WDW after Hurricane Wilma

[SnoweyWhite]

Just curious as to how WDW faired during Hurricane Wilma. I know it hit south of Orlando, but the feeder bands did hit Orlando. I haven't heard of any major damage there, but just wondering. Any replies would be appreciated.

 

[OrlandoMike]

Everything is fine, normal as before the storm. The only thing newsworthy that happened is the EPCOT parking lot was used for a staging area for a lot of the utility trucks that were waiting for the storm to pass.

 

[SnoweyWhite]

That's good to hear. I didn't think anything drastic happened, but just curious. Thanks for the reply.

 

[hauntedmansion]

We were there! everything seemed to be fine. The only thing that it did was make problems for the airlines. We were supposed to come home Monday and got held over until TUES.

 

[plutospup]

Had friends who were suppose to fly home on Monday, but decided to leave Sunday instead. US Airways changed their tix with no extra fee.

HauntedMansion...what airline were you flying? How was OIA on Monday? Sorry your flights got messed up.

 

[DURANFAN2]

I have a friend who was in Otown/Disney during this time and they just got rain.
I live in Vero Beach, which is home of VERO BEACH DISNEY RESORT. Anyway, we got about cat 1 winds and took a beating, however we had twin hurricanes last year and so we really didn't have any more damage though the entire city's power went off. I'm pretty sure VB Disney Resort probably regained power considering its located in the elite section of our county and you KNOW who gets their power back first!
So its safe to come to VB Disney Resort.
ANyway, Vero Beach, FL was about the exit point of Wilma. The county above us, Brevard County I heard didn't even lose power. So anyway OTown was well north of the actual storm.
I tell ya the hurricane was intense and we didn't even get the high powered winds SW FL and Palm Beach got.
Disney is like the offical evacuation hotel district for Floridians.

 

[jwfla422]

...and the "official recovery hotel district" for Floridians who went through a hurricane. WDW is just fine, just a little busy with us South Floridians who couldn't deal with the lack of electricity or water or the lack of gas. We are lucky to be here now and it is beautiful up here. It hit down by us pretty bad. We had a lot of roof damage and lost most of our trees.

Our neighborhood is still without power and is still under a "boil water" alert. It was a very scarey experience listening to the tiles of our roof pop off our home while we were in it. The eye passed right over our area in North Broward county (my ears actually popped as the eye passed over). I watched the doppler radar on a battery operated tv just praying it would soon pass. We were actually lucky, if it spent any of the amount of time like it did over Mexico (and it was stronger), I don't think we'd have a house right now, so even though it was a terrible experience... we were lucky. Sorry to go off topic, just had to vent a bit.

WDW experienced some weird weather prior to Wilma's arrival more because of the cold front that steered her into FL, but it's great here!

 

[cara76]

Other then a bunch of trees down (didn't notice if they where down before) right outside of Epcot everything looks fine.

 

[disneyholic family]

Other then a bunch of trees down (didn't notice if they where down before) right outside of Epcot everything looks fine.

if you're talking about the trees you see from the monorail from epcot to the TTC, those trees have been down for years...

 

[DisneyWisher]

...and the "official recovery hotel district" for Floridians who went through a hurricane. WDW is just fine, just a little busy with us South Floridians who couldn't deal with the lack of electricity or water or the lack of gas. We are lucky to be here now and it is beautiful up here. It hit down by us pretty bad. We had a lot of roof damage and lost most of our trees.

Our neighborhood is still without power and is still under a "boil water" alert.

I did the same thing. About 3pm Monday, I was on the phone to Disney so I could get the heck out of here. We stayed 4 nights and came home Friday. Spent most of my time up there looking for more supplies. My parents and my adult daughters said bring home anything but soup. Not much comes in a can that isn't veggies, fruit, or soup. Well I got them enough chili and stew. After getting off the turnpike and dropping off batteries, ice, snacks (fruit roll ups, pepperidge farm cookies & crackers) plus other canned products I got home at about 4:15pm, 10 minutes later our power came on. Thank God and power workers from all over that are working so hard (don't think they get enough credit). Where I live (coral Springs) we have underground power lines. So it was easier to get us up and running. I have called friends and family that live east of me to come over and stay here or at least be able to get laundry done and a real meal. Where my parents and daughter live most trees and electric poles are down.

JWFLA- I stopped at Port St Lucie to top off my tank since finding gas here has been so difficult. There were no lines at all especially compared to the turnpike service stations. Good luck and have a great time. Don't forget to do MNSSHP. We went twice and had a ball. Figured it was DD12 only chance at Halloween this year.

 

[Uncleromulus]

jwfla422:
Is it really a "lack of gas"?? Or just the electricity need to operate the pumps??

 

[hauntedmansion]

We flew home Delta Song. Called the airline from the hotel MON am. They told us the flight was still scheduled to leave(we were leaving at 2:49pm We didn't believe them) Went to the airport and was told we were rebooked on a flight TUES at 11:49.(they stated the airport was closed until 4pm) We then had to find a hotel, we ended up staying at LA QUinta (definitely not a Disney hotel, but we didn't care) I was just happy about not flying out in that weather. Well we left Tuesday (we live in BOSTON) so we got the high winds from NY to Boston( well I could say it wasn't a good flight but I guess any flight that lands is a good flight)lots of turbulence,the plane was hitting pockets and we were dropping.(it was like being on the tower of terror for 30 minutes)we had a land speed of 687mph. what is usually a 3 hour trip took us 2hrs 6mins. we had 139mph tail winds. Just glad were home.

 

[ECurto]

We were there, it was nothing but rain, and nothing worse then what we get here in NY. By 1PM parks where open, sun was out, and it was in the 60s! We where in heaven!

 

[betterlatethannever]

The airport wasn't closed. Some airlines cancelled fights however.

We were scheduled to leave out of Orlando on Continental at 2:25 Monday. Kept on calling Continental in the Morning and they said it was still on schedule. So about 11:30 we packed up and headed to the airport figuring our flight would be delayed until evening.

Fight took off at 2:30. Made it home ahead of schedule.

Ed

 

[Aimeedyan]

The weather was no big deal - the winds weren't any worse than what we've had before at home in a storm. Parks had nothing but leafs and small twigs blown into fountains and such, all the trees down were from earlier hurricane damage that hasn't been fixed.

 

[DURANFAN2]

Most of those trees near EPCOT came down last year coz O-Town had hurricanes winds from Charlie, Frances and jeanne. We had to back up our regular fall vacation since we were dealing with Frances & Jeanne over here on FL's east coast.
I know South FL took the brunt of Wilma, but just be thankful it didn't hang around like Jeanne and Frances right on top of South Florida. Thats what happened up here in Indian River COunty last year. That one storm sat on us for about 18hours straight. Never got the eye/calm winds. When something sits on you that long even strong structures will buckle.
As far as gas supplies, I would tried to stay fueled up as much as possible before heading south. Things are really getting back to normal here in Indian River County, we're probably at 80% powered up again, however today when I went to get gas they could only accept cash as the storm still had EXXON/Mobil's satelitte system not working. I am still seeing people driving up here from South FL filling up gas containers to take back.
If you can hang out at disney for a few more days I would. For example with groceries... I went to PUBLIX and WALMART and they still have little fresh produce/meats... so basically food is still limited.