Can You See the 2024 Solar Eclipse from Disney World?

While Walt Disney World is full of plenty of Imagineering-made wonders, few of them can hold a candle to the natural wonder that is a total solar eclipse.

NASA

So, it only makes sense that guests who’ll be at Walt Disney World this coming April 8th are curious if they’ll be able to see the total eclipse due to occur on that day.

According to USA Today, a total eclipse occurs “when the moon appears as the same size as the sun and blocks the entire disk, leading to a period of darkness lasting several minutes. The resulting “totality,” whereby observers can see the outmost layer of the sun’s atmosphere known as the corona, confuses animals – causing nocturnal creatures to stir and bird and insects to fall silent.”

Or in layman’s terms, the moon appears to completely block out the sun. These events are relatively rare. The most recent occurred in 2017, and NASA’s experts believe that there won’t be another total solar eclipse visible in the contiguous United States until August 23, 2044.

So, will the event be visible from Walt Disney World? Well, not completely. You see, while the event will be partially visible, Orlando is not in the so-called “path of totality” — the “locations where the Moon’s shadow completely covers the sun.”

NASA has laid out the “path of totality for the April 2024 eclipse, saying it’s going to “begin over the South Pacific Ocean. Weather permitting, the first location in continental North America that will experience totality is Mexico’s Pacific coast at around 11:07 a.m. PDT. The total solar eclipse will be visible along a narrow track stretching from Texas to Maine on April 8, 2024. A partial eclipse will be visible throughout all 48 contiguous U.S. states. The path of the eclipse continues from Mexico, entering the United States in Texas, and traveling through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Small parts of Tennessee and Michigan will also experience the total solar eclipse. The eclipse will enter Canada in Southern Ontario, and continue through Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Cape Breton. The eclipse will exit continental North America on the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland, Canada, at 5:16 p.m. NDT.”

NASA’s breakdown of the “path of totality”

As mentioned above, despite the fact that the full and total eclipse won’t be visible from WDW, guests who happened to visiting on April 8th should be able to see a partial eclipse, and should take the necessary precautions since it’s unsafe to look at a non-total eclipse without eye protection.

Once again, NASA has laid out the precautions any potential eclipse viewer should take:

“Viewing any part of the bright Sun through a camera lens, binoculars, or a telescope without a special-purpose solar filter secured over the front of the optics will instantly cause severe eye injury.When watching the partial phases of the solar eclipse directly with your eyes, which happens before and after totality, you must look through safe solar viewing glasses (“eclipse glasses”) or a safe handheld solar viewer at all times. You can also use an indirect viewing method, such as a pinhole projector.”

The 2017 eclipse, as seen from Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom (Disney Parks Blog)

So, will you be in Walt Disney World during the April 2024 total solar eclipse? Or better yet, will you be located anywhere in the “path of totality”? Let us know in the comments below.