September 11, 2001 - Did Disney Close that Day?

[Pjimmeyer]

 

[adhelove]

We took our annual trip about three weeks after 9/11 to WDW. I remember how much everything and everyone had changed. The years before when we were there I do not remember ever getting all my bags checked but after 9/11 it was like anyone could be there to cause harm. I remember feeling odd at every bag check because it was like our security as Americans was over. It was also so empty as we walked around WDW because so many people were still too scared to travel. My family and I decided to not let a few terrorists control our vacation. Every American's life was changed on 9/11 but to give up control of our lives would mean that the terrorists won. I still look at airplanes as they fly overhead differently than I did before 9/11. We had prayer time today for the families of those who were killed even though we do not know anyone personally. I will say that I do feel safer with the bag check even though it takes a few extra minutes. We also bring clear backpacks to help speed up the process. We should never forget 9/11 even if some of the political movements would like us to.

 

[AndyFL]

Whew....this has been a tough read. Thanks to all who posted.

 

[Donut23]

I posted my experience on the other thread....I'll repeat here and also honor my hero....my DH who did not leave his work station for 29 hours.


For me, I was on a business trip and in the air between Baltimore and Providence, RI.

We knew nothing until we walked into the terminal. In retrospect, I was very frightened and just wanted to be home and safe. Luckily, I was attending a trade show so the next few days I was surrounded with friends.

I flew home on Monday when flights were empty and airlines were still struggling to get flight crew back to home bases.

I remember driving into Providence airport....it was like a second home to me. There were soldiers in uniform with mighty big firearms across their shoulders or worse.....in their hands pointed at us.....more in the terminal I entered.

We only had 17 passengers on the flight and I sat on the right side of the aircraft. At one point on that clear morning it looked like we were flying through the fog. We weren't. We were south of NYC and flying through the smoke. My eyes followed the smoke down to that lonely tip of Manhattan.

Not once did I allow any of my travel plans to change and co-workers were in complete shock when I scheduled myself to fly on the exact same flight one year later for the same trade show. There were only 21 passengers on that flight and each of us work red-white and blue...ribbons and flags.


It would be a few years before I would meet the man who became my husband. He works for ABC news in NYC. He had arrived early that day to prepare for a few special events. He was in the newsroom when the first jet hit...looking at the local ABC feed downtown....he watched it.

He also picked up the second jet before it circled the great lady in the harbor - turned back. DH did not leave the newsroom for 29 straight hours....not even for a nap. He eventually went home for 8 hours only to return because he couldn't sleep.

He talked about it tonight. The one thing which still torments him.....the people who jumped. He spoke of two people, falling, hand in hand. He had access to the video too violent to put on the air.



And finally, I worked with a woman at the time and her husband worked for FEMA. Apparently that morning he called and said he was heading to NYC. A call later that morning let her know he would be assigned to the Pentagon. I know he had seen some horrible things in his career.....but this one sent him to therapy after his assignment.

 

[fla4fun]

I was working for an authorized Disney ticket broker at the time, in their corporate office on I-Drive, near Lockheed-Martin. We were in the middle of our annual open enrollment for insurance and had planned a big meeting at a hotel's conference room literally across the street from them. During the meeting (which was in a room with no windows) we heard a huge boom from outside that scared us all to death. Turns out a thunderstorm had popped up while we were all inside, but we were all expecting the worst. We knew Orlando was (and still could be) a major target. We were all pretty jumpy for a long time. It was so eerie the next few weeks how few visitors came to town. The ones that did make the effort were treated very well - we were so happy to see them!

 

[brunette8706]

Thanks everyone for posting. Reading everyone's thoughts on paper gave me chills. Yesterday on MSNBC they had the 9/11 broadcast redux. I was seeing it all over again. No-one knew exactly what was happening. Still makes my skin crawl. Pjimmeyer, I love your photo!

Once again, thanks everyone for your post. I thought it would generate much more, but I guess it just brings back a lot of bad memories on that awful day.

God Bless America!

Take care.
Brunette

 

["Cinder" Ella's Mom]

Thanks for posting the link to castmembers recollections. I was tearing up reading them. My husband was on a plane to WDW with 25 college students who were in his care when the first plane hit. They were grounded in Jacksonville and took a bus to Orlando. They were in the parks on the 13th and said it was surreal.

 

[WeLoveLilo05]

On Sept 11th 2001 I was a senior in HS. Its bizarre how I could remember everything about that day, even down to what I was wearing. It was a beautiful day, I parked my car in its usual spot and walked into the building and went to my 1st 2 classes like everything was normal. When I walking to my 3rd period Algebra class my friend who was high tech and spent hours in the tech lab grabbed my arm and said "some crazy **** is going on! A plane went into the WTC and the pentagon." surely he was joking I though, surely he made some special effects crap in class last period. I was standing my the doorway of my next class and I know the teacher heard what he said, and I am sure he knew what was going on but he called me into the room and acted like it was math time as usual. It was hard to concentrate after hearing something like that.
Next period as we're switching classes everyone is talking about it in the hallways, I go to psych and my teacher explained what had happened. We were not allowed to watch TV although every room had a TV in it. My psych teacher put on he radio and all we heard were sirens and the news reporter trying to talk over them. I was sitting in my seat a nervous wreck, unsure if my grandfather, who was retired but would pick up a few hours at the piers in the city here and there, was in the city, if he was ok, and if he was there how would he get home to us.
The day was so long, every 5 mins someone was being called to the office b/c someone was there to pick them up. Some left crying b/c a parent, aunt uncle or friend was in the towers or in the city and they were not yet accounted for. My friend told me that when our Spanish teacher heard the news he ran out of the class, white as a ghost. His wife and unborn child were in the towers, thankfully they made it out ok.
I walked to my car after school, there was a post it from my mom, "Come STRAIGHT home. The library called, you don't have work today." I got in my car and Z100 was taking calls from people, "if you can hear us please call and tell us where you are located." No music, just that my whole drive home.
I got home, both my grandparents were there, I cried when I saw them, so thankful they were ok. My Nan worked at a college in Jersey City, NJ and saw the whole thing from her window.
The thing that gets me....it wasn't until 3pm that I found out both towers were no longer there, I knew they had been hit but had no idea that they actually fell b/c the school did not want us panicking so we were not being informed as to what was going on. I stayed up late that night. watching the news, I even remember they had underwater security looking in the water under the bridges for bombs. I lived about 10-15 minutes away from Newark Airport at that time. In the summers I would lay in my pool and a plane would go over me every 5 minutes, it was actually to the point that I could see the wheels being dropped, I always liked watching those planes. That night...there was nothing...no noise above my house...nothing. And THEN when planes were no longer grounded I would get nervous every time I heard the planes go over my house, I remember saying to myself "Gee that one sounded really low!"
I'll never forget that day or the weeks and months after. I'd come home from work and my mom would be making dinner and watching "Ground Zero" and the anthrax scares, and I was SOOOO sick of seeing that we were on yellow, orange or red alert. I just wanted things to be "normal" again.
I worked in the library in the children's section and I had 2 little guys (probably 1st and 3rd graders, they were brothers) who would come in everyday. They didn't have much money, their mom worked in McDonalds, dad was not in the picture, and she told them to go to the library after school (its free and adults are there to "keep an eye" on them). And all I kept thinking of was how life would be different for them, how fortunate I was that I grew up during "peace time" and now everything would change forever.
I was always going to the city before 9/11, I loved theater and knew my way around, I would go with my friends to see the tree at christmastime. I loved the city life/culture and always wanted to live there. After 9/11, my view changed, do I go? YES of course! But I just feel different there, like I really have to look around and observe things. NYC isn't the safest place in the world, but before 9/11 I DID feel safe there. When we took DD to the American Girl store for her birthday we took the ferry and at Port Authority it said something about "we are on high alert, please take notice to all things around you." I feel like since 9/11 I categorize everything...pre-9/11 and post-9/11.

 

[AndyFL]

My Wife asked me something and I had no idea what the answer could be so I'll just ask it. For those of you who were at WDW and were supposed to catch flights immediately after the attacks.....what did you do since all planes were grounded? How did Disney handle a bunch of stranded guest who couldn't take their flight yet had only paid for rooms that didn't allow them to stay any longer?

 

[igk]

Just to say best wishes from the UK - I had a friend who was killed in the WTC attack. Thanks for that article link.
We went to WDW in Nov 01 - apart from much more security and it being a lot quieter than usual (several OKW buildings were closed) things otherwise seemed pretty normal by then.

 

[Lifeangel1]

I wasn't staying on property so I'm not sure how Disney handled it. We were supposed to fly out the following Friday and our flight was cancelled. We found out at the airport. We were able to keep our rental car even though they were in great demand and the rental agency we rented our house from also let us stay an extra night. We flew out on saturday. We flew into Pittsburgh and took a commuter flight home. The commuter flight took us right over the Shanksville, Pa. site. They flew straight over it so we couldn't look down and see it from the air. Our flight attendant told us after we flew over it.

When we got into our local airport, we couldn't find our car. We had parked right near the terminal. We are very close to Camp David so our airport had gone into security mode. (they weren't sure where flight 93 was heading.) and had towed our car out to a field. It was surreal.

 

[isk8]

My mom, grandpa, and sister were in flight to WDW during the attacks. They were on two separate flights - mom and grandpa were flying from Cleveland to MCO and my sister was flying from Columbus. It was a crazy morning. At first the news had no idea which flights were involved, so that was very scary for me. After all flights were grounded, I had no idea where my family was. I think my mom and grandpa had a direct flight, so they were able to get to MCO. My sister had a connection, and as luck had it, her second flight took off right before everything was ordered to be grounded. They were all able to meet up in Orlando and continue on to WDW.

I spent a lot of time on the phone that morning with both the airlines and WDW. Both were very helpful in finding where my family was. WDW was able to tell me that everyone checked into the hotel (one of the All-Stars - my mom doesn't remember which one). Eventually, my mom was able to call me to let me know they were OK. I did tell her that maybe they should leave WDW and go someplace else in Florida. If terrorists were targeting American landmarks, why wouldn't they target WDW? But they stayed and had a fine trip. They hadn't planned on going to the parks on the 11th, so they just stayed at the hotel.

 

[TaraPA]

We were in WDW on 9-11-01.

We hadn't had the TV on in the morning, and arrived at DHS around 9:30am. We had no idea that anything was going on. We were seated in the Indiana Jones Show waiting for it to start...and waiting....and waiting. A CM came out about 10 min. after the show was to start & said "due to the events going on in the world that morning the park was closing & everyone was to leave the park." She was chipper & cheery, very difficult to do I'm sure. A few people got up & left, but the majority had been in the parks since opening & had no clue what was going on. Most of us sat there, thinking this was part of the show. Then a male CM came out just a minute later to say "folks this is serious & the the park is being evacuated. Please remain clam but make your way to the entrance of the park." You could hear in his voice that something was wrong.

Everyone exited very orderly & people were getting bits & pieces of info over their cell phones from others. CM's were handing everyone free 1-day park passes to make up for the day. They had extra busses waiting to get everyone back to their resorts. It was not chaotic at all, but once on the bus, rumors started flying about the terrorists attacking highly populated & high profile buildings in the US & of course people started to panic that WDW would be a target as well. We heard someone say they were crashing planes in PA, whis is where we live, and that made me uneasy. People were crying & shouting into cell phones on the bus. We still had no solid idea of what was going on.

Back at the resort they had many CMs on duty telling us all to please go to our rooms & wait for further instruction. At that point we turned on the TV (while trying to distract a DS1 and DS4 from seeing the tragedy on the TV) & just stared in disbelief. I'm not sure if we got a call or they came around & said it was safe to be anywhere in the resort, but we went to the pool for awhile. It was so crazy packed! They had brought in charcaters to the resort, I do remember that. The lobby was a madhouse. Guests were in a panic trying to get flights, rental cars, anything to get out of there. We spent the rest of the day trying to contact family, watching CNN, and wandering around the resort in a daze, like everyone else.

The next day as we headed out to MK, the lobby was once again chaos. Guests were screaming & yelling trying to get the CMs to help them get home. There were no flights or rental cars to be had, anywhere. We were pretty much stuck. What a great place to be stuck, right? We had to look at it that way. MK was DEAD that day. I think a lot of people avoided the parks trying to make arrangements to get home. At that point you still couldn't even get a call through to the airlines, so we just went to the parks & made the best of it.

The day after was Tropical Storm Gabrielle. Parks were open but they advised people to stay in their rooms. We stayed put, it was so rainy & windy you couldn't open the door without being pelted with a soaking rain. Everyone was miserable & frustrated at having to spend another full day in their rooms, add to that the emotional turmoil. We were supposed to leave on that day, but were still unable to even get through to the airline.

The 14th was still very windy & rainy. We did go to the parks in the afternoon & evening, we just couldn't stay couped up in that room with a 1-year old & 4-year old anymore, watching CNN. That evening we did get in touch with the airline. The 1st we could get out was Sunday the 16th. We took whatever we could get. There was no problem extending our stay at WDW, the only people checking in were those driving to get there.

The day of the 16th was mass chaos. When we got to the airport, it was wall-to-wall bodies. Literally. People had been stranded there for days, camping out, trying desperately to get somewhere. Somehow we were lucky enough to get on our re-scheduled flight, and we made it home safe & sound. We felt very lucky just to be with our family & to be going home.

I have very few pictures from that trip, it was super rainy & humid & my camera just kept fogging up. If I get a chance later I can scan & post some. I only have one of the exiting of DHS that morning, if you didn't know what time it was on 9-11-01 you'd just think it was the masses of people heading to or from the park.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

Wow, Tara, I know that is an experience you will never forget. Were you scared while you were in the parks or at the resort?

 

[TaraPA]

You know, I don't remember feeling scared at all. But there was just the whole unknown of why this had happened & would it happen again & where was the next target? The same thing I'm sure everyone was feeling. I remember feeling guilty - I was SO miserable being stuck in that room for 2 1/2 days eating food court food, having no games or toys to entertain the kids, not enough diapers, clothing, etc. It was one of the most miserable times in my life - yet I felt so guilty for feeling that way because there was so much worse going on in the world.

Ironically DH got a call on Friday 9-14, in WDW, that he was being laid off. So we had our own little personal turmoil going on from that as well. But I think that was overshadowed by the events of 9-11, so it really didn't seem as urgent as it would have, had the tragedy of 9-11 not been so fresh in our minds.

We were so blessed that we had no friends or family killed or injured that day. Watching all the documentaries on TV yesterday had me sobbing, so so so many people's lives were affected, and still are.

 

[wlgiv]

I was doing the planning stuff - you know figuring out what park on what day, etc. on the morning of 9/11. I was doing it on the commute to work in lower Manhattan. I was on the PATH train under the Hudson River when the first plane hit. I exited the PATH train into a scene in the North Tower that was forever etched into my memory. 12 days later I was down in WDW and had to wait on the security line. In some ways it is was more disturbing to see the security at WDW. Intellectually I can fathom the idea that terrorists can strike almost anywhere. Emotionally - it is very jarring to have the magic of Disney stripped away by reality.

 

[brunette8706]

Thank you all for posting in depth detail about September 11, 2001. I am still amazed that people were stranded, and just couldn't get home because of the airflights being cancelled, and no rent a cars available. People just didn't know what to do, it was utter chaos everybody.

 

[tiggrsbride]

We were scheduled to go to Disney 9/21/01. As our trip approached, it seemed that airline travel and life was starting to return to its new normal. As we did last minute preparations for our flight from Logan to Orlando, the TV was reporting a raised terror level. Sand bags were being placed around some buildings in Boston. My mother and mother-in-law both called and strongly urged us to reconsider our travel plans. DH came home from work to take us to the airport for our afternoon flight and I burst into tears and told him I couldn't get on a flight. We popped the kids in the minivan, borrowed AAA Triptix, a TV and VCR (way before those little units kids now have), raided an empty fridge and pantry and headed south. We sat stuck in traffic on I-95NY/NJ during Friday night rush hour while seeing the smoke in the distance from the towers.

Disney was very quiet. Many of the rides were running at a reduced capacity. Security was tight, helicopters flew around the area frequently, and the parks didn't have a joyful feeling. We felt terrible being in the happiest place on earth while so many were suffering the worst thing imaginable.