Hurricane Matthew Closes WDW - Reopens Saturday, October 8th

[_auroraborealis_]

I'm booked into MLB on Sat. and staying at the Swan. Anyone heard conditions over at MLB?

Hoping the airport is open and rental cars aren't damaged.

I don't like your odds of flying in, or getting a car.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

You must not have seen the spaghetti models. Our local Orlando news and others said it. At one time it did look exactly like a direct hit in east Orlando where I live. They even evacuated students in the dorms at UCF, the area I live near.

universities evacuate because they do not want the liability of a student not adhering to remaining indoors. My daughter works at FGCU in Estero, SW FL. They evacuated and weren't being hit with hurricane force winds. As far as direct hit, many misunderstand what this means. Orlando was never in danger of direct hit. While they were possibly going to get 80-100 mph winds, the storm wasn't coming at them directly before going through any other counties. In fact, the eye wasn't even going over Orlando. Not sure what station informed you of a direct hit, but that was impossible. Thankfully Orlando did not get the winds that were predicted or any tornados

 

[HopperFan]

OH WOULD HAVE LOVED TO SEE THESE GUYS IN RAINCOATS


DisneyCharacterGuide ‏@wdwmickeyhunter 14m14 minutes ago
Hope everyone is staying safe and dry during #HurricaneMatthew! #DisneyWorld #hurricane #goofy #disneycharacters #pluto #rain #storm #disney

 

[Lehuaann]

It would be so nice of Disney to open a park or 2 for resort guests only.

 

[DLM1980]

Yummers, golden iron toast, steam on or off? There better be a Willy Wonka Ticket in that thing.

I had the foresight to ask the folks at earl of sandwich for an extra wrapper to put my toast in between cause nobody wants extra starch from the prior ironing. Steam was off and no golden ticket

 

[HopperFan]

Great picture. Note CMs getting some food stuffs ready.


Mike @ Blog Mickey ‏@Blog_Mickey 16m16 minutes ago
ICYMI: Monorail Red and Green spent the night in the Contemporary

 

[Geoff_M]

They were under no obligation to goodwill out any discounts on food.

You are correct on this statement, but by definition "goodwill" is something that is earned by doing something that you are not obligated to do, but decide to do otherwise for the good of your customers. They were not "obligated" to bring characters to the resorts, but they did. They were not obligated to give people flashlights, but they did. I'm not suggesting that Disney should have given away any food for free, but charging enough to cover their costs would have been more palatable.

I never stated that Disney was "obligated" to give any food discounts... I think it was a dumb move not to in the specific case of those "lunches."

 

[dburg30]

It would be so nice of Disney to open a park or 2 for resort guests only.

Gotta have people to do that..

 

[HopperFan]

Casey‏@DaisyyCaterina
Port Orleans Riverside food is open: Eggs, bacons, and potatoes #HurricaneMatthew #DisneyWorld #MatthewWDW

 

[North of Mouse]

Maybe you aren't getting the fact that not everyone knows what a hurricane is all about. Not sure where your from but I'm from Canada and hurricanes are pretty much unheard of. To most of us, we would think its a big wind storm with heavy rain. Buck up, its only water.

I would guess that there would be lots of people from down south who would think, 'Its just snow. Not going to stop me from going out to dinner'. I had more than a few guests who had that mind set.
Don't think badly of those of us who don't have the knowledge you do. It could be reversed.

Can't imagine in this day of 'knowledge' available in 'up to date' ways 'not' knowing and empathizing with what is happening within our own country and Canada!

I've never experienced a terrible blizzard, but seeing pictures and hearing the horror stories would give me enough knowledge to know I need advance preparation!

Can't imagine either that most people would not know the destructive forces behind hurricanes either. Not going further back than Katrina (and others) did you not see/hear that it was more than just a big wind and heavy rain (that's just a typical southern thunder storm)?? I'm a deep south southerner (one baby born in a hurricane) and have known since a child to respect and be aware (to a large degree) the potential for what storms can do (no matter the form it comes in).

Weather forecasters do a great job these days, but they still do not control the weather - our responsibility is to prepare for the worse, and hope for the better.

So, yes, after reading on the Dis all the time what most people take with them, or buy to have in their rooms to eat during 'normal' times, I'd say nearly 'everyone' had ample time to 'stash' something away to eat for a day.

To those who complained about long lines, high priced (not by Disney prices at all) boxes, none of it would have had to be necessary - this storm has been 'coming' for days! 'Anyone' can live on snacks for a day - cheeses, crackers, p'nut butter, bread, juice boxes, whatever.

'No' restaurant is prepared to quickly serve 'droves' of people at one time!

Disney is doing great! Those CM's are human too and have families/homes to think about. This storm 'could' have been the worse that was predicted!!

Hurricane season is 'well known' for vacationing in the south - to not have the potential to deal with it is to stay away at that time!

 

[richkaryn]

I'm sure that some of the people (complaining or not) had ADRs that had to be canceled/abandoned, where they would have paid much higher prices for more overpriced food without complaining. I personally would love to eat at BOG to see the inside but I have a hard time letting go of $35 for steak and "French fries" when I can get steak with a much nicer/fancier side at other WDW restaurants for $28-32. It all boils down to what your willing to pay in a certain situation. You can always expect to pay more in a supply/demand type situation, and you know if at WDW or any other amusement venue that you are going to massively overpay anyway. I'm not sure why people are acting so surprised by this.
We are leaving this evening to drive down, with a stop over in GA tonight. We had intended originally to buy a case of water along the way.....However when all this happened I went ahead and bought the case of water here at home in TN because I wasn't sure just how far up I-75 people had been preparing and hoarding. Better safe than sorry.

 

[Hopefully]

Any news on resort offerings today? Fingers crossed for our 4:50 'Ohana reservation.

Thanks for the info! Still holding out hope that they'll open for dinner since the worst will have passed by then!

You're kidding right!!!!

 

[maxiesmom]

Gotta have people to do that..

And they stated they need to be able to check everything for damage first

 

[Lehuaann]

Gotta have people to do that..

I didn't say today

 

[uagirl]

As I read the posts with complaints about food, criticism about planning, etc., I can't help but think that if you have to be stuck somewhere Disney is a pretty good place to be stuck. Is $13 for subpar food ideal? No, but neither is a creepy roach motel on the interstate because that's all that was left.

Back to my popcorn eating and thread watching.

 

[Traveliz]

It would be so nice of Disney to open a park or 2 for resort guests only.

I can't imagine how they would pull that off. I have CM family members and the sheer volume they would need to get it open is mind boggling. They were told they are off today...not to check and see periodically, so managers would first have to be pulled in (somehow) to start calling people to see if they would come to work. For something the size of a park that just seems like a logistical nightmare to me. Plus so many are CPs who are dependent on the bus systems (would have to get that up and running) plus the buses to the resorts/park would have to be brought online. I don't see this as a possibility at all

Liz

 

[DisDadDVC]

All the other flights are booked and when one opens up, by the time they go through rebooking 3 different reservation numbers (really wish SW would re-evaluate this and give ppl one reservation number, such a pain) they are gone. This has happened 4 times since last night to us! Really aggravating

You can get one res # if booked on cash. The downside to that though is if you want to re-fare, there needs to be 4 (or however many of you there are) fares available at that price. Sometimes there is only 2 or 3. You would need to split the res to change just 2 of the fares.

 

[Traveliz]

I didn't say today

Well pretty sure all four will be open tomorrow so what day are you talking about? And for resort guests only - that would be a really small group because not everyone would take advantage of it.

Liz

 

[nikapluto]

News just reported legoland is opening at 2pm so we can't say it is impossible.

 

[HopperFan]

One reason for curfews is things like this .....

Caitlin Dineen ‏@CaitlinDineen 4 seconds ago
Road conditions along 17-92 in @seminolecounty greatly deteriorated b/w my drive in at 8:30 and my drive out at 10:30. Downed wires, limbs.