Ernesto Day at WDW

[bigthundermountain]

So we knew that Ernesto was coming and that meant the parks would be deserted. We were right. We got up and took a shuttle bus over to the TTC then connected on the express monorail to the MK. There was NO ONE there. It was so easy to take pictures and walk around without stepping on someones shoe or knocking into somebody. Even though it was cloudy, it wasn't too bad. We walked straight into Tomorrowland first off and got in the (5 minute) line for Stitch's Great Escape. We walked right into the main room and were off in about 10-15 minutes or so. I didn't like it too much and probably wont ride it again. Next up was Buzz. The standby sign said 5 minutes but it was more like 1 minute (took us to walk the line to the ride). We hopped right onto our carr and off we went.
Hmm....next thing we did was walk over to Frontierland to get in line for Splash Mountain before it poured rain. We walked right onto a car and rode it [didn't get too wet]. We had done almost everything we wanted too except ride BTM. The wait time said 5 minutes but we hopped right on a train without having to wait in a line at all. What a great ride that is!
The only surprise at MK that day was when we arrived to pirates the wait time sign said 10 minutes and we walked into the line and it stopped right when we got into the building! It was probably because they only had one side going (the right side was closed for some reason). We got out of line (since we had already ridden it the day before) and walked over to Jungle Cruise. The wait time said 5 minutes once again and we walked right onto our boat. I hadn't been on Jungle Cruise since 1996 so it was fun for me.
After that we walked through Cinderella's Castle and jumped in a short line to ride Snow White's Scary Adventures.

I still have to tell you about our awful night at Downtown Disney and Disneyquest so check back!

 

[bigthundermountain]

That night....DISNEYQUESTT & Downtown Disney

We came back to SoG and got dinner, then took the first bus from our hotel to downtown disney. It was rainy and fairly cold and miserable basically. We got into Disneyquest and took this weird elevator up to the main floor where we arrived to massive crowds around the main atrium area. The first thing we wanted to do was Cyberspace Mountain. The line was backed up through the "create" zone and it was about 45 minutes long. And of course they had 3 computers open to design your coaster. We couldn't do anything else the rest of the night. The crowds were horrible and you could never a place to just sit and get away from the crowds. We left and walked through the rain and wind over to some of the shops. We had an hour before the bus was to pick us up to take us back to SoG. We went to McDonalds, Hagen-Daz, and the Planet Hollywood Stores then back to the hotel. We were cold and wet the whole ride back. So overall it was a bad night over in Downtown Disney and we decided this will be the last time we go to Disneyquest ever.

BTM

 

[Disney's Fab 4]

How long were you actually in MK the day of Ernesto? Did they ever close MK?

 

[bigthundermountain]

we were in MK for just a few hours. We got there around 11am and left around 3 or 4pm. The park was running normal operations and did not close early. No rides were closed or anything. I think it was open until 10:00pm that night, but im sure the SpectroMagic Parade and Wishes were cancelled due to the rain.

 

[makinorlando]

DD and I headed to MK as DD's school was closed due to the potential "Bad Weather" - we arrived at 2:30 and stayed until about 7:30...it started to rain about 5ish, and was much harder and some lightning around our 7:30 departure. Really nothing worse thankfully than our normal daily thunderstorms in most locations!

It was such an awesome day - walk on everything (with the exception of Peter Pan with a 20 min wait!) DD rode BTMRR in the rain 11 times, only having to exit and re-load twice.

At the time the 3pm parade started you could have your pick of places on Main Street. It was almost eerie!

We had a fabulous day! Our Ernesto Day photos
Here's a pic at 3pm - the sky was only overcast at the time!

Jungle Cruise "queue" about 7pm!

Main Street at 7:36 - not the great picture - but it was raining and I didn't want to mess with my camera too much!