Tropical threat?? Leaving in 9 days...

[lanejudy]

Just looking it up rough estimates are about 36,000 rooms.

Sounds like a lot of rooms doesn't it? There have definitely been hurricanes when WDW had "no vacancy" - whether the rooms were sold, campground guests shifted, employees staying onsite, etc. I recall posts of people coming off cruises (DCL cruise) with cancelled flights who could not get a room at WDW. Disney has also been known to open the convention centers to house people (I don't know that they "sell" that but it does happen - probably employees or local evacuations). So...yeah...while some guests cancel to open a few rooms it may not balance out with the number who are stranded or evacuating and in need of a room.

 

[gatechfan99]

Take it for what it's worth from someone who both lives with hurricane issues in Mobile every year and has cancelled 2 Disney trips in the past 6 years because of potential hurricanes.

Forget comparisons about what happened to Disney when Irma, Dorian, and Matthew were forecast to cause problems. The path of this is very different and puts Orlando in a much different situation. None of those affected Orlando with a land strike that close and to its west. Irma was the closest but it was a good bit farther south.

2 years ago Sally hit about 50 miles from my house with around 110 mph wind. We were without power for 3 days (convinced me to finally buy that big generator), many streets were impassable for several days. In the county where it actually hit, some places were without power for a month. For at least 2 days, it was almost impossible to find any restaurants open. And that's with a population level much less than the Tampa-Orlando area.

We moved trips from Matthew and Dorian and I can promise you, had a much better stress level on the new trips that what we would've had, even with minimal impacts that actually affected Disney. If you have the ability to move it, I would. If you can't move it, you need to be prepared to not be able to find food or gas for at least a couple of days, even in Orlando.

 

[Tonyz]

I currently have a flight leaving from Long Island on Thursday morning, scheduled to land at 9:30am at MCO. Just received an email confirmation from the airline 5 minutes ago for the itinerary. Not sure what to think here...exactly how bad do the conditions have to be for them to cancel all incoming flights to Orlando?

Based on when I was there during Irma, they will try to give at least a day warning for airport closures. But Thursday morning def. ain't looking good for MCO.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Sorry, my post was not clear. It is not just rooms it’s limited gas, food, etc in the area. Threats from tornados and flooding, having to stay in your room, boxed meals….does not make a fun vacation..imho. A lot of very stressed folks right now, including people that have recently moved to Fl. Stay safe and pack plenty of patience.

I hear ya, the thread can just turn ugly quick if it's a lot like the talk. The Matthew and Irma threads got so nasty because people were so mean. People who wanted to share in the experience and give their information in a fact-based way (which are good for any future information) suddenly felt uncomfortable doing so for quite a while later. Suppose that's what I was reacting to I do not think that was your intention though but that path could get down there quickly.

It's def. good to know if certain area are having grocery store issues or if the airport is shutting down or if people are starting to have their flights cancelled en masse by the airlines. Fact-based information is incredibly helpful for people to know.

As far as the fun vacation, that's an opinion although handling of the topic with a serious way. We can all give experiences with how Disney has handled the hurricanes and then let people decide it if it's something they are willing to accept. I know that Matthew boxed lunches created such a negative press including the price. Disney stepped up and did much better with Irma and dropped the price (it was $6)

This was my boxed lunch at All-Stars (which being the lowest category at Disney is saying something):


Sure no gourmet meal but it was absolutely fine for us and we felt $6 was very reasonable. But would Ian be similar? I'm not sure but all I can give is what food they offered us.

Did no house keeping bother us? No it wasn't an issue at all. I appreciated that they thought ahead to give people additional toiletries including toilet paper, towels and shampoos and such. Then again these days housekeeping already isn't quite the same as it was then so I would think if you've been recently enough you won't have quite a shock.

Is knowing that staying in your room is what you'll have to do especially in an exterior door good to know? Yes because for some especially with more people staying in the room it could get stir crazy. We actually would have preferred the refurb rooms at the All-Stars for a hurricane ride it out, the rooms are better feeling than they were then. It wasn't bad to me though, that detail of having to stay in my room did not in anyway affect our decision to go down, it was other things that weighed more heavily on my mind.

If this was 2021 I would have even mentioned issues with ability to get rental cars but that has gotten so much better that really my only thing would be to mention if someone does get a rental car park it far away from trees as you can get and either carry the insurance through the rental car, ensure you have the coverage on your personal auto or forgo the rental car entirely (more because of the strength of the hurricane).

I feel like stress is the name of the game for the last several years, even my own mind has changed what it considers a stress. I can say with confidence though everyone who comments wishes everyone to be safe no matter where they are and what decisions they make

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Sounds like a lot of rooms doesn't it? There have definitely been hurricanes when WDW had "no vacancy" - whether the rooms were sold, campground guests shifted, employees staying onsite, etc. I recall posts of people coming off cruises (DCL cruise) with cancelled flights who could not get a room at WDW. Disney has also been known to open the convention centers to house people (I don't know that they "sell" that but it does happen - probably employees or local evacuations). So...yeah...while some guests cancel to open a few rooms it may not balance out with the number who are stranded or evacuating and in need of a room.

For Irma they over-evaucated by about 2million people from what I've read. It was a decent amount of guests that cancelled, dunno about now with Ian though so fair point you're making.

 

[lovethattink]

Now I'm confused. I thought Irma passed overnight and the parks were open the next day. And Irma was a much bigger storm than this one.

Irma did pass over night. I put ear plugs in, got in my walk in closet and fell asleep while dh sat in the hallway outside the closet wide awake listening to the horrible sounds. DS fell asleep too. When I woke up. The storm was over. And we looked over the house and all the yard debris from our majestic oaks. Neighbors pitched in and helped us with the tree debris and branches.

I was wide awake for clean up. DH was exhausted.

This one is going to be a 2 day rain maker with at least tropical storm force winds.

11am track looks better than the 5am track.

 

[lovethattink]

For Irma they over-evaucated by about 2million people from what I've read. It was a decent amount of guests that cancelled, dunno about now with Ian though so fair point you're making.

Today they are being clear not to evacuate unless your zone is called or your house isn’t safe. Schools are closed or closing along the gulf coast to open as shelters.

My dh has to go to work 12 hours on Wednesday. I worry about his drive home at night.

So far both my ds and dil are working at Disney Springs and City Walk.

 

[ishbit92]

Because Orlando is an hour from Tampa and if millions of people have no power in the general area, it will be complete chaos.

Sure, it's not raining anymore. But there's no power. Or gasoline. Or water. Or worse.

Sure, this will be obvious by Friday, and you'll know for a Saturday flight what generally happened.

Thank you for your response, this makes sense to me.

My husband and I are supposed to land at MCO Saturday afternoon, our trip will be a group of 8. But 4 of our party is already in Florida, and the rest of us 4 are flying into MCO Friday night/Saturday. We are staying in an Airbnb vacation home nearby Disney for the first portion of the trip (the portion that would be most likely to be impacted by this). I think at this point I'm most worried about the Airbnb flooding or losing power, and of course that our flights could get delayed.

Will definitely be watching this thread closely, along with reports from my friends already in FL, and meteorologists.

 

[sky13]

Being reported and I did glance at website - Disney appears to have pulled all availability to book next few days during storm.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1574416523695108097

I *think* they did this for Irma too not sure about Matthew. Preventing new bookings. I know they were giving hurricane rates (like 50%) for those coming in for Irma. If you had a resort reservation already you were good to go. Except a few days ahead they had evacuated Fort Wilderness because that is too exposed. RVs were then parked overnight of the bulk of the storm in MK parking lot. I forget where they moved people from Fort Wilderness (it may have been a few resorts).

Yes I seem to remember they did this for Irma too. Was already at Pop the week before Irma and remember looking on the website trying to see if I could book a room if I had to extend my stay and finding zero availability on the website. Ended up talking to the Pop front desk who told me that if I had to extend my stay I could without any issues (at a discounted rate they were offering, can't remember how much it was exactly but it was quite a decent discount).

(Pop front desk also told me that if I wanted to leave early I could as well, just needed to let them know when I left my room and they would refund any unused nights to me. Ended up taking this option as managed to reschedule my flight out of MCO to before the airport closure.)

 

[Kestryl]

We’re watching all this closely. We’re supposed to be in southern Florida Oct 8-12, Orlando Oct 12-16, so we’re trying to keep tabs on the infrastructure and power issues that may come up. (And we’re driving, so gas availability as well!)

 

[sndral]

Irma was 5 years ago & a lot has happened in those 5 years. There’s a new CEO - Chapek, staffing shortages WDW wide, increased costs, Florida’s Governor & Chapek are at loggerheads, etc.. I’m not sure we can look to what people experienced at WDW during Irma (or Mathew the year before) to predict what will happen w/ a very different storm - Ian - in a very different WDW.
My only experience w/ WDW & hurricanes was Ike (?) which was no where near Florida, but it did shut down my connecting airport in Texas on the day we were scheduled to fly out - despite our unexpected 3 a.m. departure from POFQ to try & beat the storm we ended up w/ multiple route changes, spent hours in various airports as we hop scotched across the country to get home. That cured me of traveling to WDW during hurricane season & saving a few dollars on non direct flights, now I travel in winter & just hope blizzards don’t derail my flights.

 

[foolish_mortals]

For those with flights scheduled fly.faa.gov is a good resource for the most up to date airport status.

They will make the call of airport closure. They already have a warning about a full ground stop for MCO and MIA so it looks like they expect to close those airports at some point

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Yes I seem to remember they did this for Irma too. Was already at Pop the week before Irma and remember looking on the website trying to see if I could book a room if I had to extend my stay and finding zero availability on the website. Ended up talking to the Pop front desk who told me that if I had to extend my stay I could without any issues (at a discounted rate they were offering, can't remember how much it was exactly but it was quite a decent discount).

(Pop front desk also told me that if I wanted to leave early I could as well, just needed to let them know when I left my room and they would refund any unused nights to me. Ended up taking this option as managed to reschedule my flight out of MCO to before the airport closure.)

I think the procedure back then was you really couldn't just book online for a room during the mess of it. You had to call. Like when we went down on arrival day (which was Thursday the 8th) to extend our trip by a day it was a decent wait not necessarily because of people there in the lobby but because the front desk people had to call to do anything with rooms whether it was extending or booking people coming in. They extended our discount we had already on the rooms (though it wasn't the hurricane rate, that went to people coming in that moment). The CMs did deserve much patience though from people because they were on the phone sometimes for a while working things out on their end.

I guess my thing is I don't know if they opened availability on the site so if someone was looking only there they may think there's nothing available when at least back then that was more how Disney was handling it. I don't know if it's changed but I did think it was tedious for the front desk people to not really be able to do much on their own having to add in another additional person to do that background work but guess that was just how it was set up by Disney.

 

[fla4fun]

I just want to know where the darn thing is going! Just watched two local news broadcasts. One has the storm staying in the Gulf as it passes Tampa and the other has the eye going right over me as it cuts across the state. There is a huge difference in how I would handle those two scenarios. One, I ride it out at home and the other I pack up my valuables and get out of Dodge. I can feel myself aging ten years with every update!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I’m not sure we can look to what people experienced at WDW during Irma (or Mathew the year before) to predict what will happen w/ a very different storm - Ian - in a very different WDW.

No one really is trying to predict. But without people sharing experiences no one would have any knowledge whatsoever. It's all building off each other. People during Irma knew that what happened during Matthew was not a predictor of what would be happening but it was good to have what happened there. And people who experienced hurricanes prior to Matthew did the same, they were giving experiences from earlier hurricanes with the knowledge that this one could be done differently by the Disney company, Florida government (both state and local). I also learned a lot about hurricanes, the so-called dirty side and more just by reading people's experiences and knowledge. I'm used to tornadoes so at least I would know what to do on the 3rd level of a hotel room without a designated safe area but others may not.

But to the point about the state of things that I have tried to be blunt that I don't know quite what will happen because of park reservations, Genie+, date-based tickets and more. That is something hard to know and will the bring out the characters or opt to not do that much because their level of employees is less, etc those sorts of things. Operationally Disney is different although I do think the MNSSHP they would refund if they cancel and have been even with Chapek forgiving enough on when a customer needs to cancel.

 

[Lisse24]

From the 2 pm Advisory:
* 3-8 inches rainfall over the Florida Peninsula, except for West Central Florida, where it will be higher.
* tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 115 miles (185 km).
* "Widespread considerable flash and urban flooding and prolonged significant river flooding impacts are likely mid-to-late week in central Florida given already saturated conditions."

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

* tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 115 miles (185 km).

That's one to be looking for for tree damage (obviously rain too) and power outage and overall damage impacts

CAT 1 is listed as Category 1 (74–95 mph). Those winds listed above would be a high CAT 2/low CAT 3

 

[Lisse24]

That's one to be looking for for tree damage (obviously rain too) and power outage and overall damage impacts

CAT 1 is listed as Category 1 (74–95 mph). Those winds listed above would be a high CAT 2/low CAT 3

Sorry if I was unclear, but I think you misunderstood. 115 miles is how far out from the eye TS force winds are, but they are still just TS force, and not hurricane force. So this would be 40 - 70 mph.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Sorry if I was unclear, but I think you misunderstood. 115 miles is how far out from the eye TS force winds are, but they are still just TS force, and not hurricane force. So this would be 40 - 70 mph.

You're right I did misunderstand thank you for that clarification

 

[Tigerlulu]

Take it for what it's worth from someone who both lives with hurricane issues in Mobile every year and has cancelled 2 Disney trips in the past 6 years because of potential hurricanes.

Forget comparisons about what happened to Disney when Irma, Dorian, and Matthew were forecast to cause problems. The path of this is very different and puts Orlando in a much different situation. None of those affected Orlando with a land strike that close and to its west. Irma was the closest but it was a good bit farther south.

2 years ago Sally hit about 50 miles from my house with around 110 mph wind. We were without power for 3 days (convinced me to finally buy that big generator), many streets were impassable for several days. In the county where it actually hit, some places were without power for a month. For at least 2 days, it was almost impossible to find any restaurants open. And that's with a population level much less than the Tampa-Orlando area.

We moved trips from Matthew and Dorian and I can promise you, had a much better stress level on the new trips that what we would've had, even with minimal impacts that actually affected Disney. If you have the ability to move it, I would. If you can't move it, you need to be prepared to not be able to find food or gas for at least a couple of days, even in Orlando.

This! I was hit by Laura (and Delta) and underground utilities don’t help if the storm destroys the electrical stations! We were out of power for 4-5 weeks and had no water for a week or two. I’m about 45 minutes from the gulf.

My in laws are 4 hours north of us and were without power for a week! Also this storm coming from the west puts Wdw on the worst side. I wouldn’t hesitate to stay at wdw for anything cat 2 or less, but I would absolutely not stand in the path of what Ian is shaping up to be.