When WDW has closed...

[seashoreCM]

Was November 11 or 12 your original go-home day? On both those days, all airplane flights were cancelled. You could have enjoyed yourself in The World for two more days.

What help would you have liked?

What help could possibly have been given to you?

It's OK to walk a little behind the droves instead of in them.

 

[StephenKay]

Hi there,

I too also remember the fire, the substation was hit by lightning during the night. The first thing I noticed that the coffee maker did not work then the lights would not come on, so after a call to the front desk all became apparent. They credited some small amount of dollars for items in the freezer and invited us to breakfast in Ariels in the BC, as we were staying in the villas. The CM's were great and the next day the park opened as normal.


Regards,

 

[Blueberry]

I was there on September 11th in the MK.....

We knew before the parks closed as we saw a lot of people on phones and there was a general something is wrong feeling in the park. I was in Fantasyland when my DH called his office to find out what was going on, and they told him. We called relatives on our cell who gave us the whole story. It was very surreal...Parents were grabbing kids and heading out, characters were out in Fantasyland and seemed amazed no one much was coming to visit with them, I saw more than one whisper to their helper CM I assume asking what was going on...

We were heading out anyway when they made the announcement that due to unforeseen circumstances the parks were closing for the rest of the day. At the exits the CMs were handing out free passes to those of us with Park Hoppers who were losing a day on our hoppers...

All the parks closed and someone thought DD stayed open, it did not...they blocked off the parking lot to the entire DD and Marketplace area with road blocks and guards so no one could go in there..I know we tried to drive over there and found it closed and guarded by CM Security guards.

Most of the local malls and a lot of stores closed too, Walmart was open and we went there in the afternoon, just to get out somewhere, it was packed with tourists all looking kinda numb..

It was a scary time and I will never forget it or where I was...

 

[seashoreCM]

I'm not sure whether the magnetic stripe on a pass is re-recorded each time the pass is used but --- if not, then rather than hand out raincheck passes Disney could wipe the master computer memory for the day in question and all passes used on that day would regain a day for future use.

 

[Towncrier]

We were brand new DVC members staying at Old Key West in July/August 1995 when Hurricane Erin paid a visit to central Florida. We got a phone call from the front desk asking us to bring our patio furniture inside the evening before the storm hit. The next morning we awoke to a lot of downed trees and flooded roads. We got another phone call from the front desk asking us to NOT use Disney transportation if we had our own vehicles. It seems that a large percentage of the bus drivers could not make it to work that day. We were also told that park opening would be delayed by a couple of hours. We ended up spending the day at Epcot. We went to a character brunch at The Land. Since the crowds were virtually non-existant, my son and daughter were picked to assist with the Fife & Drum ceremony at the American Pavilion. They were the only two kids in the audience. It later dawned on me that perhaps we should have gone to the Magic Kingdom that day instead of Epcot to take advantage of the small crowds.

I remember one other time when I visited WDW during Spring Break 1976. Apparently there was a very bad storm approaching as the folks in Fort Wilderness had been relocated to the hallways of the Contemporary Resort to ride out the storm. You never know about the weather in Central Florida.

 

[preshi]

I was at AK on 09/11. I arrived for my first trip ever, and alone on the 10th. I had just sat down at Tarzan Rocks when a woman came on stage and made the announcement. I really had no clue what was going on. People were saying some odd things while we were leaving. No one seemed paniced about anything though. We all got 1 day tickets and the buses came shortly after. There were 2 older couples in line behind me who had an idea of what was happening and were very compassionate with me, I'm sure I looked panicked and confused.

I got back to my room at CSR and had a ton of messages. I actually made alot of phone calls during my stay and didn't get charged for one of them. A Local Diser came and picked me up and took me to another resort to meet another Diser CM just to kind of get away from it all.

After that I got some dinner and sat in my room trying to find something on that wasn't news related. I was really on edge. then a day or two after that Tropical Storm Gabby came into town and the news was saying to stay on the ground floors of buildings because they were having some freak tornados... I'll tell ya It's a trip I won't ever forget!! Parks didn't seem crowded to me at all though.

 

[Urbs2005]

There are actually three levels of evacuation plans for the MK. The first is simply an evacuation of the park through the main gates. This is what happened on 9-11. The second level would be an evacuation through all exits, including backstage access roads such as those around Splash Mountain. This would be for a more immediate threat. The third level is where the guests are actually taken into the utilidors. This would be in the event of a hurricane or tornado that suddenly came up. To my knowledge the last two have never been used. As a side note, if the third evacuation plan is ever used, all of the entertainers (characters, streetmosphere players, etc) must entertain the guests for as long as they are down there, as if it were an on-stage area.

Chris