Hurricane Idalia - WDW Resorts Related Updates, Planning & Discussion

[GADisneyDad14]

Hopefully it won’t be needed all that much, but opening up a consolidated thread for Idalia related planning questions/discussion for the WDW Hotels and Resort operations.

Some ground rules based on past Tropical Storm/Hurricane threads:

- No travel judging. Everyone has different travel circumstances - posts critical or judgmental of decisions to travel or not are not helpful or welcome here.

- No hysteria or alarmist weather forecasting. The DIS is fundamentally a Disney planning related site - it’s not The Weather Channel or a place for amateur meteorologists to interpret weather forecasts.

- Theme Parks and ticket related discussion is better suited for the Theme Park Attractions & Strategies Board (although some overlap here is inevitable). There is an ongoing thread here: Thread 'This storm in the Gulf… now TS Idalia'
https://www.disboards.com/threads/this-storm-in-the-gulf…-now-ts-idalia.3928461/

Posts venturing too far towards any of the above may be removed or moved. Infraction points will not be given unless consistent violations of our guidelines or ongoing disruptive behavior occurs. Posts that are simply deleted will receive a notification as such in your alerts. In the (unlikely) event a warning/infraction points are given you will receive a PM explaining as such.

What threads like this are ultimately for:

- WDW hotel cancelation/modification experiences.

- Resort operation experiences for food, activities, etc.

- Resort and travel related experiences from past tropical events.

Thank you - and safe travels to all.

Latest official Disney info page:

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/experience-updates/weather-updates/

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Various Resources

WDW’s hurricane policy FAQ: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/faq/hurricane-policy/

National Hurricane Center Idalia Information: https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/index.shtml#Idalia

Mike's Weather Page - his actual one (not facebook). https://spaghettimodels.com

Mike’s Weather Page: https://www.facebook.com/mikesweatherpage

FL Roads/Traffic - Florida 511 https://fl511.com/

FL Highway Patrol - https://www.flhsmv.gov/fhp/traffic/live_traffic_feed.html

Fox 35 Orlando - https://www.fox35orlando.com/weather

NBC WESH 2 Orlando - https://www.wesh.com/weather

ABC WFTV 9 Orlando - https://www.wftv.com/weather/index.html

Gas Buddy - https://www.gasbuddy.com/home

Twitter/X - Travel/Weather/Orlando Resources

National Hurricane Center - https://x.com/nhc_atlantic?s=21

MCO - https://twitter.com/mco?s=21&t=1nDljDCd_fpMiDxCFffQnw

FL Division of Emergency Management - https://x.com/flsert?s=21

Tony Mainolfi - WESH TV2 (local NBC station) - https://twitter.com/tmainolfiwesh?s=21&t=BAWVsCAWzlpG-nn1kNSuMA

Eric Burris - WESH TV2 (local NBC station) - https://x.com/ericburriswesh?s=21

Brian Shields - WFTV 9 (local ABC station) - https://x.com/brianweather?s=21

 

[hertamaniac]

I would also consider adding Fox 35 Orlando's weather team (twitter links on bottom of page). I watch them daily as a local.

https://www.fox35orlando.com/weather

 

[2vets]

Thank you.

 

[georgina]

Thanks for the links. I am wondering what to do if I arrive a day later for my DVC rental through a 3rd party website. Not sure I can call WDW directly for a DVC room not booked through them. Don't want my reservation cancelled for not showing up on Wednesday, but since my room should be ready after 4 PM Wednesday, does that mean I can get into it Thursday morning?

 

[mrsap]

We are here and so torn about what to do. Supposed to leave Thursday. We drive, so we are debating on whether to leave tomorrow morning and beat the storm or ride it out and extend our stay. For anyone else here now, what are you doing?

Thanks for this thread @GADisneyDad14

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I would also consider adding Fox 35 Orlando's weather team (twitter links on bottom of page). I watch them daily as a local.

https://www.fox35orlando.com/weather

Thanks! Added.

If anyone has any other useful websites/Twitter follows/etc, let me know and I’ll add them.

 

[hertamaniac]

Can we add gas buddy to this list? It has saved us many times when searching for gas during these events.

https://www.gasbuddy.com/home

 

[john7994]

We are here and so torn about what to do. Supposed to leave Thursday. We drive, so we are debating on whether to leave tomorrow morning and beat the storm or ride it out and extend our stay. For anyone else here now, what are you doing?

Thanks for this thread @GADisneyDad14

We are here and also leaving Thursday back to Atlanta - we aren’t planning to make any changes - Edit: we are traveling the I-75 corridor for clarity.

 

[Stratman50th]

Orange county isn't on the warning/watch list. They're guessing it'll make landfall way north of Tampa, like in the big bend area as a cat 2 maybe. I'd wait another 12 hours before getting excited. I surely wouldn't cancel a trip because of it. Unless you're headed to Clearwater or Cedar Key, etc.
That being said, I never bet against mother nature.

 

[LadybugsMum]

We are here and so torn about what to do. Supposed to leave Thursday. We drive, so we are debating on whether to leave tomorrow morning and beat the storm or ride it out and extend our stay. For anyone else here now, what are you doing?

Thanks for this thread @GADisneyDad14

I've got the opposite problem as we're supposed to drive down I-95 to WDW on Thurs. I'm obsessively checking the the NHC website to try to figure out how to get down there safely.

 

[OKW Lover]

I've got the opposite problem as we're supposed to drive down I-95 to WDW on Thurs. I'm obsessively checking the the NHC website to try to figure out how to get down there safely.

Depending on where you are driving from it might make sense to divert more westward and come down I-75. Of course that really depends on the path of the storm once it makes landfall.

 

[MermaidMommy]

Orange county isn't on the warning/watch list. They're guessing it'll make landfall way north of Tampa, like in the big bend area as a cat 2 maybe. I'd wait another 12 hours before getting excited. I surely wouldn't cancel a trip because of it. Unless you're headed to Clearwater or Cedar Key, etc.
That being said, I never bet against mother nature.

Orange County is on the watch list. It’s now predicted to be a Category 3.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Orange County is on the watch list. It’s now predicted to be a Category 3.

To clarify the Orlando Area is on Tropical Storm watch.

(Important because Disney policies don’t kick in without an announcement unless it is a Hurricane watch)

 

[Disnsyncey]

Thanks for the links. I am wondering what to do if I arrive a day later for my DVC rental through a 3rd party website. Not sure I can call WDW directly for a DVC room not booked through them. Don't want my reservation cancelled for not showing up on Wednesday, but since my room should be ready after 4 PM Wednesday, does that mean I can get into it Thursday morning?

As long as you note that you will be arriving the next morning, in hotel speak that's a "preregister" then your room won't be cancelled and you can access it when you arrive. Now I don't know the procedures for preregistering with WDW, but that's what a lot of people do with red eye flights and such in the outside world.

 

[Stratman50th]

Orange County is on the watch list. It’s now predicted to be a Category 3.

They must have updated it in the last hour or so. I see the Cat 3 but not the Orange update. We're in Polk and have been under a warning for the last 24 hours or so. My daughter is in eastern Orange so I'm trying to keep an eye on that as well.

 

[kylenne]

Thanks for the thread, I had to break my self-imposed absence from the boards because I'm in desperate need of info. I'm flying down on Thursday, I don't plan on canceling yet but am watching the storm like a hawk. I'm booked at the Dolphin though so idk what their policies are.

 

[Stratman50th]

Thanks for the thread, I had to break my self-imposed absence from the boards because I'm in desperate need of info. I'm flying down on Thursday, I don't plan on canceling yet but am watching the storm like a hawk. I'm booked at the Dolphin though so idk what their policies are.

It'll be gone by Thursday. At least from here. Don't know where you're leaving from since they usually track north. This one will probably head out to the Atlantic from GA, or SC.

 

[HappyAsALark]

Thank you for this thread. Watching for airline disruptions. I hope everyone stays safe and that she moves quickly!

 

[kylenne]

It'll be gone by Thursday. At least from here. Don't know where you're leaving from since they usually track north. This one will probably head out to the Atlantic from GA, or SC.

I'm flying down from NYC. My only real concern right now is ripple effects from flight cancellations tbh