Going to WDW next week - worried about consequences of Hurricane.....help

[cats7494]

Has anyone gone the week after a hurricane has come through? What have you found...

I mean that's 2.5 million that had to be evacuated and how long does it take them to get back home and how might they affect our trip? Would some of them /any of them actually decide to go to DisneyWorld during the time they are evacuated? Or are they expecting fewer crowds because of the storm?



Ideas?? thank you!

 

[JessetheCowgirl]

I don't know first hand, but I would think things would be slow at WDW. Of course, at this point no one knows just how much damage this hurricane will cause.

They did close parts of WDW temporarily because of Charley. If this hurricane is stronger (as they have predicted) and causes more damage, who knows???

Since the WDW CM also live in the area, I wonder what happens if a great number of them have evacuated?

I am just praying for the safety of all of our Florida friends.

 

[LisaZoe]

My DD and I will be there a few days after you and I'm also concerned about how things will be affected by Frances... and now I've seen there is another tropical storm (Ivan) that is being watched as it is following a similar path as Frances. I know it's still very early to know what Ivan will do and am keeping my fingers crossed that Frances will be downgraded before it hits land. I don't want to come across that I'm worried only about how these could affect my vacation but I have no experience with hurricanes and, like the OP, wonder if my presence there is just going to add to the issues after Frances.

I can't even imagine what people in FL are going through right now. I have read on other posts that CMs often stay onsite for hurricanes and locals do so as well, possibly because WDW has their own services that make the time a bit better, i.e. generators for when electric goes out.

 

[Suzanne74]

We had to postpone our trip and as of right now we are flying in on Monday - but that all depends on Frances. As of right now it is weakening and breaking up and seems to be going more west than north - but who knows? I know a lof of CM's stay onsite and after Charley they closed AK down the day after only to keep more CM's in the other parks. Their organizational skills never cease to amaze me and I think - unless severe damage hits them - they will back and running quicker than most people think.

But.. only time will tell at this point...

 

[prplcrzy]

We just returned from our trip after Charley hit. We left on 8/20 (the week after Charley) and everything was cleaned up pretty well. We saw some downed trees on the roadways, but nothing that would hinder your travels, they were all far from the roads.

We did notice on our drive from the airport to WDW that there were quite a few homes with tarps on their roofs. Hopefully they have had them repaired in time for Frances.

Disney did a great job cleaning things up and everything was back up and running with no delays.

Have a great trip!

Nancy

 

[all4fun]

Originally posted by LisaZoe
I have read on other posts that CMs often stay onsite for hurricanes and locals do so as well, possibly because WDW has their own services that make the time a bit better, i.e. generators for when electric goes out.

I heard that cm's were basically working during Hurricane Charley removing debris (i.e. fallen trees) as it ocurred. My guess is this sped up the clean up process but also helped prevent more damage by flying debris. Still as I told my DH, that kind of surprised me, I wouldn't want to be flying debris! Seems kind of dangerous to me, so I don't know if that report was true.

 

[KathyPem]

I am wondering the same thing. We are driving and while I don't think Frances will affect our plans too much I am hoping that Ivan doesn't head that way while we are there. I will not put my family in that type of danger, even for our first family vacation.

 

[cats7494]

I agree...
we have been watching the weather all weekend! It is awful that Ivan may be on the way!
Those poor people!

 

[jerrb]

We arrived at Disney last Thursday afternoon. Got in 1.5 days before they locked us down for Frances. They asked us to stay in our rooms from Saturday around noon until Sunday around 6pm.

It was not too bad at all. They had movies running continuously on 3 different channels.

As for damage... there were trees down along the sides of the roads, but it was pretty much cleaned up by the time we left yesterday morning.

They said that housekeeping services would be delayed, but were not as far as I could tell.

The only real wrench it threw into our trip (after the 30 hours) was that Mickey's Backyard BBQ was canceled on Tuesday night and we had reservations. We managed to easily get into Chef Mickey's instead and it was great.

The parks were closed Saturday and Sunday. Animal Kingdom, MGM and Blizzard Beach also were closed Monday, but everything opened as usual on Tuesday.

Go, enjoy!