I love credit cards so much! v2.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[*WDW*Groupie*]

My advice would be to monitor the next day or so, and if you plan to leave, do so early. Hurricane traffic + holiday weekend traffic will be a nightmare. And, depending on the path, consider going south or southwest instead of north. The storm will continue north and there will be chances for flooding, tornadoes, etc. on land. If you have patio furniture, put it in the pool!

My friends and neighbors who drove north for Irma told stories of drives up the 95 to Atlanta that took 26 hours in a sea of never-ending cars with no gas or hotel rooms along the way. My neighbor had to sleep on the side of the highway with her son until a tanker with gas came to a nearby station. There are pros and cons for staying and leaving and ultimately you have to do what's right for you. If you decide to leave it might be a good idea to get ahead of the crowds and have a few extra canisters of gas with you.

I'll be thinking of all my Florida dis'ers as Dorian heads towards us.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

We don't consider leaving unless a hurricane is predicted to be a category 3 or higher (despite being close to a river, we aren't in a flood zone either)- Irma came right by us as a strong 2, my DH and kiddos slept through it Lost power for a couple of days but made the best of it!

That was same for us when we lived in CHS

 

[Haley R]

This doesn't bode well for opening weekend for SWGE. I bet the execs are freaking out right now.

I just saw the track after I booked my nonrefundable PLE deal. Had forgotten Dorian was even a thing since I saw it a few days ago. Oops. hahaha. Luckily, I come in Tues pm, which is hopefully after it passes through. SW isn't even allowing free flight changes for Tuesday at this time, so fingers crossed.
If I were living in CHS with this storm impending, I wouldn't even be leaving. We weren't in a flood zone though. I'd just stock up on essentials and ride it out unless the intensity increases. Didn't you guys just buy a generator? If you are in a flood zone just head inland to whatever hotel you find that takes pets, or maybe in and south to avoid the potential strike zone.

We’re not in a flood zone but are pretty close to one. Just yesterday it stormed for like an hour and the roads around us were already puddling up so that you had to avoid them on the other side of the street. We do have a generator but have never used it before.

I can't remember, are you near Orlando? If so, at least you're a little inland.

This is an interesting case because no hurricanes have made landfall on the east coast of Florida since Katrina in 2005, which obviously passed over Florida and re-emerged in the Gulf of Mexico.

I wasn't really digging the forecasts the past couple days - the storm was weak and the southern Florida track didn't make much sense to me. It makes more sense now, a little further north. But we don't have a good historical analogue to compare to Dorian. The Bermuda high will push it west, and a combination of the high + fronts from the NE will eventually recurve it away from the US mainland. The waters around the Bahamas are plenty warm enough, and shear is low, so intensification is likely as long as the storm can wall off dry air (which it is doing now).

Interestingly, a stronger, more intense hurricane is generally more likely to "feel" the weaknesses in the atmosphere, and a sooner recurvature out to sea becomes more likely.

I'm just a random guy on the internet though, so make sure you pay attention to what they are telling you locally. And yeah, you live in hurricane country now, so having a plan is important. Know where you'll go - consider making a cancelable booking at a hotel that allows pets. We did that once or twice when we lived in Mississippi.

No we are on the east coast. We live about 20-25 minutes from the coast. I guess we’ll wait one or two more days but will need to decide if we’re going somewhere. I might go ahead and book a refundable hotel.

My advice would be to monitor the next day or so, and if you plan to leave, do so early. Hurricane traffic + holiday weekend traffic will be a nightmare. And, depending on the path, consider going south or southwest instead of north. The storm will continue north and there will be chances for flooding, tornadoes, etc. on land. If you have patio furniture, put it in the pool!

Do you think going inland to orlabdo would be a good idea? I never thought to put patio furniture in the pool. We do have room in our garage that we could put it there instead though

How close are you to the coast? We are less than 5 miles from the beach and I am staying put unless something changes drastically (stayed for Irma -- it's harder with pets and the dog ultimately cemented our decision to stay as I couldn't get her on the plane with us on the only flight that I could find to Toronto). There is still plenty of time to formulate plans and prep your house and also time for Dorian to change direction / dissipate.

We are about 20-25 minutes from the coast but a lot further north than you which I’m thinking might be the issue. It looks like it might be coming up the coast to northern Florida.

Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando is “pet friendly”, has good reviews and around 7,000 UR/ night.

Thanks! I’ll look into that

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Soooo, my PLE deal at AofA is for 2 people, of course.
However, I was able to go in and make the DME booking and it let me add 2 kids and then I got a confirmation email back. So it seems DS9 will be able to get on DME without me adding him to the reservation.
Think that will suffice and I can just add him once I get to the front desk instead of having to call wholesale?

 

[Haley R]

My friends and neighbors who drove north for Irma told stories of drives up the 95 to Atlanta that took 26 hours in a sea of never-ending cars with no gas or hotel rooms along the way. My neighbor had to sleep on the side of the highway with her son until a tanker with gas came to a nearby station. There are pros and cons for staying and leaving and ultimately you have to do what's right for you. If you decide to leave it might be a good idea to get ahead of the crowds and have a few extra canisters of gas with you.

I'll be thinking of all my Florida dis'ers as Dorian heads towards us.

I considered going up north to Georgia where we have family friends but I think that would just be a nightmare, especially with the cats in the car

 

[havaneselover]

My friends and neighbors who drove north for Irma told stories of drives up the 95 to Atlanta that took 26 hours in a sea of never-ending cars with no gas or hotel rooms along the way. My neighbor had to sleep on the side of the highway with her son until a tanker with gas came to a nearby station. There are pros and cons for staying and leaving and ultimately you have to do what's right for you. If you decide to leave it might be a good idea to get ahead of the crowds and have a few extra canisters of gas with you.

I'll be thinking of all my Florida dis'ers as Dorian heads towards us.

My parents (mid 70s) were Irma evacuees. It was terrible. They could not find gas. It was extremely stressful. They spent about a week with me, missed a vacation to Italy, but thankfully their house in Naples only received minor damage. Had they left earlier, it would have been much easier. There's definitely a downside to living in paradise.

 

[FloridaNative8]

Do you think going inland to orlabdo would be a good idea? I never thought to put patio furniture in the pool. We do have room in our garage that we could put it there instead though

I would say that you decide what will make you feel safer. I know this is the first hurricane experience for y'all - which can be scary. There's no harm in booking a refundable room just in case - for peace of mind!

 

[DisneyMandC]

That was same for us when we lived in CHS

We've also ridden out Cat 2 at home, though we're obviously more inland. Lost power for 10 days but we're very rural, so many had power back before we did. Cat 2 isn't terrible depending on where you are. We had trees come down but I wouldn't say I ever felt unsafe.

 

[marsh0013]

Just wondering when ones who are coming from the East coast to Anaheim, what airport do you fly into? This is for DL of course.

SNA is so convenient to DL. We've gone into LAX and SNA and much prefer SNA. I know LAX has more options though. LGB is also convenient from what I've read, but we've never done that one.

 

[marsh0013]

Should be a fun weekend in Disney with Dorian coming. We're currently on a jetblue flight at 5:30pm Friday out of Newark but I'm going to same day change us to the 10:23am as long as there's availability at midnight Thurs/Fri. Then we're scheduled to fly home around 5:30pm Monday on United.

Good news is we booked the Swan for checkout Tuesday instead of Monday since wanted a room to go back to, thinking we might do the EEMH at 6am that day. So it looks like we may get stuck and unable to get out Monday. I guess we'll keep an eye on that. If united starts offering waivers, may have to see what our options are. I'm already taking Friday unpaid. Flights were booked on UR via CSR, so we're covered there. Hotel on AA points. Forgot to put a few bucks on the CSR for the hotel. Oh well.

 

[wendow]

@disneymagicgirl your AoA deal is fantastic! Love it! It’ll make your dd so happy too!

Also sounds like you will be in the immediate ‘post Dorian’ crowds. We were at wdw until right before Irma hit. Had to get on an earlier flight to get out in time and after I heard how slow the parks were after Irma came through, I wished we’d stayed lol. The place was a ghost town for days. Even our last day before we left was really slow as people were already trying to get home and no one new was arriving.

 

[Haley R]

We've also ridden out Cat 2 at home, though we're obviously more inland. Lost power for 10 days but we're very rural, so many had power back before we did. Cat 2 isn't terrible depending on where you are. We had trees come down but I wouldn't say I ever felt unsafe.

When we moved here people told us they start thinking about leaving if it’s a category 3 but most still stay even if it’s a 3. If it’s a 4 then most leave

 

[Lain]

https://viewfromthewing.com/2019/08/28/effective-immediately-united-mileageplus-miles-never-expire/
Previously, United miles expired after 18 months of inactivity.

 

[Lain]

https://milestomemories.boardingarea.com/galaxys-edge-coke-bottle-banned-tsa/
Clickbait title, so I'll give you the TL;DR:

TSA tweeted they're banning the SWGE Coke bottles that look like “thermal detonators” from carry-on and checked bags. I'm guessing this applies even to empty bottles.

ETA: @afan says it’s not an official ban. TSA may search your bags, but the Coke bottles should be ok with the caps off.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/i...t-page-for-addl-details.3729982/post-61011414

 

[Haley R]

@brownhaired_girl they allow dogs but not cats at the Rosen shingle

 

[DisneyMandC]

When we moved here people told us they start thinking about leaving if it’s a category 3 but most still stay even if it’s a 3. If it’s a 4 then most leave

Yeah, I would say depending on where you are in the path of a cat 3, you might be ok staying home. But I would definitely be getting out of town if it's a 4. Remember though that hurricanes decrease rapidly in strength when they make landfall. This can be good and bad in the sense that the category number goes down, but they can also stall out and bring a lot more rain to your area.

I would suggest going out and doing a test run on your generator and letting it run for a little while to make sure it's working ok. Does it have a test cycle that it runs weekly? My mom has one that runs for about 30 minutes once a week.

 

[DisneyMandC]

https://milestomemories.boardingarea.com/galaxys-edge-coke-bottle-banned-tsa/
Clickbait title, so I'll give you the TL;DR:

TSA tweeted they're banning the SWGE Coke bottles that look like “thermal detonators” from carry-on and checked bags. I'm guessing this applies even to empty bottles.

I totally get this, but I am sad because I did want to buy one and bring it home lol.

 

[Lain]

https://onemileatatime.com/marriott-eliminating-single-use-toiletries-globally/
Marriott announced they’ll eliminate single-use toiletries in guest rooms globally and replace them with larger, pump-topped bottles at most hotels by the end of 2020. Previously, IHG said they'd do the same by 2021.

@SouthFayetteFan better start redeeming his million+ Marriott points soon and stock up on enough free toiletries before the change.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Just thought I'd share that DH did his GE application online just now. I received an email from Capital One within, literally, 30 seconds saying that we will be reimbursed the cost on our Venture card.

 

[gregorykicks]

I have to call IHG,, but it's too early for me to function on the phone, so I thought I'd ask you. We are supposed to fly to Chicago for the weekend, on Friday. Friends just told us they have to cancel because of a bad back issue. I have a feeling dh is going to say we should just cancel too. Flights are SW, so no issue. Room is 3 separate nights, one on each our of free night IHG certs and the last one on points. The cancellation deadline for Fridays room was 6pm yesterday. It says you would will be charged one nights fee after that time. Do you think I will just lose the cert, or will they actually try to charge me real money? Our certs expire this weekend anyway, so they are gone either way anyway.

If it's lose the certs or cancel I say enjoy a couples weekend!