Hurricane Matthew Closes WDW - Reopens Saturday, October 8th

[Elsaalltheway]

This. I saw on here that food was open, so we headed down. Place is bustling. And I asked a cm about lunch - they're serving burgers and chicken nuggets. While still telling us to stay in our rooms.

I've read this complaint on here many times. Let's look at it this way. You are on your flight there is a little weather the fasten your seatbelt is on for you safety, but people still get up because they still have needs. I think it is the same way. Go out if you need to, if not, then please stay indoors. They don't want you out in the elements unless its necessary.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

The eye of a hurricane (center of circulation) doesn't disappear and the hurricane doesn't break apart immediately when it hits land. So it is indeed possible for the center of a hurricane to pass directly over Orlando even though it's inland. Maybe I'm misunderstanding your definition of a "direct hit," but having personal experience with Betsy, Camille, Katrina & Ike (and others) I'm certain that Orlando could have had a direct hit by Matthew. And I do remember seeing more than one potential track yesterday taking Matthew directly over Orlando. Yes, they were outliers, but at one time so was the first track that showed Matthew looping back southward.

ETA that now I see you equate landfall with a direct hit. I don't believe they are the same.

I think that's the mix up, yes the eye can most definitely pass over and has. Direct hit normally means the actual landfall spot. They get the full force of the storm, it directly hits them. It will then travel over land hitting other areas as it comes to Orlando. It doesn't go "directly" to Orlando is what we are saying, therefore only costal areas will and can physically get the direct hit from the water.

 

[andyman8]

CNN's live at WDW...

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

Not really sure why anyone thinks this is the appropriate forum for their repetitive one-on-one sniping contests, but it's gone on since yesterday and it's getting old. Can we all stop feeding the trolls? They're pretty well fed at this point.

 

[Kirk Hilles]

Hi, new guy here. Our original plan was to fly in Saturday and leave Thursday. Obviously that flight didn't happen, but we are close enough to drive so we are likely to do that.

What is everybody doing that is there at the Park? I know flights are cancelled right now, but are you planning on extending your vacation? Are you going to fly out as soon as flights are available? What are rooms like? Are people checking In or Out?

I'm just trying to get a good idea of what I/we should do. We were originally planning on doing the Not-so-scary-Halloween party Monday night, but with the other ones cancelled, is that going to be wall-to-wall people? I'm wondering if crowds are going to be massive with everything going on.

What is everybody's plans?

 

[AngiTN]

No complaints here at how they are handling things in regards to feeding us here at BWI. Food on the buffets is very good. Choices include breads and fixings to make sandwiches, bags of chips, 4 different pizza, barbeque, salads, cookies and brownies. All you can eat, $16 per person. They even have boxes out to take things back to your room if you want.

And even better, the Abracadabra Bar is open!

 

[AngiTN]

I just spoke to a couple people on the phone at Disney and they said it's basically just rain and we are good ton drive in there tonight. Can anyone confirm or deny that?

I would say that for on property here at Disney yes. Now, what it's like on the drive in to Orlando, that is a bigger question mark

 

[ChipnDale79]

No complaints here at how they are handling things in regards to feeding us here at BWI. Food on the buffets is very good. Choices include breads and fixings to make sandwiches, bags of chips, 4 different pizza, barbeque, salads, cookies and brownies. All you can eat, $16 per person. They even have boxes out to take things back to your room if you want.

And even better, the Abracadabra Bar is open!

Great news!

 

[jessicaknarr]

If they open more bars all the complaining and picking apart every little thing will end! Bring on the booze......
In the meantime I am planning out my gluttonous rage for Food and Wine tomorrow!

 

[tink2020]

Wow! Our restaurants here aren't even open.

No complaints here at how they are handling things in regards to feeding us here at BWI. Food on the buffets is very good. Choices include breads and fixings to make sandwiches, bags of chips, 4 different pizza, barbeque, salads, cookies and brownies. All you can eat, $16 per person. They even have boxes out to take things back to your room if you want.

And even better, the Abracadabra Bar is open!

 

[yulilin3]

I just spoke to a couple people on the phone at Disney and they said it's basically just rain and we are good ton drive in there tonight. Can anyone confirm or deny that?

It's just light rain right now but Orange Co is under curfew until tomorrow at 7am. They just came on the news and said they are assessing road conditions and might lift the curfew earlier.

 

[#1hoosierfan]

My friend is doing laundry and said things are getting ugly. People reserved and paid for machines online but people think they are cutting.

 

[murmer]

Our flight tomorrow got cancelled and the earliest we could get a flight out was Tuesday (and that was a maybe when I called) which is halfway through our trip. We decided to cancel

 

[A Mickeyfan]

This b&b is right across the street from the water. This street floods when it sprinkles, so these people absolutely should have evaced.no sympathy.

owners should have shut it down and thrown guests out like all other resorts did. That was wrong of them. Now rescue workers will not respond. If they were in evacuation zone and stayed, they were warned.
....and guests were just flat out stupid to stay after being warned. I don't care if they aren't from FL and don't know storm surge, they were told.

 

[Lisa F]

Thank you!!! I actually thought I prepared quite well, given the circumstances. I spent most of the day securing our room for the next two days, rebooked our canceled flight, and spent a couple more hours dealing with ticket issues at guest relations. BTW, they very graciously gave us an alternate meal at Captain Cooks for the missing sandwich.

well I'm not surprised they did but glad they handled it properly. I once was buying lunch for a bunch of people and ordered and paid for chips for my son and didn't realize they were to the right of the register so I never grabbed them myself and didn't notice when they didn't come with the 3 trays of food until he asked about them, by which point I had pitched my receipt and it had been 20 minutes and a shift change since ordering. I just went up and explained it and I think they lost interest in my overly convoluted story and threw me a bag of chips I live in an overpriced tourist area and was so glad to not have to pay $2.50 for a $0.50 bag of chips a second time.

this reminds me of that facebook meme about how I was the perfect parent until I actually had kids. Everyone knows with 100% precision what they'd do in any situation.. until they are in it. Glad it is mostly going ok for most people!

 

[WhateverLolaWants]

Curfew is going to be lifted at 2pm today. I checked Open Table to see if anything is open today and Frontera Cocina, Raglan Road and Paradiso 37 are taking reservations for today. Not sure if they are actually open or if they didn't fix their Open Table availability.

 

[OnceUponATime15]

Was watching CNN prior to leaving for work an hour ago, one of their intrepid reporters was standing at Apopka Vineland Rd & Hotel Plaza Blvd doing a live hit. Across from McDs.

Lot's of car traffic in the background, looked like the curfew wasn't/isn't being enforced.

 

[Pawpsicle]

It's just light rain right now but Orange Co is under curfew until tomorrow at 7am. They just came on the news and said they are assessing road conditions and might lift the curfew earlier.

Curfew ending at 2pm.

 

[Tinkerbell8956]

Staying at the grand currently...was just told that the courtyard pool should be open in a couple of hours by the lifeguards.

 

[Geoff_M]

I'm not even sure you could say that they ramped up their bottom line. I'm sure based on what they lost with all of the park TS restaurants being closed vs. people eating $13 boxed lunches they are losing a ton of money for the next couple of days... something that the $13 boxed lunch profit could not even begin to touch. Not arguing with you really, more agreeing but just a bit more strongly.

I didn't say WDW's bottom line, I said the "unit"... meaning the local foodcourt's. I have no doubt that each food outlet at WDW is primarily evaluated on the amount of sales volume and earnings generated at that location.

As for the whole economic impact of the shutdown for WDW, it might not be as bad as you think, and might even be near neutral or even positive for Disney. This might be an interesting discussion. Let me preface what I'm about write by stating that this assumes that Disney doesn't automatically give each person with a ticket that was "active" today a free 1-day park hopper that can be used later. On the negative side, Disney lost out on some food and merchandise sales today (particularly from off-site guests), though people "trapped" on-site are still going to largely pay Disney for food, $13 box lunches or not, and unless it's the last day of their trip people will still have the option to by merchandise while at WDW. They also lost some resort room revenue for people that canceled before the storm, through it appears that others took many of those rooms (put perhaps at a discounted rate). Now let's look at the parks. Since non-expiring tickets are a thing of the past and now tickets turn into a pumpkin 14 days after first use, the clock keeps ticking on everyone's partially used ticket even if the park isn't open today. So the closure today doesn't impact Disney's ticket income, except for the people that would have walked up and bought a 1-day ticket today. The biggest expense for almost any company is payroll. Today, the hourly workers at WDW that operate the parks are largely sitting at home and will not be paid for this "day off" since it was due to an "Act of God." Even though there are a lot of CMs working the resorts, and there are small "ride out" crews at the parks, that's still a BIG plus in Disney's financial column. So basically, you have people with tickets that cannot be used today, Disney will still have a lot of food sales, guests will still take home merchandise, their payroll costs will take a BIG dip this week, not operating the parks today will cut their utility costs, and their rooms were at (or almost at) full occupancy. Unless I'm missing something (and I could be), I don't see Disney taking it in the shorts financially over all of this.