COVID Cautious Walt Disney World Travel in 2025: Part 1 - Getting There

Traveling to Walt Disney World in a COVID-cautious way

While most of the world has moved on since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, over the past few years I've discovered numerous individuals who still maintain a level of COVID-cautious behavior,  myself and my family included. This is not a debate stage, and admittedly this post and others like it may have a very niche audience, but for those of you in the COVID-Cautious, and overall infectious-disease cautious community who are opening the doors to travel again, this post is for you!

It's no surprise, Walt Disney World remains one of my favorite travel destinations, pre and post-pandemic. Here are my thoughts and tips on how to have a great time at Walt Disney World while protecting yourself and your family from unwanted illness, COVID, Flu and beyond!

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Join me for this multi-part blog series where I'll discuss the in's and out's of planning your Walt Disney World vacation from a COVID-Cautious standpoint.

I. Getting there.

The journey is sometimes just as much of an adventure as the destination. There are two major ways to travel to Walt Disney World in Orlando; Air Travel and Road Trips. For many, the safest form of travel, when avoiding COVID, Flu, and other illness, taking your own car is going to be the safest bet, as well as providing some benefits while in the park. There are times though when traveling by plane may be the only realistic option. I'll cover logistics as well as pros and cons for both below.

I. A. Taking your own vehicle

Traveling to Walt Disney World by car is in most cases the most cost-effective and safest way to avoid crowds and illness-spreading conditions. Walt Disney World in Orlando is about 11 hours from us, with no stops, but we often split the trip up to tackle no more than  6 hours on the road for everyone's comfort and sanity.

Because we often make a stop halfway through the trip, our tactic has been to pack a single large bag (thank you IKEA) with the following items:

• HEPA Filter - The NuWave Oxypure 3XL Air Cleaner is portable enough to be easily packed in most cars yet powerful enough to clean the air in a hotel room. Depending on how many rooms we need we may bring two with us.
• KN95 Masks - I like the fit of the Facemoon KN95 masks and always have several fresh masks readily available. For our daughter, we're still using well-fitted cloth masks that have a slot for a PM 2.5 filter, while not as protective as a KN95, these fit her face better and have worked well for us. 
• Lysol Disinfectant Spray
• Lysol counter spray (we'll make our own with Lysol concentrate and up the concentration a bit)
• Paper Towels
• Electrical Tape (I'll cover this in hotels)
• One night's change of clothing and toiletries

We like to have those items in a grab and go bag ready to move into the hotel that we're staying in over the first leg of the trip to avoid  bringing multiple suitcases into that hotel. This also gives me the opportunity to quickly head into the room, turn on the HEPA filter and disinfect the room while my family waits in the car.

In the front seat of the car are our essentials including:

• Hand Sanitizer
• Nozin Nasal Sanitizer
• Covixyl-V Nose Spray
• KN95 masks for the car 
• Road trip snacks, we like a mix of tangerines and salty snacks, but you do you!

Our general road trip strategy is to make as few stops as possible, limiting bathroom breaks to refueling stops and if possible breaks to eat. With a 5-7 hour stretch we can often get away with one stop between home and the first hotel, the same for the second hotel and Walt Disney World.

Hotel brands that I like to consider include Home2Suites, Residence Inn, and Tru. In my experience many of these brands offer suites with a separate bedroom (so the kids can sleep on the sofa bed), and most importantly many of these are newer hotels which don't have a shared HVAC system.

I. B. Air Travel

Let's be honest, air travel is not ideal when trying to minimize exposure to COVID, flu and other illness. That said, there's a lot to be said when travel to Walt Disney World can be done in just a couple of hours versus a multi-day drive. From a risk/reward standpoint, if I can minimize contact while flying, it's sometimes the better overall option for us.

When flying we always travel with:

• Hand Sanitizer
• Nozin Nasal Sanitizer
• Covixyl-V Nasal Spray
• Lysol wipes
• KN95 Masks
• Lumify eye drops 

The general rule for airflight is that we're not going to eat or drink in the airport, period. With the exception of the small window of time that we're getting scanned in by TSA, the mask is put on and stays on. For longer flights (say traveling to Anaheim to visit Disneyland) we've employed the use of sip-valves in our KN95 masks, but even then attempt to minimize unmasked exposure as much as possible. 

One variable to consider when flying is that, in the air, your cabin air is being passed through HEPA filters, but when boarding, unboarding, and taxing, the HEPA filters may not  be on. For that reason, when we fly, we try to choose seats as close to the front of the plane as possible.

Once you've landed at Orlando International Airport you have a number of options to get to the Walt Disney World resort including taxis, private car services, your full range of rideshare services, and the MEARS Connect (formally Magical Express). While I normally am not a fan of bus services, the MEARS Connect service is not nearly as popular as it once was when this was a complimentary service offered by Walt Disney World. On my last trip, during the middle of Spring Break 2024, we had fewer than 10 people on our bus. While this may be a bit of a gamble, I felt safer being able to spread out on the bus than I would have being sequestered into an Uber for 45 minutes. 

I hope that this has been a helpful start to your COVID-Cautious Walt Disney World vacation. 

Stay tuned for the next entry, Planning your Walt Disney World Vacation Dates - the COVID Cautious Way! Until then, please reach out using the form at the top of the page or email me at anthony@howfarillgeaux.com for a complimentary quote on your next Walt Disney World vacation today!