Who was at WDW in the week following 9/11.

[vardy]

I know it has been covered before, but I find the stories very interesting. My wife and I were to fly out to WDW on Fri the 14th but all flights were cancelled. So we drove the 17 hrs from northern IN. We stayed in the Wilderness Lodge. We were told that the Lodge was at less then 10% filled and we were the only people staying on the whole 6th floor. It was a very surreal time. We had a great vacation, but it was also very sad.

 

[musketeer]

Wasn't at Disney, but was at Universal Studios on Sept 15 and it was completely empty.

 

[timeman]

I wasn't there, but a gentleman that shops at the store I work at was in the Magic Kingdom doing the Keys to the Kingdom tour on 9/11. He said they were in the tunnels when they heard about the Twin Towers.

 

[Master Yoda]

I was there for a day trip the following weekend. Never seen the parks so deserted in my life.

 

[Bigart]

I can imagine it was quite surreal...werent the parks closed on Sept 12? for the first time ever?

 

[jmicro59]

My family and I were there for two weeks starting Sept 22nd.
The wife wouldn't fly down so we rented a 25' Class A camper and drove.
The first part of the trip all of the parks were empty, and when I say empty I mean no one around standing alone on Main Street empty, but by day 10 some of the crowds came back. It may sound stupid but, I liked it better with the crowds there.

 

[Bigart]

Correction to my last post..the parks were closed partway into Sept 11 and opened the following day.

The first closure of the Walt Disney World Resort parks was Sept 15, 1999 for Hurricane Floyd.

The parks were also closed for Hurricanes Frances and Charley in 2004.

So basically approx 4 full day shutdowns in 38 years..

so Magic Kingdom has been open a total of 13860 - 4 = 13856 days in total and counting

 

[Master Yoda]

My family and I were there for two weeks starting Sept 22nd.
The wife wouldn't fly down so we rented a 25' Class A camper and drove.
The first part of the trip all of the parks were empty, and when I say empty I mean no one around standing alone on Main Street empty, but by day 10 some of the crowds came back. It may sound stupid but, I liked it better with the crowds there.

I know what you mean. Light crowds are nice but the ghost town that was Disney for the days following 9/11 were down right creepy. I'll bet that there were more CM's there than guests at times.

 

[AREM]

My CM friend, who works in the comm center at WDW, said that there was no worse place to be that day than in security. He said that while everyone handled themselves well, and everything went off nearly without a hitch in terms of the evacs of the parks, he did say that he was never been more stressed, scared, and tired than he was that day. He said that is was hell on earth trying to coordinate with all the managers, resorts, and parks to get everything pulled off quickly, and efficiently.

He also said that he has never seen so many grown men openly crying as when they were all watching the tvs in the comm center as 9/11 was unfolding.

What a sad day.


We should all say a prayer for the families that lost brothers, sister, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends in that terrible event. We should also say a prayer of thanks for the people in our lives, and for the fact that we still have them.

 

[DisneyJoe]

We were there September 22-29, 2001. Parks were very empty. We were at All-Star Music and they were only using half of their buildings, but those were fairly full. I don't believe we had to stand on any resort bus.

 

[SleepingMonk]

Had a trip planned but had to cancel it due to huge changes in my work schedule.

Disney was pretty much the last thing on my mind at the time.

 

[mcstensrud]

We were to fly out of Logan(BOS)the weekend after 9/11.
Ended up driving and stayed at Key West.The parks were deserted,people were leaving but not too many guest were arriving.That is when the slow season was actually very slow!

 

[Helena123]

We visited in the October after we've never seen it so empty. One CM even came over and thanked us just for being there because he was scared about losing his job due to low crowd numbers.
The plane on the way over was also very empty, no one wanted to fly i guess.

 

[WDW Vacationer]

I would have been so scared...there were so many thaings coming out on that day...some not accurate...just look at the thread started that day on here. It is so sad to think about.

 

[Future Guy]

We were there for our honeymoon in late October/early November, and crowds were pretty light in most parks. We walked into Le Cellier and Garden Grill without ADRs and were seated right away. Only the MK was anything approaching crowded.

This was during the anthrax scare, and when we were at EPCOT the area between The Land and The Seas was blocked off and there were guys in hazmat suits going through the bushes, and the monorail was stopped on the track directly above them. Never did find out exactly what happened, but I imagine someone probably reported seeing some white powder in the area.

Our honeymoon plans had been set for months before 9/11, of course, and after it happened my dad said I should cancel the trip because he was worried about another attack. I pointed out to him that a) the people who carried out the 9/11 attacks were dead, and b) the Air Force was flying patrols over the area, and would probably shoot down anything that looked remotely suspicious.

I'll never forget a documentary that aired last year, pieced together mostly from amateur footage. One shot showed a contingent of firefighters on their way into one of the towers a few minutes before it fell. Everyone else was running away, and those guys were heading toward the building trying to save as many people as they could, and I imagine the majority of them did not make it out alive. That's what real courage looks like. No theme music or slow-mo action sequences like a Michael Bay movie, just a group of men walking stoically into something everyone else is running away from, intent on saving as many lives as they can.

 

[ligarced]

My family adn I went that Nov. It wasn't to crowded. I was really scared to fly. That is the main reason my husband joined the Air Force he wanted to be someone who protects our country. My Uncle was actually working about five blocks from the world trade center. It was horrible we couldnt get a hold of him because all the phone lines were busy. He had to walk over the bridges and then find transportation. We could see all the smoke from our house is NJ.

 

[Mouse Man]

The day 9/11 occurred I was scheduled three days later to fly down to WDW. The wife and I never fly and thought this would be our first time doing so and were excited. Well 9/11 occurs and I get deployed with the Disaster recovery unit at ground zero. My wife is informed that all the flights out of Philadelphia are cancelled. To make a long story short we were ripped off by Continental airlines for our air fare. Disney gladly rescheduled our vacation to November and gave us a discount for working at ground zero. We went during the week of Thanks giving. I will tell you I was so depressed when I went to Disney and managed to find a small smile by the time I was leaving. That time in my life was very depressing and sad. I will never forget that day and will always remember those that died. I never really looked up to fire fighters and police, but after that day I found a whole new respect for them. Now my secreatries son was working on the 98th floor for Cantor Fitzgerald and was never herd from again. January the following year I was given an award for my work. I never smiled about it and only cried specially when I seen my secretary. I still have that American flag that was part of my award in my den and to this day still shed a tear for all that I seen, smelled and feared. I still look at that flag each year and wish it never happened.

 

[Zip-a-Dee Do Da]

We were down around 9/11. Parks were virtual ghost towns. We had a wonderful trip but with a somewhat somber tone.

 

[mastif]

that must have been something to be in wdw at that time, and for the parks to be ghost towns. the whole thing is just unbelievable. Would anyone mind sharing a picture or two from their trip to WDW? i'm interested in seein what the park looks like deserted during the day.

 

[vardy]

My wife and I were at WDW when they closed for the first time ever for Hurricane Floyd and then we were there following 9/11.