Disneyworld was our first long haul trip abroad since the pandemic and all the logistics of the trip were planned with a hope and a prayer that the world wouldn’t topple down around us before and during the trip.

There’s a reason why I labelled this trip as to Disneyworld and not to Orlando.

I won’t pretend this was a cultural outing to explore the beauty of the true US and we certainly didn’t come for the cuisine which is easily full of cheese, heavy meat and potatoes i.e. everything that’s a bit much for my stomach.

No we came here for a straight glittery gut punch of nostalgia that only the powerful mouse can truly provide. I’m not even the biggest Disney fan and I’m scared of 90% of thrill rides; but I love cute things, immersive theming and hold just enough nostalgia from the princess movies to be up for a trip to the four kingdoms (let’s not pretend that I care about the water parks).

I went to Disneyworld to take too many pictures, marvel at the theming, eat overpriced Disney food and to fight with children to queue for baby coasters. On which I scream far too much on for an adult. 

It also helped that the whole of Asia, our usual long haul destination, had pretty much closed down shop for a casual traveller like myself to visit. 21 days in Hong Kong in quarantine? I can’t even get 3 weeks of leave…

We had booked our tickets almost a year in advance when the US had banned everyone from coming in and made sure to buy flexible tickets which could be easily changed. Luckily they opened up the borders just in time for us to fly out in November 2021 and the race was on to get there before things go wrong.

It wasn’t easy because America has its own rules which were combined with the introduction of additional UK Omicron precautions during our trip. Ultimately these were the legal requirements we had to deal with to reach America as double vaccinated travellers (note that only the requirements in bold are still relevant since rules were relaxed after 2022):

• US ESTA – an automated system that determines the eligibility of visitors to travel to the United States under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) – this isn’t a VISA and won’t guarantee entry so I have no clue why we need this, but what can you do about it? (This question is rhetorical).
• Video supervised antigen test for the US – only the US requires the video element as far as I know. Why? Again I have no clue.
• Masks on the plane at all times except when eating.
• Sporadic mask requirements in Orlando. Disney was quite strict with indoor mask wearing, but it was very random elsewhere. Sometimes masks were required and at other times merely encouraged.
• Pre-departure Covid test for the UK – this requirement kicked in during our trip and we had to scramble to find a US facility for an approved Antigen test. It would have been cheapest if we had arranged for a test whilst in the UK but of course this wasn’t possible.
• UK day two PCR test – this was upgraded from the cheaper Antigen test because of the Omicron variant. We had to isolate until we received a negative result, but this was a pretty straightforward process.

With that legal and safety stuff out of the way it’s time to talk Disney.

What do you need to know about Disney World? Three things:

a) As Sun Tzu says: Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win. The parks will defeat you if you do not plan well in advance.

b) It’s damn expensive.

c) It’s expensive AND there are now Covid restrictions in place which may become permanent restrictions if it benefits Disney.

There’s enough preparation required that I’m creating another article just for Disney Planning for UK visitors.

Now as a UK visitor I was able to purchase a 14 day pass for the price of 7 ticket to Disney, but even as someone who loves deals I couldn’t survive going to Disney World for 14 straight days, so instead my Itinerary looked a little something like this:

Day 1: 30/11/21

• Flying in and Walmart

Day 2: 01/12/21

• Hollywood Studios

Day 3: 02/12/21

• EPCOT

Day 4: 03/12/21

• Magic Kingdom

Day 5: 04/12/21

• Animal Kingdom

Day 6: 05/12/21

• Shopping: Orlando Vineland Premium Outlets and Disney Springs

Day 7: 06/12/21

• Hollywood Studios

Day 8: 07/12/21

• Magic Kingdom

Day 9: 08/12/21

• EPCOT

Day 10: 09/12/21

• Animal Kingdom

Day 11: 10/12/21

• Magic Kingdom

Day 12: 11/12/21

• Shopping: Orlando International Premium Outlets

Day 13: 12/12/21

• Lake Buena Vista Factory Stores

Day 14: 13/12/21

• Florida Mall and Flying out

It was overall a very indulgent trip. Disneyworld was indulgent in nostalgia, the food was heavily indulgent and focused on American chains, and the shopping weighted indulgently on my wallet. I did enjoy myself and had a lot of fun seeing the imagination of the parks, but this truly felt like a once in a lifetime trip that would lose its magic if repeated. 

And it was damn expensive.