We have been staying at BCV since Monday and were supposed to fly back to California and Denmark from Miami Sunday afternoon. We had a flight booked from Orlando to Miami, but with Orlando closed and the travel curfew until 5pm Sunday, we are going to end up stuck. None of us have any experience in this situation and would be extremely greatful for any help or insights on what we should do. Fortunately, I was able to extend our reservation for our 2 bedroom at BCV until Monday a few days ago.
My relatives from Denmark have no experiences with hurricanes and (seriously) considered driving down to Miami Saturday afternoon. Fortunately, they decided to stay with us here at BCV and we went to the Magic Kingdom instead. The weather was actually much better than we had expected. It started raining in the afternoon and got pretty spooky by the time we got back around 6pm. A lot of shops and attractions started to close down early. When we got back, there was a note and voice mails asking us to prepare to stay in our room for the next 24 hours and take various precautions (remove outdoor furniture, keep blinds closed, ....). We just managed to stock up on food from the supermarket by Downtown Disney but feel sorry for the many guests who got home late from the parks and now may be without food tomorrow. The BCV store ran out of bread early, but room service should be available until it is too dangerous (the food has to be moved outside for a few minutes on the way from the Yacht Club kitchen, they said).
I was amazed to see a magician entertain the children in the reception area tonight. It really lightened the mood in an otherwise somber situation. We saw a bride and groom with their families there too. Around 10 pm, we walked over to the Boardwalk to see if the stores there might still be open (they were all closed, of course). We saw a total of 6 people on the way. It was surreal, since it was a beautiful, clear night with no wind at all right at that moment. When we got back, there was another voice mail from the general manager asking us to stay inside until further notice.
Anyway, just wanted to send a brief status report since I found other peoples' reports very helpful a few weeks ago when we decided to postpone our trip because of Ivan.
All our concerns are extremely minor compared to the people in the area, of course. Several castmembers have told us about their losses during the past hurricanes. Although we'll have some inconvenience on the way back, we were incredibly lucky to catch 4 perfect weather days between all the misery. Our thoughts go out to the many people who were much more severely affected, including those of you who missed out on long planned vacations.
Hans
PS: I was surprised to see the number of people checking in this morning. There must have been at least 50 people in line when we went to check at the reception around 9am.
My relatives from Denmark have no experiences with hurricanes and (seriously) considered driving down to Miami Saturday afternoon. Fortunately, they decided to stay with us here at BCV and we went to the Magic Kingdom instead. The weather was actually much better than we had expected. It started raining in the afternoon and got pretty spooky by the time we got back around 6pm. A lot of shops and attractions started to close down early. When we got back, there was a note and voice mails asking us to prepare to stay in our room for the next 24 hours and take various precautions (remove outdoor furniture, keep blinds closed, ....). We just managed to stock up on food from the supermarket by Downtown Disney but feel sorry for the many guests who got home late from the parks and now may be without food tomorrow. The BCV store ran out of bread early, but room service should be available until it is too dangerous (the food has to be moved outside for a few minutes on the way from the Yacht Club kitchen, they said).
I was amazed to see a magician entertain the children in the reception area tonight. It really lightened the mood in an otherwise somber situation. We saw a bride and groom with their families there too. Around 10 pm, we walked over to the Boardwalk to see if the stores there might still be open (they were all closed, of course). We saw a total of 6 people on the way. It was surreal, since it was a beautiful, clear night with no wind at all right at that moment. When we got back, there was another voice mail from the general manager asking us to stay inside until further notice.
Anyway, just wanted to send a brief status report since I found other peoples' reports very helpful a few weeks ago when we decided to postpone our trip because of Ivan.
All our concerns are extremely minor compared to the people in the area, of course. Several castmembers have told us about their losses during the past hurricanes. Although we'll have some inconvenience on the way back, we were incredibly lucky to catch 4 perfect weather days between all the misery. Our thoughts go out to the many people who were much more severely affected, including those of you who missed out on long planned vacations.
Hans
PS: I was surprised to see the number of people checking in this morning. There must have been at least 50 people in line when we went to check at the reception around 9am.
