HURRICANE SEASON! Second thoughts for Sept.?

[tinkerrn]

After finally deciding on all our honeymoon plans, I am having second thougts!! Not about my FDH, but the package I bought for our honeymoon!
Since there is a 45 day cancellation period for packages and 5 days for room only, I am seriously thinking about just getting room only. Am I nutz? Is anyone else thinking the same thing? I would hate to loss our money! 5 days and 45 days are a huge difference if a hurricane plans to head though Florida! We are driving! Love to hear from others who have the same thoughts running through your head!

Thanks!
Amy

 

[kandeebunny]

Disney is the SAFEST place in FL to be during a hurricane...they don't lose power...don't worry! Go and have fun!

 

[OhioTony]

Granted, it wasn't our honeymoon but we survived hurricane jeanne at the cbr.Quite nicely too! We never lost electricity and we only lost one day in the parks-- we were given a one day pass to come back another time. How bad can it be if youre on your honeymoon to have to stay in your room for a day?

 

[Suzanne74]

No no - have no regrets, really - last year there were no cancellation penalties with any of the hurricanes. You could check in if you wish or cancel. Same with airlines since MCO was closed. Also I think the MOST the parks were closed was 1.5 days during Charlie. You won't believe how quick Disney can turn around a horrible hurricane to Mickey dancing in the streets. Sept is a great time to go too. At worse case scenerio, you will either be there during one and can spend one day in bed or you can just postpone a day or 2 if one hits right before you leave.

Even with all the activity, I think the chances of another hurricane hitting Orlando as hard again in 1 yr is pretty slim. Keep our plan!!!

Congrats

 

[bigbabyblues]

We survived Jeanne at ASMo.....no problems at all for us. We did fly down two days early (we were supposed to land on Sunday, so was she), but everything was fine. I believe they were making exceptions for those who needed to reschedule during a hurricane, but not to say they do everytime. I would get trip insurance, just in case.

 

[tinkerrn]

Thank you!!!!! It helps just to be comforted by all your experiences from last year!!! I appreciate all your comments! Thank you sooooo much!

 

[tinkerrn]

We are also staying at CBR!!!

 

[aubriee]

I changed my room only ressie to a pkg just a week or so ago, in order to get the free dining. While I was talking to the CM about whether or not to buy travel insurance she said I could if I wanted, but she didn't necessarily recommend it. She then gave me the price ($140. something) and said that last year both WDW and the airlines were really good about working with people. You could cancel or leave early without penalty and if you missed any days in the park, WDW was issuing free park passes to be used later for the days missed. People who left early got refunds on their rooms for the nights not used. She also reassured me that WDW is one of the safest places to be in a hurricane. She said she had lived in Florida for 16 years and never experienced anything like last year, but never felt unsafe at WDW. She also reminded me that hurricane season lasts from early June through November, so only about 6 months of the year would be considered nonhurricane weather. Anyway we are driving down this time and decided not to buy the insurance. Well be there Sept 17th-24th hurricane or no hurricane.

 

[Piglet42]

I would keep your current reservations. I was there last Sept for my honeymoon, and although we had great weather, we were supposed to fly out on Sun- the day Jeanne was going to hit. We talked to the CM as Guest Services and we didn't get any type of penatly for checking out early and she was able to give us the numbers to call Delta to change our flight to Saturday. Believe or not, I was only on the phone with Delta for about 25 minutes. A lot easier than I thought. To top it off, we had transportation already booked back to the airport, I think it was Transportation to Disney, anyway, we were also able to reschedule with them as well. They were there at 6:00 am the next day to pick us up.

I hated to leave early, but it all worked out great. And from what I read about last year, the most the parks are closed are about one day. So as long as you get there and get home safely, don't worry about it. You have will a great time! As a matter of fact, we've already booked for Sept again this year.

 

[Gooofy-Blade]

We too made a minor change in travel/stay last year and both WDW and the airlines were very workable with no fees. If a hurricane happens to stumble into central Florida again, I'm sure WDW will use its same practice of being flexible. I hate to say it, but we were there for a week in between 2 hurricanes last Sept. and it felt great - had the park to ourselves - so it seemed. I would never wish that again on that area but as for WDW - life goes on even in trouble time.

 

[tlev]

We were there on our honeymoon last year when Ivan was supposed to hit. I worried and fretted about that stupid storm for the entire week before our trip, going back and forth about whether to cancel or not. We finally decided to go for it and the storm never even hit central Fla. It turned at the last minute and went west. We had the parks all to ourselves. I would just keep your plans, we are going back in Sept. this year for our anniversary and I promised my DW I would not even look at the weather channel!

 

[kkc1021]

We visited in September last year during Hurricane Jeanne and would definitely do it again.

We were scheduled to fly in on Sunday, but knew by Friday that the storm would cause issues with our flights. On Friday we changed our flights to late Saturday and then realized early on Saturday that the airport would shut down before we were scheduled to depart. Song let us reschedule again on a late morning flight and we were never charged for any of these changes.

We stayed at the Polynesian and we able to check in a day early and they also honored the discounted rate we had for the rest of our stay.

Sunday all of the parks were closed, but they brought in characters and performers to the hotel lobby. The kids were all invited to do arts and crafts projects and to play games in the lobby between 'shows'. Most of the restaurants were open by the end of the day - although some were serving limited menus.

We felt very safe and well entertained. I'll never forgot how wonderful all of the CM's were during this trip - true Disney magic at it's best! Have fun and good luck with your decision!

Kristen

 

[kelscross]

Go and have a fabulous time!! We went down during Frances, I had an inkling that they would start closing the airport so we left a day early to arrive. We stayed at ASMO the first night and just went to DTD and played in the pool at the resort. The weather was beautiful. The next morning we transferred over to the Poly for our original package stay. Although the parks were closed the pools were open and they had the characters and various entertainment in the GCH. I don't know what the other resorts did. The pools and GCH did not close until that evening when the outerbands of the hurricane started coming in. We were asked to stay in our rooms all day Sunday. Keep in mind this was a slow moving storm so it was much longer than the average hurricane. The poly had prepared dinner, breakfast, and lunch boxes that had a substantial amout of food in them. It was only 5 bucks...cheapest meal in Disney! ha! Other than being tired of eating the same thing for 1 1/2 days it was adequate. Monday morning MK and EPCOT were open and there were no crowds at all. A worker at the monorail told us that the park has a 60,000 guest capacity and that time of year they expect about 30,000 however, that particular day only 7,000 guests were in the park We did everything in MK in under 4 hours!

Long story short...go have a good time..BTW had we not chosen to go, Disney was very accomodating about changing or refunding even if you didn't have trip insurance, so were the airlines.

 

[nhpooh]

Disney is the SAFEST place in FL to be during a hurricane...they don't lose power...don't worry! Go and have fun!

We were there last year for Hurricane Frances, like kandeebunny said we didn't lose power. The CM's at WL were great. Only lost one day at the parks. Go and have fun.

 

[Gooofy-Blade]

TINKERRN: "..........honeymoon.......I'm seriously thinking about getting a room only......."

Who needs a park on their honeymoon anyway!!!!!!!!!!!

Have fun!