Hurricane Matthew Closes WDW - Reopens Saturday, October 8th

[wisblue]

Thanks for that! I know a lot of DCP parents that are up in arms about their kids.

I can sympathize with those parents. Our daughter checked in for her first DCP stint in August 2011, the week Irene was bearing down on the US. For several days before we left home I was obsessing over the forecasts and worried about whether we would have to change our travel plans. I also was worried about having to leave our daughter and have her spend her first weekend dealing with a hurricane. Fortunately for us, but not for a lot of the people further north, Irene stayed far enough off the Florida coast that all we experienced was some 40-50 MPH winds the day we flew home. But, if there had been major impact near WDW, my wife and I would have been basket cases.

 

[CAS239]

I guess all the meteorologists are all wrong. Maybe they should call you for your "expert" hurricane prediction

Latest news is that the storm has weakened some

 

[sotoalf]

Do we have any reports from the MK resorts? How are dining arrangements at the GF and Contemporary?

 

[DLM1980]

One thing that I've noticed is the difference between things at the parks vs resort

Epcot is wrapping light fixtures in plastic, presumably to contain broken glass from flying
But here at CBR all the light fixtures are unwrapped

At Epcot and Disney springs trash cans were grouped together and presumably hauled to a safer place. Here at CBR. Trash cans were zip tied to benches or light poles

At Epcot I noticed umbrellas being removed from stroller stations and the cast member spot outside the land pavilion but here at the resort they are left locked in the ground with a table around them

 

[gja360]

Latest news is that the storm has weakened some

I Think the 11 PM update will show a weaker Matthew

 

[Sammie]

We're DVC members, and our party of seven is safely situated in our 2-bedroom and a studio at Saratoga Springs. No wind right now, and rain has been light all night. At the moment, we're watching a RedBox movie we picked up earlier today.

We got here last Saturday and were supposed to check out this Saturday, but we've extended through Sunday. No 2-bedrooms were available, so they put all of us in a grand villa for Saturday night. I was able to book it with points. A bummer that we'll have to pack and move rooms, but at least we have a (very nice) place to stay. We live on the coast of South Carolina, so we can't go home right now -- mandatory evacuation under way there.

We went to Epcot today and enjoyed light crowds. We had a FP for Soarin and literally walked straight into the 3-row boarding queue without even breaking stride. We then rode Frozen with a 25-minute wait and wandered around Food & Wine for a bit. We also took in a Voices of Liberty performance -- one of my favorite things to do. We left the park about 2 and filled up the rental car with gas. We had 3/4 of a tank but decided to top it off. Next, we headed to Disney Springs and got the last order of the day at Earl of Sandwich before they closed at 4. We ended up with four soups, a salad and 13 sandwiches for the seven of us. We ate some today, and some are in the fridge for tomorrow.

We made a Publix run last night and grabbed bottled water, bread, peanut butter and jelly, granola bars, chips, etc. We also picked up some sandwiches, a baguette and some desserts at the French bakery today. Since we live a half-mile from the ocean, we know what to do in a hurricane!

Earlier today, I grabbed a dinner reservation at The Turf Club here at SSR. So glad I did! The line for box meals at Artist's Palette was 90 minutes long -- snaking all through the lobby at times. Luckily, Chip and Dale were there entertaining kids.

Because we had a Turf Club ressie, we were able to wait in a line there and place a to-go order. Only people with reservations were allowed to order. We were seated at a table to wait for the order to be ready -- waited about 20 minutes. So we had a delicious, hot dinner.

Earlier today, a member of Mousekeeping stopped by to empty the trash and and deliver a flashlight, a huge stack of clean towels and toiletries such as shampoos, dishwashing detergent, toilet paper, tissues, etc. This was not our trash and towel day, so they're clearly not limiting towel service for DVC members. There are also carts of clean towels available at the elevators on each floor -- you can take as many as you need. We filled up our tub with water and got ice, too.

I've made a dinner ressie at T Rex for tomorrow night -- it's the only thing that popped up. Not sure if it will actually be open, but I figured it doesn't hurt to have it. I also added FP ressies and a dinner ressie for Saturday night since our stay has been extended.

All in all, I feel like we're as prepared as we can be. We're safe and dry, entertained and have plenty of food. Not much else we can do to prepare, so we'll just watch movies (as long as there's power!) and enjoy this extra together time with family and friends.

See this is how you survive a hurricane at Disney and it not be a major inconvenience. Regardless of where one is from at some point common sense has to take over. The problem is people stayed at the parks until they closed them and then worried about food. Sorry too late then.

 

[rteetz]

One thing that I've noticed is the difference between things at the parks vs resort

Epcot is wrapping light fixtures in plastic, presumably to contain broken glass from flying
But here at CBR all the light fixtures are unwrapped

At Epcot and Disney springs trash cans were grouped together and presumably hauled to a safer place. Here at CBR. Trash cans were zip tied to benches or light poles

At Epcot I noticed umbrellas being removed from stroller stations and the cast member spot outside the land pavilion but here at the resort they are left locked in the ground with a table around them

I can't explain not wrapping light fixtures at the resorts but as for the rest both trash cans grouped and removed and the trash cans tied up are safe. The resorts likely don't have a place to store everything safely so tying them is the best they can do. The umbrellas liked into the ground should be fine.

 

[Lovewinnie]

I Think the 11 PM update will show a weaker Matthew

Let's hope so!

 

[otten]

I think the people complaining about the long lines for food should understand that they were designed to handle a small portion of people with the knowledge that most people would be at the parks.
With everyone being at the resort, their normal set up just doesn't handle the obvious crush.
Hopefully Disney pays attention and alters their emergency preparedness plan to cover this for future events.
Stay safe folks.

But why should they spend the money and resources for a rare event? That's not a smart use of resources just because a lot of people at the resorts didn't like waiting in lines for food and other supplies. They should make the resort kitchens and food courts bigger for an event that happens once in 10 plus years?

I heard a lot of talk this afternoon about how Disney should be prepared for anything and that's ridiculous. They do not control the weather and I for one have felt that in the area that really matters (safety) they have been on top of it.

 

[agavegirl1]

My stepson and his long time girlfriend (a CM at Disneyland) just got back from WDW two days ago and I am grateful they got home to CA when they did. Although, I think the GF would have been fascinated by the hurricane procedures and particularly miffed about the CMs having to use PTO for the forced day off.

 

[NanaDisney]

We're on a bottom floor at Carribean Beach. They are lining sandbags outside the rooms. So now I'm worried about projectiles through the windows AND room flooding.

At 100+mph winds, you can count on all kinds of flying projectiles. Yes, stay away from windows. This is also the reason that so many in the values & moderates are confined to their rooms and the reason for the Orlando curfews. One the wind gets here, it will be just too dangerous to be outside even for a minute.

 

[DLM1980]

I can't explain not wrapping light fixtures at the resorts but as for the rest both trash cans grouped and removed and the trash cans tied up are safe. The resorts likely don't have a place to store everything safely so tying them is the best they can do. The umbrellas liked into the ground should be fine.

I'm sure it's all fine I just find it funny the differences

 

[Southernmiss]

See this is how you survive a hurricane at Disney and it not be a major inconvenience. Regardless of where one is from at some point common sense has to take over. The problem is people stayed at the parks until they closed them and then worried about food. Sorry too late then.

No matter where a person is there should be personal responsibility, even in the Disney bubble.

There's so many ways to get a weather report and plan how to take care of yourself and family no matter if you've been in that particular weather or not.

 

[otten]

Thank you for that. I'm not on ride out (transitional duty after bilateral carpal tunnel release surgery + 5lb weight restriction = excluded from ride out), but I have several friends who are. One's at the Poly, another's at the Contemporary, and I'm not sure where the others are. They're away from their homes to take care of the guests.

Please pass on my thanks to your friends for this. Back home I work for the electric utility and I have colleagues who spend storms away from their families, often out in the storms (not hurricanes but powerful windstorms) getting lights on. So thank you.

 

[NanaDisney]

I have not seen any forecast calling for Matthew to hit cat 5. I mean it COULD happen, anything can happen, but have not seen that in any forecasts..

Our local Orlando news has mentioned it several times. So has the Weather Channel, ABC news, our FL Governor, etc. etc. Today the winds of Matthews were just a few mph away from a cat 5

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

If they cared about safety and not $$$ they would be offering their rooms for free to displaced florida residents, turning their many buildings into shelters, etc. Or they would have closed MK today to discourage folks from traveling to Orlando and allow castmembers time to make their own preparations Instead they chose to keep their resorts full, keep the park open till the last minute, continue accepting new reservations while not making sure sufficient staff were on hand to support the care of small city size number of families.

Honestly that just isn't how it works. A few years ago we had the worst blizzard in 50 years. You better believe that hotels were booked up like crazy due to power outages. People were getting stranded on the highways and roads and people were walking (eta from their stranded cars I mean) to nearby hotels as best that they could..those hotels, if they had room, wouldn't have given away the rooms for free even knowing about how monumentous the blizzard was.

looks to me like it's on a concrete slab so should be no problem at all. Afaik most homes like that are on slabs bc you can't have basements due to the relatively high water table. But I'm not an expert.

My husband commented about the weight too (I was the one who posted the pics) but I said the same thing about it likely being on a concrete slab.

 

[dburg30]

Weatherunderground shows 11:00 update already, shows down to 130 mph, so back to cat 3 for the time being. Granted, barely cat 3, but take what you can get, right?

 

[cristen72]

One thing that I've noticed is the difference between things at the parks vs resort

Epcot is wrapping light fixtures in plastic, presumably to contain broken glass from flying
But here at CBR all the light fixtures are unwrapped

At Epcot and Disney springs trash cans were grouped together and presumably hauled to a safer place. Here at CBR. Trash cans were zip tied to benches or light poles

At Epcot I noticed umbrellas being removed from stroller stations and the cast member spot outside the land pavilion but here at the resort they are left locked in the ground with a table around them

We are at CBR and we saw wrapped light fixtures in our area last night.

 

[im4pacers1]

Do we have any reports from the MK resorts? How are dining arrangements at the GF and Contemporary?

We are at the Contemporary. We were able to get a walk-up table at Chef Mickey's. We have a party of 12. We walked right up. No characters, they reduced the price of the dinner. The Wave had a 1.5 hour wait. I believe The Wave will be a buffet only tomorrow. The CM's said there will be plenty of food for everyone tomorrow. We are hopeful that they are able to prepare that food. We went to the Fantasia Market and got some chips, donuts, and stuff to make PBJ's. We also have milk and lunch meat. Everything is eerily calm here at CR. The restaurants were busy, but there were not crazy long lines from what I could see. We didn't try the California Grill. The check in desk was manned, not sure if they were open or what was going on there.

 

[wilkeliza]

A local friend shared this website. Pretty clear on the path and you can see the winds at different levels off the ground as well as rain. https://www.ventusky.com/orlando