Hurricane Irma?

[Denise W]

Yes, that is why I am asking the question. As someone who had the choice of either leaving early and abandoning my 21 year old daughter to deal with this on her own or staying here with her and trying to quell both her fears and my own, I'd appreciate a constructive answer rather than a statement of the obvious.

Have her try to park in one of the parking garages at Disney Springs.
Denise

 

[DLM1980]

I think they tell you to stock up on water because tap water can stop or become undrinkable. Obviously in a disney room you can't boil it. At home you might not have power to boil it.

So this doesn't apply to being at Disney but I did pickup a knockoff smoky Joe grill to boil water and have hot food just in case there is no power

I was also thinking if worse comes to worse there is currently a water heater tank full of drinkable water in people's tanks

Just shutoff the supply (and gas or electric) to the heater so contaminated water doesn't enter the tank and use the drain valve to get to it

 

[Draydey]

Honestly the speculation is killing everyone. We won't know until we know. Irma needs to hurry up and get her tail here so it can be over with. Those of us set to arrive later next week will know by Monday or Tuesday if our trips are possible.

 

[DisneyDeb83]

On a lighter note, and off topic, thanks to the "likes" that I receive on my posts. I don't post often, but have done a lot lately. I get such a thrill when someone likes me! How silly is that?

Thanks for the likes, who knew it was so easy! Though I have a long way to go to catch up to most of you! Will have to work on my Disney knowledge so I can contribute something worthwhile.

Stay safe everyone, hopefully Irma weakens further and moves out fast!

 

[AngiTN]

I am guessing by a lot of posts here that no one was watching the news in Houston after Harvey went through. Things are still far from "back to normal"

Central FL is not immune to damage from Hurricanes. It has happened before and it took time to get things back in order. This is going to impact Orlando and vicinity for more than a few days, sorry to say. I'd be very leery of going to WDW for much of September into October and that is if the impacts are minimal.

While no one can say what will happen in Orlando following Irma the one thing you can say is it will not be flooded from rain like Harvey flooded Houston. People simply must stop comparing those 2 storms. That will not happen here. Not the stall/flood situation.

 

[MrInfinity]

I don't see that anyone's posted this yet, but WDW put up their notice to be closed Sun and Mon.

In anticipation of inclement weather, Walt Disney World Parks and Disney Springs will be closed Sunday, September 10 and Monday, September 11. We will be operating as planned Friday, September 8 and will have modified hours on Saturday, September 9.

We pulled the trigger and cancelled. With only Sep 10 and Sep 11 being our days there, it was getting pointless to go. DVC promised to put the points back into 2018 in a few days so it doesn't even cost us points. Southwest cancelled, got those points back too. CRT will credit back, and will have to figure out how to refund the F&W events later. I'm sure they'll credit them back too.

 

[eastendlights]

So we were just told by a CL CM that the parking garages at Disney Springs will be closed and not available for resort guests to park their cars for the storm.

 

[xWilliam]

I doubt Disney would be down for much more than a few days at worst, and best case they open up with limited/full capabilities Tuesday.

As a business they are going to try to lose as little money as possible, and I'd be Damned if Disney didn't try. But I can't speak for the surrounding area

 

[mousefan73]

So we were just told by a CL CM that the parking garages at Disney Springs will be closed and not available for resort guests to park their cars for the storm.

??
Wouldnt another option be a theme park parking as the space is wide open... or am I wrong.. I believe they moved RVs out of the campgrounds there.... wouldnt the idea be to not be near trees? Maybe ask about this??

 

[mom2rtk]

Honestly the speculation is killing everyone. We won't know until we know. Irma needs to hurry up and get her tail here so it can be over with. Those of us set to arrive later next week will know by Monday or Tuesday if our trips are possible.

I imagine a lot of people trying to get their homes ready and get out of town are not in any hurry for Irma to get there. They probably appreciate all the lead time they can get.

 

[Nebraska_Disney]

While no one can say what will happen in Orlando following Irma the one thing you can say is it will not be flooded from rain like Harvey flooded Houston. People simply must stop comparing those 2 storms. That will not happen here. Not the stall/flood situation.

I am a meteorologist and practicing for almost 20 years, so I do have a bit of a clue

How do you know it will not play out like Harvey and why not compare? Edited to add, there may not be 50 inches of rain, but can the experts tell us how much rain the system can handle? Can central FL handle feet of rain w/out impact if the forecast does play out? The precipitation projections are showing 10-18 inches of rain. We may not see the storm stall out, but it will bring a LOT of rain with it. Swamps do flood, and Orlando is a big swamp ! Famous last words "it will not happen here". Add on the wind impacts of 100+ mph sustained winds

 

[KimBean]

While no one can say what will happen in Orlando following Irma the one thing you can say is it will not be flooded from rain like Harvey flooded Houston. People simply must stop comparing those 2 storms. That will not happen here. Not the stall/flood situation.

Agree. All my family is in Houston so I watched that coverage constantly. Not the same situation at all. However they didn't have near the winds this will have (not even rockport and that was bad.) So not same at all but not necessarily less damage or loss of lives. I'm not talking Orlando... I'm talking the entire hurricane path.

 

[DLM1980]

So we were just told by a CL CM that the parking garages at Disney Springs will be closed and not available for resort guests to park their cars for the storm.

It will be interesting when they close Disney springs then. Will they just not open at all tomorrow if it's business as usual today?

If you leave it there now are they really going to tow it

 

[HarperLeigh]

So we were just told by a CL CM that the parking garages at Disney Springs will be closed and not available for resort guests to park their cars for the storm.

What? Why?

 

[patrickpiteo]

It will be interesting when they close Disney springs then. Will they just not open at all tomorrow if it's business as usual today?

If you leave it there now are they really going to tow it

I wouldn’t take the chance

 

[Rich M]

I have decided to leave the moderation of this thread to others.
I want to remind posters that the "ignore" option is available for those troll posters that don't contribute at all to this thread
Also the report option is available and another moderator or webmasters will take care of it
As for me, I'll be checking into AoA tomorrow with my family, live streaming from dhs and mk tomorrow then from the resort on Sunday and Monday as long as is safe to do so.
MTFBWY

Thank you for all your insight and first hand information. Please be safe and let us know that you are and your experience

 

[winniepoohthe]

We cancelled our 9/7-9/12/17 vacation at WDW, and I am glad we had the foresight to do so. A hurricane causes great destruction, and it takes weeks or even months to recover. When I see that some people on this board are willingly traveling to WDW during this catastrophe, it boggles my mind. Just wait a few months to reschedule to truly experience the Disney magic.

 

[luvsJack]

Several have mentioned storing water. One thing I would be doing is figuring out how to store as much ice as possible. Ice will melt to drinking water and if the power goes out it's hot in Orlando and will be hot in those rooms. Refreshing ice and cold water will be a good thing.

How likely is it that the resorts would lose water? If not likely, you won't need a bathtub of water necessarily. I would buy bottled if I could and fill the tub with ice and drinks or water.

 

[Tom P.]

I am a meteorologist and practicing for almost 20 years, so I do have a bit of a clue

How do you know it will not play out like Harvey and why not compare? Can central FL handle feet of rain w/out impact if the forecast does play out? The precipitation projections are showing 10-18 inches of rain. We may not see the storm stall out, but it will bring a LOT of rain with it. Swamps do flood, and Orlando is a big swamp ! Famous last words "it will not happen here"

I totally get your point of not assuming that things cannot happen, and I agree with that. However, Harvey brought Houston over 50 inches of rain. It is literally the single largest rain event in recorded US history. Given that even the worst projections for Orlando have it getting 10-18 inches of rain total, and no indication of the hurricane stalling, doesn't it seem reasonable to assume that Orlando's situation will be nowhere near the severity of Houston's?

 

[DavidL]

I've been following this discussion for the past few days. At times the information is great, and at times it gets to where people are being insulting.

Our family are Disney Fanatics. We've gone to Disney in March for the past 5 years. We love the place, which is why we are following what is going on there.

My wife and I have also been to Florida during hurricane season (not at Disney though) and have experienced first hand what it is like to be in a hurricane. Our personal choice would be to cancel/delay the trip, or get out of town. We've experienced hurricanes twice, and don't want ever to experience a third.

BUT... For those who are there and are going to experience a hurricane at the Disney Resorts, here are some hopefully helpful tips that could help those who are going to ride it out. Some of these are based on personal experience, and some are based on ideas from others here. Any other tips that others would like to add, please do so!

Cell Phones - A point was made to Inactivate unnecessary apps to preserve battery life. Another tip is to connect yourself to the Guest WiFi at the resort, and possibly disable your cellular "data" connection on the phone. It uses less battery to talk to the WiFi network than it does to talk to a cell tower a couple miles away. If you've got external battery packs - get them charged now. Streaming video on your cell phone uses processor power, which also uses up battery. Just "browsing" the internet for weather updates will use way less power than if you let the kids use the phone to watch YouTube videos. Keep the phone plugged in at all times, until the power goes out, then you'll start the outage with a full charge.

Radio - I am a "amateur radio operator" in training, and I've always got a battery operated radio with me. (with weather alerts) If you're able to get your hands on a battery operated radio, it can be handy for entertainment or weather alerts when the power is out or if the Disney cable system goes out. Listen for tornado warnings. Streaming radio stations on your phone can work, but again it is using up precious cell phone battery power. A little transistor radio can run for hours upon hours on a single set of batteries.

Tablets / Ipads - Using WiFi uses power. If your kids have games on the tablets, you can disable the WiFi connection and get a little extra battery life. Keep the tablets/Ipads plugged in as much as possible, (same as cell phone) so that if the power does go out, you will start the power outage with a full charge.

Water - Tap water is ok to drink. Fill up whatever containers you've got. Get some ice too. If the power goes out, you won't have air conditioning, and the rooms could get warm. It would be nice to be able to put some ice cubes into a hand towel and wrap around your neck.

Towels - Get your hands on a few extra towels now - there likely won't be any room service. It also can be used to stuff at the bottom of the door to stop the wind and possibly water from blowing in.

Windows / Curtains. If we were there, we'd close the curtains - depending on how bad it gets. If there is debris blowing around, and something crashes into the window of your room, I'd like to hope that the curtains would catch most of the broken glass.

Food - Get your hands on some food reserves to keep in your room. You won't want to open the door even for a moment during the height of the storm.

Be Patient - It will be a memorable event. But at the time it will seem like an eternity, and the good folks at Disney will be doing their best to take care of the guests.