Have you been at WDW during a hurricane?

[Disneyhenry]

we are planning our trip, 10 nights end of August into the beginning of September.
I try to think of everything lol, I know it’s hurricane season, I am thinking I would rather be in a 1 bedroom than in a value resort too. Have you been trapped in your room for a hurricane? Thoughts? Or am I just over thinking? A few other reasons I want a 1 bedroom or villa resort 1) better pool, 2) jacuzzi tub, 3) kitchen 4) washer n dryer 5) more space in our room to spread out
I’m not against values but we always have a resort day to enjoy the resort and I think the kids would like a pool with a slide
But the price of that value wow!
TIA

 

[_auroraborealis_]

To be honest, I would highly recommend good travel insurance and if there is a hurricane coming, you use it.

Disney does everything they can to provide safety during a hurricane, but the safest place to be during a hurricane is far away.

 

[Sleepy425]

2016 and 2017 we were there when the parks were closed for the hurricanes. I wouldn't not travel during this time just because of hurricanes. Prior to those two years it had been quite a while since the parks had to be closed for hurricanes.
We were stuck in our building at Poly in a studio in 2016, so that one wasn't as fun as this year when we were at AKV in a 2BR. This year was much nicer having the full kitchen with all the groceries to make our own meals. Disney had characters and games for the kids, and they enjoyed having the down time to do ceramics.

 

[joyjoy]

We have always gone to WDW during hurricane season and dodged the bullet everytime ..... until last year. I live in Houston and our home was heavily damaged by Harvey. Our trip was scheduled for Sept 3 - 10, but flights out of houston were all cancelled so we changed our flight to fly out of Austin on the 6th. That was not a direct flight, we had a layover in Ft. Lauderdale. FLL was a freaking madhouse because of Irma, but we were determined. Of course we get to WDW and Irma is coming right at us. We had to stay at the resort while the parks were closed (Sun and Mon) but honestly? We had a blast. Characters came to the resort, they had special pricing on food, there were games and activities for kids, the arcade was all free, etc. By Mon, the pool was open, too. The best part was the parks were EMPTY two days before and the day before the storm hit. It was our first F&WF and we walked up to everything. It took a couple of days after the hurricane before the crowds came back and we added 2 days to the end of our trip (super discount at the front desk). It was awesome. And, we're going back this year the same week.

ETA: We were at All Star Movies. Me, my adult daughter and her 4 y.o. daughter.

 

[Huff]

We were there in 2016 when hurricane Mathew passed by.
On day before all parks closed at 5pm.
All transportation was stopped by 7pm. Roads closed.
Most restaurants closed. Some DLX were open to guests of that resort only. Resort food courts open with limited menus.
2nd day all parks closed. Roads closed until afternoon. Disney Springs restaurants opened at 5pm for resort guests only. Buses running.
3rd day all parks open with delayed openings.
Resort arcade games were free to all guests.

During the night saw light to medium rain and wind. Nothing major. Morning after there was numerous tree debris around our resort but no damage any where.

Being stuck at our resort from 6pm night before until 5pm the 2nd day was rough.
We were on DDP so loss of TS dinner allowed us to book a 2TS dinner (Jiko).

 

[Lesley Wake]

We were there during Irma this year (I just wrote about our experience in my trip report, which is linked in my signature). We stayed in POFQ and it was just 2 adults (me and my sister). Disney did a great job with everything. All CMs were upbeat and they had characters hanging out at all the resorts. The food court stayed open as long as possible, though selections were very limited. They did offer food at very reasonable prices (especially for Disney standards). We never lost power.

While I absolutely loved POFQ, I think I would have preferred staying in a deluxe. There was a period of time when we were asked to stay in our rooms because it was unsafe to be walking inside; lucky for us, it was overnight, so wasn’t as bad as if we had to stay inside all day long. We did watch a lot of Disney movies, and had laptops to goof around, but went a bit stir crazy at times; internet also sucked since everyone was stuck inside! Deluxe resorts were able to stay open with plenty of things happening in the lobbies because people could take interior corridors (trivia contests, character dance parties, etc). Restaurants also stayed open with more food options than we had. Wilderness or Animal Kingdom Lodges are the best options due to their huge lobbies!

My advice would be to plan your trip as if there wasn’t a hurricane. If it looks like a hurricane will impact you, you can probably call Disney and get switched over to a different resort; they will have plenty of people cancelling last minute so availability will open up. They also gave people who were stuck at the resort longer, due to plane cancellations, large discounts on rooms (~40%). And then if a hurricane does impact your trip take a look at your schedule. The parks were closed for 2 days in September. It didn’t impact us adversely because we were able to come in 2 days earlier (our original flights would have been cancelled and basically ruined the entire trip), and the extremely low crowds meant we could do everything we wanted to do. But one of my friends would have had 2/4 of her Disney days gone, which wouldn’t have made it worthwhile for her; instead she postponed until December and seems to have had a great trip then!

For OP, hurricanes aside, have you considered a split stay? Do more nights at a Value when you will be park commandos, using room just to sleep. Then transfer to a deluxe with better pool for more relaxing days at the end of your trip?

 

[gopack]

We were staying at the Wilderness Lodge during Hurricane Jeanne. I was very grateful we were there instead of a moderate. I do not know what people did who were in the values or mods. If memory serves, we were not able to go outside from Saturday afternoon until Monday morning. At WL they had entertainment for the children and food at Roaring Forks and I believe a buffet type situation at Artist Point. Many families of cast members came to stay at the hotel.

Although hurricanes have closed Disney very few times, I would definitely stay at a resort with interior doors versus a resort with doors opening to the outside during hurricane season, just in case.

 

[StageTek]

Have you been trapped in your room for a hurricane? Thoughts? Or am I just over thinking?

I was at POFQ in Sept 2017. I was "trapped" in my room at the hurricane hit. It was exciting. I felt safe and everyone at the resort were terrific and supportive. All the guests were kept informed at all times.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

We were staying at the Wilderness Lodge during Hurricane Jeanne.

Same here! When the hurricane let up a bit, they would let people use the breezeway to go between the Lodge and the Villas, so that the Lodge people could use the gym at the Villas, and the Villa people could use the restaurants at the Lodge. Then when the hurricane got more intense, everyone had to go back to whichever building they were staying in. But since the WL rooms are in the same building with the lobby, restaurants, and gift shop, people only had to stay in the whole building, at least not confined just to their room.

 

[Moliphino]

We were at Coronado for Charley, though we weathered the storm at my aunt and uncle's room at OKW. That one moved through quick - parks closed in the early afternoon and the storm was gone by midnight. Inside the room you couldn't even tell anything was going on outside.

 

[gopack]

Same here! When the hurricane let up a bit, they would let people use the breezeway to go between the Lodge and the Villas, so that the Lodge people could use the gym at the Villas, and the Villa people could use the restaurants at the Lodge. Then when the hurricane got more intense, everyone had to go back to whichever building they were staying in. But since the WL rooms are in the same building with the lobby, restaurants, and gift shop, people only had to stay in the whole building, at least not confined just to their room.

I thought the WL staff did an amazing job during the hurricane. I remember the lifeguards and other CMs being stationed in the breezeways. Although they made the time enjoyable for the guests I felt terrible for the CMs and local residents staying there who were worried for their homes and property.

 

[RustManFan]

We were camping in our tent at FW during Hurricane Andrew. Because campers did not have access to news updates, Disney cast members left an update with instructions on our picnic table at least twice a day during the time leading up to the Hurricane and when it was hitting south Florida. While Homestead, Florida was being destroyed by the storm we had the most beautiful day of our trip at Epcot. Blue skies and a few white puffy clouds.

Andrew never reached Orlando. We did not know how bad other areas of the state were effected until we boarded the Amtrak Auto Train for our trip back to Virginia.

We were more than grateful for the planning that WDW did in case Andrew had turned to central Florida...

 

[MakiraMarlena]

I rode out a hurricane warning twice (Frances in 2004 and Matthew in 2016). Frances took two days to pass and had to spend most of that inside a Pop Century room. Back then they did not have the Dish TV and Disney added movies (all Disney movies of course) to soeme of the inactive channels. Matthew didn't materialize inland as much as initially feared. I was in a studio at BCV but some friends had a 2 bedroom and we spent the day watching TV (parks were closed) and walked over to the Dolphin for dinner. WDW had characters in the lobby. BCV is detached from BC so one still had to walk outside to get there. There were a lot of complaints about the food for purchase if I recall correctly. We had a 2 bedroom with a kitchen.

CMs volunteer for hurricane rideout teams.

The biggest concern with approaching hurricanes is travel issues, not being stuck in a room.

 

[sponica]

The biggest concern with approaching hurricanes is travel issues, not being stuck in a room.

Yeah if I had to be stuck somewhere in a hurricane's path, I'd choose a big old concrete hotel at Disney. (An old college friend is a CM and he rode out the storm at Pop because it beat wondering if the roof would fly off his house or if a tree would fall through a window at home). But getting home would probably be a nightmare if you had to fly.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

I didn't see this mentioned above, but if you do a search for Hurricane Irma, there's a thread about riding out that hurricane at WDW. We were there, staying at BLT in a studio. I agree with several of the sentiments above:

1) Get travel insurance.
2) Travel issues getting there and home can be a bigger issue than the actual experience when the hurricane is passing through.
3) I would recommend staying at a Deluxe with interior hallways and where everything is accessible in one building. Being in DVC studio was nice because we had the microwave to heat up food.

 

[Tara1988]

We were at Caribbean Beach during Matthew in 2016. We moved some reservations around pretty easily to make our planned resort day align with the day the parks were closed. We had a blast the day before when everything closed early. We were at Animal Kingdom and were able to do all the shows and rides we wanted multiple times, walking right on. Only Mt Everest was closed, but we weren't planning to ride that anyway. They actually ran out of the box lunches and most grab and go items pretty quickly. (I guess that's what everyone else was doing while we were enjoying the empty parks.) But we had brought snacks for the kids, so we were fine waiting until they opened the food court the next day. I would definitely recommend having a few grocery items delivered just in case.

 

[Lesley Wake]

We were at Caribbean Beach during Matthew in 2016. We moved some reservations around pretty easily to make our planned resort day align with the day the parks were closed. We had a blast the day before when everything closed early. We were at Animal Kingdom and were able to do all the shows and rides we wanted multiple times, walking right on. Only Mt Everest was closed, but we weren't planning to ride that anyway. They actually ran out of the box lunches and most grab and go items pretty quickly. (I guess that's what everyone else was doing while we were enjoying the empty parks.) But we had brought snacks for the kids, so we were fine waiting until they opened the food court the next day. I would definitely recommend having a few grocery items delivered just in case.

With regards to food I think they definitely learned their lesson from Matthew to Irma. They had bagged lunches for Irma which were only $6 and included a decent sized sandwich, chips, cookie, granola bar, fruit, and bottle of water. And there weren't long lines to get them. On the first morning they had Bounty Platters to go ($10 for scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuit, potatoes, and drink) or a bagged breakfast ($6 for pastry, fruit, granola bar, water bottle). For lunch and dinner they had a few options: nuggets, pizza, pastas, plus the bagged sandwiches. The second day they had added cheeseburgers/hamburgers and chicken sandwiches.

We had prepared and brought lots of crackers, snacks etc for the room, but ended up not eating most of it, so donated any unopened packages to the employee lounge on our departure day.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

the Matthew box lunches apparently cost twice as much and were in short supply. being in DVC with a kitchen we didn't actually buy them.

 

[DisneyFranatic]

We were at CS during a hurricane many years ago. We had a room in the Cabanas and wouldn't be able to walk to the main building without getting soaked. At our request, the CMs moved us from the Cabanas to the Castitas to a room that was attached to the main building. They pulled right up to our room on the second floor with a covered golf cart and drove us right to the door of our new room. They were wonderful!