, 6 feet spacing is nearly impossible to enforce at the hardware store let alone for a theme park, people are terrible with wearing masks properly. Getting on ride vehicles or sitting in show theaters seems to destroy the spacing argument almost immediately. Reducing capacity sounds great from a parks experience standpoint, but at some point, the overall risk of large groups plateaus - is there that much risk increase between 50 people and 500? It's certainly not a linear increase. 50000 people sounds like a lot, but is it that much different than 10000? The most important thing I think Disney can do to decrease their liability is to take care of their Cast Members, and make sure that they have a lenient enough sick policy that CM's don't come to work ill.

I'm not counting on any treatment options to become available anytime soon. There are some flaws in the remdesivir data that I think will come out in the larger post-approval data collection. The critical care literature is littered with drugs that were supposed to be the saving grace for critically ill patients that did well in early trials only to be found useless once exposed to larger, more diverse patient volumes/pathophysiology. From a healthcare resource utilization standpoint, some sort of post-exposure prophylaxis to prevent hospital admission would be the best thing but with so many people having "mild" illnesses it would be really hard to get a study together that can demonstrate that effect. And that still wouldn't necessarily change your risk for feeling like absolute garbage for 2 weeks, just that you could stay home and not need the hospital.

Vaccines are the best hope, and I'm more encouraged by their promise. I believe the worst case scenario will be a seasonal SARS CoV-2 vaccine that'll be like the flu vaccine. Hopefully it'll only be yearly and not every 6 months but that wouldn't surprise me either.
thank you so much for taking the time to write this!
 
I moved our next trip back to January of 2021. I will probably go then if the parks are open. The reality is we may not have a vaccine for years. We may never have one. They say 18 months for a vaccine, but past vaccines have taken 4+ years. 70% of people will probably get it eventually. I live in a dense urban area and my husband and I are both essential employees, so our chances of getting it are probably more like 90%. Maybe I've already had it and not known it. I am way more likely to get sick at work, and my children are likely to get sick at school when it reopens.
I am not privileged enough to be able to SIP for another year or longer.
 
We are a Disney family but we decided to cancel or next 3 trips and not renew our AP. We do have a trip at Universal in the fall but going to play it by ear. Best news is I am having a pool installed in 3 weeks so there is that. 2021 isn't that far away and hopefully by then this nasty virus will either be gone or under control.
 


I would definitely return before a vaccine, but I wouldn’t use my vacation dollars for a modified experience (masks, no parades/fireworks/character meets).

We were lucky enough to have just returned from WDW over Christmas before all this began, so there were no plans to return anyway until fall/winter 2021. Hopefully everything will be back to normal at that time.
 
We have our vacation booked and fully paid for right after Thanksgiving. It might be a good time to check out other resort hotels and what they offer if entertainment is sparse. I am there mostly for the atmosphere,,churros and creating blog and vlog content. I look forward to reporting back our experience. Plus we have a preferred view at Riviera and that's what I am most excited about. Plus Plus, the pool bar has Monte Cristo sandwiches there which are my favorite at Blue Bayou.
 
I will absolutely go before a vaccine is available. There is no guarantee there will EVER be a vaccine and I'm not going to live the rest of my life in fear of something that has a less than half percent chance of death.
I will not go if the modifications/safety precautions Disney takes are extreme. If there are no fireworks/shows/parades, I will not go. I currently have a trip planned for mid August and the whole reason I scheduled it was to do the Halloween party; I was especially into seeing the parade. If that Halloween party does not happen (or if they have a "party" with no fireworks or parade) then I will cancel the trip (assuming they are open.)
 
We are booked for October and would still go without a cure/vaccine bc who knows if that will ever happen.

I'm optimistically hoping that WDW will slowly open over the summer with precautions and be back to close to normal by the fall. I feel like they will do the mandatory masks and try to keep people 6 ft apart and over a few weeks people will be reporting back that none of that is realistically working and things will gradually be back to normal...
 
My daughter is 20 months. I would like to visit in the next year but I would also like to have another baby in the next 12-18 months as I'm 36 already. The sad truth is this is not going to go away completely for some time.

My daughter is healthy. She has gotten sick 2x since she has been born. I have been sick tripple that including a nasty stint in the hospital with pneumonia last August. I am taking a lot of precautions but I also work with the public.

So it really depends I guess. I wouldn't rule out going early 2021 but I don't think my husband would be comfortable going before then.
 
The plan for our family is to go in September. Unless some crazy second wave happens And we are in lock down again, then we are still on.
 
Regardless of a cure/vaccine (I posted earlier in the thread), I'm not spending that much money for a Disney vacation that doesn't feel like a Disney vacation. I'll go back once they are close to offering nearly the same level of entertainment: rides, food, parades, fireworks, character meets etc.
 
We will go before a vaccine but will not pay full price for a less than full price experience. It does not sound fun to run around Disney with masks all day in Florida heat!! Or to have 30% capacities with rides/shows shut down and limited staff. Once testing is more widespread I think we will see most of us have probably already been exposed to this anyway. In a year it will be old news
 
Yes we will. Covid has a 90+% treatment rate and while I would not want to get it, chances are ONE DAY, we will- just like the flu.
We keep our immunity strong, just like we always do and expect to get exposed and get it every once in awhile. My family does not get the flu every year (we don't get the flu shot either) and I assume it will be similar for Covid (but there is a high chance of getting it this year of course)

Honestly, I would almost rather get it so we can build an immunity sooner than later.

I will not go to Disney while masks are required though. Nope.
 
Yes we will. I need to create a macro so I can quit typing this out, but the point of social distancing isn't to hide at home forever preventing risk of infection. Its to make sure there are enough hospitals beds for those that need it.
I'm glad to know there are beds available, but as someone who has already experienced lying in a hospital bed unable to breath on my own on more than one occasion, I'm really hoping to avoid being the person to use one of those beds. ;)
 
To answer the OP:
"Will you be taking your family to Disney before a cure/vaccine is found for Covid 19?"

Probably, but I don't know for sure. And that's simply because one can never know for sure. Prior to the start of this year I had spent about 600+ days thinking I'd be bringing my family to Disney this August. I never would have guessed 2+ years ago when we decided on our upcoming dates that a freaking pandemic might interfere with our trip. We had trip insurance in case of illness or something coming up with work or school, or the health of our elderly relatives, but never a pandemic.

So, as long as I felt comfortable with safety measures that WDW was taking and that we could take (But without those modifications being such that we felt the trip wasn't worth it.), then yes, we'll be willing to go before any sort of vaccine/cure is out there. (Although we haven't made any final decisions about our August trip, we have made a back-up trip for next June.) Whether or not we will actually go has to do with whether or not the universe finds any other crazy obstacles to throw out in front of us before we actually get there! ;)
 
We're holding off until late 2021 with hopes there will be a vaccine or at least some sort of medication that effectively treats the worst symptoms. But, if there isn't, I might still consider it as long as the social distancing protocols, etc. seem to be working. I just don't want to risk it until we see if the changes in the parks are effective.

That being said, we usually travel with my mom. She's in her 60s and has RA, so if there's no vaccine by then, she may decide just to stay home. Thankfully, we have a while to wait and see. I'm not sure what I would do if I had planned my vacation this year.
 

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