Disney World’s Cast Member previews for Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom began today. As a refresher, Cast Member previews at those two parks are going on July 7-8, followed by annual passholder previews July 9-10. Those two parks open July 11. Cast Member previews for Hollywood Studios and Epcot will be held July 13-14, and those two parks open July 15.
We’re not Cast Members, or in Florida, or planning on visiting soon due to high risk in our family. But we’ve been keeping our faces glued to social media. To that end, we’ll start with a list of great sources of information about the Cast Member previews, followed by a roundup of some of the key takeaways.
Update from AP Previews
We also recommend this post from Julie (sonshine.adventures on instagram) that covers her visit to annual passholders previews.
Great Sources for Cast Member Previews
Attractions Magazine (twitter, YouTube video)
ThrillGeek (twitter)
Orlando Informer (twitter)
Our Florida Project (instagram story)
Takeaways from Cast Member Previews
The biggest thing to remember about these takeaways is that Cast Member previews will differ from regular guest days, though we don’t know exactly how yet.
The flipside, though, is that we also expect things to change at the parks constantly and gradually for the next few months. So taking a look at Cast Member previews is as good a place to start as any.
This information will eventually be merged into our Disney World Reopening Details — Parks post, but we’re going to wait a few days to let things settle.
Park Entry
Temperature Screening. As with Disney Springs, temperature screening is done via a contactless thermometer before entering the park. Guests with temperatures of 100.4 degrees F or above will not be allowed to enter.
Contactless Security. Cast Members went through contactless security during the Animal Kingdom preview (I couldn’t find confirmation about the Magic Kingdom preview). This allows you to keep all your items in your bag as you pass through a detector.
While we’re excited about this possibility, we take any usage now with a grain of salt. This is a big shift from the old procedures, and it’ll be a few weeks (or months) before Disney really knows whether they want to keep them at the parks.
No Fingerprints at Entry. Fingerprints were not used at park entry. When we visited in March, the fingerprint units were being wiped off between every use. While I don’t like the fingerprint system, the risk of fraud would seem a little higher than usual given the capacity restrictions on the parks, so we’ll see how this one goes. (Note: New York Times confirms fingerprint scanners will not be used.)
Inside the Parks
Social Distancing. As with every other theme park that has reopened, social distancing markers were prevalent in queues, and reminders could be seen throughout the parks.
Plastic Barriers. When social distancing isn’t feasible, Disney has added plastic barriers. This includes between rows of some rides, in the monorails, and in some queues.
Mask Requirements. Masks are required unless you’re eating, drinking, or in a relaxation zone (discussed below). One big question is “what about Photopass?” Photopass Photographers are still out, but I didn’t see reports of people removing masks for photos, so I suppose it’s not allowed.
Relaxation Zones. Relaxation zones are spots within the parks where guests are allowed to take a break from wearing masks. Social distancing is still required in these spots. These are locations set aside specifically for these breaks:
At Magic Kingdom: Tomorrowland Terrace; Pete’s Silly Sideshow; A Pirate’s Adventure
At Animal Kingdom: Pizzafari; Upcountry Landing (opposite the Up! bird show theater)
At Hollywood Studios: ?
At Epcot: ?
Safety Messaging. Every few minutes, an announcement comes on over the loudspeaker reminding you of safety measures, like social distancing.
Gift Shop Waitlists. Once the gift shops hit capacity, guests need to provide a 10-digit US phone number to be added to a waitlist. They’ll then be texted when they can visit the store.
Gift Shop Directions. The larger gift shops have doors specifically for entering and doors specifically for exiting. They also have arrows suggesting how people move through the store, and there are signs asking you to limit how much you handle the merchandise.
Cavalcades + Characters at a Distance. As previously announced, each park is getting a few new cavalcades in place of the old parades. Cavalcades are basically miniature parades with a few characters passing by and waving.
So far, these are being announced on short notice, but hopefully a schedule will develop. Don’t expect it to be posted, as Disney wants to avoid the crowding created by this entertainment. If you’d like to get a look at some of these, I recommend clicking here to see twitter search results. Hopefully we’ll have a list / schedule of these soon.
Additionally, we’ve seen a few pictures of characters greeting from a distance. This is things like the Country Bears waving from the rooftop in Frontierland. While the cavalcades should remain pretty standard, we expect to see these change a bit as Disney tries new characters in new spots (but we could be wrong, in which case we look forward to having a list of these at some point).
Rides
No virtual queues. The parks are reopening without any virtual queues, FastPass+ or otherwise. So if you want to ride a ride, you have to wait in line.
We’ve noted numerous times that Shanghai Disneyland also reopened without any virtual queues and now has them on eight rides and one show. We expect that as Walt Disney World park capacities increase, they will add virtual queues. This is just our guess, though.
Pre-ride tweaks. These are going to vary by ride (and maybe even by when you visit), but we’ve seen lots of tweaks to pre-ride scenes. The stretching room at Haunted Mansion is just used as queue space, for example. The Flight of Passage pre-ride videos are either skipped or shortened. It won’t be worth cataloguing all of these, just know your favorite pre-ride moment might be skipped.
Staggered Seating. Some rides are using every other row, some need to use every few seats, others are using one family per vehicle (or every other vehicle).
Masks Off on Kilimanjaro Safaris. Leah of Our Florida Project shared in her instagram story that they were allowed to remove their masks while on Kilimanjaro Safaris (Scott Gustin saved the video). But this might not always be the case.