News Major Hurricane Dorian impacts to Walt Disney World 2019

[lazyboy97o]

The only power Disney generates today is solar. Everything else is supplied through two or three regional utilities with grid interconnections running on overhead transmission lines.

In the 70s and 80s they had a cogeneration plant behind the MK that they received a ton of money from the DOE to construct as a prototype. The plant in theory could have powered two parks but unreliable technology, expensive operation, poor design made the plant unviable and it was shuttered. I believe @marni1971 has more info on it.

The District website says the cogeneration plant is still in operation. The solar sites are actually Duke facilities, but the power is sold to Reedy Creek.

 

[Da Bird is Da Word]

Is it looking like Sept 4 thru 11 travel dates could be affected?

 

[Amused to Death]

Orlando only gets rain and wind which is knocked down as the huricane comes a shore. No big deal guys...

You're forgetting about things like tornadoes, etc., that can start popping up all around the storm. My sister's house was the only left standing on her side of the street when Irma hit. She's a CM living in Winter Haven, no where near an ocean. No big deal.

 

[Sped2424]

I'm growing more and more nervous for my south Florida friends as it seems to be looking more likely for that direction

 

[Yert3]

Prove that. I have friends who live in Winter Haven and I know they didn't have power for a while but I didn't hear of homes completely destroyed. Friend's house lost a porch roof, it bounced up and down until it came off the house. The house was old and with insurance it ended up being a good thing.

Here in Windermere, about 15 minutes from Disney, Irma was a one day thing. The next day you couldn’t even tell something happened and my power was back on within 12 hours. Hoping the same thing this time.

 

[JenniferS]

Here in Windermere, about 15 minutes from Disney, Irma was a one day thing. The next day you couldn’t even tell something happened and my power was back on within 12 hours. Hoping the same thing this time.

Fingers crossed for you.

 

[Amused to Death]

Prove that.

Now why on earth would I make something like that up? A golf and tennis community of manufactured homes in Winter Haven. Homes on her side of the street were all torn apart. All except hers. To add a bit of humor to the discussion, she had decided to evacuate by visiting, get ready for it, Disneyland in CA. She came home several days later to find hers was the only home still standing. I'll let her know you don't believe her.

We had damage all over metro Orlando. It was luck of the draw. Your house could be perfectly fine and your neighbor's roof had been collapsed by a fallen tree.

My daughter, in Altamonte Springs, had a giant oak fall on her driveway and into the street, blocking all traffic for a couple of days. She was amused by the persons who would drive up to the tree, and sit there and stare at it for five minutes, as if it was going to get up and move out of the way for them. She ended up having to pay quite a bit of cash to have the tree cut up and removed. She had damage to her roof, too, several leaks that opened up, requiring repairs. Would you like me to ask her for copies of her receipts?

 

[Yert3]

Getting gas in the middle of the night because it’s the only time without long lines. Then go home, get the other car, repeat.

I actually went to the Speedway by Magic Kingdom to fill up because I figured most people wouldn’t really know about it. All three gas stations by my house were out, but I just had a gut feeling they would have gas because you actually need to be leaving the Transportation and Ticket Center to go to it. Luckily, I’m a passholder, so I didn’t have to pay the $25 or whatever it is to go through the gate.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

Here we go again. I'm close to where Yert3 lives, also about 15 minutes from WDW.

I evacuated to Tennessee during Irma, which ended up being a lot more dangerous than had I remained and ridden it out. The car decided to break down right as I was trying to leave and I had to delay and get a rental. Traffic was terrifying, even on the toll roads (they waived the fees for a while), tons of reckless drivers. Some lunatic sideswiped us on the interstate and ran us off the road (he tried to make a hasty exit before the police got there). Had a number of other near-misses and passed by a lot of wrecks. If I ever evacuate again, i'd do my utmost to find as many backroads as possible to avoid the major highways (switched to some of these part of the way through Georgia and it was infinitely better).

Irma didn't end up causing any damage to the house itself thankfully. Lost a lovely old sycamore tree in the front yard, damaged the sprinkler pipes (which we don't use anyways, lucky it didn't hit the roof). Blew the neighbor's old fence panels down and had to nail that back up. And it blew out the screen on the back porch. Made a big mess of the yard of course. I was told by the neighbors that the electricity went out for a bit (though I believe it was back within 24 hours).

I'm probably staying home this round. We'll see what develops though.

I actually went to the Speedway by Magic Kingdom to fill up because I figured most people wouldn’t really know about it. All three gas stations by my house were out, but I just had a gut feeling they would have gas because you actually need to be leaving the Transportation and Ticket Center to go to it. Luckily, I’m a passholder, so I didn’t have to pay the $25 or whatever it is to go through the gate.

You can reach the Speedway without being a passholder or paying the entrance fee. Or should I not have said that?

 

[TP2000]

Buuutttt... Disney can lose power if the region loses power. Underground wires don't work if their source of power is out.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but most of central Florida's electricity is provided by Florida-based coal powered generation plants and some Nuclear. Both of those sources of energy are reliable and designed to withstand a hurricane.

Short term there may be some Orlando-area outages caused by overhead lines going down, but mid and long term the coal and Nuclear plants will keep right on chugging along. God bless 'em!

 

[JenniferS]

I guess you're just a better person than the rest of us.

There are years we get nothing. And 20 gallons of bottled water just taste like wet plastic after a few years.

And like I just said, we JUST drove home from WDW to Fort Lauderdale, necessarily taking us from a full tank to a quarter of a tank. My car had been sitting home with about half a tank. Yes, I do let it get below 3/4 all the time - oh the irresponsibility of it all.

Try less judgy. It's unhelpful.

You don’t have to explain yourself. Period.

 

[AdamNV87]

Both his cars filled with gas.
Both accomplished at the most opportune time of night when crowds are low.
The storm is still several days offshore.
Tony sounds like he's got a good grasp on things.

 

[WDW862]

Prove that. I have friends who live in Winter Haven and I know they didn't have power for a while but I didn't hear of homes completely destroyed. Friend's house lost a porch roof, it bounced up and down until it came off the house. The house was old and with insurance it ended up being a good thing.

We got several tornado's in Lakeland during irma. I don't tihnk they did much damage but hurricanes DO spawn tornados. Flooding isn't a big deal this far inland, but tornados absolutely are.


People in Lakeland are also hoarding water like crazy. We never lost water due to a storm.

 

[Rich Brownn]

Now why on earth would I make something like that up? A golf and tennis community of manufactured homes in Winter Haven. Homes on her side of the street were all torn apart. All except hers. To add a bit of humor to the discussion, she had decided to evacuate by visiting, get ready for it, Disneyland in CA. She came home several days later to find hers was the only home still standing. I'll let her know you don't believe her.

We had damage all over metro Orlando. It was luck of the draw. Your house could be perfectly fine and your neighbor's roof had been collapsed by a fallen tree.

My daughter, in Altamonte Springs, had a giant oak fall on her driveway and into the street, blocking all traffic for a couple of days. She was amused by the persons who would drive up to the tree, and sit there and stare at it for five minutes, as if it was going to get up and move out of the way for them. She ended up having to pay quite a bit of cash to have the tree cut up and removed. She had damage to her roof, too, several leaks that opened up, requiring repairs. Would you like me to ask her for copies of her receipts?

When charley came through here in Orlando we had roofs torn off, sides of building damaged (including a hotel in Orlando across from the old arena), trees uprooted, power lines down, etc. And that storm was a category 2 that went through in just 30 minutes. People are shocked because the last major hurricane that actually came directly through Orlando before that was Donna..... way back in 1960. Then we had 2 more in a row. This one is a concern not just because of winds and rain but because it looks to take a long time to get across while remaining at hurricane strength. So basically we will get the winds of Charley but with the addition of up to 24 hours of it.

 

[jpeden]

05:00 Update has the storm still as a hurricane on Wednesday, making landfall below Orlando Tuesday and turning north.

If this holds, MCO may be closed Tuesday-Thursday/Friday. I’d expect Disney to be closed Tuesday/Wednesday at least.

 

[LSLS]

Man driving down 95 to port Canaveral thursday/Friday is going to suck....

 

[WDW862]

This is not looking good for anyone in Florida.

I have a generator but with how the hurricane is stalling, I don't ill be able to use.

 

[LAKid53]

The night before it hit, all of the pool furniture was actually put inside the pool water to keep it from blowing around. Bizarre!

That's what we do in Florida...we throw our patio furniture in the pool to prevent it becoming missiles during a storm. The fun part is getting it out.

 

[tribbleorlfl]

This. Disney World's hurricane ride out crew is voluntary duty.

Rideout crews may be voluntary for hourly guest-facing CMs, but that's certainly not the case for salaried employees or certain operations-critical CMs like maintenance that are needed to get the resort cleaned up and back running as soon as the storm passes. My dad worked in WDW maintenance for almost 20 years in both hourly and salaried supervisory roles, and for every storm that threatened Orlando or major event (ie 9/11), he was either made to come in or not allowed to leave.

Plus, that also ignores the scheduled shifts in advance of the storm that make it very difficult for the CMs to prepare.

Or the scheduled shifts after the storm where the CM has to come in even though they might be dealing with damage to their home, power loss, etc.

 

[LAKid53]

Having actually lived through multiple hurricanes passing thru Central Florida over the last 15+ years as an Orlando resident some advice for those trying to maneuver around the facts of this situation to justify a cause or debating whether they should or should not travel.

I don't care what path any weather service tells you the storm is going to take at this point- everything is an educated guess based on various models and it will absolutely keep changing until it gets here. Back in 2004, Charlie was supposed to head up the west coast of Florida and Orlando would only get a glancing blow according to all the models. Then at around 11AM it took a sudden and unexpected right turn and came on shore at Punta Gorde and headed right for Orlando. We got absolutely hammered by a storm that 12 hours earlier was only supposed to be a glancing blow with some rain. The damage throughout the city was insane. And then 2 more hurricanes hit us in Central Florida in the following weeks.

When a major storm like this is approaching and you're trying to decide on travel you need to consider a lot more variables than just the hours the airport is closed. As the storm approaches the airlines will cancel all inbound flights to Orlando because they do not want any planes on the ground at the airport when the storm arrives. Then, when the airport opens up again it takes close to a day for them to get flights back moving and up to full normal operations. This results in 2-4 days of backed up passengers looking to get on a plane out of here. If you have been on a plane in recent years you know they do not typically have a whole lot of empty seats. If you take the thousand of stranded passengers and try to slot them into those empty seats it can take a week plus to unwind things and get back to normal transit. You will not have the option to just push your flight out a few days; there will not be available seats.

There are likely to be massive coastal evacuations heading inland and north beginning late tomorrow or early Saturday. This will put an astonishing amount of traffic on roads like 95 and the turnpike.

No matter what report you've read about some storm that wasn't as bad as was predicted, there are dozens that were just as bad or worse than was predicted. I get that people are worried about their vacations but for all of us who call Florida home it is mandatory that we assume the worst possible scenario, be prepared for it and if it is that bad we're ready. If it isn't we have lots of water and we go back to our lives.

^^^THIS, a thousand times over.

Seriously, don't try to second guess airport closings, when can I drive down for my vacation, etc.
Irma was supposed to, once it passed through the Keys, make a beeline for the Florida Panhandle...as a powerful storm. A year after we experienced Hermine, which was a weak Cat 1 but did an incredible amount of damage to Tallahassee's power grid, because the eyewall hung around for 90 minutes. Fortunately for us (sorry for my fellow Floridians in Central Florida), it took that turn. We got a glancing blow instead of a direct hit.

I know it's tough to contemplate canceling a much desired vacation to WDW, but I'd really consider doing so. CMs will take care of you while on property, but getting home will be a nightmare. And frankly, those hotel rooms will be needed by Floridians to shelter in.

I've been without power for nearly a week 3 times now. Not fun in the Florida heat. I'm praying that Dorian is pushed away from Florida. I'm doing Hail Marys in the hope it doesn't end up in the Gulf.

Reschedule if you can, please. We love to have you...but now is not the time. To be honest, we'll need your tourism dollars AFTER the storm to help the state recover.