harricane Frances

[SouthFLMommy]

Originally posted by dkellumw
We will be leaving Thursday night driving straight to DW. Find a hotel to stay at Friday night and then drive to our resort Saturday and at least we will be there. Staying onsite 9/4 - 9/10.

This is the slowest time of the year for the parks, so this storm should make the lines even shorter.

Good luck to everyone that is going down there this holiday weekend and week.

Be careful. If it hits, it will be around 2:00 pm saturday. You don't want to be stuck in the car during a hurricane.

I'll be thinking of you!

 

[Luv2Dream]

I am so on the fence about this. We are supposed to fly down Thursday afternoon. That means I have to make a decision tomorrow at the latest. I'm sure we'll lose our DVC points but that's a small price to pay. I wish this was easier to predict!

 

[aero99]

I am in the same boat as Lynn. We are supposed to fly out first thing Friday morning. We are staying at the Dolphin so I don't know if they are like Disney and will waive the cancellation fee if the hurricane is headed for them. My husband thinks we should go and just have fun during the days we can and relax in the room the other days. I am more nervous about getting our flight back.

Everyone in its path is in my prayers. Hopefully it will just go out to see and not hurt anyone.

Melissa

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Swan and Dolphin are not owned by Disney and probably will have their own policies.

 

[ejfont]

Well the new 11pm EDT models still suck for FL. I feel for the people on the east coast of FL. I have lived through too many of these things.

BUT, we are still planning on going, even if we arrive a day late.

What are the TV stations in FL saying to residents?

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

They are saying we are losing our wiggle room....for the storm to turn in time to advoid landfall in Florida...

eyewall is 25-30 miles wide.

Saturday will be windy.

 

[erinch]

The Palm Beach Post is doing an excellent job of updating/rewriting their story every couple of hours. Here's the current story: after tonight just type in Palmbeachpost.com

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/storm/...rm/2004/atlantic/frances/franceslede0831.html

As to what the resorts did, from the reports i've read it sounds like during the early hours wait they provided entertainment when there was a central lobby, provided box dinners as they could get them together, and kept food concourses open until they had to shut them down. There are many reports of folks in their room not having eaten. Several of the resorts did buffets after the storm passed.

If it were me, I would go, if staying at a Disne Resort, but I would have my own "in room dining" basket with me.

Under no circumstances would I count on trying to find a hotel on friday or saturday nights...

 

[Sammie]

We were at the Grand Floridian during Charley, we were given plenty of notice to prepare to be in our room without access to food.

I can't believe that some think Disney is suppose to just bend over backwards and accommidate them during a natural occurrance. I saw some pretty sorry examples of human behavior during the storm.

I don't think anyone would have starved missing one evening meal.

 

[DisneyWisher]

Originally posted by dkellumw
We will be leaving Thursday night driving straight to DW. Find a hotel to stay at Friday night and then drive to our resort Saturday and at least we will be there. Staying onsite 9/4 - 9/10.

This is the slowest time of the year for the parks, so this storm should make the lines even shorter.

Good luck to everyone that is going down there this holiday weekend and week.

Book your room for Friday night now. When Andrew hit Miami the hotels were booked from Orlando to Tifton, GA. Tifton is 100 miles north of FL off I-75. You do not want to be without a place to stay.

Good Luck

Shirley

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Originally posted by Sammie
We were at the Grand Floridian during Charley, we were given plenty of notice to prepare to be in our room without access to food.

I can't believe that some think Disney is suppose to just bend over backwards and accommidate them during a natural occurrance. I saw some pretty sorry examples of human behavior during the storm.

I don't think anyone would have starved missing one evening meal.

Keep in mind though--that lots of people who do not live in a hurricane zone--despite the warnings, just don't know what we are up against. I mean--if I got stuck in a blizzard--I might have some bizarre expectations of the staff of wherever I would be staying when stuck in a blizzard b/c I just don't know what to expect. It can happen and it is human. It could have been a number of innocent errors in judgement that left them unable to prepare by purchasing snacks to tide them over. Of course--there are some DVCers complaining about their loss of points when they didn't have trip insurance and were unable to get to there DVC b/c of Charley.

I do plan on bringing a cooler with food and such--but was curious of what the resorts did. There are some people who do have medical conditions and families with children who just might not be able to go without a meal. It isn't fair for you to make that last statement.

 

[minniegidget]

Well for everyone going down to WDW this week I will be thinking of you guys. It sounds like Tampa at this time will be ok. I understand that things can change at anythime.

 

[DisneyWisher]

I think everyone needs to remember that the CMs working at Disney live in the Orlando/Kissimmee area. While they are taking care of the guests they are also worrying about their families and their homes. Especially when Charley changed course like it did. Who was there boarding up their homes? How many people would stay working while in the midst of a hurricane? I don't know if I would.

Hats off to the CMs for caring enough.

Shirley

 

[Lisa3]

We are driving from NJ and are supposed to be in Jacksonville by late Sat. night. I can't believe Frances' timing. We have no room to move our reservations and are now looking at alternate routes further inland. It will be longer but safer. I still hope this thing goes out to sea!

 

[DMRick]

I do plan on bringing a cooler with food and such

Disney has enough self generated power to keep the ice machines going, do you think?
We'll pack some water, as I just talked with my friend, and she says even Walmart is out of water. Trying to think of some foodstuffs in case Disney doens't have electricity that woul taste good cold.
At this point we are also thinking of not coming. Southwest is offering full refunds.

 

[poohandwendy]

I don't think anyone would have starved missing one evening meal.

LOL, we were in the CR Tower on friday the 13th (Charlie). As another poster mentioned, we had NO IDEA what to expect and were NOT told to be prepared to be without access to food/drinks for hours and hours. We ate lunch very early and did not have an opportunity to eat again until almost midnight. The reason is that they closed down all restaurants except the food court and it was PACKED...and we were told there would be a buffet dinner...but then we were in lockdown for all of the afternoon and evening. So no dinner, no food for about 12 hours. We absolutely had no idea what to expect, and NO we did not starve, but would have liked to be better informed by the staff. (FWIW, we had no idea a hurricane was even coming until the night before...we were on vacation!)

One thing that I would say as a warning to others (that I didn't know or expect) before and after hurricanes actually hit the area there is a big threat of tornadoes. Because of this, at the CR, we were in ''lockdown'' for over 8 hours. We had no access to anything outside our room. No ice machines, vending machines, food etc. There were security guards on every floor to ensure we stayed in our room.

So, my advice would be to prepare by bringing a stocked cooler, bottled water and snack/dry foods. And ice your cooler the day the storm is supposed to hit. Also, a flashlight or two (and batteries) in case of power outage would be a good idea. (I know some people were given them but we weren't offered them) A fully charged cel phone, deck of cards, etc. Expect that you MAY be limited to your room for a very long time. Also, make sure your gas tank, if you drove, is FULL. Basically, prepare for the worst case scenario (possibly no access outside of your room for many hours) and you will be fine. I think knowing this would be beneficial. I will be praying, along with the rest of the country, that this 'Frances' is kind enough to turn out to sea.

The general staff at CR were awesome, in my opinion the mgmt dropped the ball and should have kept the guests better informed. JMHO coming from my own personal experience.

Stay safe all!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Thanks Poohandwendy--that was the information I was looking for! I saw some pics on the waits at the All-Stars in the Food Courts.

Good tips everyone!

My windows are getting boarded one by one--we have enough to board the north and east windows, but not the french doors or our picture window (the boards aren't long enough and there is no place to bolt/screw on the bottoms due to a ledge).

We will be leaving early Friday morning--hopefully due to trip cancellations and early checkouts to get the heck out of dodge--rooms will be ready sometime before actual check-in.

We'll just have to see.

 

[Toesmom1]

We live on other coast in Naples & our local telling East Coast to worry more than us as of now. Was on news people in Miami already buying up things. I'm going out today to get few things I need won't wait. Apparently hurricane force winds go out 100 miles so like us here depending on where it hits could still feel those winds. They still have no idea where it will hit. Our one station said 5pm Thurs. we should know better.

 

[safetymom]

With Charley it turned fairly close to land fall so I think everyone needs to keep an eye on Frances. Who knows what the final track will be.

We are outside of Orlando and my oldest daughter lives in Melbourne so we are watching where this hurricane goes.

The insurance adjuster comes to my house today to see the damage from Charley. Maybe I should make an appt. for next week after Frances.

 

[MAGICinMYHEART]

Originally posted by dkellumw
We will be leaving Thursday night driving straight to DW. Find a hotel to stay at Friday night and then drive to our resort Saturday and at least we will be there. Staying onsite 9/4 - 9/10.

If you will be in Florida Friday you need to try and make a reservation for Friday night...I live in North Florida and there are no motel/hotels availiable from Jacksonville over to Tallahasse Panama City Beach or as far North as Macon Georgia...all the motels have been reserved by people that plan on evacuating.

(This was on the local news last night)

Good Luck.

 

[DISNEYBIGGDOGG]

Unfortunately the storms projected path has moved back to the central part of Florida. Lets keep monitoring this, at this point this is not looking too good.