Huricanes

[fla4fun]

I think the longest hurricane to come through Orlando was hurricane Jeanne back in 2004, which took about 36 hours to totally clear the area.

To the person who didn't want to be stuck in their hotel room, it's for your safety and the safety of the CM's who work there. When hurricanes come through, there are typically curfews where no one is allowed out on the roads during certain hours, so the CM's can't come to work. If no one can come to work, the parks can't open. Disney is very good about getting things up and running as quickly as possible. In 2004, during the three storms, Disney guests didn't have to suffer through the extended power outages that lasted for weeks in some areas. They didn't have to deal with food shortages, or fuel shortages, or any of the hardships that the real world Orlando was dealing with. Disney guests had it pretty good. As far as the food issue, there is so much advance warning of hurricanes that I have very little sympathy for anyone who waits until the last minute to get prepared. If you see that a hurricane is three days out and might come your way, go ahead and get some bottled water and some non-perishable food, and be prepared.

To the person who was quoted a higher rate to extend their stay, that could happen whether there was a hurricane or not. We have often asked about extending stays, and sometimes if it's not busy, they will extend at our discounted rate, but if it's busy, we've been quoted rack rate, or been told we couldn't extend at all. I think the most outrageous quote was for a January trip we wanted to extend a few days, but the Super Bowl was going on in Tampa, and they were getting prime rates for the rooms - we didn't extend on that one. It's supply and demand, pure and simple. You were fortunate that they were willing to extend your stay, since they knew they could charge pretty much anything they wanted at that point and someone would pay it, and could have just told you hard luck. Does it seem fair? No, but it's business, and as much as we all like to think Disney is above all that, they are still a business when it's all said and done.

Personally, I'm booked for 17 days at the peak of hurricane season in September. I booked a DVC unit, so I would have kitchen and laundry facilities in case I have to stay put for a few days. I will also bring food, a flashlight, extra batteries, and a weather radio. But since I live in the area, I'd have to ride out a hurricane anyway if one was headed this way, and to be honest, I'd rather ride one out at Disney than ride it out at home.

 

[jaxpooh]

We were at POFQ during hurricane Charley and had no problems at all. I had called my boss in Jacksonville that morning and she said we had nothing to worry about, the storm was turning a different direction. A couple of hours later she called and said get out, it's coming to you. About that time we noticed CM's tying down signs etc at MK, and we were told we had to evacuate the park by 2:00. The worst thing was the bus lines, it seemed the less expensive the resort, the longer the line to get on the bus. Luckily to return to POFQ we only had to wait for about 3-4 busses. When we got back to the resort there was a messge on the phone that at 6 pm they would be shutting down the food court and sending their staff home, so we had to eat before then if we intended to eat. We walked over there with no rain what-so-ever and had to run back to the rooms (with enough food for 8 people)
in the pouring rain. Never lost cable service, spent the evening/night with all 4kids in one room and the adults in the adjoining room watching the news and sitcoms. There were quite a few kids/teenagers skateboarding right outside our corner room, so they were not forced to stay in their rooms obviously. We all slept like babies and awoke to lots of trees down etc, but the parks opened back up by 10am. Some things were at partial functionality, because the CM's could not get there to be in the shows, run the rides etc. Overall, it was still a great trip, and if I could choose somewhere to be during a huricane that would be it

I have pics from the trip, but for some reason I cant post them, so send me your email addy if you would like them.

 

[Sammie]

We were there during Charley and yes there was a mandatory stay in your room, but at the moderates there would be no way to enforce it. I guess some parents were willing to risk their kids, rather than let them stay cooped up in the room for hours.

We were at the Grand Floridian and they had CMs stationed in all hallways and if you came out even into the hall they asked you to please go back to your room and stay.

 

[Think_Tink_Think]

Here are the picture that Jaxpooh was talking about from hurricane Charley:

 

[Crazy4mandms]

I don't see me doing the tea cups in 100mph winds, reguardless of whether I can stay cooped up in a hotel room.

Now that would be one cool ride!!!


As for Disney's responsibility: If I were spending the equivalent of a mortgage on a trip I would have found out Disney's policy before shelling out the cash and booking during hurricane season. But now that you know what it is, basically take it as is, buy insurance or rebook outside the hurricane season. If a hurricane threatens Orlando you have an opportunity to cancel/rebook. If you decide to still go then Disney isn't responsible beyond what they previously stated and you shouldn't expect them to be. I'm going at the end of August. I'm a little nervous about hurricanes....I'll buy insurance. All in all though, I realize going at this time has its risks that Disney is not ultimately responsible for. If I were going in Jan and couldn't fly out of NY for my Disney vacation for 3 days because of a blizzard would I expect Disney to reimburse? Not likely. I hope I'm not sounding too nasty, but I just feel the policy is what it is and you have to decide to take the risk or not and then deal with the consequences. On a positive note: really, now....what are the chances that a hurricane is going to DIRECTLY hit Orlando during your EXACT vacation dates (geesh, I hope I just didn't jinx myself!! )

 

[nonsmom]

Does the Disney trip insurance cover what you need in the way of hurricanes?

 

[JoelNYC]

Here is my hurricane experience...

I was a CM during Hurricane Frances, Jean and Charley.

Ah, then let me say "thank you" as a guest who lived thru Frances and who appreciated the sacrifices made by all of the CMs who stayed behind with us instead of worrying about their own properties.

I was at ASMu and things were very well organized. We got a series of printed advisories left in the room every couple of hours leading up to the storm as well as messages on the voice mail system. A few hours before the lockdown was to start, Housekeeping dropped off a flashlight in every room. There were CMs in rooms in every building at the resort. I guess they served a dual purpose: to be on hand should guest emergency arise during the storm and to be on property and available with the startup/cleanup as soon as the storm passed.

Frances was the 2nd hurricane I had to deal with at WDW. The 1st was Floyd, back in '99. I have to say that if I ***had*** to be in central Florida during a hurricane, I wouldn't want to be anywhere other than at a Disney resort.

I think I'm too new here to post links (getting a parsing error - something about post count too low). But, I have a somewhat detailed account of what it was like during Hurricane Floyd posted at jraskin.com. You'll need to navigate to the Disney Photos from the home page and look for the photos from Sep 2004 and Sep 1999. Sorry I can't post the direct links.

 

[jw50]

5 days? Hurricanes don't move that slowly.

Actually it is conceivable that a hurricane could affect an area for that long a period if it was big enough and stalled, or reversed course, however the probability of that happening in the Orlando area is infinitesimal. Hurricanes can not sustain themselves over land very long and Orlando is far enough inland that a hurricane would quickly lose strength. The majority of the real damage from a hurricane is caused by the storm surge on coastal areas. Inland most of the damage is from trees being uprooted due to the saturated ground and high winds.

Forecasting the 3-day track has gotten pretty good so there would be sufficient warning if a hurricane or tropical storm was projected to significantly impact the Orlando area. Flights to or from Orlando would be canceled well before the storm would cause problems with take-offs and landings. People traveling by car would have plenty of notice to allow them to adjust their travel plans or to seek shelter until the storm passed.

Even if Orlando was in the direct path of a category 5 hurricane you would still be safe in the resorts as long as you stayed inside and away from exterior windows. And unless it was moving very slowly you would only be stuck there for 2-3 days at most, probably only a day or so before the wind died down enough that you could go outside.

And to put it in perspective, I was stationed at Homestead AFB for 3 years (long before Andrew) and the closest a hurricane came to that area in those 3 years was 200 miles offshore, and it was a beautiful, sunny day as that hurricane passed.

Very few people who have lived all of their lives on the eastern seaboard worry about hurricanes until they get pretty close and are projected to hit the area they are in. Since even the 5 day projected hurricane paths are not accurate enough to know where the hurricane is going to go there is no reason to get concerned about where a storm that has not even been born yet might possibly go.

 

[kelscross]

We left a day early to get to Orlando when Frances was coming. Disney was offering refunds if we wanted though. We chose to change our flight and come down. Airtran did not charge us a change fee. They were offering to give a voucher or change at no charge. We booked a room at ASMO the first night the day before arrival and they didn't charge us any more than rack rate. The next day our package was to start at the Poly.

We didn't have tickets for the first day as it was an add on. So, we just played at the pool and went to DTD that evening. When we came back there was mass chaos in the food court, shop and the ice machines due to the hotel being shut down for the arriving hurricane. Originally we were going to have to take a cab to the Poly the next morning because we were told that there would be no transportation due to the skeleton crew for the hurricane.

That was fine with us I called for the cab to come and pick us up at 5:30am as the Poly told us to be there by 6 am and they would have our room ready. When we went to the lobby the next morning at ASMO the CMs were horrified that the staff the night before made us call a cab. They graciously took us over to the Poly.

BOY was there a BIG difference at the Poly...Things were operating as normal. The parks were closed, but the pools and restaurants were opened all day. They brought in characters all day and different entertainment. It wasn't until that evening that they closed the pools and asked us to stay in our rooms. The value resorts had been locked in 24 hours before we were.

Although we didn't go outside, there weren't CMs standing in the hallway not allowing you either. I saw people walking outside..stupid..but they did. We were in Tokelau and the way the building was situated the wind didn't hit the sides of the building. It would hit the back and split around. I sat on our balcony periodically and video the storm. It was rather wierd. On the balcony there wasn't so much as a breeze, but if you stuck your hand over the rail it would blow like in a moving car or something.

We were in our rooms for 24 hours and the next evening they announced that Ohana was going to be opened for a buffet for a reduced price. The next day MK and EPCOT were opened, but I think they said AK sustained quite a bit of damage and they didn't open. I'm not sure about MGM. We went to MK and it was EMPTY.

Lots of people thought we were nuts to go ahead with our plans knowing that a hurricane was coming, but I'm from the midwest and we get threats of Tornados practically everytime a storm rolls in so if we put our lives on hold because of the possibility of a tornado we wouldn't even work or leave our homes for months, not to mention that we get very little warning..usually when one has been spotted on the ground, much less days and days as hurricanes can be tracked early.

Because of the difference in service, if we go during hurricane season we will only stay deluxe. And we are at the end of September!

 

[Zooey72]

I am content with their hurricane policy. However I do not totaly buy into the idea that "Disney can not control the weather, hence it is your resp). I don't control the weather either, so it makes it both our resp. as far as things go IMO. Being able to cancel if you see a hurricane coming seems fair to me. Kinda sucks being stuck in the room for a day doing


Anyway, thanks for the replies!

 

[BigDogMom7]

We were at the Beach Club during Hurricane Charley, on the fourth floor facing Epcot. I totally agree with the poster who said that the best place to be during a hurricane is on Disney property. The building didn't even shake, and the winds were over 100 mph. The storm hit at 9 pm on Friday the 13th (of course). We had to leave the parks on Friday afternoon and stay at the resort. But they had Cape May open and running, and they opened up a special area next to Cape May for breakfast the next day. There were characters in the lobby and it was a calm atmosphere. No one ever told us we had to stay in our rooms.

We were supposed to fly out of the Orlando airport the next morning. We even checked out of our room - only to find out the airport was closed. (If you call the airport, stay on the line until you talk to a live person! The recording wasn't updated.) So we went back to the Beach Club and they let us check back in - for three more days until we could fly out! My DD11 was thrilled , and my DH49 was NOT . Those were an expensive three days, at rack rate, but MK, Epcot, and MGM were all open to resort guests by mid-morning. It was amazing how fast the damage was cleaned up. CMs were coming in to work, even though they had no power at their homes. We had power and water and everything was fine. It was a major inconvenience, but we had a great time and it made for a great story to tell when we got home.

 

[ShooshBrat]

I PERSONALLY think Disney CAN control the weather They can do everything else!!

Okay, Okay....so maybe my "magical" expectations ARE a little high, but it IS Disney!!

MY SOLUTION: (hope disney EARS are listening)

They COULD build a HUGE dome over the entire park! Make each park it's own "Snowglobe"....then we'd have PERFECT weather all year round!!!

I know I know....I'm a GENIUS!!!! hehehehe

We were at Disney (With JaxPooh and Think_tink_think....we travel with them often) for 2 hurricaines in 2004......Charley and Francis, I think.......We got some great video and pictures, if nothing else!! We heard the trucks and chainsaws as well, and really got our FIRST dose of "reality" in Disney.....for all these years, we've thought about how "magical" a place it is, and they always seem to have everything perfect, no matter WHAT is going on in the outside world. With one of our hurricaines (the one we were quarantined to the room), the damage was so vast, even disney couldn't get it all clear before opening at 10am.....STILL.....when we left to go home, that week....the devistation in the Orlando area, OUTSIDE Disney, was so much WORSE, we were amazed and shocked at how well Disney handled everything! Actually, if you look around, while traveling on the monorails, you can STILL see some of the damage from the hurricaines, in 2004!!! Don't, know if anyone else knows this or not, but during Charley, an actually Tornado touched down in the Epcot parking lot, and ran through the trees where the monorail comes through. (A bit of Disney trivia we learned from a Monorail driver) I agree, I'd so much rather be at Disney than anywhere else, if it happens again! We are scheduled to be there in a few weeks, and I'm not worried at all!! Got tons of stuff for the kids to do, IF a storm comes through and we're stuck in the room, and we are in a Villa with a kitchen, as well....so no worries!

Here are a few more pics from our hurricaine trips......was AWESOME the way they handled everything!!!

Some of our "supplies"- okay, so we usually take this much EVERY trip

Yes, More food!! We were PREPARED

Quarantined to the room.....although we are rebelious and HAD to brave the winds a time or two....ya, we're idiots!

Are you REALLY goin out there?

They tried, but couldn't get everything cleaned up

Even in the parks...this was at Epcot

And flooded parkinglots were no exception!

 

[themudd4]

Some of our "supplies"- okay, so we usually take this much EVERY trip

Yes, More food!! We were PREPARED

I gained 5 lbs just looking at those pics

 

[Think_Tink_Think]

I PERSONALLY think Disney CAN control the weather They can do everything else!!

Okay, Okay....so maybe my "magical" expectations ARE a little high, but it IS Disney!!

MY SOLUTION: (hope disney EARS are listening)

They COULD build a HUGE dome over the entire park! Make each park it's own "Snowglobe"....then we'd have PERFECT weather all year round!!!

I know I know....I'm a GENIUS!!!! hehehehe

We were at Disney (With JaxPooh and Think_tink_think....we travel with them often) for 2 hurricaines in 2004......Charley and Francis, I think.......We got some great video and pictures, if nothing else!! We heard the trucks and chainsaws as well, and really got our FIRST dose of "reality" in Disney.....for all these years, we've thought about how "magical" a place it is, and they always seem to have everything perfect, no matter WHAT is going on in the outside world. With one of our hurricaines (the one we were quarantined to the room), the damage was so vast, even disney couldn't get it all clear before opening at 10am.....STILL.....when we left to go home, that week....the devistation in the Orlando area, OUTSIDE Disney, was so much WORSE, we were amazed and shocked at how well Disney handled everything! Actually, if you look around, while traveling on the monorails, you can STILL see some of the damage from the hurricaines, in 2004!!! Don't, know if anyone else knows this or not, but during Charley, an actually Tornado touched down in the Epcot parking lot, and ran through the trees where the monorail comes through. (A bit of Disney trivia we learned from a Monorail driver) I agree, I'd so much rather be at Disney than anywhere else, if it happens again! We are scheduled to be there in a few weeks, and I'm not worried at all!! Got tons of stuff for the kids to do, IF a storm comes through and we're stuck in the room, and we are in a Villa with a kitchen, as well....so no worries!

Here are a few more pics from our hurricaine trips......was AWESOME the way they handled everything!!!

Some of our "supplies"- okay, so we usually take this much EVERY trip

Yes, More food!! We were PREPARED

Quarantined to the room.....although we are rebelious and HAD to brave the winds a time or two....ya, we're idiots!

Are you REALLY goin out there?

They tried, but couldn't get everything cleaned up

Even in the parks...this was at Epcot

And flooded parkinglots were no exception!

You'd be at Disney all the time if it wasn't hot or cold wouldn't ya Mimi? Genius don;t you mean crazy? lol jk. And I still never saw the video form the hurricane.

 

[classicpooh]

We were at AKL during Charley - Disney took great care of us! We had to spend 2pm until the next morning in the resort, but didn't get "locked in" the room until around 7pm.

Disney gave us free dinner (box lunch style) and had entertainment for the kids at the AKL (scavenger hunt, characters in the lobby etc).

We also had to extend our stay and they let us keep the same rate due to others cancelling and not able to get in.

Just our experience, it was nice to be in a dexlue though!

 

[ShooshBrat]

Yeppers, anytime, any weather, I'd be there!

Still like the "Park Snowglobe" idea though......now THAT would be Magic of Disney!!

And yes, we were pretty much on a sugar high the entire time we were in the room!!!

 

[Think_Tink_Think]

yeah we did, but the again we always take to much junk food to the hotel when we go to Disney.

 

[Ms.Grumpy]

I am going in Sept. and what I am worried about is the airport closing down.

Say the airport closses the day of my departure, what would I have to do to make sure I get a flight back home when the airport reopens? I do have travel insurance, but I am scared of having to spend the night at the airport with the kids. TIA

 

[poohandwendy]

We were in the Contemporary Tower during Charley. It hit the second to the last day of our trip, ironically there was a water main break in the other side of the tower a few days earlier and it forced some people to be 'evacuated', so this was just one more unexpected thing on our trip. My only suggestions, if you happen to be in WDW and a hurricane is coming, are these:

~If driving, FILL your gas tank as soon as you hear there is a hurricane coming. As a matter of fact, we will never park our car in the WDW resort lot on a 1/4 tank, ever again. This is something we never thought about and we ended up running out of gas trying to leave the area. I mean, there was NO GAS anywhere. Just keep this in mind, I wish we would have thought about it, but we have no experience with this sort of situation.

~Stock up on some food and water/drinks for your room. (as others have shown, I really wish we would have shared a room with the PP who had all of the snacks, LOL) At the CR tower, we were not allowed even to leave the room to go to the vending machines and stuck in the room for over 8 hours. Finally, we did get a boxed dinner (which was great), I just wish we would have prepared a bit. It was just unexpected to us that Orlando would really be affected, being so far inland. Lesson learned.

~Try to be patient with the CMs who are stuck there too. They may have family members and/or property in the path of the hurricane, so be kind and understand they are doing all they can. Yes, they are human and yes some of them may be cranky (many of the CMs we talked to were up 36 hours or more trying to prepare for the hurricane).

~Keep an eye on the weather nightly, even if your weather has been awesome. The weather before Charley was great and until they placed a note under the door to our room, the day before the hurricane actually hit, we had NO idea there was even a threat of a hurricane. (I think it was initially supposed to hit Tampa?)

~Keep checking the messages on your resort room phone- they will update you pretty often.

~Be prepared to go with the flow. I felt they did a very good job dealing with the issues, but there were some things that were frustrating. What can you do? We tried to just look at it as an opportunity to see some of the harsh weather people on the coasts live with all of the time. And fortunately, we were able to to so in a safe environment.

~This will be met with groans from those who are on a really tight budget, but it is always a good idea to have access to back-up funds for emergencies on a trip. I know a lot of people who flew in were scrambling to try to get either another plane out or a rental car/alternate hotel arrangements/etc. This can be very expensive. Do not expect that WDW CMs will be able to help you with this. You will be among thousands who are trying to do the same exact thing. Their top priorities are going to be dealing with the issues in their resort.

That said, we are going in early sept and I am a teeny bit worried about the possibility of a hurricane hitting while we are there, especially because we are flying. Because we cannot control it, we will just deal with things as they come and hope for the best! Probably more likely would be a hovering tropical storm that could last the entire trip, like late august 1995, but that is another story...

 

[ElizabethB]

Well said, Pooh&Wendy. We, too, were at the Contemporary for Hurricane Charley -- but we were in the North Garden Wing. The day Charley hit, we spent the morning in Epcot. They closed the parks around 2 p.m. as I recall, but no one was charged admission that day (e.g., if you had a park hopper for a number of days, no day was deducted). Around 2 p.m. we went back to our room. There was a CM in charge of the North Wing hurricane measures. He called a meeting in the hallway, and assured us that CR was built to withstand a hurricane, and not to worry. He said the hotel had its own generator so even if it lost power, the generator would kick in and keep the lights on.

They handed out information stating that there would be a buffet dinner later. We couldn't imagine standing in line with a thousand other guests for a buffet, so we hurried to the Food and Fun Center and the hotel sundries store and stocked up on soda, water, sandwiches, snacks, etc. By 5 p.m. we were settled in our room with the kids watching Disney classic movies on the TV. Charley hit later that night. It was a pretty wild storm. We could actually see the sliding glass door moving in and out as the storm pushed and battered it. We didn't sleep much that night!

Overall, however, we commented that there is no where we would rather ride out the storm than a Disney hotel. The CM's were wonderful. Notwithstanding that they had no idea how their own families and homes were faring, they dedicated themselves to making sure we were safe. Of course, it turned out the many CMs had seriously damaged homes, no power for a couple of weeks, etc. Additionally, the airport was damaged and closed for a day or so, even after the storm had left, in order to clean up.

We were fortunate in that the airport re-opened on the day we were scheduled to leave, so we didn't have to change plane flights, etc. Some people were unable to get a flight out until 2-3 days after the airport reopened.

Although it's a good idea to have travel insurance, in my experience it is "spotty" with respect to hurricanes. There seem to be exclusions related to weather, etc., so check what you're purchasing before you buy.

Finally, I agree with the pp who said keep your gas tank full. When we tried to fill the tank in order to return the rental car, most of the stations could not sell gas because they had no power. You can't pump gas without electricity it turns out. We finally found one operating gas station near DTD, but had to wait in line an hour or so in order to get gas. Of course, when we got to the airport, National told us that they were waiving the penalty for returning the car less than full, due to the hurricane. Oh well. Our tank was full.

On our way to the airport we saw several houses without roofs due to the hurricane. No traffic lights were working because, even though we had full power at CR, Orlando and Kissimee certainly didn't.

All in all, weather is something no one can do anything about. But, we felt WDW did all they possibly could, as did all of the CM's we encountered, to make it bearable. We were able to leave our rooms fairly soon the morning after the storm. The buses actually began running pretty quickly as well. There were many downed trees, etc., but clean-up had already begun.

We ended up running into Hurricane Jeanne a month later in Miami while trying to go on a cruise. That was much more stressful than the hurricane we endured at WDW. But, that's another story for another day.