Park Re-Opening Questions: Am I Social Distancing Correctly?
Social distancing. It's a phrase none of us knew in February, and only began to learn in March. Now it's only 4 months later, and a visit to Walt Disney World seems to depend on social distancing.
For those who are confused, we hope to clear up any confusion about why it's important and how to do it.
For those who social distance like pros, we're going to talk Disney specifics so you are ready should you encounter this at a Disney Theme Park.
Oooooo... Say It Again... Out of "Mufasa Range"
So, what is social distancing? Simply put, it's allowing enough space between yourself and non-family members to significantly reduce the spread of moisture droplets that come from us breathing, coughing, sneezing, talking, shouting, and singing... to another person. Although you can't see these droplets, they do exist, even when just breathing, and can carry with them the coronavirus. Your goal is to keep these droplets from flying into another person's face.
Thankfully, gravity takes hold of these droplets on their way out, and depending on the speed at which they left your mouth or nose, pulls them to the ground in a matter of feet. For a sneeze, it can take about 10 feet for these to hit the ground, while for talking, breathing, and other normal activities, it can be about 6 feet.
So you want to stay at least 6 feet away from other people, both for their sake and for yours (and you always want to sneeze and cough into your elbow to block those droplets). But most people don't know what 6 feet looks like.
One of the easiest explanations for me to understand is when this is described as staying out of melee range. Melee is a form of hand to hand combat. In other words, if I'm too far from a person to swat them, even if they were reaching their arms toward me, I'm probably far enough away.
But we find this a violent explanation for Disney, so I've thought up a more appropriate (if sad) Disney analogy. I'm going to call it "out of Mufasa range".
Say you are Simba at the top of the gorge. You are reaching out to try to grasp Mufasa's paw and save him from falling into the gorge and he is reaching up to you. But you can't quite touch. This is the kind of distance you want to keep. Scar breaches that distance and well, we all know what happens to Scar in the end.
So THAT's morbid... but what can I do to make sure I stay out of "Mufasa range"?
So glad you asked!
One thing you can do is avoid indoor retail locations. These locations are maximized for merchandise, well, towers of goods to buy and just enough floor space to move single file between these. This is like a gorge full of wildebeests. You don't want to be here because there is literally nowhere for you to go to avoid other people.
There are a lot of retail kiosks outdoors. I would stick with these if you can or try to shop Disney merchandise online.
Also, because you want to stay hydrated in the Florida heat, but probably don't want to use a water fountain with your open mouth, bring a refillable water bottle with you. I would always encourage this, even if we weren't social distancing, but now it's even more important. You can fill these up at the fountain while wearing your mask and then sip from them when needed. To make the sipping easier with a mask on, bring a straw. We like bamboo or steel straws if you feel you can keep one without losing it. If not, opt for paper straws and keep in mind that plastic straws are not allowed at Disney's Animal Kingdom. The straw is going to help because you can slip this under your mask to take a sip while staying (somewhat) covered.
Finally, you need to know how to use the social distancing markers.
Photo credit: insider.com
Using Social Distancing Markers
Disney has placed these to help you know how much space to keep between you and the next party. But many say although they seem obvious, there are some tricks to using them.
First, look for them. Some places have enter and exit markers and you need to watch for these to make sure you aren't entering a one-way path going the wrong way.
Second, the markers are placed with the idea of one person in mind. We see many parties try to stand on one marker all together. This obviously leaves a gaggle of people that take more space than the marker is intended for. Don't be afraid to each take a marker. It's ok for a parent to stand with a kid, but more than that is really defeating the purpose. You won't lose each other in a line when you're on consecutive markers - I promise.
Before advancing to the next marker, make sure it is completely cleared and the party that had been on it has completely moved to the next marker. In other words, there is going to be 6 feet of space between you to start, each standing on one marker. The party ahead of you moves forward. Wait until they are fully forward (12 feet of space), then move forward to your marker (6 feet of space again). The urge to keep equidistant at all times in a line is a hard one to break, but should the party ahead of you move forward prematurely, you don't want to trap them with not enough space because you took the old spot as this also traps you with not enough space.
This can be especially difficult when rounding a corner because you might not be able to see the next marker. Make sure you can see it and the space in front of it before advancing.
While we are talking about markers, this also goes hand in hand with exiting a ride. There are not social distancing markers upon exit, so you need to be careful here. It's like they quizzed you and now they are testing how you can do on your own. Unfortunately, upon exit, there is often a hand sanitizer station (use it!) that everyone wants to use and this can create a bottle neck. Our best suggestion here is to try to be the first or the last off the ride so that you can set the pace to the hand sanitizer or so that you can hang back while others use it without the party behind you creeping up on you.
Barring that, then at least don't advance on the party in front of you prematurely. Keep that six feet and assume the party behind you is doing the same. If you close the gap too early, the party behind you will close behind you leaving you less than your margin of space.
If we had to place a bet, we'd say "social distancing" is going to be the Merriam Webster Dictionary word (or really phrase) of the year. We hope we provided you some useful tips. If you have more tips you want to see shared, comment on our post over on our Facebook page. Until then...
