Hurricane Irma?

[Rachel Underwood]

Well that is obviously a better time as the storm will be long gone. In that time frame, it's just a question of how much damage there is around the area and how that affects things. You definitely have time to watch it play out.

I should clarify. We will be there from tonight until the 16th.

 

[Sarahboo]

I know that my concern about what to do about my vacation is such a small problem compared to what other people are dealing with but I'm just paralyzed with trying to make the right decision. Rescheduling would cause huge issues for us at home because of obligations we have. I, like everyone else, which that hurricanes were more predictable.

I am heartbroken for all of the people who have already suffered through and who still have yet to suffer through this storm's wrath.

 

[wonder whisper]

by tomorrow morning you should know what will be the best thing to do!

don't loose hope

NHC now has tropical storm winds not hitting Orlando until Sunday morning.

Again, that is a projection, not a confirmed timetable. The latest NHC analysis from 5AM today makes several key points:

• The three principal model frameworks still completely disagree on the direction of IRMA. NAVGEM shows it continuing to go Northwest into the Gulf of Mexico. The ECMWF and ECMWF Ensemble show Irma moving over the southeastern portion of the Florida Peninsula. And the The GFS, Canadian, and GFS Ensemble show the earliest northern turn and show Irma moving east of the coast of Florida toward the southeastern United States. Bottom line: no one at this time is in any position to make a definitive prediction of where Irma is heading.

• Current conditions (warm-water, low shear environment) that Irma is in for the next three days are expected to keep her a strong
  hurricane, most likely remaining Category 5 or 4 status.
  
  
  
• NHC again emphasized that the threat of direct hurricane impacts in Florida over the weekend and early next week continues to increase. Hurricane
  watches will likely be issued for portions of the Florida Keys and the Florida peninsula later this morning.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

MCO is hilarious. So they announce they are closing, everyone cancels their vacations, Universal, Sea World and Disney World freak out because everyone is canceling their vacations...then MCO reverses.

 

[ArwenMarie]

MCO is not trying to be annoying.
Any airport's goal is to safely move as many flights and people in and out of the area as possible.
If they can be operational for any amount of extra hours, then that is what they are mandated to do.

 

[IndianaMouse]

Barring any major damage what do you think my niece can expect weather wise on Monday and Tuesday of next week"?

 

[Tonyz]

MCO is hilarious. So they announce they are closing, everyone cancels their vacations, Universal, Sea World and Disney World freak out because everyone is canceling their vacations...then MCO reverses.

If I had like a 6:00 flight coming into Disney and was still planning on coming and then saw that update and decided to cancel, I would be a wee bit angry with MCO right now.

 

[Rachel Underwood]

What days will you be down there?

Tonight through 16th

 

[Jadyreen1282]

Yep. That was premature on MCO's part.

 

[Disneylvr]

We are still scheduled to fly out this evening.... who is still going at this point?

I bailed out yesterday. I was due to fly in tomorrow morning.

 

[Ty_tcw]

We are arriving on Friday the 15th. I just have to share the reactions of my uber-pessimistic DH. He's asking if we should cancel our trip. He's worried there will be no water, no gas, no electricity at that point. I think he thinks there will be no parks to visit. I just tried to talk him down by saying there is no need to plan anything at this point. We'll know all we need to know by Sunday/Monday. Don't get me wrong, I'm fully aware there will most likely be an aftermath...but won't know if it's worth not coming until Irma's gone through. Right?

We are arriving on the 15th as well. I'm hoping for the best. We have not cancelled. If we can get there we are going.

 

[Tonyz]

MCO is not trying to be annoying.
Any airport's goal is to safely move as many flights and people in and out of the area as possible.
If they can be operational for any amount of extra hours, then that is what they are mandated to do.

Yeah it seems like the latest updates have them being open a little later than they may have thought.

But still... why put out that announcement when they did? It was like 11 at night. That was sloppy.

I understand where they're coming from wanting to get info to people, but this was odd. They probably had that message to go in case the winds didn't change and someone put it up early by accident, maybe?

 

[ArwenMarie]

Yep. That was premature on MCO's part.

They can only do what they can do with the information they have. Public officials are darned if they do, darned if they don't, in these situations.

Even in my town, if a snow storm is coming, it's up to the superintendent to close the schools or not.

If he or she closes them and it doesn't snow, outrage from the parents. If they keep them open and it's bad out, outrage from the parents.

It's not easy being a decision-maker regarding the weather when it affects so many people.

 

[Amy___M]

Barring any major damage what do you think my niece can expect weather wise on Monday and Tuesday of next week"?

Go to ventusky.com. Enter a city. You can look at the forecast in 3hr increments, by temp, wind speed, etc.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Yeah it seems like the latest updates have them being open a little later than they may have thought.

But still... why put out that announcement when they did? It was like 11 at night. That was sloppy.

I understand where they're coming from wanting to get info to people, but this was odd. They probably had that message to go in case the winds didn't change and someone put it up early by accident, maybe?

Because it looked like more of a harder hit on Orlando on that time. And it takes a lot of time to safely shut down something like an airport.

Making these types of calls is not easy. That's all I know.

 

[otten]

MCO is not trying to be annoying.
Any airport's goal is to safely move as many flights and people in and out of the area as possible.
If they can be operational for any amount of extra hours, hen that is what they are mandated to do.

I would agree with exception that MCO's own official twitter feed was contradicting the website notice last night.

 

[Tonyz]

Because it looked like more of a harder hit on Orlando on that time. And it takes a lot of time to safely shut down something like an airport.

Making these types of calls is not easy. That's all I know.

Yeah I get it... I personally think putting out an announcement like that at night when they easily could have waited a few more hours to see if it stayed that bad is a little odd.

 

[stu_hamilton]

I'm due in at 6:30pm into MCO! On the phone today looking to cancel and re-arrange for flight tomorrow, glad for now I didn't manage to get the airline to issue a refund (Aerlingus - they wanted to wait and see). Now waiting to see what time MCO decide to cut-off. If they go back to 5pm I'll be really annoyed.

Anyone hearing anything on new potential cut-off for MCO on Saturday?

 

[CarrieR]

We're another group weathering the storm. Five of us right now... one snagged a flight Friday night. One is a local. The rest of us are unable to find flights out, and though we seriously considered driving, gas shortages are a major concern. We had a pow wow last night and opted to ride it out. Our feeling is that we may be in more danger elsewhere (airport, highway, etc.)

Our flight was officially cancelled this morning (3PM Sunday) and we rescheduled for Tuesday afternoon. I hope and pray that we make it out then - missing more work may start to be an issue. In the meantime, we stopped at the store yesterday to get 24h worth of nonperishable food and will chat with Disney today about extending.

In the meantime, we are choosing to enjoy the next couple of low-crowd days in the park as all of the smart people get the heck outta dodge. Our plan is to "vacation on" until we can't vacation anymore.

Thank you to all who have shared info on the thread; happy to provide updates in return.

 

[karen annette]

For everyone on this forum wondering about their trip, I have no idea what Disney is going to do, but I am 30 minutes from Disney, and if you have seen the news, gas stations down here are running out of gas, gas stations that do have gas; people are lined up and are waiting a long time to get gas, all food places (publix, walmart, etc.) are a madhouse, people are fighting over food and beverages. You can barely get a shopping cart down food isles and when you do get to a register to pay you are 20 people deep. A friend of mine showed pictures of I-75 backed up with traffic for many, many miles, people are evacuating to get OUT of the state. People are doing sandbags to protect their house and boarding them up with plywood. My sons school is closed on Monday, many other schools are closing this Friday, to start getting them ready for Safety Shelters. Restaurants are closing sunday and monday.

I jumped on this forum because I have a reservation to take our camper to fort wilderness the weekend after the hurricane hits, to see what the cancellation policies where. The hurricane Irma which is suppose to be coming into florida this Saturday night and not leaving until Monday. I just thought a little briefing about the situation from someone near Disney might help out. We are hoping this hurricane does go somewhere else, but thought a little insight to those not here, might be helpful.