Who was at WDW during last years hurricanes?

[disneygirl1977k]

Hey everyone,
Just wondering who happened to be at WDW during last years hurricanes? I just saw on the internet that they are predicting another bad hurricane season and I was wondering if anyone could tell me what it was like during that time last year? I am already freaking out and praying it doesn't ruin my vacation.....we will be there Aug.27th - Sept. 4th....I posted on one of the other topics also because I am wanting someone to tell me how it went while they were there...thanks guys.
Kristy

[MissDisneyWorld]

I was suppose to check-in to Saratoga Springs the day Jean came thru, but I checked in the next morning, and I was there a few days after Frances hit. I live in Florida and I also book Disney vacations so I can tell you want happens during a hurricane in Disney World.

During the hurricanes, the only people that were evacuated were the guests staying at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground. They were all moved to other Disney Resorts at no charge to the guests. Disney Cast Members made the resorts fun by having characters in the main areas of each resort signing autograph books and posing for pictuers. Some resorts even had buffets in the lobby for guests at no charge. They were many other little 'extras' that guests were offered to make their Hurricane experience less scarey.

As you probably already know, there is plenty to do at the Disney resorts, and if the theme parks have to close for a day, they will reopen quickly. Hurricanes do not ususally hit Orlando directly--they usually weaken by the time they get inland, but last year was crazy! So... in the unlikely event that another category 4 hurricane blows thru Disney this September, you will still have lots of Disney fun!!

[sbdw]

We were there for Jeanne. They closed the park early on Friday but you could still get food at the food court (we stay at ASM). The parks were closed on Saturday. Disney changed it TV programing so that you could watch either kids, teenage, or adult disney movies. They kept you up to date with messages on your voicemail. Later in the afternoon when the storm started to subside, they opened the food court back up but with a limited menu. By the time you got to the late evening I actually saw people in the pool. By sunday everything was back to normal.
We were really impressed by how DW handled the storm. :wave2:

[chop456]

My DD and I were there during Charlie. The parks closed early the day the storm was to hit (1pm, I think) and the next day all things were up and running. I think AK was closed for 1 extra day, but that was it. Those CM's must have worked non-stop to get the parks in order because they looked fine the next day, just a few leaves here and there.

Our big excitement was that a tree fell on our rental car!

[tinkerbell81284]

I was at ASMu during Charley and DTD during Jeanne. Let's hope when I go for my bday again there's no sign of hurricane! :)

[kitkatsnindylou]

I was there during Jean we were supose to be at Ft. Wilderness and the night before we left I got a call from Disney telling me to regester at Old Key west they put us in a 1 bedroom. They advised us at check in to have 24hrs of food in our room since we would not be able to get out once the storm hit. They came and gave us flash lights later that evening. During the storm they would leave phone mail to advise us how the storm was progressing and they had extra movie's on the tv.

[jesunderthesea]

I wasn't in Florida during the hurricanes last year but we live in Houston and on our second Disney trip Hurricane Allison hit Houston on the day we were leaving for Disney! We thought we were gonna have to cancel, but instead we went up through Dallas to get to Florida.

We really did go through hell and high water to get to Disney!!!

[goofy4tink]

We checked into the Contemporary on 8/13...same day as CHarley...Friday the 13th no less!!! We got there about 1ish and they were closing the parks and going into hurricane mode!! Our PS at Chef Mickey's was cancelled for that night. The CMs communicated quite efficiently thru the phone system. We were told to stay in our rooms, away from the windows with the drapes drawn that night.
As far as eating goes...we were told to go to one of the big convention halls. there they gave us styrofoam boxes which we filled up with food, to take back to our rooms. Some people were filling their pockets, tote bags and fanny packs as well.
There were Disney films being shown on 4 of the TV channels.
When we woke up, there was some evidence of tree damage. One huge tree was down across the walkway to MK and a lot of standing water. But MK opened on time. As did Epcot and MGM. AK opened that afternoon, on the late side.
Fort Wilderness was evacuated on the 13th, due to the excessive water that was expected. And they didn't reopen for several days...between the water and the tree damage. We had PS for HDDR and they were cancelled. Had to rebook. I wouldn't have minded except that I had booked a year in advance and then ended up in the loft area on the side. But, worse things can happen.

The CMs were wonderful. Many stayed there for 36-48 hours. They slept in pool chaises. But, they continued to have smiles on their faces. I can't imagine being so pleasant while you were dealing with your own home having no roof. We saw so little damage in WDW that we were always surprised to watch the news and hear about the massive destruction in Orlando. But, when we got in our towncar and drove back to the airport, it all became clear. Disney certainly knows how to deal with those storms. They build accordingly and then took 'evasive' measures when the storm came.

A job well-done Disney people. I wouldn't hesitate to go again in mid-August. The only thing that caused me worry was getting in and getting back out..as far as flights were concerned. Evidently our flight out of Boston on the 13th was one of the last to go.

[kparc]

We were one of the families evacuated from FW during Charley. We were told to pack basically over night bags and sent to PO. When we got to our third day CM's packed up the rest of our stuff and shipped it to us only to have it shipped back the next day when the campgrounds/cabins reopened. With the exception of fearing we would run out of clean underwear things went very smoothly. We really only missed a half a day of park time. The hurricane was a highlight of the trip for my husband. :crazy:

[MNmom]

We will also be going on Aug 28th-Sept 3rd this year!!!!

We were also there at the same time last year and we were the last flight out of MCO at noon on Sept. 3rd before they closed the airport for 2 days. It was very interesting watching the preparations for the incoming hurricaine. The strangest thing was that they took down all of the signs on the freeway. We had no idea where the exits were and where we were going :confused3

Another thing that we thought was great was a conversation we had with a few CMs that told us Disney was putting up thier families for a few days because they lived near the coast. Way to go DIsney!!!

It did not scare us away and we are going back again this year :cool1:

[loonertic]

I was there for Charlie as well. We were @ the Swan. The Day the parks were closing early they shut down AK all together... and on our overly detailed itinerary that was our AK day (the next day we managed to get there for a 1/2 day on our last day - our flight was at night - got some great pics of Disney in hurricane prep mode). The night of the hurricane we made a PS @ Shula's across the way at the Dolphin. Had a great dinner - then when we came out and went to trek back across the hurricane was in full swing. They weren't letting anyone out. The front of the Dolphin has huge glass windows so everyone was piled up there watching the storm thrash across - (not too smart being that close to huge windows, but anyway....). We were stranded for a while until the storm calmed. It was a sight to see - seemed as if everyone was stir crazy not being able to be at the parks for a full day so they were all in the lobby walking around with full bottles of wine and drinkin it up! The most impressive part to us was when our car service was driving us to the airport the surrounding area was all blacked out. There were huge lines at gas stations and things were a bit unsorted. Our driver told us how lucky we were to be on property because Disney has it's own power supply and it never went out - but the surrounding Orlando area had. What a great trip :)

[newholidayx2]

DS13 & I will be at WDW for 2wks in Aug

I made it through a trip cancellation in 02, I can make it through a hurricane (if 1 comes thru in Aug)!
Schedule may get messed up for a day or so but at least the trip will go on

[D,L and K's Mom]

We were in Vero Beach the day of hurricane Charley...not to bad....they were super about keeping you posted. We had to remove all furniture from the balcony and put it in our rooms. They also asked that we close all curtains in case of glass breakage. They removed all pool furniture, garbage cans, tables and chairs from the decks and all water crafts form the water. All these were loaded onto huge trucks....were strange to see. We ate in the restaurant and then rented movies and stayed up to watch them in our room....quite a lot of wind, lots of trees down and limbs broken but no real damage. The drive to WDW the next day was sad...and scary when we saw the trees down, the sign (HUGE HIGHWAY SIGNS) snapped in two, houses with no roofs etc. It was horrible. We stayed at POR we had to check in very, very late as they had people who had to stay over as the airports had closed. They were GREAT and so nice. We had lots of people who were displaced for the campgrounds there...lots of trees and branches. Lots of paths closed. The water in "the river" was very very high and no boats to DTD or little "sprites" to rent. Pool was closed for 3 days. DD was disappointed but we reminded her of the houses with no roofs and no electric and she decided she was lucky. We also had quite a few Disney employees who were working 24 hours to help out. Quite a few of them had not been home to see the damage to thier own homes......ANGELS they were so nice. A few Disney CMS familys had checked in when they heard of the storm as they knew there would be electric and food and airconditioning!!!! We met so many wonderful people those first couple of days...and rescued a turtle....hee hee (he was in the parking lot just sort of sitting there...called the fron desj and was told some of them were stranded because of the wind and rain......we moved him to the grass and then scrubbed the heck out of the kids hands..samonella...and a paranoid Mom). Some of the electricians from PA were staying at the POR while they were working to restore the power to Orlando......they were like big kids when they were done working and they were at the pool...so funny. and so nice. Such a tragic event...but such a great showing of how people working together can make things so much better!!!! Simple things...people displaced from camping were given food vouchers (we were told ) as they problaby didnt budget food since they probabply had their own.....back at the campground.....People giving out sunscreen etc to people who only had a little time to pack....people talking and laughing and feeling lucky that they were safe etc. People sharing car rides various places as the people who had campers didnt want to drive them around becasue of lack of gas.....you couldnt get gas for quite a few days later.... I though it would be a terrible time and I have to say it was one of the BEST vacations we had....sometimes people really do pull together to make things better. :lovestruc

[jiggerj]

I was there during Jean we were supose to be at Ft. Wilderness and the night before we left I got a call from Disney telling me to regester at Old Key west they put us in a 1 bedroom. They advised us at check in to have 24hrs of food in our room since we would not be able to get out once the storm hit. They came and gave us flash lights later that evening. During the storm they would leave phone mail to advise us how the storm was progressing and they had extra movie's on the tv.

Us too. There were 5 of us so they moved us into a 2 bedroom at OKW. WOW! Right on the golf course. We filmed the storm and it was wild! The walkways quickly turned into canals, the windows leaked. We were able to see the top of Spaceship Earth for a while then it was gone! My dh tried to freak me out that it just "rolled away"! It was incredible experience and Disney was awesome. Then we got the ok to go outside.There was a HUGE tree that was down at the bus stop. Still wicked windy but we walked over to Olivias and at the check in area were Chip and Dale. Gotta give it to those cm's! :)

[LoriLea]

We were there at the exact same time last year and experienced Frances at the end of our vacation. We had great weather, no crowds from Sunday to Friday. We got to stay on rides twice around - very few line ups. We were able to accomplish much more than if it were busy. The only thing that we planned to do that we couldn't was a trip to Blizzard Beach but as we had Hopper Plus passes, our plus is still good and we will use it on our next vacation. The parks were closed Saturday and Sunday but the pool at Pop Century was open until noon on the Saturday. We watched Disney movies, ate snacks, had a few drinks, listened to the wind and basically relaxed. We ended up staying 2 nights longer than planned and didn't quite make it back home on time. We had a great vacation and would not hesitate to travel at that time of the year again.
The only thing that we would do differently would be to watch the weather forecast a little more closely. We did try to leave on the Friday morning instead of our original plan to leave on the Saturday afternoon but were advised against it. We were ensured that we were safer to stay put.

I think you have to make the best of every situation and realize that not everything will necessarily go as planned. (Last month we went on a cruise and missed our ship due to a 13 hour flight delay. We had to catch the ship at our first port two days later. Did it ruin our vacation? No - we sat at an all inclusive resort in the Dominican for two days until our ship arrived.)

Enjoy your vacation!

[ctrabada]

We were there during hurricane Jeanne, staying at POFQ. We are South Floridians and we always go to WDW in Sept for my birthday, so I'm used to the hurricane threats or a lot of rain. Due to previous hurricane warnings, my house still had the shutters up and we drove up knowing it another one might hit us.

We actually had dinner at Ohana's just as the wind gusts started. We finished and went to our hotel. There were characters in the lobby. They advised us to go to our rooms and stay there until advised otherwise. They played movies and updated us via voice mail. We actually came out or our rooms the next morning and watched the storm. Our room was in a protected area and we didn't feel a lot of the wind, but when we walked towards the water, there were very strong winds by those rooms facing the river. We took several pictures, met some of our neighbors, and went back to our room. Around 3 pm we saw people walking around and went to the food court. They had limited service and we ate some snacks. There were characters again in the lobby entertaining the children.

The staff at the resort was fabulous. Their training was impecable. We felt very secure. My deepest gratitude to all the CM's who stayed even knowing their families might be in peril. We spoke to a few CM's and heard their stories, some of them heartbreaking. I felt their pain as my parents live in Orlando and their house had considerable roof damage due to the hurricanes pummeling Central Florida last year. They finally were able to fix the room a couple of months ago, after long delays in obtaining insurance money.

I was very impressed with the training, professionalism and attitude of all CM's at the resort. WDW knows how to act in crisis situations.

[bornandraised]

There is no need to worry if a hurrican will ruin your vacation. Disney always has plenty of things for guests to do if ever a park will close. But you must know that the hurricane season is on one of it's cycles. Just about every fifty years Florida gets hit with bad hurricanes...I think the last time we were hit THIS bad was Donna back in the 50's. Andrew was bad but nothing like Charlie. So I wouldn't worry, Disney always gives stuff to the guests!

[bigbabyblues]

We were there the day Jeanne came through. We had to stay in our room (ASMo) the entire day, into the evening, but other than that it didn't affect us. You could hear the wind and rain, and of course see it if you looked at, but we didn't lose power or water. We did go down two days early because we were supposed to arrive on the Sunday Jeanne did, and DH work schedule would not allow us to postpone the trip at all.

[MScott1851]

We almost got smacked by Jeanne not once, but twice, last year. If you remember, she headed toward Florida, then turned back out to sea, then turned back into Florida. Well, we were at WDW on the weekend she was headed inland, no difficulties there; got on a cruise ship Monday and followed her out to the Bahamas, then she turned around and chased us back to Florida Thursday and Friday night, bearing down and gaining strength.

Of course, we didn't know this until we disembarked at Port Canaveral and headed back to Orlando on Friday. We had three nights at the Hard Rock Hotel reserved, and 5 day Universal tickets. We sped back to Orlando, went hard-core commando touring at IOA and US that day. We called the airlines, and already our flight for Monday was cancelled, everything out of Orlando on Saturday was already booked, so we had to drive to Tampa Saturday afternoon and leave from there. Friday night was so surreal. We went downtown and went out...everyone was having "hurricane parties." I remember sitting in a cabana at Sky60 (which is an outdoor, rooftop lounge) thinking, wow, tomorrow night, this bar might not be here!

We got up early Saturday, hit the parks one more time, then high-tailed it to Tampa. There were a lot of people flying out of there instead of MCO. Thankfully, Northwest didn't charge me a change fee, National let me drop the car off at Tampa for no extra charge, and Universal let me cancel the remaining two nights reservation with no penalty whatsoever. Everyone was so helpful and accommodating, considering the storm was going to affect them so much more than us!

I'm glad we got out when we did, I later found out we wouldn't have been able to leave Orlando on a plane until Tuesday morning, had we stayed.

[dsnymomof4]

We were there last Aug 28-Sep 3. Our flight home (to NJ) was at 7:00pm on Sep. 3 - they decided to close the airport at 12:00noon on that day. We found this out the day before right before we were heading over to Epcot for the evening. My husband talked to the CMs at check-out and they offerred for us to stay in our rooms at a discounted rate for as long as we needed - I thought that was nice of them. Anyway, since the airport wasn't scheduled to open until Monday, and my children were starting school on Tuesday (and we still needed to go school-supply-shopping), we decided to rent a car and drive home Friday(20 hours straight through!). So, we kind of got shorted one day of our vacation, but the good news is that Airtran gave us a credit that we'll be using in December when we go back!

[chiconh]

We were at the WL last year, celebrating our 25th Wedding Anniversary, when Frances hit. We were unable to get out and had to stay 2 extra days. The hotel was wonderful in accommodating everyone, but here is something I never thought I would say. I was happy to leave! :crazy: Two days of not being able to leave the hotel and during some of the time, we could not even leave the room! How many times can you watch Brother Bear? :rotfl: There were also very limited food choices. Nothing you can do about it, but make the best of a bad situation. Mother Nature always wins!

[Pea-n-Me]

We were on the Disney Wonder right before Frances hit. We evacuated all CMs off Castaway Cay on our At Sea day. We were at the YC before the cruise, and were supposed to go back for 3 nights afterward, but after seeing the damage from Hurricane Charley (and reading people's trip reports of being stuck in their rooms), we decided to try to get home instead. I called SWA from our stateroom at 5am to switch flights and was told they gave us the last 4 seats on any flight to PVD for the day. (BTW, both SWA and the YC staff were wonderful and helpful in changing/cancelling our reservations and we did not lose any $$).

We spent Thursday at MK and caught a late flight out. It was madness on the roads and at the airport, and we nearly missed our flight because lines were long and we were chosen to be searched (yup, we were standing there in bare feet minutes before our flight was due to leave, LOL). DH had gotten a huge picture on the ship for our living room wall and we had to literally run through the airport dragging that as well as our bags and our kids! If we hadn't absolutely had to be back to work on Monday we probably would have ridden it out, but as it was MCO was closing on Saturday and Sunday and we knew our Sunday flight would be cancelled and God knows when we would have gotten home.

It was the best thing to leave but boy, was it hard. At the Poly we ran into Dis friends from the cruise who had no choice but to stay until Tuesday since all flights to England were cancelled until then. They were relaxing at the pool- pina coladas in hand - and having a great time. It was so tempting to join them (they got a great discounted rate at the Poly)!! We sat in that lobby for quite a while hemming and hawing about whether to leave, but ultimately common sense gave in and we reluctantly made the drive to MCO. :sad2:

We've done other trips in September and never had a problem before.

[4formickey]

we played at wdw when ivan was going up the gulf. everyone wanted use to cancell our trip but we where going on dcl also. The parks was empty. You had your pick of the rides with very little wait. It was great! The cruise was great but we lost a day because of jeanne about to hit. We left mco at 12pm and the airport was closing at 5pm. We had a great time :sunny:

[Figment1964]

We were there at that exact time last year for Frances. We were staying offsite at a timeshare condo and I'm so glad we were. Since we had to stay inside for 48 hours I can't imagine how I would have maintained my sanity with my dh and our 2 boys if we just had a hotel room instead of 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms! I stocked up at the grocery store so we had regular home-cooked meals and the condo had 4 TV's so we each had our choice of what to be watching. The Saturday night when the hurricane was due we moved the boys into the master bedroom with us and put a mattress up against the window, just in case. We did fine.

The parks were like a ghost town on Thursday and Friday. Made it so easy to get all that we wanted to done!

I don't think we'll travel again at that time of year only because of the stress it caused our family back home. My parents were nervous wrecks, especially about *their* grandchildren...never mind that it was their daughter and son-in-law who were there as well!

We left about 36 hours later than originally planned and were delayed out of Orlando because of problems due to the hurricane at the airport. Since we live in Oregon driving wasn't an option for us at all. We got home at midnight our time (3am in Orlando) and the boys had to start school the next morning. They actually were up in time (body clocks still on east coast time I guess) and went to school!

[dsnycrzy]

We were there for hurricane Charlie. I was off site at HoJoMGE. We were trying to plan a birthday party for my baby age 2 and my nephew 13 and that night the hurricane hit and the power went out and the cake went bad in the fridge. I am from NY originally and have never seen a hurricane, so my crazy self was trying to tape it :earboy2:

[Goobergal99]

We were there during Frances and it happened right smack in the middle of our vacation :0( we were so mad that we missed out on so much. We too stayed at POP and let me tell you those not perishable meals of peanut butter and jelly, cheesecakes, cereals and sodas got old really, really fast!!!

This year we are going at the end of july- beginning of august, a little sooner then peak hurricane season. We would rather have the heavier crowds then have to stay in our rooms for two days all over again. I will say that Disney was very accomodating (bringing the characters to the resorts, lowering the food cost) we were even reimbursed for the tickets for the days we missed. (I sold them on ebay for a nice profit LOL)

[PrincessCandaceMarie]

I was there through them all, on both coasts too....and Disney did a great job taking care of me and I had no complaints! And even made tons of new friends during the 'cane.....

Keep in mind, no one can predict the weather...last year was totally different.....

[Asuneda]

I lived in Celebration during all 3 hurricanes last year.

Disney is very prepared to deal with hurricanes. They have a detailed hurricane threat plan that goes into effect days before a storm is due. It works sort of like the Homeland security system in that it raises levels the closer the event becomes. This plan is put into effect throughout the entire WDW operations: resorts, parks, retail, food service, and office space. CM's are given their "disaster" duties. They are brought on site with their families (and often pets) and kept there throughout the storm. This allows them to mantain a high level of service under enormous stress. They are truly wonderful at keeping people calmed, informed and entertained.

The food service personnel also do a great job. Remember, they are having to feed their entire resort (guests and CM's) for the duration, when typically peoples dining choices are spread out over the entire WDW and Orlando. That's a lot of concentrated eating!!

I've been told that Disney resorts are designed to withstand sustained winds in excess of 220 miles an hour. Considering that all the damage I observed was foliage, I'd believe it. After the storms pass, before most people can catch thier breath, Disney has crews out cleaning up and checking all rides and exhibits for damage. They typically open the next day, except for Animal Kingdom and thats because the animals need to be calmed and their habitats require longer to be put to order.

We loved being in the parks the day after the storms. It gave us something to do except look at damage (although Celebration faired very well, except for some trees). The parks were so empty feeling because most of the guests were resort guests. It made it very nice to walk up to practically any ride.

[Dancind]

We were at BCV during Charlie last year, DD and I. BCV is fairly new, and so well built that it seemed like a normal FL thunder and rainstorm outside, just a little windier than usual. Not even very noisy. We even had internet access, and were posting on the DIS boards during the storm. And fielding calls on the cel phone, which worked during the storm too. We ate at Cape May earlier on Friday, and they also had sandwich boxes in the BCV lobby. Of course, people were grabbing them like they might never eat again.

We went to the Studios the next day, and looked around at the damage, which seemed to be all foliage at WDW. The real shocker was heading back to the airport on Sunday, so glad we hired a towncar. Lots of damage to Orlando, and at the airport. I think we had one of the first flights that got to leave.

So, don't worry too much if a hurricane heads your way while at WDW. Just be prepared to be flexible about getting home after. I think WDW was very helpful to people that were stranded, as long as they were already staying in a room.

[Jen D]

We were there for Jeanne and because we didn't succeed in getting an earlier flight out we ended up staying two extra nights. This was Disney's fourth hurricane of the season so they had the whole thing down to a science. The notes under the doors, the flashlights, the box lunches, the movies, the extra entertaiment in the lobby... there were characters and acrobats and musicians and all of it and the restaurants were open. The CMs were wonderful.

The storm came at the end of the trip. The good part about this is that it didn't really interrupt our touring. The bad part is we had to pay for an extra two nights at the Poly at the end of a trip where we'd already gone way over budget!