Slowly information is beginning to trickle out from Walt Disney World ahead of the resort’s phased reopening on July 11, 2020. The official Disney website is now being updated frequently with important “Know Before You Go” information that will be critical for anyone planning a visit over the next few months.

Much has been covered throughout the Disney community of bloggers, vloggers, and podcasts about the new health and safety policies that will be in place as well as speculation as to what a Walt Disney World will feel like under the new normal. So instead of rehashing all of that, let’s take a look at the silver lining to this situation if you happen to have a visit in the near future.

WHY DISNEY WORLD CANCELLING EVERYTHING IS ACTUALLY A GOOD THING

So if you’re like me, you may have had a Walt Disney World vacation planned for months down to every detail. You got up early 180 days out to book all of those dining reservations for the restaurants you’ve been wanting to try, painstakingly created a plan outlining which day you would spend in each park, and again got up by dawn to book those hard to get Fastpasses for Flight of Passage, Slinky Dog Dash, and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. You were so excited, your kids were so excited, everything was all set and ready to go…until is wasn’t. I feel your pain.

I understand that given everything going on in our country and around the world today, that a vacation that has been disrupted in some way or even postponed to next year is not the end of the world. But for anyone that is going through this, me and my kids included, it is disappointing. And guess what? It’s okay to be disappointed.

But here’s the good news, that silver lining I was talking about…it’s actually a good thing that Walt Disney World is cancelling everything. Honestly, it takes the pressure off; it takes the pressure off you, and it takes the pressure off the resort and cast members. We are all starting at zero…zero expectations…zero reservations, and that can actually benefit all of us.

There are automatically high expectations when you spend six months or more planning for something, eagerly anticipating something. Think weddings, graduations, holidays. We can’t help it, we’re human, of course we want it all to be perfect. Those amazing lifelong memories we’re all striving to create, right?

But with Disney cancelling all dining reservations and Fastpasses, and shifting the planning window to just 60 days out, we have the incredible opportunity to make the most of this situation. It is very likely that capacity limits will remain low for quite sometime, which translates to less crowded parks. Yes, it’s true, we might be missing some of the things that makes Disney, Disney, like parades, fireworks, shows, and character greetings, but imagine being able to ride your favorite attractions several times with little to no wait. Think for a moment about being able to leisurely walk along the pathways of the parks taking in the architecture and magical details without a crowd. What would it be like to go to the park and actually be spontaneous?

What if on this Walt Disney World vacation, you could actually slow down, enjoy the moment, and not feel like you need a vacation afterward?

If you have a trip booked in the next few months, I encourage you to take advantage of what could be a once in a lifetime relaxed and slower paced Walt Disney World vacation, if you let it. Zero expectations…zero reservations (except park admission, of course)!