Hurricane Irma?

[Tinkerbell2017]

Supposed to arrive Monday morning.. still weighing my options..

That's a tough one. It looks like the worst time to arrive but things are changing.It may be the best time to arrive. That's wishful thinking but good luck!

 

[Mad and Mel]

I originally got the same response from Garden Grocer. But recently they've indicated they will refund my money. I haven't cancelled my trip yet because the DVC Rental Store won't do any refunds. Does anyone know if David's DVC rental is doing refunds?

Before I rebook another DVC rental, I want to know if David's is being more accommodating. If so, I'll book with them next time. I haven't been impressed with the DVC rental store at all.

 

[Rachel Underwood]

Supposed to arrive Monday morning.. still weighing my options..

Anyone still Going? My biggest concern is how safe we will be at the resort? If we will be safe then we will still go. Safe as in no bodily harm. I expect to be cooped up in our room for a day or 2 and many rainy days.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

Question for anyone there now: are the shelves of the Resort shops stripped bare?

Here now. GF resort shop is fully stocked

 

[ThornXBL]

I'm scheduled to arrive September 16th, and SW has their travel alert to the 17th, but I think at that point the hurricane will be long gone so the only thing that i think could impact my flight i is if there is extensive damage to the Orlando area... So for now I'm just gonna play it by ear.

I've got 11 people flying in from 5 different states on Fri 9/15. I'm in the same boat at the moment.

 

[Rachel Underwood]

Just found out my girlfriend is in Antigua. She said it blew threw in 24 hours. Crazy! They are back to vacation as normal.

 

[DLM1980]

Alright so I'm gonna go off of what happened to me last year for Matthew, and I'm gonna let my Boy Scout / McGuyver brain ramble here, some of this I've said before but that was 100+ pages ago

Let's say theres no water at the resort for you to buy what do you do?

1. Do you have a rental car? If so, head to your nearest walmart/target they might have it, they might not, BUT head over to the plastics department, pickup some plastic cups or bowls, you now have some vessels for water. Don't want to spend too much, head over to the Plastic Freezer bag department, get some gallon baggies and fill those up, store them in the sinks at the resort.

2. No rental car? Get some dish soap from the resort store (a DVC store would prolly have it right now). Wash out your ice bucket and fill that with water, ask house keeping for some extra coffee cups or glasses and fill those with water.

3. Before using your ice bucket for water storage, go use it to fill up your sinks with ice, this rings true at value and moderates as your ice maker is gonna be located outside and once in your room you won't want to leave to go to it. Store cups of water or bags of water on top of the ice so you got cold water. Also use the mini fridge to hold your water cups.

4. Grab some sandwiches from Earl of Sandwich for the next day, ask them to keep the mayo or sauces off the bread so not to make it soggy, ask for them on the side. Ask for a couple extra sandwich wrappers, use that clean wrapper to protect your food from the iron in your room so you can heat your food up. The wrapper should be a foil wrapper, if its paper or wax paper DON'T use it, you'll have to go cold turkey (pun intended)

5. I suppose you could fill your tub with water, I didn't feel the need to last year, it was only a day we were in our rooms by the afternoon we were wandering to the food court and it's Disney, as soon as the roads to their warehouses were clear they were delivering fresh product to the stores.

6. Grab some extra towels, last year they had them everywhere free for the taking (wonder how many they "lost" as souvenirs ) use them by the door, especially if your hotel room faces the direction the wind is blowing. That little crack under the door is gonna get wet, and it helps keep a bit of the sound down.

7. If you have a car, if you don't feel comfortable parking it in the hotel parking lot, take it to Disney Springs and park it in a garage, then take the bus back to your resort. Do keep in mind you will be at the mercy of the Disney Transportation to get back to Disney Springs. However last year it wasn't bad. But when they reopened disney springs for food joints at 5:30ish some places already had a 2 hour wait, so having the car at the resort and being able to go off property to find food before the masses get released might be worth it to leave it at the resort.

If I can think of more McGuyvery tips I'll post them later.

 

[Clockwork]

This is maybe one of those answers no one knows....but curious as to thoughts anyway.

We were flying into MCO on Friday. We rescheduled last night to fly in on Tues, the 12th now. For us, the important part was coming in AFTER landfall (wherever that may be), not beforehand with all the unknowns.

But do you guys think MCO and Disney will both be up and running by the 12th? Will it be dicey only in worst case scenario or is it close enough to be dicey period in all scenarios?

Also, does Disney have ride-checking protocol in place to make sure the storms don't affect the rides at all?

No one knows if MCO or Disney will be up and running by the 12th, it depends on a ton of variables, Disney has numerous protocol for ride checks. No ride will be opened if it's unsafe. The great thing about all the Orlando parks is they take safety extremely serious.

 

[Tonyz]

"According to the latest NHC forecast, the center of Irma may be very close to South Florida by Sunday morning, with conditions going downhill already during the day, Saturday and worsening for southwest Florida on Sunday."

NHC still has it off the coast Sunday morning and southwest Florida will start to feel it starting during the day Saturday.

So it seems like Saturday will be fine flying in and out of Orlando. Sunday is really up in this air right now and I wouldn't even begin to guess any farther.

 

[flatlandcycle]

Let me help you. The storm is a major storm. Its impact is STATEWIDE. The governor has issued an emergency for STATEWIDE. Do you really need more than that?

This shouldn't be a statewide freakout. It going to hit a significant percentage very hard. Most will ask, at storm end, "Is that it?" Doing this very early and getting people out of the Keys is fantastic. Saving our closest island neighbor, The Conch Republic should be a priority. After all, a hurricane in the Keys did kill the early railroad in Florida (and a bunch of laborers.)

Traffic will be stressed, power will be out. Issuing a state of emergency is so the emergency assets are in place before the storm really hits. It involves utility trucks, National Guard...

By Saturday mid-afternoon we will all have a good idea of where this is going, in terms of Orlando. The biggest reason that I would tell people to stay away from Disney while the storm is "passing" is that you will be sequestered to your room for 12-24 hours and the the food is going to be boxed lunch. This seems very expensive. All the resort rooms are Meh at best. Although I did envy the person had the ephemeral room in the Bay Lake Towers. Now that's the room to watch 50-70 mph winds from.

 

[KimBean]

A good recap of Hurricane Matthew:

http://thedisneyblog.com/2016/10/07/walt-disney-world-attractions-dodge-worst-hurricane-matthew/

 

[DLM1980]

Here now. GF resort shop is fully stocked

Last Year the bare shelves didn't really start till the day they closed the parks early. I bet we have a few more days before bare shelves happen...unless Disney planned better than last year and has trailers at each resort of sellable items ready now

 

[AndreaA]

New update has it back more west then this morning. Let's hope it goes back to the east but this deff sucks so far.

Grr

I personally like that white And purple line all the way to right

People really need to read the article I posted earlier about spaghetti models and the lines not all meaning what you think they mean. I just checked the newest GFS and it has the storm further east.

https://arstechnica.com/science/201...-sharing-spaghetti-plots-of-hurricane-models/


Not that I fault you or am complaining about you posting this update! Everyone is aching for news of some sort. Just want to temper that with some other information.

 

[KimBean]

Just found out my girlfriend is in Antigua. She said it blew threw in 24 hours. Crazy! They are back to vacation as normal.

Wow they are showing Barbuda on CNN right now. Saying 95% destroyed.

 

[AngiTN]

So I'm east suburb of Atlanta. Should I get some preps? I've lived here 24 years and never had to consider prepping for hurricane.

Really? We've had low level Hurricane force winds here in TN. I'm surprised they didn't move through Atlanta first but maybe it came through Alabama instead? We lost power for several days from one of the I named storms one year, though I can't remember now which it was.

 

[Ty_tcw]

My husband and I are to arrive Sept 15-23rd for our 3rd wedding anniversary. We rented DVC points. I'm hoping that we will be ok to arrive then.

 

[Karen46]

If you really want to travel down and get there early, how about trying to stay at a close hotel to MCO and use there shuttle to get to and from MCO, instead of staying on Disney property? If you get in Friday, stay at a close Marriott/Hilton, have the shuttle pick you up. Then shuttle back on Saturday to the airport for the magical express? I am assuming your check in is Saturday.

We are arriving Friday night late and staying in the hotel at the airport, we are using magical express to go to the WL saturday morning it seemed like the least stressful option. Good Luck

 

[Tinkerbell2017]

My husband and I are to arrive Sept 15-23rd for our 3rd wedding anniversary. We rented DVC points. I'm hoping that we will be ok to arrive then.

I arrive on the 16th for our 40th anniversary. I'm counting on everything to be good, but if not I will certainly make the best of it. After all these years, nothing goes as planned, go with the flow.

 

[tmcd1126]

Ugh this is all just so stressful. I'm trying to prepare for the worst and hope for the best as I'm sure everyone is. As glad as I will be for the whole state of Florida and everyone in WDW if it blows on through I'll be so devastated if my flight is cancelled Sunday during the brunt of it and then it is relatively normal weather Monday and afterwards and I didn't move my flight up...UGH. I can't, so many factors!

 

[Denise W]

Before I rebook another DVC rental, I want to know if David's is being more accommodating. If so, I'll book with them next time. I haven't been impressed with the DVC rental store at all.

It has nothing to do with the rental brokers. They are facilitating a rental of points owned by an individual. The owner of those points decides whether to refund your money or not, not the broker. That is why there is always the warning with renting points, it is a final transaction and there are no refunds. If the owner is willing to contact Member Services and try to rebook a reservation for you, that is up to them. It is possible the owner of the points is from South Florida and is evacuating right now. Those are the risks when renting DVC points.
Denise