Hurricane Irma?

[summerlady]

"If a hurricane warning is issued by the National Hurricane Center for the Orlando area—or for your place of residence—within 7 days of your scheduled arrival date, you may call in advance to reschedule or cancel your Walt Disney Travel Company Magic Your Way vacation package and most room only reservations (booked directly with Disney) without any cancellation or change fees imposed by Disney.”

 

[HarperLeigh]

Jose is now a Tropical Storm right behind Irma. I think, as of right now, they are predicting that one to stay out at sea.

 

[Robblob]

I just cancelled my reservation at the Poly with guest services. They told me that i would NOT be charged any cancellation fees. Full refund. I was on the phone for 1.5 hours. We were scheduled to fly out tomorrow and return on 9/13.

I hate to hear that. We are scheduled to be there the 7th through 14th. Trying to decide what to do.

 

[GOOFY D]

Just got off the phone with them (45 minute hold, off at 10:45). CM just told me since there is no NHC warning declared on the mainland, I'm stuck and suggested I wait for a warning to be declared and call back. I told them a mod on the DIS boards said her position was incorrect and she got testy. So my points are now in holding for 2017 use year. Now to see what I can do about the MNSSHP ticket I had for Sunday. A bummer but there are worse things.....

I am curious as to what you find out as we have that same MNSSHP scheduled as well.

 

[HopperFan]

Yeah, My travel agent said they would move us if we went ahead and it got bad, but we wont take the change of damage to our camper if it looks bad. We will move our dates to another time.

I was supposed to be in St. Augustine then over to Disney when Matthew was coming. While I know Disney is probably one of the safest places to be (in a hotel) I opted to cancel trip and move to end of month. I've been hunkered in a hotel room for days hiding from a hurricane, it's really no fun, and add the money spent to do so ............ I'd rather hunker at home.

If Disney lets guests cancel or move dates, even for a nominal fee, I would do it.

 

[CKMinnieBows]

On the Ventrusky website, it looks like the radar is shifting east. Not sure how often this is going to change, just wanted to add this input that by the looks of it the coast is where it is headed at this current point in time.

https://www.ventusky.com/?p=32.8;-70.0;4&l=temperature&t=20170911/12

 

[kbelz78]

For those of you still deciding what to do and endlessly looking at models, pages, sites, etc. for information about path and track, I just found this in the comment section on Mike's Weather page.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10214702091489108&set=p.10214702091489108&type=3&theater

It seems that NOAA is pretty confident in Irma's track 5 days out at this point....we were scheduled to be at DW the 7th-12th.

We have a family friend that is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service - been IMing him like crazy for his input. This is what he has been telling me.

Me: Okay Andy, give it to me straight. What would you do? I've been obsessing over models and am not seeing the "turn" yet - still a possibility that it could go west into the Gulf? What's the chance on that? Ugh. If it was a little further along, we could make a clear decision. I know NHC has an update at 11a - will be looking at that for our final call.

Him: This is a challenging thing for the most experienced forecasters in the world, and you should not try to do it. Like second guessing brain surgery during it. While not perfect, they are the best, and even my professional career pales in comparison. That said, it's a cat 5. THE WORST IN THE WORLD,right now. I think all of Florida will try to evacuate

We are rescheduling now and eating the costs. Not happy about it, not made of money, completely bummed, wish the hurricane policy was in effect, but we had to decide by 12p CDT to avoid HAVING to go.

 

[cattrix]

On hold now to add a day to our reservation, changed our flight (southwest) and hotel stay already this morning to arrive on Saturday and not Sunday so Disney is my only hiccup now. Hopefully shouldn't be a problem as I'm trying to give them more money by booking an extra day!

 

[Poohbear03]

We were originally supposed to be there this week. We live on the East coast and originally the storm was supposed to hit the East coast around Friday. We canceled our trip. It was not worth it to me to worry about it and now if it does hit Florida this weekend we may not have been able to get our flight out. I just didn't want to be at Disney and have to keep checking the weather for what ifs. We will reschedule but probably not until April/May time frame. Was I looking forward to this trip absolutely, we haven't been away for an entire week in 7 years. We have done long weekends but not a true vacation. It wasn't worth it to me and the money spent and the concern over a hurricane. I know living on the East coast it is just not worth it. I still took a couple of days off of work to relax but will be back at work tomorrow. Good luck to everyone and I hope it stays away!

 

[kbelz78]

We were originally supposed to be there this week. We live on the East coast and originally the storm was supposed to hit the East coast around Friday. We canceled our trip. It was not worth it to me to worry about it and now if it does hit Florida this weekend we may not have been able to get our flight out. I just didn't want to be at Disney and have to keep checking the weather for what ifs. We will reschedule but probably not until April/May time frame. Was I looking forward to this trip absolutely, we haven't been away for an entire week in 7 years. We have done long weekends but not a true vacation. It wasn't worth it to me and the money spent and the concern over a hurricane. I know living on the East coast it is just not worth it. I still took a couple of days off of work to relax but will be back at work tomorrow. Good luck to everyone and I hope it stays away!

I feel the same way. Working on rescheduling now. Trip was to be the 7th-12th - we may have been able to squeak out a few okay days, but would be constantly stressed about the what ifs (does not sound like fun to me!). Enjoy your time off! I now have 7 extra work days to get caught up on stuff!

 

[goaljira]

It's one thing if you live somewhere already. It's another thing if you are going into a region that is forecast to get a hurricane. That is optional. Especially when WDW has a hurricane policy and you can reschedule.

Its not that simple though. We booked our trip back in April 2016 to get the free dining plan for now so we'll be away for our wedding anniversary. If we re-schedule we lose this, as well as the $75 a day for the CBR refurb. We're also not in the position to change our vacation time with work.

 

[vettegirl]

My hubby just called me and said don't cancel. So I guess we are going all in now. I talked to my friend in Orlando and they were like just come, oh good grief lets just hope for the best now.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Its not that simple though. We booked our trip back in April 2016 to get the free dining plan for now so we'll be away for our wedding anniversary. If we re-schedule we lose this, as well as the $75 a day for the CBR refurb. We're also not in the position to change our vacation time with work.

I am not unsympathetic, believe me. I had to reschedule our most recent trip four times before we could go due to medical and work issues. But having lived through the misery of Sandy here in NJ, personally I couldn't deliberately fly into a hurricane. That's just me. I would wait as long as possible to make the decision though.

 

[CAS239]

Winds just hit 180mph

 

[mellvswdw1]

So, I know everyone is saying hang on and wait to see what happens the next few days. However we are using our DVC points, and there still some availability, so I made the I made an executive decision to be pragmatic and move it to Wednesday the 13th to Wednesday the 20th. Southwest already had it available for me to change our flights. When I was talking to DVC, she told me it they were expecting long hold times for members.

I know that it could turn, that it may not effect Orlando or briefly but I am not going to push it and hopefully Jose will stay away!

 

[shaqfor3]

Just wondering:

What different monetary would it made to cancel Now or cancel 2 days from now? I honestly think people should wait to see what happens when it gets close to the bigger islands.

 

[RPAAB]

We finally had to reply here, we have been following the discussion for the past two days. Our trip is supposed to start tomorrow, Sept 6th through the 12th. We purchased the package with the free dining. Wife is on the phone right now trying to reschedule for November, but that is dependent on Disney allowing us to reschedule the day before and keeping the dining. We do not want to be in the path of a Cat 5 hurricane, nor do we want to be a burden on the Disney staff or Orlando. So many people are saying to "wait and see" but when your flight leaves tomorrow, we have to decide now and Disney is not making this easy since the hurricane warning is not active, Southwest is not too happy to help either.

Will report back what Disney says about the reschedule, as to whether we can the day before, whether we can keep the dining, and to whether they will refund the fireworks special we purchased for Sept 9th

 

[flatlandcycle]

This. I live 130 miles from the TX coast, in an area that got only a little wind and rain with zero flooding. Store shelves were bare for a couple days before Harvey hit; and many stores, restaurants, and other businesses were shuttered. Even now, it's difficult to find gas (and when there is a station with gas available, the lines are insane). If you're going to FL, be prepared. Take supplies with you.

It's this^ mob panic mode.

Of course you are right, I think it's just extremely difficult for people (like me) to abandon something they have spent months planning and 3 years of saving money for because of something I don't really understand, as we do not experience these things in England.
If it indeed goes over WDW and without being too sensational, could a Cat 5 pretty much destroy a park?

The parks are unlikely to be leveled...If the eye passes over Central Florida there will be spots of moderate/severe damage. On the coast, expect damage similar or worse than that of Harvey. The real wind speed is in the rare "spot" tornadoes. These come down and do local damage and then they are back up in the sky. Much of the danger is from drowning in flooded roadways. Don't go playing in flooded ditches unless you like water moccasins and gators. Once this thing starts to hit, staying put is much safer than getting on the roads. At some point a curfew will be in effect. The storm will come in waves of intensity. In between the bands of the hurricane the soft rain is quite beautiful.

 

[Amy___M]

So, I know everyone is saying hang on and wait to see what happens the next few days. However we are using our DVC points, and there still some availability, so I made the I made an executive decision to be pragmatic and move it to Wednesday the 13th to Wednesday the 20th. Southwest already had it available for me to change our flights. When I was talking to DVC, she told me it they were expecting long hold times for members.

I know that it could turn, that it may not effect Orlando or briefly but I am not going to push it and hopefully Jose will stay away!

Our flights are Mon-Mon. I'm thinking we'll def be moving our flight. I'm hoping for Wed-Wed, but waiting on Frontier to allow for changes. Are you also thinking that Wed should allow enough time for the airport to reopen?

 

[Vintage princess]

We have been talking about trying to push our arrival day back to the 12th instead of Friday evening... but I am afraid with this looking like such a powerful storm, that Disney would still be cleaning up damages and the parks could still be closed? Also, it would be hard to come up with an extra $200 for a change fee and we would have to move from AKL to at least a moderate as we would loose the dining plan, and my daughter will be 10 by then so lots of extra costs for just postponing a few days! Like everyone else, I wish I knew when a warning would be issued! Waiting 48 hours out doesn't seem like much time to evacuate so many people.