Anyone been to a Disney Resort during a hurricane?

[WDWFUN]

Well, hubby REFUSED to cancel or re-schedule this trip
So, I guess we'll be spending Ernesto in the world! .

The only change we just made to our ressie is that we are arriving a day earlier!!! Aug.31-Sept.4th! I can't believe he came up with this one.

The CM assured me the best place to be during a storm is DisneyWorld!

 

[CelestriaSky]

It's not supposed to hit until Friday (if it hits). We're flying in Thursday morning as well - I'm thinking we'll be okay!

We fly in on Thursday morning. We should be fine by then right?

 

[ConcKahuna]

As of the new update (11am this morning), it looks like it's going more eastward and will be hitting earlier. You might want to schedule your flights to come in earlier if possible.

 

[rkujay]

When they hit Orlando that is quite true. However, we took a direct hit from both Jeanne and Francis and sideways swipes from Charlie and Ivan as well as Wilma. Jeanne and Francis hit us as 4's (same guage as Katrina.) There was massive damage to the area where I live. Many of us were without power for six weeks. I got phone back in December,(more than three months after the storms.) There are still homes here with blue fema tarps for roofs two years later. Our kids were out of school due to damage to the schools for six weeks. Very few homes escaped without serious damage.

So yes, we still didn't have it as badly as the gulf and we didn't flood like New Orleans, but Jeanne, Francis, Charlie, and Ivan (which all hit in the same year) were major storms (which WDW rode out just fine), and Wilma was no picnic either.

Sorry to be OT but it touched a nerve.

No offense meant, and of course, none taken on my part. Our family lives here in the Tampa area. My family home is in New Orleans. Funny thing though, there was no damage to that home. My heart goes out to those still suffering. In Florida as well as other places.

 

[eeyore29]

I totally agree with the previous poster who said don't rely on the far-out forecasts. For our last trip, all the newscasters said Jeanne headed out to sea and it'd be smooth-sailing for our vacation. WRONG! We flew to WDW and the next day when we were on a bus to MK the driver said that Jeanne did a U-turn and she was coming back towards Florida and would hit Saturday.....
CUE THE INSTANT PANIC ATTACK!

Well.......although we lost time in the parks (and we still have credit for those un-used hopper tix), I was very impressed that we never lost power/cable/phone since WDW is so well-prepared. I'm not sure, but I think I read somewhere that all their wiring is underground so maybe that's why. They gave us notice, with a voicemail and a letter on our door that we'd need to stock up on snacks and drinks since the main building would be closed indefinitely. DH didn't mind being under "lock-down" cause he watched football the whole day (which is his personal idea of heaven!) and I read the bible (I am SO not a religous person, I just HATE football and I'd already read my magazine on the plane)!

Our only problem was with Mears cause they told us there was a curfew in effect and they couldn't pick us up at our scheduled time. The earliest they could pick us up was about 15 minutes before our plane was scheduled to leave (if it was going to, and we never would've made in time). So we paid for Mears two-way transportation (and only got one-way service) PLUS $50 for a taxi (it was the only way to get to the airport early enough). Much to our surprise, and disappointment, when we were in the taxi we saw several Mears shuttles on the road so I think they were just overbooked due to all the flights cancelled the day before.

Finally, once we got to the airport we were the first ones there and the ticket agents almost didn't want to let us through, but finally they gave in. We didn't care that we had almost 5 hours to wait for our plane, we were just happy that we were in the airport and would be ready for when the plane would depart. Ours ended up being the first flight out of Orlando after Jeanne, an hour later than scheduled, which made us 'this close' to missing our next flight but we just made it and they closed the doors right behind us. We were both so relieved that our flight got an hour delay instead of being cancelled because we were told the next flight with 2 available seats would've been 2 days later (so that made us ok with paying extra for the ground service!).

You think that would stop us from going in September again?!?! Of course not! We know that WDW has it all under control, we'll pray for fair weather, and hope that IF a hurricane would hit during our vacation, hopefully it wouldn't be one of the days we're supposed to fly. The weather and the crowds are just perfect for us and we're really looking forward to our trip this year (I'll be sure to take a book this time instead of just a magazine!). Sorry for rambling on and on and on...

Have a fun & safe trip!

 

[Dusted]

Hi there. We were there last year from Wilma in October. We stayed at All Star Music.

Although very concerned for our safety, and glued to the stupid TV for updates, it was fine.

The CM's as was stated did say Disney was the best place in the area to be for this sort of thing. It got crowded at the hotel because many unfortunate locals from So Florida were evacuated and found this a better place to be than the local hotels...

We had several dozen security and emergency staff in the lobby, which was reassuring.

We lost some time at the parks, but looking back, it was exciting.

It was interested to see all the park umbrellas removed, small snack carts not available, things like that.

It was cold!

We are going this Friday, I didn't notice another one was due??? I'm off to check the weather reports..

 

[DisneyFans4]

I was there during Charley and it was actually my first experience of a hurricane. We were staying at the Swan and they handled things beautifully and kept the guests calm for those of us that were frightened. Of course the parks closed and some even tried to reopen the next day but eventually closed. I was shocked that some even tried to reopen for the sake of the guests. So many floridians suffered damage and were in no shape to show up for work the next day but alot did and I gave them credit for that. Alot of them were evening now staying at the hotels they worked at since they lost their homes or suffered damage to a point where they could not stay in their homes.

But WDW did their best to go on as normal and the parks did a wonderful clean up job. They must have worked all night to have things ready in the morning. I don't know if I could have handled myself the way they did but they did a wonderful job to try to take care of us that were on vacation.

 

[StillaCubsfan1964]

I was there during Wilma. I even drove early that morning from AKL to the Contemporary, silly me. I had a seminar and I just didn't want to miss any of it. There were some small tree limbs and a lot of wind and rain. Being from the Midwest we get severe thunderstorms that were similar to this. By afternoon it was clear and sunny but cold. Like one other poster said, we had to buy warmer clothes for the next couple of days. The silver lining of all this was there was nobody at the parks the day before and that day when they opened the parks that afternoon. Even the next day there were no long lines. How many people from Illinois can say they were in a hurricane?

 

[goofy4tink]

Checked in the Contemporary about 6 hrs before Charley did!!! I have to say it was all handled very well. The parks were being closed about the same time we checked in, so that didn't impact us...had APs that we had yet to activate. The CR CMs were extrordinary!!! Many spent the night sleeping on pool chaises yet still were cheerful and helpful the next day.
They did shut down the restaurants early. We were supposed to eat at CM's that night but because there is so much glass in there they just closed it before dinner ever started.
We were told to go to one of the convention rooms where we would be provided with dinner. By 6:00, when we were told to report for dinner, it had changed yet again, we were told no dinner, to head back to our rooms. Then, about 5 minutes later someone started going around telling everyone to enter the convention room, grab a styrofoam box, fill it up, and take it back to your room. That's exactly what we did. haute cuisine? No, but it was still decent and free of charge.
We were kept abreast by phone messeges constantly. Told to close the drapes, stay away from the windows. We were also told that for the rest of the weekend, we could expect less housekeeping. They would bring fresh towels but that was it...no cleaning, bed making etc. Fine with us.
MK opened pretty much on time the next day. AK took a day or so longer. MGM and Epcot were okay. There was minimal damage within WDW. We saw so much greater damage on our way back to MCO the following weekend!!! It amazed me that Disney did such a terrific job. Yes, there were some guests that were left unhappy about some situation or the other. We lost our HDDR reservations that we had made a year in advance but were able to get seats for a show later in the week.
The parks were empty until about Tuesday...then the roads became more accessible and the locals, who had no school or in some cases jobs to go to, started heading to the parks.
The humidity was incredible....we were told it's much worse after a huge storm goes through.
Would we go again in hurricane season? Sure. WDW is very safe. You are actually safer there than is other spots. They take very good care of their guests. We went the following year, at the same time, and we'll be going back next August, same time frame.
So...to those CMs that were working during Charley.....thank-you for your hard work, your cheery actions. We know that many of you had damage to your homes, your loved ones were in danger, yet you made your way to work and made our stays almost as magical as always. You are terrific!!

 

[BluOrchid2]

After having "endured" Hurricane Charley at the Wilderness Lodge in 2004, I can honestly say that I would rather be THERE during a hurricane than safe at my own home during a bright sunny day. It was wonderful.

 

[BluOrchid2]

Also, wanted to post links to my "during the Hurricane" postings on this board back in 2004 during Charley:

http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=6225057&postcount=27
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=6225183&postcount=30
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=6226268&postcount=61

 

[Mr. Disney 652]

Those storms, if I'm correct, were side striking storms (off Atlantic or Gulf)...this one seems to enter at the Keys and travel upwards...hopefully diminishing by the time it hits Orlando.

Has anyone flew into MCO...think it will stay open? I hope so, it's our 5 yr anniversary trip! Thanks for any info

 

[WDWFUN]

I'm "assuming" those of us traveling to the World on Thursday/Friday, should be ok??

 

[Denise Thies]

Thanks I feel better having read this from the Cast member from the wilderness lodge. I am going in Sept.

 

[QuinnsDad]

Was at WDW during the week before Jeanne hit in 2004. We almost didn't go due to Jeane's uncertainty. We flew in and spent a wonderful week at All Star Sports with our 4DS. We did not watch the news while in the room due to the disney channel and got no indication of Jeanes approach to florida from disney. After getting off the bus late Friday evening my says to me, "some people are talking about a hurricane thats supposed to hit" Doohhh! We went back to our room and watched the news instead of Disney and sure enough Hurricane Jeanne had made her final circle in the Altantic and was headed almost straight for Orlando. We were supposed to leave on Sunday but the news was reporting that the Airport would close on Saturday afternoon at 5pm. Second Dooohhhh! We decided that we needed to leave a day early because we didn't want to get stuck there for several days without any living arangments or transportation. After several failed attempts "sorry sr their are no available flights" I had our flight changed and made our way via Mears to the airport about 5 hours in advance of our departure time. I felt like I was on the amazing race. We checked in curb side which supprised the heck out of me being post 911. When we got to our gate I sat down in front of the gate counter and told my wife that I wasn't moving. She asked why and I told her that we were going to be the first on this plane because if we don't get on we will probably be living in the airport for several days. We boarded the plane amidst driving rain and what I thought was much too high winds for a takeoff. We managed to take off and were on our way to our 5 hour layover in Atlanta. Our takeoff was one of the last out of MCO before the storm struck a few hours later.

We did leave for our own reasons but if the storm was approaching at the onset of our trip I would have stayed because Disney seemed to have everything under control even after having been hit by two other storms just weeks before.

By the way, how do I go about getting credit for our remaining one day park hoppers that we did not use. I did call when we returned home and Disney said that we couldn't get a refund because they could be used at a later date.

We are returning Thanksgiving week and would like to know if those park hoppers are still worth anything.

 

[DisneySue05]

By the way, how do I go about getting credit for our remaining one day park hoppers that we did not use. I did call when we returned home and Disney said that we couldn't get a refund because they could be used at a later date.

We are returning Thanksgiving week and would like to know if those park hoppers are still worth anything.

If you go to the concierge desk in the lobby of your resort they can verify your one day that is remaining. We did this with 3 days remaining on our last trip.