Hurricane Irma?

[flatlandcycle]

Yes, precisely. Luckily I couldn't possibly care less if my morals or sensitivity are questioned by a random member of a DISNEY message board. If I can't gripe here, where the heck CAN I gripe? I said NOTHING about how the hurricane has affected people in southern Florida and outside the US. I was talking specifically (VERY VERY specifically) about Disney World and one hotel in particular. The fact of the matter is that yes, they do seem to be having a fine time there. If we'd arrived on Friday as planned, spending today hanging at the resort would have been a welcome break, and it looks like it will be sunny by tomorrow afternoon.

Unfortunately I had pet issues on top of weather concerns and they are what ultimately pushed me to cancel, however, less fear-mongering might very well have been encouragement for me to look harder for a pet solution. Done is done and we are rebooked for next September, but that feels like a LONG time away.

If Irma had not gone across parts of Cuba and not turned inland at Naples we would be looking at Cat 1 winds in Orlando overnight. This storm still wants a shot at Orlando with the eastern wobble. It's slowly loosing strength. I didn't see anything in terms of fear that couldn't have been a possible outcome. If the storm had traveled a path that allowed it strengthen it would have been much worse. They aren't letting first responders out in this right now.

 

[lilbabyfroggie]

I found it odd and I'm 42. I'm like whoa nelly.

I'm 40, so I feel you! That said, I guess I should add that her doctor has been throwing around the words "knee replacement" for a bit now, so maybe that helps everyone understand my question better.

 

[HarperLeigh]

Last I heard was the parks were closed Sunday and Monday. Can someone please confirm that?

Yes, as of now. Once the storm passes, they will assess damage and determine if any of the parks will able to be opened Monday.

 

[meuseman]

I don't know if this is relevant here, since there is another (smaller) thread about it, but do any of you have any insight as to how this will affect crowd levels? My mom is 62, and while she's hale and healthy, I'm sort of sitting here wondering if I should be changing our schedules to include much less. I saw one poster say that the crowd levels were much higher after Matthew, so I was going to ask if any of you have any input. TIA!

Part of the reason for the high crowds around Matthew was the timing of Columbus day. The parks were closed on Friday before the holiday weekend. Matthew hit overnight from Thurs-Fri. By Friday evening, the curfew was lifted and some of the Disney Springs restaurant opened. For many in central and western FL, Matthew was much less intense than was expected. So now you have a holiday weekend, with beautiful weather, many cancelled activities and locals within driving distance that were free for a park visit.

 

[FeralCatRogue]

I found a little baby spider in my hotel room earlier. I couldn't put him outside, I would have felt way too bad. So now I have a baby brown spider living with me... at least I'm not alone? XD

That's awesome your keeping the little guy safe. I'm wondering how all those cute little lizards will do :/

 

[Lsdolphin]

This is no fun

The wind and rain has really picked up, it's so noisy outside. My front door keeps rattling, and I'm now down from five palm trees in my yard to two. Power keeps flickering, we've all had an early dinner while we still had a working oven! My 4-year old is refusing to go to bed because the wind and rain are so loud, but thankfully my baby is sleeping right through it all.

There's a frog clinging for dear life to my front door; I would let him in but a) there's no way I'm opening the door and b) I think my cat would eat him.

Scary as it is, you will be ok! Keep your flashlights handy sounds you might still lose power.

 

[lilbabyfroggie]

Part of the reason for the high crowds around Matthew was the timing of Columbus day. The parks were closed on Friday before the holiday weekend. Matthew hit overnight from Thurs-Fri. By Friday evening, the curfew was lifted and some of the Disney Springs restaurant opened. For many in central and western FL, Matthew was much less intense than was expected. So now you have a holiday weekend, with beautiful weather, many cancelled activities and locals within driving distance that were free for a park visit.

Thanks so much for the reply!

 

[TinkerBelle_325]

CNN just reported that Irma is turning east and heading straight for Orlando.

The NHC just posted their 9pm position update:


...900 PM EDT POSITION UPDATE...
...IRMA EXPECTED TO TURN TOWARD THE NORTH-NORTHWEST OVERNIGHT...

Personally I would trust them over CNN

 

[Karen Palmer]

The NHC just posted their 9pm position update:


...900 PM EDT POSITION UPDATE...
...IRMA EXPECTED TO TURN TOWARD THE NORTH-NORTHWEST OVERNIGHT...

Personally I would trust them over CNN

Do you know how much I love you right now? Lol.

 

[Fuzzeh]

That's awesome your keeping the little guy safe. I'm wondering how all those cute little lizards will do :/

I kept wanting to scoop up all the ones I saw over the past couple days to keep them safe. But they're smart, when I went out earlier a bunch of them were hanging out in the center area of the hotel and on the stairwell. Most will be fine.

 

[TinkerBelle_325]

Do you know how much I love you right now? Lol.

Don't get me wrong, Irma has a mind of its own but I always trust the NHC over the media. CNN especially attempts to sensationalize everything. I believe Orlando will have impacts, but we've also seen Irma continue to lose intensity as it moves over land. It's down to 105mph sustained winds and still has a ways to go before it is close to Orlando. The NHC posts position and intensity updates every hour.

 

[DOOM1001]

The NHC just posted their 9pm position update:


...900 PM EDT POSITION UPDATE...
...IRMA EXPECTED TO TURN TOWARD THE NORTH-NORTHWEST OVERNIGHT...

Personally I would trust them over CNN

It really doesn't matter much anymore if the center goes through Tampa,Lakeland or Orlando,its a big storm and impacting everybody.I'm right by Disney and have been getting near hurricane strength gusts for a couple of hours now,theres also been tornadoes already in northern parts of Orlando and Volusia and Brevard counties,it just needs to move past us ASAP and start losing strength.

 

[honeymo78]

I'm 40, so I feel you! That said, I guess I should add that her doctor has been throwing around the words "knee replacement" for a bit now, so maybe that helps everyone understand my question better.

That definitely helps with the understanding. My mom will be 67 next week and I swear she has more stamina than my brother and I on our trips (I'm 39 and brother is almost 33). She also hikes or bike rides several days a week now that she is partially retired. I get tired just listening to her relate what she did on her day off.

Unless your schedule is already pretty commando, I don't think you'll need to change anything. It's not going to be holiday crowd levels, but ride wait time may be higher than you anticipated. You can always rent a wheelchair if you think waiting in longer lines might be an issue. To be honest, my family did that for me once in my 20's when I injured my foot. Walking wasn't so bad, it was the standing and starting/stopping so we picked up a wheelchair for a day or two and I just sat through the lines.

 

[Irish_Mike]

From Eric Burris over on Facebook:

"We've been SLAMMED at the office, but I want to show you what we've noticed. Look at the bottom X 6 hours ago, and the top X now. If we extrapolate the line, this puts the core of Hurricane Irma right into the Orlando metro-"

 

[LilyWDW]

Just a note before I head to bed (stupid work in the morning). There is still a lot of rotation being seen in these bands and multiple tornado warnings out, including North and East of the Orlando area. So again, make sure you have a way to get weather alerts and be sure to have a plan if a warning is issued for the area. For updates, you can follow the live thread on Reddit.

 

[DizMagic]

All I can say is that I cancelled my trip and now all I am reading about on the resort board is how everyone is having a fabulous time at our hotel (the Poly) and how empty the parks were yesterday and how the pools were even open this morning.

Ugh.

I'm with you. Woke up Saturday morning a couple of hours before our early flight. Saw news was showing cat 3 over orlando so we finally cancelled. Now i am beating myself up. This was my 40th birthday celebration. We are having issues rescheduling due to limited availability. My wife wanted to go the whole time, it was really me that backed out. So i also feel responsible for ruining her vacation. We both have VERY stressful jobs, so this was something we both needed badly. Im so bummed.

 

[TinkerBelle_325]

From Eric Burris over on Facebook:

"We've been SLAMMED at the office, but I want to show you what we've noticed. Look at the bottom X 6 hours ago, and the top X now. If we extrapolate the line, this puts the core of Hurricane Irma right into the Orlando metro-"

That makes the assumption that it will continue travelling due north (which is possible) but the NHC update says it it expected to travel north north west.

 

[Lsdolphin]

I found it odd and I'm 42. I'm like whoa nelly.

So funny Imwas having same thought! Now I am feeling soooo old!

 

[KateP85]

I'm with you. Woke up Saturday morning a couple of hours before our early flight. Saw news was showing cat 3 over orlando so we finally cancelled. Now i am beating myself up. This was my 40th birthday celebration. We are having issues rescheduling due to limited availability. My wife wanted to go the whole time, it was really me that backed out. So i also feel responsible for ruining her vacation. We both have VERY stressful jobs, so this was something we both needed badly. Im so bummed.

I can understand rethinking, I really can, but from someone 20 minutes from Disney right now, be glad you are not here. This is seriously scary.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

Yes, as of now. Once the storm passes, they will assess damage and determine if any of the parks will able to be opened Monday.

Did you mean to say Tuesday? The parks are definitely closed tomorrow (Monday). I expect them to be open sometime Tuesday.