Tropical threat?? Leaving in 9 days...

[Tigerlulu]

Really? Wow that surprises me.

Irma passed on the east side of Orlando and didn’t give a direct hit with that area feeling cat 1 effects.

Ian is looking more and more to be a direct hit from the west with at least cat 2 inland for wdw. And slow moving. It’ll be fine but it is playing out to be by far the worst wdw has seen. I hope not though!

 

[Tonyz]

Irma passed on the east side of Orlando and didn’t give a direct hit with that area feeling cat 1 effects.

Ian is looking more and more to be a direct hit from the west with at least cat 2 inland for wdw. And slow moving. It’ll be fine but it is playing out to be by far the worst wdw has seen. I hope not though!

Haha my god you are definitely scaring some people, you gotta relax just a little with the doomsday predictions

 

[Tigerlulu]

Haha my god you are definitely scaring some people, you gotta relax just a little with the doomsday predictions

Not doomsday! Just lived on the gulf coast most of my life and know the realities well. Really we don’t evac for a cat 2 but we do prepare! And for all the people from out of town who are hearing “no big deal” they need to know they should actually go buy a loaf of bread, jar of peanut butter and case of water.

 

[Stratman50th]

Haha my god you are definitely scaring some people, you gotta relax just a little with the doomsday predictions

Especially since most of it has been incorrect.

 

[meremac]

WDTC just posted to the TA portal that they are officially waiving all cancellation/change fees for room-only and package reservations from now until 10/3. Dining reservation cancellation/no-show fees will also be waived until further notice. No official word on MNSSHP refunds yet, but I expect that won't happen until later. Word on the street from fellow TAs is mixed: some have been able to get party ticket refunds and some have been told their clients can only get credit for future ticket media. Obviously, if parties are cancelled this week, ticket refunds will be issued automatically, so it may be beneficial to wait to handle your party cancellations until a little later in the week instead of accepting a credit for future ticket media now.

 

[fla4fun]

Irma passed on the east side of Orlando and didn’t give a direct hit with that area feeling cat 1 effects.

Ian is looking more and more to be a direct hit from the west with at least cat 2 inland for wdw. And slow moving. It’ll be fine but it is playing out to be by far the worst wdw has seen. I hope not though!

Irma passed on the west side, not east. I live west of Orlando, and was up that night watching the weather radar on tv as the eye went over our neighborhood. In our area it came straight up Hwy 27. Granted, it wasn’t a direct hit for Disney, but the eye was about 10-15 miles as a crow flies from WDW. That was a terrifying night that I am afraid I may have to relive this week.

 

[Tigerlulu]

Irma passed on the west side, not east. I live west of Orlando, and was up that night watching the weather radar on tv as the eye went over our neighborhood. In our area it came straight up Hwy 27. Granted, it wasn’t a direct hit for Disney, but the eye was about 10-15 miles as a crow flies from WDW. That was a terrifying night that I am afraid I may have to relive this week.

Sorry, still cat 1 winds and you are right, it is scary. I hate when they hit at night.

Fortunately at that point the difference in 10-15 miles can be huge!

 

[Kestryl]

Typhoon Lagoon and mini golf will be closed Wednesday and Thursday.

They are closing some lodging options (Fort Wilderness, Poly bungalows, some others) and reaching out to those impacted.

 

[randumb0]

Have you seen the photos of I-4 l traffic heading East? Hopefully, you don’t have to travel that.

Thankfully I don't. I'm only 20 mins away so I may try to go tomorrow.

 

[Tonyz]

Typhoon Lagoon and mini golf will be closed Wednesday and Thursday.

They are closing some lodging options (Fort Wilderness, Poly bungalows, some others) and reaching out to those impacted.

Park closures gotta be coming soon, right?

 

[meremac]

Park closures gotta be coming soon, right?

Not necessarily, but I'd personally bet on it.

 

[Tonyz]

Not necessarily, but I'd personally bet on it.

I’d be beyond shocked if they don’t close the parks. Maybe waiting for one more update, but the way it looks now Wed night - Thursday will be rough for Disney

 

[OnceUponATime15]

Campgrounds Fort Wilderness
Cabins Fort Wilderness
Treehouse Villa’s Saratoga Springs
Cabins at Copper Creek, Wilderness Lodge
Bungalows at the Poly
Typhoon Lagoon
Winter Summerland Miniature Golf

edited to add.. Skyliner already closed

All closed Wednesday through Friday — as per The Mickey Blog

 

[lanejudy]

What is with Disney and giving such a hard time about changing dates/reservations. They act clueless that a hurricane is coming in the next few days and keep asking why we want to change our travel dates. Was supposed to fly in tomorrow but changed it until Saturday night for a week. They keep saying that our tickets will expire and its outside the window. I'm lost, do they really want you inside a park with torrential rain and a hurricane?

I think WDW just made it official they are waiving penalties, and as PP mentioned the phone CM may not be remotely near Florida. The other challenge you may run into is availability. With a lot of people rescheduling it will impact resort availability, plus I believe WDW pulled visibility for all resort bookings this week offline earlier today so everyone has to call.

You mention tickets expiring...if bought as part of a package and you changed the package dates, the tickets should adjust automatically. But if you purchased tickets separately you will need to adjust the start date to fit your new dates or yes it could expire. You will also need to make new theme park reservations, and ADRs - none of that adjusts automatically.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

Pinellas County has evacuations starting, and the St Pete/Clearwater airport is closing due to this.



Rosen hotels is offering lower pricing for evacuating people, along with no pet fees and free wifi at specific hotels.

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/l...ane-ian-distress-rates-for-people-evacuating/

 

[RoseGold]

DVC is showing zero availability for Weds, Thurs, Friday, Saturday. The soonest room I can get is Sunday. That isn't uncommon because DVC runs on complete occupancy, but that doesn't match all the people canceling right now. DVC must have cut off new bookings.

 

[lovethattink]

Disney area is under a tropical storm watch. I’m in Polk and we’re in tropical storm warning.

 

[gatechfan99]

I'm in WDW right now and and kinda scared. I don't know what to do. I wish I booked for May.

You don't need to be scared, you do need to be prepared for inconvenience and transportation issues.

In comparison to Irma, this definitely has the potential to be worse for the Orlando area (certainly it will for Tampa). Irma was Cat 4 on landing, but that was far SW Florida. I looked up the meteorological history and it was a weakening Cat 1 as it moved fairly quickly through the Tampa-Orlando area. This will be moving slowly and is forecast right now to be 130 mph a few miles off the coast of Tampa before weakening.

This is going to be historically bad for Tampa because of the slow moving storm and storm surge. Right now it's projected to be 10+ feet and could potentially cut St. Pete off from Tampa. That and all the evacuees will strain Orlando to recover from whatever it experiences more inland.

Again, if you have to be there, you will be safe at WDW (as long as you don't go out in the worst of it to "have a look.") But do whatever you can in advance to prepare from a supply standpoint. And if you have transportation plans to leave Thurs-Fri, that may not be happening.

For best advice, use the NHC website. They update the path and have a good written discussion every 6 hours. Nobody can forecast better than them (your local media guy just essentially takes their information). Also, another good site is Levi Cowan with tropicaltidbits.com. He does a great daily vlog discussing a lot of the nuances that help you understand what could still change and what impacts are likely.

 

[lilkitty819]

DVC is showing zero availability for Weds, Thurs, Friday, Saturday. The soonest room I can get is Sunday. That isn't uncommon because DVC runs on complete occupancy, but that doesn't match all the people canceling right now. DVC must have cut off new bo

They have pulled all inventory off the website you have to call.

 

[BorderTenny]

Latest update has the eye brushing right by me up in Citrus County. Not too worried, though, since I'm far enough inland that storm surge is a non-issue, and my second-story condo shouldn't be affected by flash flooding. Still planning on heading down to MK tomorrow (as of now).