We stayed at CBR during hurricane Frances and they closed the parks for 2 days, Saturday and Sunday, re-opened Epcot and MK on Labor Day. Tuesday all the parks were open but some rides weren't operating, ToT for one as there was to much water on the roof and the Imagineers said no to letting the ride operate at that time, for the safety of the guests.
It sucked having to stay in our room for two days, some of us save up for a long time to splurge on a vacation at WDW, the tourism I believe is a huge deal for Florida. As for now they are trying to figure out how to make up the loss and bring tourists back to make up for some of the loss of money they normally bring in.
With that said, it was an incredible experience to have been at CBR and WDW during the storm. The CM's went out of their way to make all of us feel safe and secure, even though you could see how worried some of them were for their homes and families. I remember one CM at the register at "Grab 'n Go", Old Port Royale, she so scared and I tried to comfort her.
Now looking back, we DID have a great time at WDW, we were part of history as WDW had never closed two days in a row, we were fine, we had CM's as neighbours in our building (Trinidad North) that we spoke to, it brought other guests out on the landings and in the laundry room to chat and spend time waiting together. It was a scary experience as we are "only" used to tornados here in MO/KS, but I must say, WDW has a completley wonderful staff to prepare for storms, take care of guests and the clean-up after the storm is immidiate.
We have a friend of the family who is a CM at City Hall in MK and who lives in Orlando, we were concerned about his safety and home as with all of you other Floridians!
I have been watching the weatherchannel now for over 2 hours trying to follow what is happening with Jeanne.
My heart goes out to all of you down there, be safe and for the guests at WDW, take it for what it is, we did! We experienced our first hurricane at WDW, the best place to be!!
