No power at AKL last night

[tripletsmama]

Last night we had no power in our room from 11:30pm-2am. The hotel was doing some kind of test. They had informed us of this situation when we checked in. They gave us a flashlight for the room. I hadn't really put much thought into it, but it turned out to be pretty stressful! Trying to get 4 kids ready for bed with 1 flashlight was very difficult. The room was hot and stuffy due to no A/C. My kids were frightened. When DS woke up for a feeding, that was tricky too. This is obviously not something that will ruin our vacation, but I do wish they would have told us in advance so we could have chosen another resort if we wanted to.

 

[Marthasor]

This happened to us when we stayed at AKL in March 2011. We also received the notice in our room - no flashlight however! My DS does not like sleeping in the dark and he woke up in the middle of the night quite frightened. Then I had a hard time walking over to him (we were in a 1-bedroom in Jambo). It was a bit frustrating, but did not ruin our trip. Made for a tired mommy the next day, however. I really don't know how far in advance they plan these tests, so I don't know if they could have notified us (or you) any sooner than they did. Plus, I imagine they pick that time frame because they believe most people are asleep (except for babies and young children!) I'm sure Disney feels the letter in the rooms was sufficient . . . at least you got a flashlight!!! I'm sure it made the feeding very difficult. I hope things went more smoothly once the lights were back on.

 

[dvcblt93]

They are testing all of the resorts this week, so regardless of where you would be staying, you probably would have experienced this.

 

[NHKristy76]

I must be missing something... Not having lights at that time of night wouldn't have even been on my radar. I guess if your kids are still up (or trying to get to bed) at 11:30pm it could be a problem though..

 

[cvjw]

This happened to us in October at the Board Walk Villas. We got the phone call late afternoon of the night when the outage was planned. We thought like the PP - no problem, we will be sleeping anyway. Wrong - when the power went out, the fire alarms started beeping, and woke everyone up. Since we were up, then we noticed how hot it was, and there was no going back to sleep at that point. It was annoying - to say the least.

 

[DisneyRegulars]

I grew up in tropical countries, I know how awful it can be to fall asleep when the power is out and the ac is off. Impossible! Not a fun situation to be in on vacation.

On a funny note, when my aunt's fire alarm started that horrendous low battery beeping in the middle of the night she got up and changed the battery. The next night it started doing the same thing. She changed the battery again and went back to bed. It kept beeping! She was ticked. Got up to investigate again, and realized her birds had learned to mimic the fire alarm low battery noise. So at the very least, at least you weren't traveling with a parakeet.

 

[Mom2six]

We will be staying at POFQ in a few days - I hope the resorts are done testing. We stayed at Treehouse Villas in early Sept, and our power went out at the treehouse around 10p.m but it was not planned. It was after 2 by the time the power came on and it was very hot in there! We did then end up missing our a.m ADR.

 

[disnut8]

Last night we had no power in our room from 11:30pm-2am. The hotel was doing some kind of test. They had informed us of this situation when we checked in. They gave us a flashlight for the room. I hadn't really put much thought into it, but it turned out to be pretty stressful! Trying to get 4 kids ready for bed with 1 flashlight was very difficult. The room was hot and stuffy due to no A/C. My kids were frightened. When DS woke up for a feeding, that was tricky too. This is obviously not something that will ruin our vacation, but I do wish they would have told us in advance so we could have chosen another resort if we wanted to.

I guess I'm confused. What time did you check in and were informed of the outage that would be starting at 11:30 PM? If your kids were frightened, why wait until the outage to get them ready for bed? I understand the feeding issue but not having AC for 2-1/2 hours shouldn't have been all that bad. And yes, I've been through not having AC for a long time - hurricanes and all that. I survived.

 

[TaraPA]

I grew up in tropical countries, I know how awful it can be to fall asleep when the power is out and the ac is off. Impossible! Not a fun situation to be in on vacation.

On a funny note, when my aunt's fire alarm started that horrendous low battery beeping in the middle of the night she got up and changed the battery. The next night it started doing the same thing. She changed the battery again and went back to bed. It kept beeping! She was ticked. Got up to investigate again, and realized her birds had learned to mimic the fire alarm low battery noise. So at the very least, at least you weren't traveling with a parakeet.

I love your optimism! See there's a bright side to everything!

This also happened to us last year, we were told that the county schedules these tests for whatever reason (its not an internal Disney thing), and resorts are not given advance notice. Not sure if that's true or not, but that's what we were told, so its possible they had no way to let you know any sooner than they did.

 

[larryz]

On a funny note, when my aunt's fire alarm started that horrendous low battery beeping in the middle of the night she got up and changed the battery. The next night it started doing the same thing. She changed the battery again and went back to bed. It kept beeping! She was ticked. Got up to investigate again, and realized her birds had learned to mimic the fire alarm low battery noise. So at the very least, at least you weren't traveling with a parakeet.

OP, understand how frustrating it can be when you're on vacation paying a WDW Deluxe resort price and they shut the power down for a failover test... very inconvenient and uncomfortable.

Don't know why they didn't plan it for the middle of the day, when most of the people staying there would be in the parks...

 

[dvcterry]

I remember my sister said that happened to them once when they stayed. I wouldn't imagine it bothering me at that hour but I'll remember to throw a flashlight in our suitcase to have a spare in case. 1 is not enough for all of us.

 

[Mrs Grumpy]

This happened to us at POP in September 2011 however we were never informed.

 

[closetmickey]

It seems to me that it would be quite possible for many people to still be up at 11:30 while at WDW! So much to do, not to mention the time change for west coasters! I agree with a PP that mid-day could be a possibility, or maybe even starting much later- say 1 am.

 

[reiella]

I guess I'm confused. What time did you check in and were informed of the outage that would be starting at 11:30 PM? If your kids were frightened, why wait until the outage to get them ready for bed? I understand the feeding issue but not having AC for 2-1/2 hours shouldn't have been all that bad. And yes, I've been through not having AC for a long time - hurricanes and all that. I survived.

That night was a christmas party night, so very possible. They informed with a note and flashlight the same day (from mousekeeping). They also informed at least the day before by voicemail on the resort phone.

As a sidenote, the lodge looks pretty at 1am with only generator lights running.

 

[Disneyholic]

We had a power outage years ago when we were staying at CSR. I never thought anything about it till I read this. Just figured it happens sometimes. We didn't get any letter in our room saying anything was going to happen.

 

[Patrickprincess]

We had a power outage years ago when we were staying at CSR. I never thought anything about it till I read this. Just figured it happens sometimes. We didn't get any letter in our room saying anything was going to happen.

When my DBF and i were visting disneyland ,we were staying at the disneyland hotel the water was shut of about the same time as your power,we got a letter telling us and we got four bottles of water or at least i think it was four. Any way we saved the bottles because they had tinker bell with the castle on them. we still have them today. sorry that happened to you.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

1) This is part of a mandated Emergency Response test.
2) All Orlando hotels do this.
3) All the emergency systems and procedures are checked.
4) Think of it like an expanded grade school fire drill.

 

[fla4fun]

I have had it happen when I was there - at WL and CR on separate stays.

The issue for me is that I sleep with two white noise machines and a fan - I can not sleep in a quiet room. I even travel with them. So any time the power goes off at night, I wake up and I stay awake until the power comes back on. I also can't sleep in a room if there isn't any air moving around. So the a/c might not be an issue so long as the room doesn't get warm, but the stuffiness of no air movement would keep me awake as well.

I've learned to travel with my own mini flashlight that I keep in the nightstand at hotels. You never know when you might need one. Even though many smartphones have flashlight apps, your phone may be plugged in as far away as the bathroom vanity and it's nice to just reach over and grab the flashlight.