Would you cancel or chance it? (Jeanne)

[cbjl]

We have our 1st reservations coming up for Sunday - Thursday at the BCV. We're excited but also uneasy about Jeanne.
I checked with MS about a hurricane policy for this weekend, but they told me that since Ivan turned out to be a miss at the last minute, they aren't instituting a hurricane cancellation policy this time. However, if it turns out that Jeanne does go through Orlando & we can't fly down on Sunday, we can call the resort to cancel, then MS on Monday & they would probably reinstate our points.
Since we will be traveling with our 2 3-year-old daughters, I'm a little more inclined to go the safer route & just go ahead & cancel this afternoon. That way we could have our points put into a holding account & try to book a Jan trip when we get w/i 60 days. But, I really don't know much about hurricanes & I'm not sure if I'm overreacting...
Any advice out there?
thanks
Kristin

 

[wintergreen]

There are a couple of threads on the Theme Park Strategies Board on this topic that might be of interest to you. If you look at the tracking maps for Jeanne, it looks like most of it will be past Orlando by Monday. Perhaps you could plan to arrive on Monday rather than Sunday?

 

[LIFERBABE]

I spoke with MS about an hour ago, and was told they are allowing cancellations and the Hurricane policy is in effect for all WDW Resorts.

We are to check in on Sunday at BWV too. Talk about going from 60 to 0 in 10 seconds flat.

Right now we are still on and will keep watching.

If you do need to cancel, you can call the Resorts directly and then when MS reopens they will make the adjustments to your points. That's how it was explained to me.

 

[cbjl]

Thanks for the info Liferbabe - they did tell me it might change this afternoon (hurricane policy). I just called in, got the same info you did & decided to cancel - maybe someone can use the room who is evacuating. I wish we could have just shifted our trip to Monday or Tuesday, but we couldn't find any availability.

We'll regroup next week & start a new countdown in our house.

thanks for the help
Kristin

 

[hkp]

Have not had time to read up on all the threads. We have
spent the last 4 days in a 2 bedroom at BCV (room 224) and
have had fantastic weather. Unfortunately, we were scheduled to fly back to Denmark from Miami on Sunday. Since I don't want
to risk getting stuck at the airport, I just booked the room
for an extra night.

A few weeks back, I wrote about how we postponed our
trip one week because of Ivan. We ended up being amazingly
lucky. The only bad weather we've had was late Monday night
when we arrived - it was very windy and rainy then. Since then,
it has been gorgeous. The fireworks at the Magic Kingdom and
Epcot were amazingly wonderful with clear skies and almost
no wind. None of us have ever experienced a hurricane before
and it is so strange knowing that the great weather is going to
change so dramatically over the next 36 hours. Need to find a way to explain to the kids (3 and 5). It is hard when none of us know what to expect. The staff at the hotel have been very helpful and sincere in answering our questions.

My answer would be that I am glad we cancelled because of Ivan, but this is the last time I'll ever plan an international family gettogether during hurricane season.

Sorry about the messy post, but it's hard to write with 3 kids running around throwing all their new toys at the ceiling fan (don't have those back in Denmark).

We're off to Alfredo's in Epcot to enjoy the last few hours of calm weather. Good luck with your vacation plans - I really hope things work out for you like they did for us.

Hans

 

[rocketriter]

I think the biggest bet is whether you'll be able to get through the airport, not whether you'll be safe during a hurricane at WDW. You might want to make your choice based on that evaluation.

 

[idratherbeinwdw]

Originally posted by hkp

My answer would be that I am glad we cancelled because of Ivan, but this is the last time I'll ever plan an international family gettogether during hurricane season.

I'm glad your trip turned out so well but not so clear on why you are glad you canceled due to Ivan since it missed WDW totally. I was there at the time and the parks were empty and the weather was great.

So sorry to all who had their trips messed up due to any of the actual hurricanes or for fear of Ivan.

 

[DVC-LEROY]

We we're due to check in at BCV on Sunday (staying till next Sat morning) - called last night and they put a hold on our room until we confirmed our airline changes (which are now for Monday). There was no problem switching to Monday as they said they had many inquiries for rooms for Sunday night. They also told us that adjustments to points could be made on Monday. We're just debating on adding an extra night on the end of our stay with the points higher adding a Saturday night.

 

[AFMom]

We were luckily able t change our trip to arrive on Tuesday, and stay extra days onto the end. Yay OKW! We would have been driveing through the middle of it to get there - no fun. I believe the resorts themselves would be plenty safe, it getting there that would be a problem. Also - being stck in the room with kids would be a bummer. And if the parks close for a day or two - you'd be wasting a bit of your time. Hard to decide this one - I really didn't want to delay - very anxious to get going. But I am glad we did now. Good luck to all.

 

[fknaut]

Plan on being here Sunday, if you have a death wish! I think all tourists should be banned from Florida during Hurricanes so the people who cannot get into a shelter can get into a htel that may become their home for a long while. We have been devastated by three Hurricanes already and now a fourth. The last time 4 hurricanes hit any state was in 1886 in Texas. BB - Stay Away till the storms are cleared and the state says it is okay in all areas affected.

 

[emememem]

Cancelled our trip for this weekend to SSR. We were scheduled on an early flight out of New York which was still up and running.... All flights on Sunday to go home were cancelled... got the message loud and clear.. stay home! We re -booked for November. Something to look forward to. Hopefully hurricaine season will be over by then.

 

[RuthnPaul]

You might want to take a look at this link which shows the storm track going right over Orlando...

http://www.wdwinfo.com/storm2.htm

 

[Wabriel]

We were due to arrive on Sunday - BCV. I just called to change flight to Monday, 10 min., changed rental car, 10 min., and the hotel, a little over 10 min. It went pretty well, better than I thought it would.
Hopefully, the airport will be open on Monday about noon. This summer has been terrible. I hope the people of Orlando can get a rest soon.