Oh, has it Been Raining? No, this is Just Sweat. Sept/Oct 2022 Trip Report! (Updated 9/16!!)

[Wood Nymph]

Haha, it was pretty funny. Are the vloggers you know from Pennsylvania? That's the most information I got out of eavesdropping on their conversation.

They weren't from that state but I do remember them complaining about the Pennsylvania bloggers.

Some of the nicest and friendliest people we have met at WDW were from Philadelphia. We had been at Geyser Point soon after the Eagles won the Super Bowl, pre-pandemic. They were a very happy lot.

Of course, right when we got back to the YC, the rain almost completely stopped!

It always seems to happen that way.

I do wish that YC had better sound proofing between the rooms, it’s not good when you can hear normal conversations clearly through the walls, but especially bad when you’re next to people who don’t have indoor voices and it sounds like they are yelling in your room!

The Beach Club is terrible, too. I think the quietest rooms we have been in were at POR.

There was one time when we were at the BC and the room next door was so noisy that I went right up to the connecting door and said, in a really loud voice, something along the lines of "wow, I can hear everything they are saying next door". They quieted down a little. A towel pushed up against the bottom of the connecting door and the door to the hallway will help a little.

Yeah, the first day wasn't horrible since the pool was open, but we were so bored the second day. I can't imagine it would be that hard to come up with some adult activities, it's a shame they didn't!

Did they stop you from going to the Beach Club? I've seen reports from other hurricane shut downs and they stopped people from going out those doors.

 

[VAtink]

You still got a very respectable number of steps in! I'm making mental notes on some tips should I find myself evacuated to Disney in a future hurricane. Doing lunch at A&C was definitely a good call. Love that they have the new tvs now (finally!) that allow streaming and logging into various services. The soundproofing definitely leaves a lot to be desired ... particularly if you have an adjoining room. One visit, the parents next door apparently didn't think there was any problem with their kid constantly banging on the door and fiddling with the door handle. It was incredibly frustrating.

Haha, we really did get a decent number of steps. My mom is one of those people who can't just sit in one place for very long, so we do a lot of walking around!

Yeah, lunch at Ale and Compass was definitely the way to go, and the food was delicious! I'm so happy we didn't have to wait in the line to get in there at night though, great planning on our part to have the room stocked with food!

The soundproofing between rooms is so bad, especially since the renovation. It really seems when they rebuilt the walls back in 2017 they did so with the wrong STC rating. That is so frustrating about the kid and the door. We once were next to a family that sounded like they were letting their kid bounce a ball against the wall between us for hours at night. I want to say it's amazing that people don't realize that these things may bother their neighbors, but in my current job I work with the public and one of the things I've learned is that common sense really is not very common!

 

[VAtink]

They weren't from that state but I do remember them complaining about the Pennsylvania bloggers.

Some of the nicest and friendliest people we have met at WDW were from Philadelphia. We had been at Geyser Point soon after the Eagles won the Super Bowl, pre-pandemic. They were a very happy lot.

Oh nice! I remember that superbowl, I was rooting for the other team My coworker who is a huge Eagles fan never let me live that one down!

It always seems to happen that way.

Right? So annoying!

The Beach Club is terrible, too. I think the quietest rooms we have been in were at POR.

We've been pretty lucky at the Beach Club so far with neighbors being quiet in their rooms, but we have had issues there with people being loud on their balconies, one guy even thought it was a great idea to play his guitar out there until 1am.

There was one time when we were at the BC and the room next door was so noisy that I went right up to the connecting door and said, in a really loud voice, something along the lines of "wow, I can hear everything they are saying next door". They quieted down a little. A towel pushed up against the bottom of the connecting door and the door to the hallway will help a little.

HA! That's awesome, I need to try that next time!

Did they stop you from going to the Beach Club? I've seen reports from other hurricane shut downs and they stopped people from going out those doors.

The second day they sort of did in the morning, they had the doors tied closed. I think technically you could still get out the main front lobby doors, but the other ones had cloth tying the handles together so they wouldn't open. Although I kind of suspect that was more to keep them from blowing open during the storm than anything else.

The worst of the storm was overnight though, so I don't know if it would have been different if the worst was during the day.

 

[VAtink]

Day 7, Part 1: Hurricane Day 2​

Thursday September 29, 2022

We woke up earlier than needed once again today. Once again, I was super curious to see what it looked like outside so I was up at 7:20.

The view out our window wasn’t bad at all. There were some leaves down but that was it.



This day we decided to do breakfast at Ale and Compass since we had leftovers from lunch the previous day we could have for lunch today, and we still had half the sandwiches from dinner last night we could have for dinner tonight. Our room was well stocked!

We headed down to breakfast around 7:30 and the lobby was empty. After checking out the scene out by the pool we headed over to Ale and Compass.



We were surprised they were only doing to-go orders this day from Ale and Compass, but I guess it makes sense with the sheer number of people they needed to feed.

At the check in desk they took down my magicband # and room # since they were only charging to the room at that point and not taking other forms of payment. Once they had that information written down they let us enter to get our food.

It was set up kind of like a buffet, only the CMs were filling the boxes for us. We got scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, muffins (choice b/w blueberry, chocolate chip, and one other), a biscuit, tater tots, a fruit cup, then various drinks like OJ, milk, tea and coffee.

It was actually a pretty decent spread and the CMs filling the boxes just dumped a bunch of everything in for us!

Once we had our food and drinks we made our way out. We decided to take the elevators at this point since the worst of the storm was over so we figured the power wouldn’t go out. Well, we got to the elevators only to find they were not running! Ha!

So we went back to the stairs and hiked back up to the 4th floor.




Aw, everything's closed.

We ate breakfast in bed while watching the news. While where we were in Disney made it through relatively unscathed, other areas nearby weren’t nearly as lucky. It was horrible seeing all the damage that occurred nearby. Definitely made us appreciate the CMs who left their homes and families to stay at the hotel for us guests during the storm, we were so grateful for all of them!

After our breakfast in bed we were getting antsy so decided to put on our ponchos and take another stroll around the Boardwalk.

There was a pretty steady rain at that point, but it wasn’t very heavy and there wasn’t much wind, so it was a nice walk. There was some minor damage around the BW area, the awnings at the Atlantic Dance Club had been torn up, and the awnings over by the ice cream place on the BW also were torn up.


Hard to see but there is a pretty big tree branch down.






That's a very full pool!



But most of what we saw were lots of leaves and branches down. Compared to when we were there a few years ago after another hurricane where areas of roof shingles and siding were blown off the BC, the damage did not seem all that bad to this resort area.

We also swung by the IG to take a peek inside. There wasn’t a whole lot to see, but there was a lone security guard standing over by the security check point who looked kinda lonely. We waved at him, but he ignored us. I hope they let him listen to music or a podcast or something while standing there!



By the time we got back to the YC from our walk, the characters had returned and they were doing activities with the lifeguards in the lobby with the kids. It looked fun, but once again I must say I wish they had some adult activities too!

There wasn’t a whole lot else to do at that point, and it was a bit too early to head to the bar, so we decided to finish watching the movie we had started the previous night and eventually ate our lunch in bed. For lunch we just had the leftovers from lunch the previous day.

Next up: What do you want to do? I dunno, drink?​

 

[Nicnicnic.nic]

Following. Taking my daughter (just us) to wdw for the first time in May. I love that you two still take trips together. Also you made me consider getting the photo pass . You make it look so fun and you have so many nice pictures out of it

 

[KPeterso]

We had a view of the pool at BWV, and there was so much debris (leaves and dirt) in the pool. We watched the life guards spend hours cleaning the pool and pool deck.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Wow what a breakfast spread! Definitely a plus to this situation

 

[Wood Nymph]

The damaged awnings look like the worst of the building damage. I think flooding was the worst of the hurricane damage to the central Florida area. You can't build on swampland without having a few problems in a heavy rain event. But all in all, it looks like the worst thing was the boredom.

 

[VAtink]

Following. Taking my daughter (just us) to wdw for the first time in May. I love that you two still take trips together. Also you made me consider getting the photo pass . You make it look so fun and you have so many nice pictures out of it

That is awesome, hope you guys have a wonderful trip! I absolutely love that I can still do trips with my mom, they really are the best.

I totally recommend photopass, we love the pictures we get especially the magic shots, plus it's really nice to get pictures with both of us in them.

 

[VAtink]

We had a view of the pool at BWV, and there was so much debris (leaves and dirt) in the pool. We watched the life guards spend hours cleaning the pool and pool deck.

Oh really? We saw a lot of leaves and small branches down, but mostly along the pathways, stormalong bay didn't have a ton fortunately!

 

[VAtink]

Wow what a breakfast spread! Definitely a plus to this situation

Right? And it was all really tasty! We've never done breakfast at Ale and Compass before, but I want to try it out now on a normal day.

 

[VAtink]

The damaged awnings look like the worst of the building damage. I think flooding was the worst of the hurricane damage to the central Florida area. You can't build on swampland without having a few problems in a heavy rain event. But all in all, it looks like the worst thing was the boredom.

Yeah, that was really it on the buildings where we were. It did sound like flooding was the worst for central Florida, fortunately we didn't have any issues in our area though. You are totally right, the worst thing for us was the boredom! Who knew it was possible to get bored at Disney

 

[VAtink]

Day 7, Part 2: Hurricane Day 2: What do you want to do? I dunno, drink?​

Thursday September 29th, 2022

After finishing up the movie and lunch, we were getting ridiculously antsy, so took yet another loop around the BW. This time we decided to stop and sit on one of the benches on the BW and just watch the world go by. So yeah, we were at the point that sitting outside on a bench in the rain was our best option for activities for the afternoon.

We actually sat on that bench getting rained on for almost 30 minutes! We were starting to get really sick of being stuck inside the hotel!

Eventually we started to get pretty cold, so made our way back to the hotel to hang out in the room again. This time mom took a nap while I caught up on trip notes and had one of my grapefruit beers.

I do have to mention, both this day and the previous day it got cold! Like super cold, and we couldn’t help but laugh at how many shiny new 50th anniversary sweaters we saw around the resort and BW during our walks these two days! Looks like a hurricane is great at driving sales for sweaters at Disney World! Fortunately I had purchased a sweater our first day not knowing it would come in handy later in the trip, but I ended up wearing it a lot these two days!

Once mom woke up from her nap, we discussed what we wanted to do. The options were still, well, limited.

My mom asks if it is still raining outside, so I say “yes, it’s a bit damp out there” to which mom responds “it’s also a bit wet”

Which was funny enough on it’s own, but like 2 seconds later on the news they go “this is the wettest day in the history of Orlando!”

HA, ok, we may have been going a bit crazy, but that timing was hilarious to us.

Since there wasn’t a whole lot else to do, we decided to put on our ponchos and go on yet another walk around the BW.

This time everything was back open! Wahoo! It was nice to see things coming back.

Unfortunately, as we were walking, my mom totally wiped out on the BW when she stepped on some of the debris. Fortunately she was ok, but my goodness, every single trip we’ve taken since 2019 she manages to wipe out, this is getting scary!

Once again we decided to find a bench to sit on and watch the world go by while getting rained on.

This time we didn’t stay quite as long and after a while decided to go into the BW to see what was going on in their lobby.

We headed indoors, but there was absolutely nothing going on there, so we soon headed out again. We decided to go check out Abracadabar to see if there were any seats, and we got super lucky and arrived just as a couple was leaving so got a seat immediately!



We settled in and ordered some drinks. I got the Sour Assistant (which is delicious, got some lime juice to make at home!), and mom got a glass of the shiraz.



We ended up taking our time with our drinks, and I ended up ordering a second, just to be doing something other than sitting in the hotel room or sitting on a bench in the rain. So we were there for a while, about 2 hours. But it was so nice to be doing something new! (Ok not really new, but doing the same thing just in a different location was nice )

By the time we left the bar, around 6:30, the rain had FINALLY stopped! YAY!!!!!!!

We were getting hungry at that point, so decided to head back to the room to eat the leftover sandwiches for dinner.

Next up: There was a Dog Show?!?!?​

 

[Wood Nymph]

Which was funny enough on it’s own, but like 2 seconds later on the news they go “this is the wettest day in the history of Orlando!”

That puts the storm in perspective. I'm surprised that you were able to sit out there in the rain. The Epcot resort area is where I would want to be in a hurricane because you can really move around there, and the food is indoors.

Unfortunately, as we were walking, my mom totally wiped out on the BW when she stepped on some of the debris. Fortunately she was ok, but my goodness, every single trip we’ve taken since 2019 she manages to wipe out, this is getting scary!

The wood planks at the Boardwalk get very slippery when wet, or at least they used too. I'm glad she was okay.

 

[VAtink]

That puts the storm in perspective. I'm surprised that you were able to sit out there in the rain. The Epcot resort area is where I would want to be in a hurricane because you can really move around there, and the food is indoors.

Yeah, it was a ton of rain. Although most of it was overnight, by the time we were out walking around it wasn't coming down very hard anymore.

The wood planks at the Boardwalk get very slippery when wet, or at least they used too. I'm glad she was okay.

They certainly do, especially when covered with wet leaves!

 

[VAtink]

Day 7, Part 3: Hurricane Day 2: There was a Dog Show!?!?​

Thursday, September 29th, 2022

We last left off heading back to the room for some leftovers for dinner.

It was a good meal, those sandwiches at the YC store have been really good!

After dinner mom decided to take another quick nap while I caught up on trip notes.

Finally mom decided to get up and once again had energy, so we decided to go take yet another loop around the BW.

This time our loop was a bit different. Besides not having to wear ponchos finally, the area was packed! It looked like everyone was going a bit stir crazy and needed to get out and about.

We took a nice loop around the boardwalk, stopping to take pictures and take in the atmosphere. It was such a change from earlier in the day, the boardwalk was hopping, and there was both a sense of restlessness and excitement.











We were almost around back to the BC, when I saw a guy walking two absolutely beautiful golden retrievers. Now, the previous few days I had wanted SOOOOO badly to say hi and pet all the dogs I was seeing, but the owners kept them far away from others so I didn’t want to push.

Well, these two goldens were not being kept away from other guests and were just strolling along sniffing others. So I figured this would be a good owner to ask if I could pet his dogs! He thankfully said yes, and omg, happiest moment of the day! His dogs were sooooo sweet, and were just loving the attention. A bunch of other people came up to pet them while we were as well. I think we all needed a little puppy therapy!

While petting the dogs we were chatting with their owner, and he mentioned that they had had a big day and had been in a dog show in the YC lobby earlier! I am SOOOOO sad I missed that! Apparently a bunch of dogs participated, including Pluto!

One thing that we didn’t see the YC do that other resorts did was post a list of activities that were happening during the hurricane. I wonder if it’s because the lobby is so small and they didn’t want huge crowds down there for certain activities, but I do wish they at least told us when the dog show would be, I would have LOVED to have seen that!

After a while we eventually moved on, but it was so nice having some time hanging out with cute pups.

We made our way back to the room to snack on some chocolate, have some wine, and watch some football.

Stats Day 7:

Steps: 18,186

Miles: 8.53

Next up: What do you want to rope drop? I dunno, breakfast?​

 

[Wood Nymph]

While petting the dogs we were chatting with their owner, and he mentioned that they had had a big day and had been in a dog show in the YC lobby earlier! I am SOOOOO sad I missed that! Apparently a bunch of dogs participated, including Pluto!

I had read a trip report from someone who was staying at WDW during hurricane Matthew and they saw a dog parade with Pluto in the lobby. I think it may have been at WL.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Wow, the dog show must have been adorable. They totally should have "advertised" it! Glad you got some dog therapy in anyway. I can only imagine how stir crazy everyone was going after being stuck in hotel rooms. I mean, obviously Disney did the right thing in prioritizing guest safety but I definitely get being ready for it to be over and getting on with vacation. Heck going through these at home I'm ready to move on as soon as it has passed! I am all for rope dropping food!

 

[VAtink]

I had read a trip report from someone who was staying at WDW during hurricane Matthew and they saw a dog parade with Pluto in the lobby. I think it may have been at WL.

That is so cool! I really wish we had caught the dog show, I imagine it would have been pretty cute!

 

[VAtink]

Wow, the dog show must have been adorable. They totally should have "advertised" it! Glad you got some dog therapy in anyway. I can only imagine how stir crazy everyone was going after being stuck in hotel rooms. I mean, obviously Disney did the right thing in prioritizing guest safety but I definitely get being ready for it to be over and getting on with vacation. Heck going through these at home I'm ready to move on as soon as it has passed! I am all for rope dropping food!

Exactly! I'm so sad I missed it! It was nice getting to spend some time with those goldens, they were so sweet! And yeah, we were SO ready to do something different by the end of day 2. I never thought it would be possible to be bored while in Disney!