What is your "worst case scenario - if we get caught in a hurricaine" plan?

[loriandmatt]

ok - so we Fla vacationers have two choices.. we can sit home and swear off Florida for the next, oh - 10 to 15 years (as experts are predicting increased incidents of landfall hurricaines - and they say this is perfectly natual - happens in cycles throughout history)

OR

we can plan wisely and have an idea what the heck to do if our vacation looks like it might get interrupted by one.

So - to plan as much as possible, i was wondering who would have the following info.....

is there a website where one could check to see the most accurate info about a week ahead. (say that folks could check before the cancellation date on their ressies comes up so they could make an informed decision about if they should cancel or come on down?)

what is disney's policy on cancelations due to threat of hurricaines?

what about if you are already there and checked in. how do they get in touch with you to tell you to evacuate if the call comes in the middle of the day when you are more than likely not at your campsite?

if you choose to check out and take your rig on the road and try to get away from the storm, do you get some money back for leaving early - because of the hurricaine?

if you are put up somewhere on Disney property (like a resort or at least a more solid shelter than a camper) what do you do with your camper? does it have to stay at FW? at the site or in the parking lot? does it come to the resort/shelter with you and get parked there?

- lori

 

[camperhappy]

A friend of my sister's works at Disney and he told her that if a Hurricane would come on land that we would be able to take shelter at Wilderness Lodge, but that your camper will stay at the camp ground. We will be down there June 26-July 3rd and I hope we don't have to worry about it. Have a good trip.

 

[Disney Campers]

Hurricanes are very hard to project, I like This Site to track them.

You could check the forecast before you come on down, but its just a forecast, as far an imminent threat while at the fort, Disney makes those decisions about closing so as to allow guests time to pack up. The only good thing about a hurricane is you have time to make a plan unlike say a tornado, once a decision is made to evacuate though the roads can be a major mess.

Last year we were spared at the last minute on Charlie - the path had a sudden change - so watch the big path not just the little black line.

 

[LMC]

I do know that you have to move the camper out of FW and I am sure they will tell you where a suitable place is to park it.

Since they know well in advance that a 'cane is coming I would imagine that they put a notification at your site the night before they plan to start evacuations. If I remember last year, they evacuated 1-2 days in advance so that everyone could get to safety and they could prepare the fort.

If you are down there and an evacuation order for the city comes out then you need to leave asap. Locals will tend to wait a little longer as they are preparing their homes and then the rds will become too congested. This happened when Ivan came last yr. My BIL had to go secure our condo and he did it early enough to miss the mass evacuation of locals and we had friends that evacuated Pensacola and sat in traffic for many, many hours the next day.

As far as refunds on your vacation I would think they would give them. WDW themselves actually cancelled peoples FW ressies after they closed the fort so those people had to wait until they reopened the fort to go.

 

[TmnsnMD]

We have 1st hand info. We werer there during Hurricane Charlie. FW does a great job of keeping everyone informed. We received letters taped to our camper door starting about 3 days out -- letting us know that there was a hurricane in the area. Next letting us know we may need to evacuate - if we left the campground there would be a credit, if not they would help us find shelter. Last letter was that they were evacuating FW and we would be moved to POFQ -- not to leave anything at our site, etc. We stayed at the hotel for 3 days at the same price we paid for our campsite (no additional charge). We did end up cooking in our trailer - alot cheaper than purchasing the food at the food court.

The one thing I can say is that the food court was not ready for all us campers. But the hotel did a great job overall.

Don't worry WDW will take care of you.

TmnsnMD

 

[Carrie Ellis]

We were there during hurricane Jeanne last Sept. We were staying at FW on a military discount which was $27/night. Well they put us up in All Stars Music--2 rooms!! There are 6 of us and the rooms only allow 4 people! So for 3 nights we had 2 rooms for $27/night!! But! I would stay in FW anyday over the rooms. It was a bummer not to be at FW but we only missed 1 day in the parks and still had lots of fun.