Hoping I can have a serious discussion here. I don't really want to hear "nothing to worry about". I just want to make an intelligent decision.
I'm from Wisconsin, and we don't have hurricanes. I've never even personally experienced a tornado. I have no idea what to realistically expect *IF* Irma hits Orlando/Florida.
We arrive Friday night the 8th. 7 nights at bonnet Creek and then 3 nights on the gulf.
Will we be safe in the condo? My daughter is talking about going to stay with her boyfriend in Tampa if it does hit, but I've read it can be dangerous to try to evacuate too.
I don't mind dealing with rain, wind. I'll be disappointed if we have to cancel plans to see my daughter perform, but my real worry is safety. My grandson and his mom are coming along and I don't want them in the middle of a Harvey type situation.
I know it's too early to predict where this will end up, but I want to be prepared for if it does. Should I order a bunch of stuff to have it shipped to the hotel? And besides the obvious water, what? Do hotels generally have water and power?
My trip is not really cancelable. I could cancel the flights but I don't have any other vacation available to take. Condo was bought on eBay and I'm passed the cancellation period for the gulf stay.
I looked into trip insurance but I'm not sure if any of them really apply for what I need. It seems like this won't hit until Sunday or Monday so it's not like my flight will be cancelled.
I was in Disney a few years ago during a hurricane warning. It ended up just being a bad rain/wind storm that didn't last long. I guess I was always under the impression that hurricanes didn't really affect Orlando because it's offshore but it looks like this one could be different.
I've been following Mike's weather page- spaghettimodels.com
I'm from Wisconsin as well, well last month we moved to Tallahassee and like I said earlier was here at WDW for Matthew. It wasn't terrible though if you watched people at the food court they were taking everything and everything. It was kinda like watching shoppers on Black Friday run for their deals.
I had heard that rooms were filling up quickly, and we were scheduled to leave two days later so I went down and asked if we could extend our reservation incase we couldn't leave, Disney got us a new reservation but in the end I didn't needed it, but just knowing the ability to have a room incase the airport was closed still worked for us.
The day the parks were closed early it was overcast and misty on and off with winds picking up as the day progressed, nothing terrible. When I went to the food court to find something I found shelves wiped out everywhere I went so I just took our car and went to walmart, there you saw the bread and water being wiped out, I figured it was just gonna be something short, few days at the most so I just went and got a few lunchables and bags of chips for us. We picked up a case of soda as well and dropped that off at the resort. We then drove the car to Disney Springs, ate at Earl's, ordered an extra sandwich for the next day, then left the car in the garage and hopped a Disney bus back to our Resort. I figured the car would be better protected inside a big concrete structure than underneath a parking lot tree.
We stayed in the room for the night and most of the day. Before I headed to bed I went outside the room and peeked around the corner I was on an inside room so the wind was blowing in the other direction. Trees were swaying and blowing but nothing was too terrible but I still wasn't taking further chances so I went back into the room and spent the night. I woke up, heated up the iron and used a clean Earl's of Sandwich wrapper to wrap around my left overs and heat it up and sat on the bed all day watching coverage. By late afternoon there were people walking around and all was good, Disney Springs restaurants opened at 5 or 6 and so we took the bus back picked up the car and then drove back to the resort. Then we drove to the Poly to see if they could accommodate us at O'hana (we had reservations there, but due to the hurricane they did not honor ANY dining reservations on property) they told us it was first come first serve and it was a limited menu, but hey, it was our first time there so we were doing it anyways.
The best thing I can tell you is:
Listen to the resort employees tell you to do, they have been prepared for this before and know what to do. You know your eating habits, if you have the ability to go offsite and gather food, get food for what you know you'll eat for a day or two (I saw families taking huge garbage bags full of Doritos back to their room). If you don't eat it, be prepared to toss it out, unless you can pack a suitcase full of chips. Ice, go get it while you can, nobody likes drinking warm soda and at the Moderates and Values the ice machine is outside
Pay attention to the blinking voicemail light on your room phone, mine didn't ring the light just started flashing, thats how disney communicated to us.
Your staying at Bonnet Creek and so I would assume they are pretty much trained just as well but things may be a bit different