What happens in a hurricane?

[StrollPatrolMom]

have they ever evacuated entirely? is it voluntary? I'm concerned about this Ingrid situation developing. I'd never want to put my kids at risk, but I also do not want to miss this trip...I'm getting ahead of myself...but rolling the dice and not getting TI seeming like a BAAAAD idea now.

 

[Lynne M]

People on the Florida coasts evacuate TO the Disney resorts. It's pretty much as far inland as you can get, and the resort buildings are very well constructed.

The only evacuations I've ever heard of at WDW during a hurricane are the tent and RV campers at Fort Wilderness. They generally move those folks to one of the other resorts.

 

[StrollPatrolMom]

thanks for your reply...

ps LOVE the King of Prussia mall....

 

[justjudy]

We rode out Hurricane Jeanne at the Wilderness Lodge Villas. Never felt safer.

 

[DeeDeeDis]

When my son was a freshman at University of North Florida he was evacuated three times from his campus. Once he drove to Ga and twice i was able to get a dvc studio at Disney.

A few Octobers ago we had just arrived at MGM to say "hi" to same son who was doing the college program when the skies opened up. A hurricane which they said would not effect central Florida changed course.

Well they do a fantastic job of evacuating all the parks and getting all the quess back to their hotels safely. And in record time. Buses going back to the resorts come out of the woodwork.

All public transportation was postpone until 2pm the following day. I had never been in a hurricane before but felt very comfortable knowing that disney would do all it could to keep us safe and informed.

A few years back i would have considered cancelling my vacation for a pending storm, now i dont even think twice about going, storms change course all the time or thankfully, reduce in strenght.

 

[Lynne M]

thanks for your reply...

ps LOVE the King of Prussia mall....

I love it too! I'm only a couple of miles from the mall. Probably too close, I'd spend less money if it were farther away.....

 

[Mercy]

We were at CSR when Charlie hit in '04. They just had us all stay in for the night, we rode out the hurricane with no problem. The parks closed early the day of the hurricane and I believe opened late the next morning. The nice thing was that they gave us each a complimentary 1 day park hopper pass, that we were able to use on another trip. Like someone else said, with WDW being inland, many people were checking in from the coasts, so they were definitely at full capacity. The food court that they have at CSR got a little crowded, but all in all it was not that bad. Kudos to Disney!

 

[Mercy]

I love it too! I'm only a couple of miles from the mall. Probably too close, I'd spend less money if it were farther away.....

My son just started college near there, so we HAD to check it out. That place is GI-NORMOUS!!!

 

[Xiarra]

have they ever evacuated entirely? is it voluntary? I'm concerned about this Ingrid situation developing. I'd never want to put my kids at risk, but I also do not want to miss this trip...I'm getting ahead of myself...but rolling the dice and not getting TI seeming like a BAAAAD idea now.

I am glad I am not the only one quite concerned about the possible Ingrid situation !!!!! It has been quiet in the tropics all season but of course because it is getting close for my vacation it kicks in....

The reason I say this is..... Back in 1999 DH and I stayed at POR in September as well... We got there and Hurricane Floyd was due to hit a couple days later.... They closed all the parks early and had already made announcements that the parks would be closed the next day. The hotels filled up quick!!!! I ended up with a cold on that trip so DH, being the good husband that he is , trekked to the Food court to get Pizza for him and Soup for me for dinner. He waited in line for 2 HRS JUST TO ORDER (no exageration)... He had to go back 45 minutes later to pick up the Pizza... Well Floyd ended up not coming ashore as it took a turn up the eastern coast... The next day Disney was trying to call staff in so they could open a few parks.... Disney was great, every time we turned around they were slipping notices under our door about what to do (I saved all those notices)...

Now that brush with hurricane Floyd wasn't enough for us....... NOooooo, we had to book our wedding for the Hurricane season from H E Double toothpicks ... In 2004 we had booked our wedding for Sept. 17th.... This is the year that Florida was hit with 4 hurricanes. Hurricane Ivan was threatening the Florida coast so we ended up having to leave 3 days early for Disney (not that I minded the extra time in Disney ) because we were afraid that if we didn't we wouldn't be able to fly in or if we were able to, the City Hall might be closed and we wouldn't be able to get our Marriage license. Luckily the hurricane didn't go over central Florida... then just as we were getting ready to leave... Hurricane Jeanne was sitting off the coast getting ready to hit. We left and Jeanne hit 2 days later!!!!

I don't seem to have the best luck with Disney and Hurricanes!!!!!

 

[Xiarra]

You know now that I read my post... actually ... hey, I might be good luck ... I might be a force that pushes them away while I am there because they either shifted course while I was there or hung off the coast waiting for me to leave.....

 

[Bouncing4Tigger]

I was there for Hurricane Jeanne, well not at Disney anymore It was Saturday and the airport was closing at 5 or 6 pm. My flight was not till 8pm so it was of course canceled. I was at the Front dest at 6am and was told no rooms avail for Sat night. CM said to start calling around for rooms. I would be put on a waiting list for a room on property and would be called by 11am if something came avail.
Needless to say I was never called. Luckily I found a room at a motel 6 I think it was. What a horrible room I had there. There was 3 leaks in the cealing and the motel allowed pets. So the room reeked like wet dog that peed on the carpets one too many times

While I had a great trip at Disney, this is what I remember most about that trip. What made me mad was while reading someones trip report they mentioned getting a room at WL at 10:30 am on Sat. They had booked off sight sat night due to driving to WDW and wanted a cheap room that night. Sunday they would be checking into the Beach club. With the hurricane they decided they would rather be onsite.

So, no idea why I did not get a room, I told them I would move to any resort on sight. But nope, I had to move off sight

 

[Xiarra]

P.S. We all just need to keep thinking and wishing that it won't hit Florida.... becuase....

When you wish upon a star... what happens.... DREAMS COME TRUE

 

[Sammie]

They evacuate Fort Wilderness and close the parks and batten down everything and if it is forecasted to come over the area such as Charley did you are confined to your room.

Disney resorts are extremely well built. It is an inconvenience and it gets boring staying in your room, but I never felt unsafe.

If you are traveling during a predicted time be sure to bring games, etc to keep kids happy while confined to the room and a flashlight and snacks.

 

[minnie56]

We were there for Hurricane Charlie...at PO/FQ
Parks closed and the restaurant and bar closed at 6:00 pm. We took Pizza and a bottle of wine to our room and were not allowed out! Never lost TV or lights or anything! The next morning was quite the sight...trees in fountains and a mess, all over. But not for one minute did we feel nervous.

They did evacuate many guests to our Resort from Fort Wilderness so the line up checking in FILLED the lobby for the better part of the afternoon..

 

[kelscross]

We were there for Frances, headed down a day early just in case the airport was closing the day of our arrival. Airtran was very accommodating..they didn't charge us a fee or fare increase to change our flight to a day earlier. We stayed at ASMO the first night (got that ressie the day of arrival) as we really didn't want to spend $$$$ on an extra night at the Poly. We didn't get tickets for that first day, so we just played at the pool and went to DTD. The next morning as the hurricane was supposed to arrive we transfered to the Poly and went from there. We had to stay in our room for 24 hours, so it got a little stir crazy for the kids but I never felt unsafe and we didn't lose power or anything. I just wish they had two TVs instead of one...lol. We had to make a deal with the kids, they could watch one movie/show and then we would be able to watch one movie/show..lol. Believe it or not it all worked out fine!

 

[goofy4tink]

Another Charlie survivor!! We arrived at CR on Friday, August 13, 2004...same day Charlie did!! The parks closed around 3:00, we arrived at 1:00, one of the last flights coming in. If you can get to WDW, you are safer there than anywhere.
They did close down the restaurants by 4:00 due to there being so much glass at the CR. We were told we could go to the convention rooms and get dinner there. By the time for dinner came, 6:00, they told us we would be given styro boxes to fill up, and take back to our rooms. The food was good though.
We were told to stay in our rooms that night, away from the windows, keeping curtains drawn at all times. There were numerous updates left on our phones.
Next morning, we had to eat at the Concourse Steakhouse since we couldn't get anything at CM's. MK opened a bit late, AK didn't open for another day or so. Epcot and MGM were a bit late also. There was some tree damage. Quite a lot of it over in FtW...we had HDDR reservations that we had made a year in advance. They canceled HDDR for two nights, so we had to reschedule it to another night and ended up in the balcony.
I have to say that Disney does an incredible job during hurricaines. WDW was build to sustain heavy winds with little damage. It was only when we left WDW a week later that we realized just how bad the hurricaine really was...much damage outside WDW.

 

[spiceycat]

I'm concerned about this Ingrid situation developing.

okay what are you talking about?

I couldn't even find a tropical storm named Ingrid - much less a hurricane.

looked locality (and yes hurricanes can and do make tornadoes - which can come up here), and the weather.com

now there are 3 tropical storms in the atlantic - but nothing so far points to them even coming here. or weather.com is way wrong.

 

[clkelley]

Another Jeanne family here. Pretty much the same story, the parks closed up Saturday evening, they piped in movies and left us plenty of updates. We were confined to our rooms for the night till about noon on Sunday. All-Star Movies. The food court, bar, and game rooms opened up about 2pm. We spent Sunday afternoon walking around the three All-Star resorts taking pictures of damage and cleanup. The parks opened back up Monday morning.

 

[MinnieSummer]

I live in SE FL and ahve gone to WDW after hurricanes when we are without power and I need to do laundry -- doesn't everyone go to WDW to do their laundry? But that year that so many hit us we actually had reservation for the time that Ivan hit and I told my DH I was going regardless. He wanted to stay home in case anything happened to the house so my DD and I went. We had a great time. It was the first time I was able to actually see the hurricane coming through as we shutter the house and can't see out -- now I know that that is what makes a hurricane take on nightmare proportions, not being able to see what is making all those horrible sounds. I would peep through the curtain and see the trees bending over and the rain blowing horizontally and being able to see it made the sounds a little less scary. Anyway, after that I vowed I would never ride out a hurricane in my house again. SO if it looks like this depression that could become Ingrid is going to hit I'll be there. Ironically, I already have reservations for next weekend. This is the same time as Ivan (or was it Jeanne?) hit as its my DD"s birthday.

 

[gtalum]

Don't worry about hurricanes. The worst-case scenario is a wasted day for you. Disney knows what to do and will tell you what to do to keep safe.

After Charley, which brought veyr unusual Category 2 hurricane winds to Orlando, you couldn't tell anything had happened in the parks and resorts except for downed pine trees along the monorail routes by the next morning.