Hurricane Matthew Closes WDW - Reopens Saturday, October 8th

[leebee]

My sister and her kids (teens) are in WDW right now, checking out of CBR on Friday morning for their flight home. However, they don't have tickets; they are flying on the dad's flight benefits, as he's an airline employee. This basically puts them lower than standby. I hope they can find a hotel for a couple of nights until they can get out of MCO.

 

[Disneygrl71]

Here now and the cast member in AK said she wouldn't be surprised if they close the parks around 2 pm tmrw with everyone being out by 3! Not sure if she's been told this or if it's just her speculation. We are suppose to fly out sat morning at 11 am, haven't heard anything from SW yet on flights being cancelled or delayed.

 

[hiroMYhero]

I think it may be a good idea to either update the OP (With a mod's help) or sticky a post with all the delays/cancellations/etc related to Matthew.

This is a great thread, but it's a bit hectic to keep track of what is open/closed and whether refunds are available for things.

If people ran a Search for HopperFan's posts specifically in this thread, and not the forum, her posts regarding closures and current info will result.

Or, if you want to consolidate closure and refund info into one post, I can add the Post # to the title of the thread.

 

[Irish_Mike]

If people ran a Search for HopperFan's posts specifically in this thread, and not the forum, her posts regarding closures and current info will result.

Or, if you want to consolidate closure and refund info into one post, I can add the Post # to the title of the thread.

I would use Hopper's on the last page, about 3/4 down. That has most of the stuff right now.

 

[TwoMisfits]

My sister and her kids (teens) are in WDW right now, checking out of CBR on Friday morning for their flight home. However, they don't have tickets; they are flying on the dad's flight benefits, as he's an airline employee. This basically puts them lower than standby. I hope they can find a hotel for a couple of nights until they can get out of MCO.

I would book hotel nights in Tampa (or farther west) for Thursday through Sunday, drive out in the morning, and attempt to fly out of there after the weather passes. My brother has also evacuated from Melbourne and he says there are still rooms in Tampa (for now)...

If they don't, flying less than standby, they probably won't be able to get out til Mon-Tues from Orlando at the earliest and they'll want to book those nights now either way...

 

[hiroMYhero]

I would use Hopper's on the last page, about 3/4 down. That has most of the stuff right now.

Thanks added post 559 to the title. If you see any other posts, I can add those.

I flew back from Orlando yesterday so I have time difference "jet lag" and can't recall who posted additional info.

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

Here now and the cast member in AK said she wouldn't be surprised if they close the parks around 2 pm tmrw with everyone being out by 3! Not sure if she's been told this or if it's just her speculation. We are suppose to fly out sat morning at 11 am, haven't heard anything from SW yet on flights being cancelled or delayed.

That was the rumor at MK too. Park closed at 2pm with everyone out and back to their resorts by 3.

 

[dawne98]

Why would anyone get mad that they have no more rooms for Thursday or Friday? Why would you stay longer? I would get out as soon as I can... I live up I 4 from Disney less then a hour and it's crazy gas is going fast, water is gone and we have been told they are trying to get trucks in with water before the winds get bad... I say if you don't need to be in FL don't! No one knows who bad it's going to be and what's going to open but I don't know why anyone would say Disney is going to be open on Friday when they "Disney" doesn't know how bad it's going to be...
Just keep your family safe as you can and if you haven't ever been in a hurricane hold on!
This is hurricane #6 for me I lived in Miami before moving up to central FL last summer.... and this one has me thinking if we need to get to the west side of FL tomorrow.... I am telling myself it's because I don't how what to expect at our new home, not knowing what st's are going to flood and how the new home is going to hold up.... so keep our family and friends in your prays....

 

[Night Huntress]

Finally finished making all my calls....and I feel better about my plans. I am now not arriving to Disney until Saturday afternoon (which is my check-in day anyway). I was able to get a refund for the party tickets for Friday night, got a refund for the sea world tickets I had purchased for Saturday, and was able to cancel the hotel at SeaWorld with no issues. Now I just have to wait till the refunds actually show up sometime next week and hope the weather stays nice after Saturday. Prayers! OH- and I still have to break the news to DD11 that Seaworld is now out

 

[HopperFan]

I haven't had time to read the whole thread. Here in Disney now MNSSHP has been cancel for tomorrow and from what I understand everyone was given a refund.

As of right now Disney has not been very accommodating with regards if we have to stay an extra day. Surprisingly universal has been the opposite. We just wanted to have a back up plan in case we do get hit.

That is great for the people at fort wilderness still bad costumer service for the people here at a hotel room. It is not like we have an option if the hurricane hits. As they will have many cancellations. From someone that has worked at a hotel industry when we has emergencies I would NEVER tell my guest sorry you are own your own. You can try to spin it any way you want still bad costumer service.

We have a room at universal tomorrow but if it hits us we won't be able to drive there.

Honestly I don't really care if you agree or not saying to a costumer you are on your own is bad costumer service. We have been at other places when hurricanes might hit. You know what they said? We are sold out but don't worry we will take care of you. Only the dis would consider this acceptable lol. Plus there WILL be cancellations if they are obviously able to accommodate people from the campsites... not only have we been other hotels been accommodating they didn't even charged us for the extra night. I don't expect this but from Disney that is "supposed" to have outstanding costumer service not ok.

That is great we have plans tonight and Disney is not willing to refund us so no I don't think so.

They are obviously going to have cancellations as we have seen from a few disers. Of course it is an unfortunate situation for all parties involved. I would have never dream to tell my guest that. As a hotel we had contingency plans for every guest.

We were planning leaving really early in the morning but that will obviously depends on what will happened.

I live how it is not bad costumer service when they accommodate people in the campsites but people on hotel room too bad app sad that makes sense ...

Just to be clear about you assuming things when I have already said otherwise. Disney offered NO other alternative to US AT ALL. Even thought I specially said we will be ok if we needed to move. Which apparently they had since someone said that they were able to booked pop. I love how people always assume Disney is right. We went back to the lobby there was 5 people cancelling and leaving early (today and tomorrow early). And only one person trying to extend. There was multiple upset guest that were told the same thing we did earlier and they were livid as 5 people were canceling leaving tonight. In fact some really nice lady in line that change her flight to leave tonight said we could have her room for tomorrow night that they were refusing to cancel and refund her when she talked to Disney customer service. The manager did take care of her, but she said she will never be coming back after how she was treated.

Thankfully universal on the other hand has been fantastic and just in one call not only they find us a room but went the extra mile and made sure we were giving the rate and discount we have even though it is sold out and a 7 am check in. If we ever consider buying DVC before now for sure we will never will. We have never been in a hotel that has handle the situation so badly. And by the way we were willing to pay whatever rate they wanted as long as they will give us a room.

Just to add I am not saying that they should not move people from campsites they should but they should be able to accommodate all their guest.

- From what it reads the poster who is upset was scheduled to check out tomorrow. They do not have a reservation. They asked to stay longer. Disney "had no rooms for them when they were asking" and they were upset. Now it may be they just couldn't stay in their room or their hotel or didn't want to stay somewhere offered or for a price of something else. I don't know, but I don't think Disney wouldn't have offered them a room somewhere if they had one .........

- If you were scheduled to check out tomorrow and made no adjustments to your reservation when they did have rooms, it would be logical that you would check out.

I'm not trying to argue with you and I was not responding to you in that post but .....

You did not say anything otherwise until this last post. You said you wanted to extend your stay and you couldn't and you are upset. I clearly stated I don't know how the conversation went and it could have gone many ways but if Disney had a room available to you I see no reason why they would not allow you to book it. And just because folks were leaving early, doesn't mean the room was open to those without reservations. Disney has a very high occupancy rate, and if they are trying to move guests from multiple resorts - who do have reservations - they would be giving those rooms to them as soon as they open - over guests who are trying to extend or have no reservations. If you were due to check out, and they said they had no room, you should have gotten on the phone, computer something and booked yourself a room somewhere else like you eventually did. Now if you are now saying you had a reservation and they didn't have a room, then yes it is on them to help you find a room but I didn't read it that way.

I will agree, even in a time of great pressure and stress, no one should be rude to you. And while I agree it is upsetting and frustrating, you shouldn't be getting angry with a CM if you didn't have a room booked and they didn't have one to give you.

 

[HopperFan]

My sister and her kids (teens) are in WDW right now, checking out of CBR on Friday morning for their flight home. However, they don't have tickets; they are flying on the dad's flight benefits, as he's an airline employee. This basically puts them lower than standby. I hope they can find a hotel for a couple of nights until they can get out of MCO.

Look up a couple pages there is a link where all the hotels with rooms are listing them.

And here is another list ...

http://www.visitorlando.com/includes/content/images/media/docs/Hurricane_Rooms.pdf

 

[GeorgiaHoo]

Give me a break! I am perfectly within my rights to be dissapointed with a vacation that we have looked forward to for over a year and spent a lot of money on. It does not for one tiny second negate the fact that I know people are suffering. I should have known when I typed that I would get someone to pop off.

People are asking for "if you there are now please let us know what's happening," but when I do that's the crap I get. I was being perfectly honest. I am frustrated.

Just reading this thread, and haven't read all 29+ pages, but yeah, if I spent a ton of money on a Disney trip (and I have in the the past) I'd be super-duper bummed about weather impacting my trip (and it has in the past). And I wouldn't have any problem with folks expressing their disappointment on this board, which is after all a board to discuss Disney World issues, not a board for discussing how to solve the world's problems.

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

Why would anyone get mad that they have no more rooms for Thursday or Friday? Why would you stay longer? I would get out as soon as I can... I live up I 4 from Disney less then a hour and it's crazy gas is going fast, water is gone and we have been told they are trying to get trucks in with water before the winds get bad... I say if you don't need to be in FL don't! No one knows who bad it's going to be and what's going to open but I don't know why anyone would say Disney is going to be open on Friday when they "Disney" doesn't know how bad it's going to be...
Just keep your family safe as you can and if you haven't ever been in a hurricane hold on!
This is hurricane #6 for me I lived in Miami before moving up to central FL last summer.... and this one has me thinking if we need to get to the west side of FL tomorrow.... I am telling myself it's because I don't how what to expect at our new home, not knowing what st's are going to flood and how the new home is going to hold up.... so keep our family and friends in your prays....

I really wanted my parents to leave Orlando. My aunt and uncle live nearby and left a few days ago for their son's house in Alabama. They tried to convince my parents to go with them, but they had to work, my dad works tomorrow, and while Disney is probably one of the safest places to be, I don't like the idea of my parents being separated at any point during this.

Stay safe, dawne98.

 

[HopperFan]

Looks like Typhoon Lagoon Closure

 

[MrsG]

We're supposed to land in MCO at 10:30 Fri night. With any luck and pixie dust, the storm would have passed by then and roads are passable. But, I honestly think that is just a dream at this point.......

 

[HopperFan]

I really wanted my parents to leave Orlando. My aunt and uncle live nearby and left a few days ago for their son's house in Alabama. They tried to convince my parents to go with them, but they had to work, my dad works tomorrow, and while Disney is probably one of the safest places to be, I don't like the idea of my parents being separated at any point during this.

Stay safe, dawne98.

Yeah my folks are sitting ON THE BEACH just south of Deerfield (in the zone) ............. sending me pics of how pretty. I was finally happy they made reservations at hotel by Sawgrass Mills. Inland, dining, nice area. So where are they? Waiting to go tomorrow. I can't imagine the traffic and what if it hits their area during the night? And this after they were out of their condo 4 years for Hurricane Wilma.............

ALL GOOD THOUGHTS FOR YOUR FOLKS .......... I feel ya!

 

[shameless3]

I think people have to realize that there are thousands of guests onsite trying to find out information and the front desks are probably swamped with calls (and complaints). To expect "perfect or magical" customer service in a situation that is changing by the minute is unreasonable - and guest services communications may be interpreted differently by each guest. I have been at the front desk when the CM was being very calm and rational and the guest kept escalating out of control because he wasn't getting the response HE wanted to here. I've also seen guests been the reasonable one and the CM getting snippy. I never believe one side of the story because of this.

I also wonder if Disney is trying to put guests on upper floors to avoid potential flood issues - that much rain in such a short time will not be able to be absorbed into the ground quickly.

Considering that the guest was able to get a room at another resort I would move on from the situation and make the best out of a bad situation.

 

[#1hoosierfan]

Thank you. I truly appreciate your words. I am trying to be super prositive for my boys, but felt "safe" here expressing some frustration. Again, I should have known better.

I know we are safe here and will be well taken care of. I have told my boys this will probably be the only time they will experience a hurricane. We are from Indiana tornado warnings are the norm for us.... this not so much...

I am saying a prayer for all those being affected.

 

[Aryn]

We were at Disney in 2004 just in time for Hurricane Jeanne to hit us. We were there for 10 days and the hurricane hit at the end of out trip. We were not aware it was coming, Disney is a very insular place for us so we had no idea it was coming until I talked to my dad who let us know. We were at Pop century, or All stars, I can't remember now, but the parks right before they closed early were a dream! No lines, weather was getting windy and dark but we were at the studios and it was empty! We made it back to the hotel and had to extend the trip a night, which was luckily no issue for us. We rode it out in the hotel, I remember it was very windy and they played Disney movies all day to keep us busy. The characters were in the main building doing dance parties and all in all it was an interesting experience. When we left the day after we saw some damage but Disney was great at getting things back the way they should be. I am not sure how this hurricane is going to play out, by all accounts it looks to be much worse. I hope everyone stays safe and in good spirits, I know how frustrating it is to be on vacation and not have it go like you have planned.

 

[LilyWDW]

Will continue to keep an eye on this as my cousin and her family are at AoA right now. They luckily do not fly out until Saturday night so hopefully that will be okay for them. I mentioned to her that the water parks have closed and that there are rumors about parks closing early so to keep a close eye on the schedule. I also told her to go grab some snacks and drinks NOW if they can to keep in the room as tomorrow will be crazy. Anything else I should mention to them? We are both from the midwest so this is not something we are used to at all!