Hurricane Irma?

[AngiTN]

I think Disney might be holding off bookings right now. Spoke to the front desk at Pop last night and apparently there are (were?) still rooms at Pop. I think there are plenty of people who are cancelling right now as well...

They did pull all rooms from online before Matthew came in last year. If you needed to extend or book something you had to call

 

[mpugh77]

Has anyone noticed that no ADR times are available for any non-hotel restaurant on 9/10-9/11? Is this a hint that parks will be closed those days?

 

[ellie05]

Funny I was down there as well this morning and had a CM who was totally indifferent to the situation. She couldn't make any promises about getting us a room extension anywhere on property if needed and also said that Disney isn't in the handout business and we shouldn't expect any discounts. The last bit really bothered my GF and myself. Especially after hearing during other big storms Disney was quick to make sure people were taken care of, and was giving people 40% off rack rate for an emergency extended stay.

Honestly it is such a hit or miss with CMs. The one thing that really pushed us over the edge to not renew or AP was how we were treated during Matthew. If I can't trust that a company will do their best to accommodate us in an emergency situation then I just don't think they deserve my money. We had one lady offer us her room because they were leaving early. The front desk quoted is $100 more per night than what the lady was paying that is after telling us we couldn't stay because they didn't have room without even checking the computer or even other resorts. The lady got so mad she said we could give her a check or use PayPal or whatever but there is no reason why we should pay more. I will say that was the one time I actually thought that manager deserved to hear what the lady told him. He was terrible at his job.

The Cancun question I will say no I wouldn't go into Cancun or WDW or anywhere. I just don't feel it is worth the potential risk to my family. I would try to reschedule if I can't then I will cancel and pick another place or have an stay vacation after all the most important part is spend time with love ones no matter where it is. My answer would certainly have been different if our experience at WDW during Matthew wasn't so bad.

 

[SL6827]

I think it's a possibility that Disney might be holding off bookings right now. Spoke to the front desk at Pop last night and apparently there are (were?) still rooms at Pop. I think there are plenty of people who are cancelling right now as well...

Very possible. I did notice that under each hotel there was the number of times it had been booked within the last 24 hours. Unreal numbers, could be locals? Wonder if that is accurate?

 

[Interpol]

Wont the water explode in your luggage?

Shouldn't. Cargo holds in commercial airliners are pressurized.

 

[jo-jo]

Along this line, if you have one, bring along one of those portable speakers so you can play music. This is also one of our normal items we bring. Though for some reason, DH loves to listen to the music that Disney runs on the schedule channel (though if someone could explain to me my they play Nutcracker music I'd love to know) so we often listen to that instead of our speaker

I'd download a few movies on my tablet too. If power goes out, at least the kids have something to watch.

 

[AprilLizbeth]

As far as groceries and gas go just to make everyone aware: we live on the west coast near Tampa and gas is very scarce and groceries almost non-existent. If you are still debating comming please don't. Residents need the resources and it doesn't make sense to come from elsewhere during a natural disaster. Would you go somewhere with massive wildfires? Or anywhere else if a hurricane was supposed to hit? We all know how disappointing it is to cancel vacation but don't put yourself of others in danger because its Disney.

 

[otten]

I am curious about this question.

If this wasn't Disney. Lets say you were going to Cancun or something.

Would you still be going on the trip or would you be canceling?

I personally would cancel for another trip, but Disney would deff have me considering going.

That question is something to think about

Also, bring those anker portable chargers with you to have incase power is lost while there. Good for your cell phones to let others know you are ok

Yes I would probably cancel. The main reason we didn't re-book last year when Matthew came was because of all the planning we'd done to get all of our ADRs and such. To get it all again we'd need to book for 180 days out and we didn't want to wait that long. So since several of my coastal Florida friends said it would be safe to be at Disney we didn't cancel.

 

[MichelleD23]

May I ask where your meterorologist is located? Are they near Orlando or out of state? I SOOO want to believe them but where they are located will play into my decision. We are scheduled to fly to Orlando tomorrow afternoon.

He is in Birmingham, Al. Here is the link to his report (if outside links are allowed) https://www.facebook.com/jamesspann/posts/10155717134995842

 

[flatlandcycle]

Well I meant basically anywhere else besides Disney lol.

Cancun was the first thing to come into my head

There's probably chapter in a psych book covering the condition. Logic 101/falacies, fantasies ? Where do people learn to make responsible decisions unclouded by emotion?
From the mouths of babes: " Mom, please don't go into the hurricane."

 

[MichelleD23]

Is your local Meteorologist James Spann by any chance? I think I read this as a post he did earlier. I grew up watching his forecasts and I trust him!

Yes! James Spann! The whole state trusts him.

 

[Monykalyn]

A couple of questions. 1) we have moved up our arrival by a day but are staying at AKL. Scheduled to move to WL on Sunday. Will we be allowed to move over there? 2) any reports of success having Amazon supplies shipped down for Friday/Saturday arrival?

If you haven't already ordered from Amazon with delivery date set I wouldn't count on supplies getting there in time.

Also worst case scenario if it shifts west on Saturday, we could turn around and drive home.

Wouldn't count on being able to just turn around and go home if already in Florida...If you mean stopping somewhere and waiting that might be different.

As to the CM question-say "hi" to my kid if staying at CBR-she is hoping she gets on the Ride out team. Tall girl, Alysa from University of Arkansas, working custodial this semester! She also, as of yesterday (took her roomie who waited til last second to supply up), had zero issues getting gas nor water from a local walmart near the CP housing complex. She said the only thing she couldn't find was flashlights but they got a bunch of glow sticks LOL!. She is there at the resort today. Stay safe everyone and let's hope the new models keep showing shifts to the east!

 

[otten]

Disney generates only about 25% of it's electricity, the rest is purchased from other utilities.

https://www.rcid.org/doing-business/utilities/systems-services/

Most outages occur due to damage to distribution lines (the lower voltage lines seen all over the place that ultimately deliver electricity to the customer). Disney's distribution system is underground so unlikely to be damaged by the storm. However if a transmission line that feeds the distribution system goes down or if a larger above ground feeder distribution line goes down Disney could lose power. It's worth noting that that type of outage takes a lot longer to repair if it happens.

 

[Jennasis]

Our resort stay was scheduled for Sept 10-16. We don't really have a choice of rescheduling, so instead of canceling, our current plan is try drive down and try to check in Saturday instead of Sunday, ahead of the storm. We are planning to pack gas, food, water, etc.. and being stuck in a room for 1-2 days. My bigger concern is just being safe. It seems the general consensus is that Disney is safe at this point, correct? We are hoping we could still salvage 3 days at the park as long as there is not catastrophic damage. Also worst case scenario if it shifts west on Saturday, we could turn around and drive home.. Thoughts?

You are in the same boat as us. We were scheduled to arrive 9/10 and stay through 9/15. But we added on a night on Saturday 9/9 and are planning to drive down then to get in ahead of the storm. We booked a cash room offsite (around the corner from SSR where we are booked the rest of the trip) and hope we will be able to check in early Sunday morning.

We are watching things carefully and plan to cancel if needed.

Out of curiosity, how are you packing extra gas?

 

[HarperLeigh]

I think it's a possibility that Disney might be holding off bookings right now. Spoke to the front desk at Pop last night and apparently there are (were?) still rooms at Pop. I think there are plenty of people who are cancelling right now as well...

There are also still ongoing issues with showing availability of rooms on their website.

 

[cattrix]

There are also still ongoing issues with showing availability of rooms on their website.

I was wondering about that as I wouldn't think there wouldn't be any rooms available with everyone cancelling. I keep checking...

 

[b1234]

You are in the same boat as us. We were scheduled to arrive 9/10 and stay through 9/15. But we added on a night on Saturday 9/9 and are planning to drive down then to get in ahead of the storm. We booked a cash room offsite (around the corner from SSR where we are booked the rest of the trip) and hope we will be able to check in early Sunday morning.

We are watching things carefully and plan to cancel if needed.

Out of curiosity, how are you packing extra gas?

We are at SSR also - on the phone with them now to try to add a night. My husband said he found 12 gallon cans (he found them online but he says they sell them at Walmart) he was planning to buy 2 and take them with us.

 

[scrapquitler]

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I am also packing a power bar so that I can keep as many electronics charged as possible just in case power is lost at the Disney resorts.

Another comment, for those packing extra batteries, I believe these need to be in your carry on baggage. Not 100% positive but I remember last year at Pop having to unpack my suitcase to find a portable battery charger that I'd packed in there. Not sure if it's just chargers that have to be separate or all batteries but probably something to check on your airline's website.

I just flew down on Tuesday. We had some external phone batteries and chargers, some of the Anker external batteries, all the chargers, and AA batteries for our flashlights. We had some of each in carry on bags, and some of each in our checked bags and none were questioned at all. TSA didn't question the carry on bags and they never opened our checked bags. But if course we all know that some TSA agents make up rules on their own, so YMMV

 

[Jennasis]

We are at SSR also - on the phone with them now to try to add a night. My husband said he found 12 gallon cans (he found them online but he says they sell them at Walmart) he was planning to buy 2 and take them with us.

Thanks for that! I'll take a look.

There is availability for the 9th on the DVC member site, not sure if there are cash rooms. We didn't book it because we didn't have enough points. We booked a cash night for $80 (with tax and fees) at the Radisson up the road.

 

[SL6827]

I noticed that the Weather Channel has us at 60 mph winds on Tuesday morning, and this is in very North Georgia.