DH and I were on our Honeymoon at WDW on 9/11. We were exiting the Haunted Mansion when we were approached by a cast member who told us that we needed to leave because the park was now closed. This was around 11am or so. No one would tell us why the park was closed. At first, we thought perhaps the tropical storm in the area had upgraded to a hurricane.
As we approached the central hub in front of the castle, Main Street was verrrrry crowded. Since neither DH nor I like being packed like sardines, we stopped in the central hub for a few minutes to let the crowds die down. We were standing up on a bench taking pictures of the crowds and looking at the sky. (Remember, we thought there might be a hurricane coming.)
Security walked up to us and told us that we needed to head for the exit immediately. We thought it was a little odd - rather un-Disney-like. But we followed directions and headed for the exit.
We were staying at CBR. When we approached the bus lines, the line for CBR was at least 3 times as long as any other line. Our line extended through the normal queue and then all the way down the rest of the bus line walkway. After 45 minutes or so, all the other lines were empty. But we still had at least 3 bus loads of people waiting to back to CBR. 3 busses pulled up to different resort queues. The drivers all got out, asked where we were waiting to go and then said "get in."
As we approached our resort, we generally would enter through a back gate. So, it struck DH and I as odd that that back gate was blocked off with cones. Our driver drove around to the front gate. At this point I knew that the parks were not closed due to a storm. We still had no idea what had really happened, but DH and I had the distict impression that something along the lines of a bomb threat were behind the park closings. (We both work in emergency services.)
We stopped to get food at the food court before boarding a bus to go back to our room (we were staying in South Trinidad.) By the time the driver got to our stop we were the only ones left on the bus. We asked him what had happened and he said that he couldn't say. Based on the tone of his voice and the very puzzled looks on our faces, he continued that he'd like to say, but he would rather we watch it on TV. We must have looked pretty concerned at that point because he added - "Don't worry. It's nothing going on down here. It has to do with what's going on in New York." At that point DH and I said simultaneously "We're paramedics from New York. Now can you tell us what's going on?"
He was kind enough to tell us that someone had bombed the World Trade Center. But he did not go into any details. We knew at that point he had said more than he was supposed to. Also, he looked pretty shook up about it. We thanked him and ran to our room to watch the news.
The parks were pretty empty for the remainder of our trip. The cast members did a great job trying to keep everything cheery and happy once the parks reopened. However, you could tell looking at the other guests that the world as we knew it had just changed forever.
