Hurricane Matthew Closes WDW - Reopens Saturday, October 8th

[Sargeant Tibbs]

I can tell you why this is 100% Disney's fault. POOR POOR communication - to everyone!

Until 1:30 today this is what showed on the website. Business as usual, all is good, we aren't closing. Folks are in the parks and having fun, they aren't hunkered over CNN and the Weather Channel. They depend on Disney in this situation.

But hey then they changed it .... but who at Disney is opening up the full website? I think most are using MDE. I didn't hear one person reporting receiving a text or email to notify them of the change. Please correct me if I am wrong. But you know what is interesting .... it didn't change until lots of folks were tweeting tagging Disney asking why the early close has leaked but they aren't telling anyone. Only if you tweeted and questioned them did they send a reply to the notice, which no one sees. I know I responded that you are handling this poorly, I'm not the only one. How about direct tweet the change, put it on facebook, send a text or email to your guests .............

IF guests had received a notification at 1:30 that parks close at 5 and all day tomorrow and they want you in your rooms ............ I guarantee you most would have eaten in the parks, shopped for snacks and drinks, gone on a quick run to grocery if they had a car, stopped by the food court at hotel immediately. BUT no they got virtually no notification, I bet some didn't even know until they were told at the park it is closing soon - and there comes the mad rush for food because now they may be trapped in their rooms for 24 hours.

There wouldn't be these lines if this weren't their ONLY option for food for possibly the next 24 hours. There was no valid reason to withhold this information so folks had the opportunity to prepare for themselves and their family. None.

And as you know, communication was abysmal with CMs as well. Those who were in the position to make this call chose image and money over safety and preparedness.

 

[gja360]

Adam Harland‏@adamharland
Sealing up the monorail at Disney's Contemporary Resort @spann @WBRCweather @weatherchannel @jpdice_Fox6 @48FirstAlertWx

Cool picture! Thanks for sharing

 

[lklasing]

Just FYI about Southwest flights - After I saw somewhere on a prior page of this thread that SW had cancelled all flights out of MCO through Sunday, I called and finally got a SW rep on the phone. She checked and said that at least as of right now, our flight out of MCO Sunday morning is still on. No guarantee that won't change of course, but I was glad it was still on the schedule.

 

[madge]

I can tell you why this is 100% Disney's fault. POOR POOR communication - to everyone!

Until 1:30 today this is what showed on the website. Business as usual, all is good, we aren't closing. Folks are in the parks and having fun, they aren't hunkered over CNN and the Weather Channel. They depend on Disney in this situation.

But hey then they changed it .... but who at Disney is opening up the full website? I think most are using MDE. I didn't hear one person reporting receiving a text or email to notify them of the change. Please correct me if I am wrong. But you know what is interesting .... it didn't change until lots of folks were tweeting tagging Disney asking why the early close has leaked but they aren't telling anyone. Only if you tweeted and questioned them did they send a reply to the notice, which no one sees. I know I responded that you are handling this poorly, I'm not the only one. How about direct tweet the change, put it on facebook, send a text or email to your guests .............

IF guests had received a notification at 1:30 that parks close at 5 and all day tomorrow and they want you in your rooms ............ I guarantee you most would have eaten in the parks, shopped for snacks and drinks, gone on a quick run to grocery if they had a car, stopped by the food court at hotel immediately. BUT no they got virtually no notification, I bet some didn't even know until they were told at the park it is closing soon - and there comes the mad rush for food because now they may be trapped in their rooms for 24 hours.

There wouldn't be these lines if this weren't their ONLY option for food for possibly the next 24 hours. There was no valid reason to withhold this information so folks had the opportunity to prepare for themselves and their family. None.

This.

My family was on one of the late afternoon flights that left MCO today just before the airport closed .... we left pop @ 12:30pm today. We had a plan B in place, just in case our flight ended up being canceled at the last minute.

how hard would it have been to put letters under the doors last night alerting guests to the weather, reduced hours, and simple tips to prepare? A little information goes a long way to ease anxiety.

as an aside, the pop cast members I worked with this AM when we left were awesome.

 

[gja360]

Just FYI about Southwest flights - After I saw somewhere on a prior page of this thread that SW had cancelled all flights out of MCO through Sunday, I called and finally got a SW rep on the phone. She checked and said that at least as of right now, our flight out of MCO Sunday morning is still on. No guarantee that won't change of course, but I was glad it was still on the schedule.

They way things are looking you should be fine for Sunday

 

[HopperFan]

And as you know, communication was abysmal with CMs as well. Those who were in the position to make this call chose image and money over safety and preparedness.

Completely agree with you, was just sticking the comment to respond to post.

Just a few:
- Epcot Managers were told yesterday that they would be closing early Thursday, completely closed Friday
- Today MK employees were told to report at night even though MNSSHP was cancelled
- Apparently communications knew the plan this morning but wasn't telling anyone
- Slowly different departments were finding out and posting, probably because someone leaked to them
And on and on ..

If they had chosen safety and communication first, then preparedness wouldn't be as big an issue because you would have given everyone time to plan for themselves and get ready. Instead they have created a chaos and that breeds anxiety and fear ........... and negative press, which I'm kinda getting tired of.

 

[NanaDisney]

Local news I just watched shows it likely being a category 3 by the time it's off the coast around the Orlando area. Showed winds in Orlando so far being around 40 mph.

For you guys at Disney, if the storm stays off the coast of Florida and still decreases, then you guys likely will just keep seeing what you're seeing now. Around 40-50mph winds. So hopefully for you guys it's about as worse as it's going to get

Are you in Orlando? Because that's not what our local Orlando news is saying right now

 

[HopperFan]

I disagree....HELLO everyone in the US has been talking for 2-3 days about this coming ashore up towards Orlando and the coast. Just because they left the park open doesn't mean they weren't going to close it when the storm is close at hand. You are adults come on use common sense.

You know not everyone understands hurricanes, how they work, where they go ......... and not long ago it was off the coast of South America. For the novice they don't realize the HUGENESS of this. And as a guest at Disney, I think people assume that Disney will keep them abreast of what is going on or if they need to do something ...... and when the information you keep getting is business as usual ............ they believe.

NOW I've been in so many kinds of storms even if I am sure there is no chance, my room has drinks, case of water, lunch meat, rolls, breakfast food, snacks .......... I take it home I bring so much. Not everyone thinks like that and are happy to just buy their food at parks etc.But I never want to be caught in a hunker situation empty handed. I had to escape a hurricane on a barrier island and hunker for days. With minimal food. Lesson learned. Keeping folks fed keeps them happy.

I think most ON here are planners and researchers and knew to expect it. We are a SLIVER of the people that go to Disney. Even if they did research a Disney trip doesn't mean they researched hurricanes. AND if they did on here, guess what, most the time the response is "Orlando is inland, middle of state, they never get hurricanes" so why would they think it would happen now.

 

[HopperFan]

The Mickey Wiki ‏@TheMickeyWiki 6m6 minutes ago
Pop Century earlier tonight #MatthewWDW

 

[HopperFan]

Mike @ Blog Mickey ‏@Blog_Mickey 1h1 hour ago
For posterity: Monorail Green and Red to ride out #HurricaneMatthew inside the Contemporary http://blogmickey.com/2016/10/monorail-green-red-spend-night-contemporary-hurricane-matthew/…

 

[HopperFan]

TheDisneyTeen Blog‏@thedisneyteenss
Line for food at the Pepper Market at Coronado Springs. #Disney #WDW #Orlando #HurricaneMatthew

 

[rteetz]

And as you know, communication was abysmal with CMs as well. Those who were in the position to make this call chose image and money over safety and preparedness.

Universal waited very long to make the call as well. These two companies are some of the largest theme park companies in the world and aren't going to make a call like that too early. If they make that call too early then the storm might not even come close. Universal wasn't cancelling anything until their announcement today. Disney at least cancelled the Halloween party to start. It's not like closing the parks is something that happens often. The last time they closed the parks was over 10 years ago and many of the executives in the position to make the call weren't there then.

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

1. HopperFan has been an amazing, incredible resource in this thread and deserves a collective, gigantic muffin basket from everyone who has read it when the storm is finally passed.

2. Because of number one above, HopperFan really has a very good sense of what is going on and has been going on.

3. Personally, I think HopperFan is absolutely right about the poor communication and poor choices on Disney's part. As we all know, when you're at Disney you want everything to be OK, and you look to Disney and by extension CMs to make sure that's going to be the case. Everyone on property today wanted to believe everything that Disney was telling them. That's totally normal. Disney had the opportunity to much earlier and much more proactively tell both guests and CMs about park closures, and perhaps more importantly could have made decisions about park closures much, much sooner. However, in order to attempt to maximize profit, they chose not to be as proactive as they could have been, and I think that gave people on property a false sense of security. That's why people stayed in the parks until the last minute. That's why people didn't eat dinner in the parks before coming back to super-crowded food courts. That's why people didn't leave the parks early in order to gather supplies at their resorts or make plans to get supplies offsite while they could.

You take your cues from Disney when you're at Disney. We have all done that. We will all probably always do that. Blaming people who are sheltering on property as if it's their own fault for Disney not more proactively managing the situation, when proactive management would've been the far more responsible thing to do, is not the reality of how any of us actually connect with Walt Disney World when we're there.

 

[HopperFan]

Mission to Mouse‏@Mission_toMouse
#polynesianresort asking guests to remain in their rooms #Wdw #disneyworld #hurricanematthew

 

[andyman8]

The Mickey Wiki ‏@TheMickeyWiki 6m6 minutes ago
Pop Century earlier tonight #MatthewWDW

Fans of the website easyWDW should join me in Josh's favorite game: count the smiles. I see two at least!

Please keep these photos coming. Very interesting! Of course, to all those there, please stay safe. Thinking of you all and keeping you in my prayers!

 

[HopperFan]

ian MacGregor‏@macgregor63
Here's the crowd trying to get those $12.99 boxes some have spoken of. The sit down restaurants are booked. Bet it's the same in each resort

 

[Ndusmama]

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.

Sorry but my first through was use your bed as a flotation device. I know that's wrong and hopefully you see the humor in that. Seriously try to stay safe.

 

[CAS239]

Are you in Orlando? Because that's not what our local Orlando news is saying right now

No. I'm in southwest Florida. What are you seeing?

Latest charts are showing it as a Cat 3 by Friday morning. And wind charts around 11 were showing top winds Orlando had seen so far was like 41mph

 

[HopperFan]

Fans of the website easyWDW should join me in Josh's favorite game: count the smiles. I see two at least!

Please keep these photos coming. Very interesting! Of course, to all those there, please stay safe. Thinking of you all and keeping you in my prayers!

JOSH and SMILES ........... that made me chuckle

 

[gja360]

Mike @ Blog Mickey ‏@Blog_Mickey 1h1 hour ago
For posterity: Monorail Green and Red to ride out #HurricaneMatthew inside the Contemporary http://blogmickey.com/2016/10/monorail-green-red-spend-night-contemporary-hurricane-matthew/…

Cool picture