Hurricane Irma?

[tracyb20]

I'm flying into Orlando from the UK on Thursday 7th to 21st and am starting to get worried, I've got a young child with complex special needs!

 

[Slaterdom]

I'm flying into Orlando from the UK on Thursday 7th to 21st and am starting to get worried, I've got a young child with complex special needs!

I'm flying from Manchester airport at 11 am. We arrive Friday 3ish there time, from my calculations our flight will not be affected. Over the next 48hrs we will know if Irma will hit north florida, but historically the main land suffers the least.. I reconmend when you land to get to a few supermarkets to stock up on water and food asap. You may be stuck inside on sunday, Monday and possible Tuesday, but this is only if irma moves north. Have a plan of action, but don't panic or worry yet. 48hrs is plenty of time.

This has my full attention and I'm following this thread.

 

[gardengirl2790]

I'm coming from the west coast. Flying in 9/8-9/13. How far in advance will a hurricane warning be made if Orlando area is in the hurricane path? I'm thinking I'll change our trip to from WDW Disneyland, much closer, and no hurricane. I want to be able to make my new arrangements as soon as possible once the experts know what the trajectory of the hurricane is.

 

[CounselorX]

Welp - I'm headed for our airport in 30 minutes. We're leaving WDW on the 19th, so we shouldn't have any travel problems, but we'll definitely be there for the hurricane. Hoping for the best for everyone, everywhere!

 

[Anchorite]

Regarding third party ticket vendors, has anyone had experience working with them in an emergency event? My situation is very convoluted.

I'm traveling by Amtrak from upstate NY on the 11th, arriving in Orlando over a day later. My room-only accommodations were booked
through AAA, and my 5 day parkhoppers were purchased from Parksavers. I also purchased tickets for MNSSHP for the 15th through Undercover Tourist.

My concern since I will be traveling down the east coast, there is a plausible chance my train ride will be cancelled. This leaves me
with several different businesses to try to work with, since none of my bookings were done directly with Disney. Would Disney's hurricane policy
still apply in my case, if I call them directly, or am I out of luck?

 

[stickeymouse]

Regarding third party ticket vendors, has anyone had experience working with them in an emergency event? My situation is very convoluted.

I'm traveling by Amtrak from upstate NY on the 11th, arriving in Orlando over a day later. My room-only accommodations were booked
through AAA, and my 5 day parkhoppers were purchased from Parksavers. I also purchased tickets for MNSSHP for the 15th through Undercover Tourist.

My concern since I will be traveling down the east coast, there is a plausible chance my train ride will be cancelled. This leaves me
with several different businesses to try to work with, since none of my bookings were done directly with Disney. Would Disney's hurricane policy
still apply in my case, if I call them directly, or am I out of luck?

Hopefully it still applies, but I think you will still need to go through the third party vendors to obtain recourse.

 

[sunshine1]

for me, if i can just get to Orlando on Friday then I will be grateful for that.

 

[LMO429]

I seriously feel for each and every one of you that have an upcoming trip planned to WDW soon. I know how much time, effort it is to plan a disney trip now. The sacrifices to save $ to go and the anticipation of getting there. The fact it is so hard to get some dining reservations and FP make it even harder to make decisions on what to do as far as postponing or canceling a trip. GO with your GUT is what I say whatever that decision is is the right decision. That being said if you have a flight closer to the actual date of the storm to go to wDw I would wait it out until the last possible second to cancel. Airlines will change your flight and disney is great about refunds.

We were there last year for Hurricane Matthew. It was a similar forecast about a week out and the forecasters were unsure where it would go. I think the media this time has everyone on high alert after Harvey and rightfully so.

We were at the Grand Floridian when Hurricane Matthew touched down and it wound up being nothing. We spent the day in the room, which actually was what we need because we were already there six days and it was great to sleep. Our flight was fine the next day and we got out on time. Even though it would up working out I think next time I would leave WDW on an earlier flight once they had a SOLID forecast in plan that predicts a Hurrican hit at wdw. I think we got super lucky last year with the storm not being as strong as it could have been and we had little issues.

We were able to load up on water, formula and food at at target run but people were not in the state of panic the way there were right now I think that is the main difference. Everyone is on edge from Harvey and the media is having a field day.

Gather as much reliable information as possible and make a gut decision.

If i was already in WDW and the hurricane was coming and I lived outside the hurricane zone I would get an earlier flight to go home I would not stay in wdw to sit in my room again and ride out another storm.

 

[summerlady]

I think it's over for us. We're flying from Newark on Sunday at 11 am, I'm more concerned about being stuck at the airport if MCO closes than I am with actually being at WDW during a hurricane. We always go in September, I originally booked for November this time but DH talked me out of it and convinced me to change to September again.

 

[LMO429]

I think it's over for us. We're flying from Newark on Sunday at 11 am, I'm more concerned about being stuck at the airport if MCO closes than I am with actually being at WDW during a hurricane. We always go in September, I originally booked for November this time but DH talked me out of it and convinced me to change to September again.

I would just wait until Saturday to make a solid decision. Things can change it's 6 days away. I would wait until you get closer to sunday to make a change of plans.

If MCO closes you would know that on Saturday, plans would be put in place Fri or Sat once they know where the storm is def headed.

 

[Fantasmic303]

Well, like the rest of you, Irma is making me sick. I'm in a little of a different situation than most - we were coming down for a quick weekend, arriving Thursday and flying out on a 9p flight on Sunday. I'm not so concerned with the weather while we're down there - I'm concerned about coming home. I know people (me included) think "well, getting stuck IN Disney isn't so bad!" but we really can't afford the stress of getting stuck without plans if we can't get home. We didn't budget for additional hotel nights, air change fees, or missing work for 1+ days if we can't get out until Tuesday or later. I called Jetblue, but they won't waive fees until the warning is in place, and by then we'll already be in FL. All return flight options for earlier Sunday have limited seats left, and even if we could leave Saturday night, our already short trip would be cut even shorter. Change fees at this point would cost more than our original flights. If we were flying SWA, I would've already postponed.

I know these are first world gripes and I feel for everyone with lives in the path of Irma. I just wish I could go back to worrying about how I was going to get on Flight of Passage.

WAIT. But maybe that's the answer! Maybe a BANSHEE can just fly us home!!

 

[DisneyDeb83]

Just a heads up, even though Southwest does not have it listed as a warning yet for Florida, I was able to move up my flight at no charge. Out of curiosity I put in my confirmation number and a message popped up that I could make a one time change at no charge. I am now flying out of Philly at 6 am Saturday morning instead of 5:30 at night. Hopefully Irma does not speed up too much! (Hope it misses the US entirely, of course). Good luck everyone!

 

[SpookyJ]

Just a heads up, even though Southwest does not have it listed as a warning yet for Florida, I was able to move up my flight at no charge. Out of curiosity I put in my confirmation number and a message popped up that I could make a one time change at no charge. I am now flying out of Philly at 6 am Saturday morning instead of 5:30 at night. Hopefully Irma does not speed up too much! (Hope it misses the US entirely, of course). Good luck everyone!

oh my gosh, awesome. That is exactly what I wanted to hear. I just may say screw it and extend the whole trip by several days then as I wanted to do in the beginning. Can't really afford it, but hopefully I'll be able to skirt by and work some OT the next couple of months.

Or... what are the possibilities WDW and SW will let me just change the whole thing by a few weeks? Is late Sept/early Oct still good as far as having low (for Disney) crowds? Should we reasonably be past hurricane threats by then? The only dining reservation I really wanted was Trail's End on a weeknight, as Chef TJ there apparently puts on a crazy 8 course meal for vegans. It doesn't seem like the most popular place otherwise, hopefully I'd be able to get reservations still... anyone have insights on any of this?


ugh, this is hard!

 

[OnceUponATime15]

Cone has shifted slightly toward the west on the 5 am NOAA model. Still heading straight up the middle of the state as Mike predicted last evening.

New info from Jim Canatore this hour - rain amounts in Central Florida looking to be in the 8 to 12 inch range...

Interesting statistic just mentioned - the margin of error in 5 day out predictions can be as high as 225 miles "off"

So again... still too early to say for sure, but best to have a plan solidly in place "just in case" **sigh**

 

[AndreaA]

The European model has it shifting far west into the gulf.

 

[laurabelle]

When we were stuck in Disney during a hurricane we were able to move our flight with Southwest a day for no additional charge and Disney charged our extra night at the discount rate we had paid for the previous nights.

 

[SpookyJ]

When we were stuck in Disney during a hurricane we were able to move our flight with Southwest a day for no additional charge and Disney charged our extra night at the discount rate we had paid for the previous nights.

Awesome to know, thank you. I would much rather still go, keep my 2 good days I should have at the beginning, wait it out for two, and stay an extra two to make up for it. Lord knows I could use 2 days to just sleep anyway. Going to do some calling around today!

 

[DisneyDeb83]

Or... what are the possibilities WDW and SW will let me just change the whole thing by a few weeks?

I think they allow changes up to 14 days if I'm not mistaken.

 

[HBaney84]

Well my one stepson and his girlfriend board their plane in an hour and we load tomorrow morning with my other stepson close behind. We're going and going to try and make the most of it.. whether that be one day and they ship us home.

Hoping though to ride it out and be able to catch out Tuesday flights home next week....

 

[lifepaused]

We are coming from Australia on the 12th, so second part of flight is Dubai to Orlando so we may have a bumpy flight. I am putting down as an experience. On the plus side park numbers will be down.