TSR6
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2005
We just got back from Walt Disney World - a driving trip from Wisconsin. I work in an industry that pays attention to major weather events, so I knew a hurricane was going to hit Florida somewhere during our trip - and likely at least a rain impact to WDW. The spaghetti models were still not "great" on 9/23 when we started our drive - we knew the risk, and it wasn't my first hurricane.
First, I'll outline our hurricane preps before I talk about the trip. Here's what we did:
Day 1 - Arrival day 9/24 - a day early! Knowing the storm was coming, left earlier than planned (3pm on 9/23 instead of early AM 9/24) - so we also arrived earlier than planned. We caught a room at the Dolphin overnight on 9/24 and were there just in time to watch the EPCOT fireworks, and have some drinks on the Boardwalk. The Dolphin was just fine - for the price, and being on property, it's OK. The hotel is aging if you ask me - the hallway carpets are worn, and when we checked in - there were garbage bags all over the hall. In front of our room, there was a garbage bag from where they turned over our room, and a dirty plastic glove on the floor. They were there at 9pm, and still there at 9am... The hotel was also refurbing all the balconies - so even while we had a balcony room, it was locked from the outside and all the railings were removed. Here's the view from the room, including the trash bags, and the balcony renovations:
9/25 Day 2 - First Park Day! - EPCOT & Transfer to Poly, and MNSSHP - So we didn't plan on going to the parks immediately, but we grabbed a virtual queue to Guardians of the Galaxy right away. Instead of moving the truck from Dolphin to the Polynesian right away in the morning, we instead walked to EPCOT. I timed out the queue, ride time, ect - and actually went and moved the truck from Dolphin by walking back to the resort, driving while my wife rode Guardians. Timed it just right that she met me at the front of the park after I rode the monorail back to EPCOT from the TTC (walked to the TTC from Poly).
EPCOT:
9/28 - The parks are closed! - Hurricane Ride Out Day 1 at the Polynesian Resort
9/30 - EPCOT & MK!! - We really didn't plan on splitting this day up - but given the storm, we missed out on some things... It was originally planned as an "EPCOT all Day" - but we hit everything we aimed for by 3pm, and hopped to MK to see the Dapper Dans, Ride Splash Mountain (request of our oldest kid, to ride it once more before it changes) - and then went back to EPCOT to have F&W for dinner (we cancelled our Ohana dinner given that we were dumpling and noodled out from the hurricane ride-out food)
10/1 - Departure Day.....
- Normally we leave right away, but given the storm, and the extra park days we saved, we decided to have breakfast, spend a couple hours at MK, and leave late. After breakfast, I went back to the room to film my normal trip's "room tour video" for friends and family - and SURPRISE.... before 9am, Mousekeeping was in my bathroom with the door locked while I was filming. I HAD NO CLUE until I tried to open the door... OMG..... how awkward. The video is here - I did keep this person out of the video... but my gosh, she claimed she thought we left already. It was BEFORE 9am - and we did NOT check out!
We stayed at MK until noon - and then hit the road back to Wisconsin. Let me just say - watching the southbound traffic was hopeful. It was AMAZING seeing all the rescue and recovery crews heading south on I-75. I've never seen so many portable housing, portable generators, portable showers, clean up crews, heavy equipment, and more traveling south. It was great seeing that help was on the way....
EDIT 10/4 @ 7pm- Some additional thoughts and feedback Magic Band Plus:
Magic Band Plus - Not worth the extra money. We charged them at home 3 days before our trip, and didn't touch them until our first park day. They all died half way through the day - and we didn't even "play" with them this day - they must drain down over time. Waiving at all the statues was "ok" - kids got a kick out of the band vibrating, but other than that... meh. The lights came on during some of the night shows, and in a couple queues - but I wouldn't pay for these again until there's more entertainment or value behind them.
If you have any questions on our trip, let me know, and ill do my best to answer!
First, I'll outline our hurricane preps before I talk about the trip. Here's what we did:
- Packed extra clothes - we planned on getting wet. We also brought not only the standard ponchos, but also our heavy duty fishing rain gear.
- Packed extra food/snacks/water - I planned on possibly being stuck in the hotel room and missing hot meals.
- Gasoline - I topped off my truck at the Speedway by MK on property when we arrived to make sure I had a full tank. I also brought two 5gal cans that I filled - given the full tank and the extra gas, we could make it to Tennessee without needing a gas station. When I went through Charlie, I had a hard time getting gas for a few days so I planned for this.
- Brought a cooler into the room - FYI, a standard Igloo cooler will slide under the raised beds. I kept some extra food, beer, more beer, and water in there, topped off with ice since the fridge space is limited.
- I was careful where I parked in the Poly parking lot, not near any trees
Day 1 - Arrival day 9/24 - a day early! Knowing the storm was coming, left earlier than planned (3pm on 9/23 instead of early AM 9/24) - so we also arrived earlier than planned. We caught a room at the Dolphin overnight on 9/24 and were there just in time to watch the EPCOT fireworks, and have some drinks on the Boardwalk. The Dolphin was just fine - for the price, and being on property, it's OK. The hotel is aging if you ask me - the hallway carpets are worn, and when we checked in - there were garbage bags all over the hall. In front of our room, there was a garbage bag from where they turned over our room, and a dirty plastic glove on the floor. They were there at 9pm, and still there at 9am... The hotel was also refurbing all the balconies - so even while we had a balcony room, it was locked from the outside and all the railings were removed. Here's the view from the room, including the trash bags, and the balcony renovations:
9/25 Day 2 - First Park Day! - EPCOT & Transfer to Poly, and MNSSHP - So we didn't plan on going to the parks immediately, but we grabbed a virtual queue to Guardians of the Galaxy right away. Instead of moving the truck from Dolphin to the Polynesian right away in the morning, we instead walked to EPCOT. I timed out the queue, ride time, ect - and actually went and moved the truck from Dolphin by walking back to the resort, driving while my wife rode Guardians. Timed it just right that she met me at the front of the park after I rode the monorail back to EPCOT from the TTC (walked to the TTC from Poly).
EPCOT:
- Guardians of the Galaxy is awesome. We both decided it was a morning ride, especially during F&W. Wouldn't want to ride this after a couple laps around the Showcase Lagoon.
- F&W Highlights: the mint pesto lamb at Australia is amazing. Glad it's back. I had the Tokyo Sunrise, my wife had the Dragonberry shimmer from Japan - along with a couple other beverages.
- Ride wait times were super short - everything was basically walk-on after the first parade and fireworks.
- They had an extra photo area setup inside the original queue for Stitch's Great Escape - including Mr Toad's Wild Ride.
- The dance party with the Monster's Inc crew was fun.
- The Boo to You Parade is still hands down my favorite Disney parade. Not much has changed in it!
- I miss Hallowishes. The new firework shows all rely so heavily on the projection, and the Halloween firework show tells a story, so you really need to have a good spot to watch in front of the castle. Unfortunately both kids fell asleep for this... Jack Skelenton's entrance was a surprise addition, we both thought he was a projection...spoiler alert...he's not.
- Truthfully, we didn't do a whole lot at DAK. It was our oldest kid's first time on Everest, watched Kite Tails, had a beverage from the Thirsty River bar, stopped at the Dawa Bar, and hit up a lot of the photopass locations. It was more of a low key, enjoy the atmosphere day. Plus my daughter was dressed up like Kevin, so we had to go find her!
- We went back to the Poly for some pool time, got our name on the Trader Sam's list right away, had a couple beverages inside Trader Sam's - Uh-Oa is a drink for one (just saying')
- Steakhouse 71 was good - not a staple I feel like we'll add to future trips - the food was good, but next time we'll probably have a drink at the bar and go somewhere else. It's a one and done for dinner.
- Visited with a Reedy Creek Firetruck at the Contemporary. Not sure why it was there, but the kids got to take a couple pictures with it.
- We went back to the Poly to watch the Electric Water Parade. It's something I watched so many times as a kid, glad my kids got to see it from the Poly as well. We made a point of seeing it this night, as with the incoming storm, we weren't sure if the seas would be too rough for later in our trip.
- Some highlights at DHS, it was my daughter's first time on Slinky Dog, so she had a blast. We did Alien Swirling Saucers, Toy Story Mania, some beers at Baseline Tap, Met Olaf and generally spent the morning bouncing around DHS. Left DHS around 3:12
- EPCOT - we took the walking trail from DHS to EPCOT, and were in the park around 3:35'ish. This is where "uh oh, this might be our last day in the park for a little while" started setting in. Of course, we were watching the radar - but the outdoor food & bev for F&W started plastic wrapping the cash registers and buttoning up the booths - you'd order food from the normal food pickup areas. The hurricane finally started having some park impacts as you could see they were prepping. Boardwalk had sandbags by the doors for example. The park seemed less busy - we rode a few rides, and headed for Garden Grill for dinner.
- Garden Grill - still my favorite dinner spot - between the good food and the character interaction, this is still my favorite character dining location. The only disappointment - we did ask "Hey, given the hurricane coming - mind if we get a to-go bag for what's left in our skillet just in case" - didn't have to order extras, we only had some leftovers from the original skillet. We were told no - policy is no leftovers to go. Walking around closer to park close, it was eerie, we had an entire monorail cab to ourselves, and the park itself was in full on hurricane prep mode.
- Announcements that the parks will be closed are shared - as expected, given that Universal and Sea World had announced their closures earlier in the day.
9/28 - The parks are closed! - Hurricane Ride Out Day 1 at the Polynesian Resort
- First thing I did in the morning was go to Captain Cooks. Ya'll, this isn't my first hurricane. I did a Hurricane Ride Out as a Cast Member in 2004 at the Contemporary, so I knew what was possibly coming - no parks, limited food choices, maybe stuck in our rooms or at least our Poly building for an unknown number of hours.
- Stocked up on Food. Here's a list of what was available - I grabbed 2 adult and 2 kids meal kits for both Breakfast and Lunch - they only had the Ham & Cheese Sandwiches ready for the lunches when I stopped in.
- Figured out "What CAN we do?" - figured out the activities, and then returned to the room. My wife was NOT thrilled (first hurricane) and I had to talk her into leaving the room (explain all the fun happening in the Great Ceremonial House. We left and joined in - which helped her a ton.)
- The KIDS had a BLAST... Mickey, Pluto, Lilo & Stitch were in the lobby playing games, doing meet & greets, playing Duck Duck Goose, Trivia, Movies, coloring books, activity books, dance parties. I am impressed - Disney does a great job of making lemonade with lemons. The kids did not talk about the storm, missing the parks, the down time - they only talked about all the fun they had, and that's what really matters. Here's a quick YouTube Short I made of Mickey Mouse and one of the jokes that was made during one of the game times:
- The 1:1 time with the kids and the characters cannot be beat.... again, very impressed.
- Had a few beverages in the Tambu Lounge - if you've ever had a Lapu Lapu, Backscratcher, etc at the Polynesian, you'll know a good time was had. Got talking with some new friends from several different states, plus they had the Weather Channel on the TV keeping us updated on landfall. My wife was fine as long as she could see the castle, which quickly became the mantra of the small group of people we were drinking with.
- The opened up a quick service food location mid-day downstairs - this offered Ohana Dumplings & Noodles or Chicken Tenders and Fries - this was a popular option! The line formed early, they were also offering quick service beers here as well.
- The Pool was open until roughly 3:30pm. Here's another YouTube short of the Pool during some of the early winds from the storm.
- THE HURRICANE..... While everything was open until closer to 9pm, talking with Cast Members - anyone that was working from roughly Noon on was on the Hurricane Ride Out Crew and they were spending the night with us. We left the Great Ceremonial House around 8:30.
Hurricane Ian made landfall on Wednesday - the peak storm at Walt Disney World was closer to 3am. I slept pretty good - but woke up for the storm. Again, this is not my first hurricane - but I took a couple videos earlier in the storm, and one in the middle of the night. You can see what it looked like from our Pool View room in this full YouTube video:
9/30 - EPCOT & MK!! - We really didn't plan on splitting this day up - but given the storm, we missed out on some things... It was originally planned as an "EPCOT all Day" - but we hit everything we aimed for by 3pm, and hopped to MK to see the Dapper Dans, Ride Splash Mountain (request of our oldest kid, to ride it once more before it changes) - and then went back to EPCOT to have F&W for dinner (we cancelled our Ohana dinner given that we were dumpling and noodled out from the hurricane ride-out food)
10/1 - Departure Day.....
- Normally we leave right away, but given the storm, and the extra park days we saved, we decided to have breakfast, spend a couple hours at MK, and leave late. After breakfast, I went back to the room to film my normal trip's "room tour video" for friends and family - and SURPRISE.... before 9am, Mousekeeping was in my bathroom with the door locked while I was filming. I HAD NO CLUE until I tried to open the door... OMG..... how awkward. The video is here - I did keep this person out of the video... but my gosh, she claimed she thought we left already. It was BEFORE 9am - and we did NOT check out! We stayed at MK until noon - and then hit the road back to Wisconsin. Let me just say - watching the southbound traffic was hopeful. It was AMAZING seeing all the rescue and recovery crews heading south on I-75. I've never seen so many portable housing, portable generators, portable showers, clean up crews, heavy equipment, and more traveling south. It was great seeing that help was on the way....
EDIT 10/4 @ 7pm- Some additional thoughts and feedback Magic Band Plus:
Magic Band Plus - Not worth the extra money. We charged them at home 3 days before our trip, and didn't touch them until our first park day. They all died half way through the day - and we didn't even "play" with them this day - they must drain down over time. Waiving at all the statues was "ok" - kids got a kick out of the band vibrating, but other than that... meh. The lights came on during some of the night shows, and in a couple queues - but I wouldn't pay for these again until there's more entertainment or value behind them.
If you have any questions on our trip, let me know, and ill do my best to answer!
Last edited:
Great report.
