Watch Journalist’s Harrowing Report From Packed Line Outside Disney Reopening: ‘My Heart Is Pounding Out Of My Chest’

Self-described “theme park journalist” Carlye Wisel tried to report on the reopening of Orlando’s Walt Disney World, but never got past the jam-packed line to get in, instead reporting on the crush in several social media dispatches.

Disney announced the reopening in late June, and has stuck with the plan despite record surges in the state after instituting a raft of precautions.

Wisel, whose bio describes her as the “go-to magazine reporter for all things Disney,” began tweeting Saturday morning about the conditions outside the park.

She wrote that she hadn’t “even made it in the gate yet and my heart is pounding out of my chest” because she “just had to squeeze past a lane of opposite traffic while there’s this densely packed line for guest services.”

She added “this is unacceptable — and I haven’t even made it into the park yet.”

About an hour later, she tweeted that she was leaving.

“I don’t like posting this shit. I want to report on the safety measures inside. ask questions. do my job. Instead, I’m leaving,” she wrote.

I’ve been here for a half hour. social distancing began to be enforced a few minutes ago but tweets about this issue exist from about an hour ago.

I don’t like posting this shit. I want to report on the safety measures inside. ask questions. do my job.

Instead, I’m leaving.

— ? carlye wisel (@carlyewisel) July 11, 2020

Ms. Wisel later posted a short video in which she walked alongside the vast line and said “This is not good. This is too many people in too tight a space. This is not good. This is not good.”

adding video to explain the full issue, which is more than just the above line.

there were also TWO MORE lanes of pedestrian traffic in the SAME walkway.

It’s not a fluke, either – we were directed straight into the bottleneck. (You can hear it in the background.) pic.twitter.com/nhSB3o8gXm

— ? carlye wisel (@carlyewisel) July 11, 2020

She wrote that in addition to the line shown in the video, “there were also TWO MORE lanes of pedestrian traffic in the SAME walkway.”

“It’s not a fluke, either – we were directed straight into the bottleneck. (You can hear it in the background.),” she added.

Wisel took pains to point out that the guests were not the problem, but also that her experience wasn’t necessarily the full story of the reopening.

want to be crystal clear: THIS IS NOT the guests’ fault. People were directed into a walkway with 3 lanes of traffic smushed together, one of which was that too-tight line.

staff made friendly announcements with no mention of distancing as reminders to do so blared overhead.

— ? carlye wisel (@carlyewisel) July 11, 2020

sat there for a half hour unsure of what to do (same path back to my car.) Nothing changed. CMs monitored the line, giving encouraging messages to those waiting; ones on the other end led us directly into a bottleneck. too long of a time for no one to realize something was wrong.

— ? carlye wisel (@carlyewisel) July 11, 2020

hi! this story — reported off my tweets — is an inaccurate take on what’s happening at Magic Kingdom.

I experienced a very bad situation that did not follow Park + CDC protocol, yes, but it’s not inclusive of the full scope of what’s happening at the parks.

— ? carlye wisel (@carlyewisel) July 11, 2020

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