Hurricanes in WDW

natalia1681

natalia1681

New Member
I was there last year when Wilma came through. I don't think it was still a "hurricane" when it came through the Orlando area, but Disney did a wonderful job of keeping us informed as guests. They sent people to our rooms to let us know that the parks would be closed the next day, where to get food, phone numbers for airlines, etc. (basically, everything we could have needed). They had cancelled Magical Express for the morning, but they called a cab for us and gave us a voucher. All in all, it was handled beautifully and I couldn't have asked for anything else.:D:D:D

Also, on a side note, one of the CMs had said to me that the hotels are all built to withstand a Category 5 hurricane. However, I think that CM might have been a bus driver, so take it with a grain of salt:lookaroun:lookaroun:lookaroun:lol::lol::lol:
 
MadMax11

MadMax11

Well-Known Member
hakunamatata said:
Hey Max, did you enjoy last years evac too?
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oh, yeah. :rolleyes:

i have two children and live in a 40 year old house surrounded by 40 year old oaks out on the west side. no way i was sticking around for what could have been the landfall of a cat 5, particularly with where the projections were by that Wednesday.

my family had our home beat up really bad by little Alicia back in 83 from a twister spun off. my rule is if it goes Cat 4 and Galveston is a serious threat, I'm out. maybe if i didn't have children i wouldn't have that rule.
 
Hakunamatata

Hakunamatata

Le Meh
Premium Member
MadMax11 said:
oh, yeah. :rolleyes:

i have two children and live in a 40 year old house surrounded by 40 year old oaks out on the west side. no way i was sticking around for what could have been the landfall of a cat 5, particularly with where the projections were by that Wednesday.

my family had our home beat up really bad by little Alicia back in 83 from a twister spun off. my rule is if it goes Cat 4 and Galveston is a serious threat, I'm out. maybe if i didn't have children i wouldn't have that rule.
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We live in Mo. City. I was going to have my wife and kids leave wednesday evening, but the girl got sick in the car so I told my wife to come home and I would get them up early Thursday morning. When I woke up Thursday, it was making a line directly for Houston, so I told my wife I would leave too. It took us 11 hours to get to Austin from Hwy 9 and Murphy road. Its normally a 3 hour trip at longest.
 
MadMax11

MadMax11

Well-Known Member
hakunamatata said:
We live in Mo. City. I was going to have my wife and kids leave wednesday evening, but the girl got sick in the car so I told my wife to come home and I would get them up early Thursday morning. When I woke up Thursday, it was making a line directly for Houston, so I told my wife I would leave too. It took us 11 hours to get to Austin from Hwy 9 and Murphy road. Its normally a 3 hour trip at longest.
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We left Wed night. Took us 13 hours to get to Dallas. We're very spoiled in this country, but it was one of the worst experiences in my life. I hope to never repeat it. We were so fortunate to have family to go to.

I remember stopping at a truck stop on 290 at about 10 pm that night. Getting out to let the dog out....use the bathroom...let the kids get out and stretch..and grab a candybar. I started looking around at the other people there...and there was such desperation in their eyes. So many people live paycheck to paycheck...and you could see people really scared. And you know they're wondering, "how am i gonna do this? where am i gonna go?"

By the time we got about an hour out of Waco I started calling hotels all around there. By that time, they were telling people to just drive to Oklahoma City, because there was no room anywhere. No rooms in Waco, Austin, Dallas...or anywhere in between. Exacerbated by Katrina evacuees, as well, in some of those places.

wow...again...i hope i never have to do that again. but there's no way i'd chance a hurricane of that magnitude with little ones. I met a guy from Beaumont who lived in a neighborhood just like mine there. He said most of the houses in his neighborhood have a tree in them. At least one tree in them. He had an accounting practice in Beaumont...it's gone. The clients he serviced are gone and his receivables are worthless. That was his life's work building that practice. All gone. Most of the damage from Rita hasn't been rebuilt. The insurance companies were so busy with Katrina, they were throwing blue tarps over homes that are still there to this day.

We dodged a HUGE bullet here in Houston.
 
bassman

bassman

New Member
is it true that 2 years ago 1 of the giant stars was blown off the top of the epcot globe,i heard this from my uncle so i didn't trust the info if ya get what i mean:rolleyes:
 
cls4016

cls4016

Member
We were also there during Jeanne in 2004. Unfortunately we were stuck in the All-Star Movies resort for the 24 hrs or so that the resort was closed down. If you think the rooms at the All-Stars are small normally, try being in them for 24 hrs+ and not being able to leave. I swear the walls got smaller as the time passed :lookaroun . But in all seriousness, the few things that really stick out in my mind were:

1. Make sure if you are stuck at the all-stars during a hurricane, you get a pizza or something before the food court closes for the duration of the lockdown.

2. I really felt secure in the building, not once did I feel as though we were in jeopardy inside our room.

3. I remember looking out the evening before the hurricane hit and seeing several Coast Guard vehicles and boats on trailers in our parking lot and thinking, If the Coast Guard is riding the storm out here, then we are in a pretty safe location.

4. WDW staff did a tremendous job cleaning up after the hurricane. Despite a few downed trees, you really never even noticed anything had happened the day after (especially in the parks).
 
colliera

colliera

Member
Riding it out WDW

My family was at WDW in Sept. 2004 the week after Charile which was the week before Francis. The Orlando airport had suffered some damage with lots of plastic hanging from the damaged ceilings, (leaks?), and a sign at the monorails saying to excuse the mess while they clean up. One of the "games" I play when I land in Orlando is to look for all the swimming pools on final decent. I remember thinking at about 10,000 feet that I didn't remember THAT many pools before. When we got lower I realised what I had seen as was pools were actually blue tarps over roofs that hand been damaged. Nick, who drove us in from Quicksilver said even his roof hand been damaged and he didn't expect getting it repaired until January of '05 because the extent of the damage had overwhemed the available work pool. There was obvious trees down at WDW in the South end of the property around Pop Century which you can still see today although the Summer growth is beginning to cover it. Pop Century lost one of the decades signs at the front of the resort. There wasn't much damage at WDW that I did see other than the trees except for some of the flashing on the roof of the Contempory that had been peeled back and trees down on the safari at AK.

Last year I was there in late October when Wilma came through. It was another one that was predicted to pass over Orlando. We were at Universal's Halloween Horror Nights when it started. The guy that ended the Bill & Ted's show added the line, "We've deal with four [hurricanes] before - bring on number five." It rained the rest of the night. We stopped at the Jurassic Park to eat and a CM there told us that Universal was planning to close the next day. When we got back to WDW at the Wilderness Lodge I checked with the front desk about Disney and they confirmed that they were doing the same.

Wilma did not track through Orlando as predicted. There was light rain with a lot of wind behind it the next morning. We received phone calls in the room about what was going on at Disney and the resort. Extra channels on the TV, (four or five), started running first run Disney movies. One channel had updates on what was happening and flyers were distributed to the room with hurricane information. Food outlets extended their hours - I talked to one CM working at Roaring Forks that said she had come in a 4 AM to be sure she could get in to open the store. Several CMs had come in as part of the "ride out" team to help and their children were being taken care of as the day care for them had been extended. Characters that night and that morning were out in the lobby to entertain the guests and other CMs played games with children. As you can see it is an advantage to be in a resort whose rooms connect to a large lobby.

At about 10 that morning the announcement was made that the parks were going to remain closed except for MK and Epcot which would be opening at 11 AM but only for on property guests. We opted to go to MK and thought we had made a mistake when the line of busses to unload backed up past the water bridge just south of the Contempory. Actually it was walkon for all attractions once the busses unloaded. Apparently the backup was due to all the busses heading to MK getting there at the same time instead of being sequenced on a staggered arrival. The park was slated for a close at 6 PM that evening which was extended until midnight that night. The most fun I had was asking CMs the all time stupid guest question which on that day wasn't stupid. "When is the three o'clock parade? (Ah, three o'clock. [stupid]!) Except on that day it wasn't stupid. The three o'clock parade was moved back to five o'clock. Yea, they even ran the parade that day.

Things I noticed that week was A LOT of southern Florida has learned that Orlando/WDW is a particulary good place to flee to in bad weather. The buildings so far have held up and services like food and water are still provided. (WDW generates its own power on the North end of the property). I hear quite a few of the displaced South Florida guests say their friends and family that had ridden Wilma out told them not to come back yet because of the lack of power and the inability to pump gasoline for cars. Even so, attendance at the parks is down mostly due to schools being back in session after the Summer breaks. The other thing is a hurricane will "blow" out all the bad weather and humidity so the weather after the storm is sunny and pleasant. You just have to be lucky enough to catch it after instead of during.

September is the peak of the hurricane season but as last year showed even late October isn't immune. The season runs July 1 through November 30. But an advantage to October/November if you can manage it is Epcot's Food and Wine is running. Good luck with your trip.
 
Kadee

Kadee

New Member
colliera said:
... The season runs July 1 through November 30. But an advantage to October/November if you can manage it is Epcot's Food and Wine is running. Good luck with your trip.
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Actually, the season is from June 1 - Nov 30. I remember many years ago, the season was from July 1- Oct 31 and storms in July and October were very rare.

I'm glad Disney took care of you during the hurricane.
 
RedGear

RedGear

Member
This makes me feel so much better because i was a little worried about being down there during hurricane season, but after reading this, I am feeling a-ok. .. . . Hopefully there isn't a hurricane when we are at sea on our cruise. . . :brick:
 

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