littlestar
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2000
- Messages
- 2,864
Wow, what a trip this one was. There were a total of 22 family members going to Orlando. Our bunch stayed at VWL & BWV. The rest were at Marriott Grande Vista & Liki Tiki. We left on Saturday the 25th. Almost cancelled the trip, but couldn't get everybodys flights changed so decided to brave the hurricane. I can honestly say that I was quite nervous going to Orlando with a hurricane coming - 
We had our first night at the Wilderness Lodge booked for a regular room in the main lodge and a studio at VWL. Then on Sunday we switched over to a two bedroom at VWL. Our daughter and son-in-law had a studio plus room at Boardwalk (great room by the way, with a daybed, and two doors down from the elevator on the 4th floor with a solid-wall balcony).
Our relatives at the Liki Tiki were too scared to stay there during the hurricane. They said there were construction trailers and lumber stacked around too close for comfort for them. They ended up vacating Liki Tiki and splitting part of the party up to stay with the others at Marriott Grande Vista and BWV with our daughter. The studio plus at BWV came in handy. They had the exact amount of sleeping spots for my niece and her two small children who came over from Liki Tiki to BWV to ride out the hurricane. My daughter and niece said they had the perfect room at BWV to ride out Jeanne. Never heard much of anything. They faced the main pool and were sheltered from the wind (especially with that solid balcony).
We stayed in a 5th floor woods view room at the Wilderness Lodge. I woke up two times during the night early Sunday morning (the 26th) to check the news and look out to see how bad the wind was blowing. We were very sheltered from the wind and didn't hear much of anything all night. My nephew and his wife had a studio at the VWL that first night that faced the bus stop (1st floor room) and Jeanne's winds were blowing in from the lake/pool view side so they said they slept great with not much noise either. This was one time when a pool view/lake side room was not a good thing to have!
We did manage to switch over to our 2 bedroom on Sunday. Originally they were going to just open up the 1 bedroom to the studio my nephew had, but I guess the people in the other side were stuck just like everybody else and had no place to go. So we ended up having to move everybody totally to a new 2 bedroom location on Sunday. I was just glad that we got the 2 bedroom, what with so many people stranded because of the hurricane. They wouldn't let us walk by ourselves when we left the main lodge to check into our 2 bedroom. The winds were still pretty strong, so they had a cast member walk us over on Sunday to check into our 2 bedroom in the villas. During the lock-down from the hurricane Disney had Minnie and Mickey and Chip (I think, or was it Dale) in the lobby for the kids. They had a band playing Disney songs and lots of games for the kids. Over at the villas they had games for the kids also.
On Monday we walked around the villas and noticed a tall pine tree had fallen over on the roof (pool side). Amazingly it didn't hit a window. It did dent the gutter pretty good. Those gutters have to be really strong to take a tree landing on them! We visited BWV later that day and noticed some shingles were missing. A palm tree fell over across the walkway going to Swan and Dolphin, but they had that cleaned up pretty much.
The rest of the family that rode it out at Marriott Grande Vista had a living room full of water. They said the patio had a slope on it back towards the room and water ran in and soaked the floors (they said when they stepped down it completely covered their feet). They tried towels by the sliding glass doors during the night, but it didn't work. So, needless to say they were moved to another unit the next day.
We had beautiful weather the rest of the week. Had a great time at Ohana's, swimming, and shopping. Felt so sorry for all the cast members and shuttle drivers we talked to. Practically everybody had some sort of damage. We tipped well. Hopefully the rest of the year will be real busy for them so they can make it through this tough time with plenty of hours and good tips.
We had our first night at the Wilderness Lodge booked for a regular room in the main lodge and a studio at VWL. Then on Sunday we switched over to a two bedroom at VWL. Our daughter and son-in-law had a studio plus room at Boardwalk (great room by the way, with a daybed, and two doors down from the elevator on the 4th floor with a solid-wall balcony).
Our relatives at the Liki Tiki were too scared to stay there during the hurricane. They said there were construction trailers and lumber stacked around too close for comfort for them. They ended up vacating Liki Tiki and splitting part of the party up to stay with the others at Marriott Grande Vista and BWV with our daughter. The studio plus at BWV came in handy. They had the exact amount of sleeping spots for my niece and her two small children who came over from Liki Tiki to BWV to ride out the hurricane. My daughter and niece said they had the perfect room at BWV to ride out Jeanne. Never heard much of anything. They faced the main pool and were sheltered from the wind (especially with that solid balcony).
We stayed in a 5th floor woods view room at the Wilderness Lodge. I woke up two times during the night early Sunday morning (the 26th) to check the news and look out to see how bad the wind was blowing. We were very sheltered from the wind and didn't hear much of anything all night. My nephew and his wife had a studio at the VWL that first night that faced the bus stop (1st floor room) and Jeanne's winds were blowing in from the lake/pool view side so they said they slept great with not much noise either. This was one time when a pool view/lake side room was not a good thing to have!
We did manage to switch over to our 2 bedroom on Sunday. Originally they were going to just open up the 1 bedroom to the studio my nephew had, but I guess the people in the other side were stuck just like everybody else and had no place to go. So we ended up having to move everybody totally to a new 2 bedroom location on Sunday. I was just glad that we got the 2 bedroom, what with so many people stranded because of the hurricane. They wouldn't let us walk by ourselves when we left the main lodge to check into our 2 bedroom. The winds were still pretty strong, so they had a cast member walk us over on Sunday to check into our 2 bedroom in the villas. During the lock-down from the hurricane Disney had Minnie and Mickey and Chip (I think, or was it Dale) in the lobby for the kids. They had a band playing Disney songs and lots of games for the kids. Over at the villas they had games for the kids also.
On Monday we walked around the villas and noticed a tall pine tree had fallen over on the roof (pool side). Amazingly it didn't hit a window. It did dent the gutter pretty good. Those gutters have to be really strong to take a tree landing on them! We visited BWV later that day and noticed some shingles were missing. A palm tree fell over across the walkway going to Swan and Dolphin, but they had that cleaned up pretty much.
The rest of the family that rode it out at Marriott Grande Vista had a living room full of water. They said the patio had a slope on it back towards the room and water ran in and soaked the floors (they said when they stepped down it completely covered their feet). They tried towels by the sliding glass doors during the night, but it didn't work. So, needless to say they were moved to another unit the next day.
We had beautiful weather the rest of the week. Had a great time at Ohana's, swimming, and shopping. Felt so sorry for all the cast members and shuttle drivers we talked to. Practically everybody had some sort of damage. We tipped well. Hopefully the rest of the year will be real busy for them so they can make it through this tough time with plenty of hours and good tips.
