Hurricane Dorian / WDW Theme Parks Discussion

[Dracoa Dragoon]

What's Disney's policy on AFTER the hurricane cancellations? Like if MCO is closed so your flight down gets canceled? Any clue what they will do for you, or are you just out the money for whatever days you don't make it?

This is the answer I am looking for as well.

Our reservation is booked for Tuesday-Tuesday, but if flights are cancelled and we don't arrive till wedneday will they still hold our reservation? Am I just out a day?

 

[RBZ]

Thanks!! On the phone with Disney reservations now. Been on hold for 45+min now, so hopefully I'm getting close to speaking with an agent!

I'm on the phone, also. It's over and hour so far. It's so much fun listening to familiar and loved Disney music that brings back memories of Disney as I'm trying to cancel my trip.

 

[GusGusTheMouse]

Looks like the storm is now tracking further south, coming on shore closer to palm beach area. Again it’s early, but this is better news for the Disney area.

I would be careful saying further south is “better news for the Disney area.” Yes, it means a further distance to go, but it also means more time for WDW to be hit by the right side of the storm, which historically causes more substantial damage. So the location of where the hurricane hits is just one element to consider, this is still a very serious situation and landing south could be even a worse scenario than if it lands north. Please listen to the local meteorologists, not the people on this board. There is a lot to consider. I am thinking of everyone who is making the difficult decision on whether to go or not, and please make the best and smartest decision for your group!

 

[katytrott]

We are here from the UK and due to fly home from Tampa 6.30pm on Mon. My Mum is also with us but is staying here a few extra days on her own and is flying home on Saturday 7th. We are staying on our own in a condo in Davenport near to WDW.

Such a dilemma for us as British Airways have given us no info other than to say that if we are “due to fly from MCO or Tampa on Monday or tues we can reschedule free of charge our flights to anytime up to the 7th”

So the dilemma is do we reschedule for later assuming our flight will be disrupted and get a slot home in a few days, but take the risk that the forecast is wrong and it comes through later in the week and we are then in the path?

Or do we assume the storm will move through later in the week and keep the flight as it is and potentially end up in a back log of cancelled flights if it moves through on Monday, with no flight booked which takes us longer to get home?

I have to say I’m not overly worried about getting home on time (the kids will miss their 1st few days of the start of school from summer break, but no biggie!) but it is all my husband who’s in a state as he’s self employed and worried about more loss of earnings.

My other MAJOR concern is if we do leave ok on Mon, my 73 year old recently widowed mother will be riding this storm out on her own. Like I said she won’t have the facilities of a WDW resort to look after her, and she gets anxious with a slight UK breeze!! She does have her own rental car but has only really used it to drive to and from the closest Publix here - she’s a tad anxious driving on the other side of the road to us and very anxious not knowing the roads etc

If anyone has any thoughts on this I’d be grateful

 

[Lyons Family]

We survived Hurricane Charlie on that August Friday the 13th.

We were in a suite at Wilderness lodge.
The day the weather changed we had dinner reservations at Artist point for 5pm.
We were celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary and the daughter was in the cubs den.

All of a sudden they announced that the kids den was closing.
The Husband went and got daughter and I got in line for dinner.

When he arrived back and we were ready to be seated the manager came to us and made an announcement to us and everyone else in line that Artist point is now closed.

I said to the manager, I go I do not care about me and my husband, but can you please give our daughter something to eat.
This is after everyone behind us left the line.

He goes OK, follow me.

Gave us 6 carryout containers and lead us to a food line.

He left us there with instructions to leave quietly once we had our food.
The daughter filled the one container with 6 filets, we got beans, potatoes, fish, butter and rolls salad. Not intended to be greedy, just nervous energy.

On the way out we stopped at the bar and got "doubles"

Back to the room, we found two flashlights inside the door.

About an hour after dinner, an attendant knocked on the door and evacuated us to a stairwell, our room had a lot of glass windows.

We watched the horizontal rain from the stairway when we opened the door.
When we allowed back in our room, there was no damage.

The next day, we found out MCO would close for 3 days.

We got the last rental car at Disneyworld and drove to Tampa and got a flight that was just added on to get home.

We were safe.

We buy travel insurance,
We were reimbursed for lost Disney Days, resort, tickets, meals, and hardship.
The insurance company would not reimburse us for the rental, they told us they would pay for 3 more Disney days, but not the rental.



Safe travels to all and to the residents of Florida be prepared, be safe.

 

[bigjon1805]

We fly into Orlando on Thursday Evening and I’m becoming more confident that the airport will not be open. Many of the models have the hurricane still in Florida even on Thursday. They won’t go out and do damage control until winds are at a safe speed.

I'm flying down to Orlando next Thursday afternoon and am watching all of this closely. I realize the brunt of the storm will probably be through by Thursday but I'm still worried about a: flooding/damage and b: flight delays/issues. I was scoping out Disneyland and found a pretty cheap flight to LA, but the main issue is I booked my Disney World trip with rented DVC points and will not be refunded. I can't get too mad over this, because I know the risk of going there during hurricane season.

 

[katytrott]

Sorry folks, I just noticed this is the theme park planning section and have found a transportation section, so have copied/pasted this over there!

 

[Tonyz]

Latest forecast is better for Disney! (But worse for other areas in Florida.)

 

[RBZ]

After a 1 hour and 20 minute wait on the phone, I was able to cancel my reservation on Monday through Saturday for a full refund. While it sucks that we had to cancel our trip, it's also a relief not having to worry about a hurricane any longer. Good luck everyone, and stay safe!

 

[gap2368]

Latest forecast is better for Disney! (But worse for other areas in Florida.)

I went out and got some hurricane supplies so of course it will not hit Orlando.

 

[luvsJack]

I'm not going to get into hurricane strength arguments. On my local news they showed a cat 1 over Orlando just now. That can and probably will change, but a cat 1 is nothing to joke about. People get hung up on the cat numbers too much.

EXACTLY! Everyone needs to stop worrying about what Cat it is.

20" of rain is a LOT of rain. Add to that, even tropical storm winds over a bit of time (with it being slow moving) can cause a LOT of downed trees, power lines down, etc. Plus the flooding from that amount of rain.

Small Cat storms have caused a great deal of damage in the past.

Stop comparing to other storms. Stop looking at the Cat number.

 

[TinkerBelle_325]

We’re waving the white flag. We have cancelled our Sept trip. And we’ve sworn we will never go to WDW in hurricane season again. You see, in 2016 we rode out Hurricane Matthew at Animal Kingdom Lodge. While we were very impressed with how Disney handled the situation, it certainly wasn’t enjoyable. Then in 2017 we went through this same agonizing process with Irma. Watching it near, trying to shift the trip and eventually deciding it isn’t a good idea to travel into an area that will likely be impacted by a hurricane. This past week we’ve experienced déjà vu as we’ve tracked Dorian.

The silver lining is that we opted to extend our December trip. We will be visiting WDW from Dec 14-26. For those of you currently at WDW please stay safe.

 

[ksdave]

Another consideration for those already in FL. When Irma hit FL in 2017, my wife and I had already had a trip planned to Helen, GA for our 29th anniversary. We drove there ahead of most of the traffic and enjoyed our (ultimately) extended weekend. On our third day there, we met a woman from Sarasota, FL who had evacuated all the way to Helen, as it was the closest place she could find an open hotel room. She was telling us that the normal 9 hour drive had taken her almost 24 hours! I-75 was a parking lot from southern FL all the way to ATL. So, if you are needing to drive home either on I-75 or I-95, please plan for a very long trip and have plenty of gas, water, food, etc. in the car with you.

 

[yulilin3]

Just called Disney to ask if I could bring my dog with me, I check in Monday check out Wed. and I'm getting "all circuits are busy" message

 

[RaySharpton]

The Florida Governor just suggested following the website https://www.floridadisaster.org

 

[Bran Fox]

Just called Disney to ask if I could bring my dog with me, I check in Monday check out Wed. and I'm getting "all circuits are busy" message

Typically they suspend the rules and allow dogs during an evacuation. I think you can assume yes. Are you local?

 

[mikeamizzle]

We fly into Orlando on Thursday Evening and I’m becoming more confident that the airport will not be open. Many of the models have the hurricane still in Florida even on Thursday. They won’t go out and do damage control until winds are at a safe speed.

i think you"ll be fine by thursday

 

[Traveling on cc points]

Just landed at mco. Our flight had 76 empty seats.
The crew actually joked that the rest of the people didn’t wan to fly into a hurricane.

 

[AngiTN]

We fly into Orlando on Thursday Evening and I’m becoming more confident that the airport will not be open. Many of the models have the hurricane still in Florida even on Thursday. They won’t go out and do damage control until winds are at a safe speed.

The map on the news here right now showed Wednesday in the Orlando area. They’ll wait till the very last minute to close airports and open again as quick as they can. No idea yet when or for how long.

 

[lovethattink]

Just called Disney to ask if I could bring my dog with me, I check in Monday check out Wed. and I'm getting "all circuits are busy" message

That happened to me yesterday morning. My hold time was about 2 hours.