Local meteorologists reported gusts of 90 mph at Disney's Contemporary Resort, where Disney had parked two of its monorail trains and sealed the track entrances to provide protection from the storm. Power outages affected millions of households around the state, but even if the power stayed on, the roar of the storm's winds made it a rough night for just about everyone in the state.
Fortunately, the parks - and the rest of the community - seem to have come through the storm about as well as could have been hoped, with damage limited to downed trees and some power lines.
24 hours later ! Castle is still there ! #rideout #rideoutcrew #rideoutteam #irma hurricane https://t.co/oud2xUSKqk pic.twitter.com/5mjESMSPsC
— JT Armstrong EMT SMG (@JEFF_EMT) September 11, 2017
Contemporary Resort, Magic Kingdom Area #wdw #irmaWDW #themeparks @themepark @ThemeParkReview pic.twitter.com/rxz3WMD0ab
— Seafood Cruise (@cruiseintolife) September 11, 2017
Disney sent characters into all of its resort hotels on Sunday to entertain guests forced to remain inside due to the storm and the county-wide curfew meant to ensure the safety of all in the community. Orange County's curfew began at 7pm Sunday and was scheduled to continue until 6pm Monday, though officials will make the final decision when to lift the curfew based upon damage assessments and lingering effects of the storm.
Irma's wind field is massive, more than 400 miles wide. At one point Sunday evening, tropical storm-force winds extended all the way from Jacksonville to Key West. If you're not familiar with Florida geography, that's pretty much the entire state. So even though the remnants of the eye of the storm has passed, dangerous winds and rain can continue for hours longer.
Disney and Universal have said that they will reopen as scheduled on Tuesday. SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa have announced that they will take another day off to clean up and remain closed Tuesday. Legoland Florida lost power and has not yet confirmed a reopening date.
If you are in Florida, please post in the comments or tweet us your photos and video to us @ThemePark.
More storm coverage on Theme Park Insider:
All I had to do was climb over a few fences.....
I have the entire park to myself!!!
Just Kidding....
The arcades are all free during hurricane time and food service was more organized and less pricey than last year. They sold an italian sub style sandwich with chips, Dasani, and an apple for 6 dollars. We stayed here because of the central hallways, but if it was up to me, I'd do an all star resort like I did last year. The walls here are awfully thin and you can hear people running upstairs nonstop and all the conversations of people walking in the hallways. It was a nightmare trying to get my kids to sleep because the murphy bed is near the room entrance. That having been said, kudos to the friendly staff. It has been a really fun stay. Plus, I really appreciate having power and running water when so many locals are without.
I can't begin to tell you how impressed we have been with all of the cast members here. Many of them volunteered to come in and stay on sight 24 hours a day. Without exception, they have been kind, patient and helpful.
When the storm did hit, it was almost a non-event. If I hadn't gotten up at 1 AM to watch the eye pass over, we would have slept through it. The buildings here at CBR are very solid. We felt perfectly safe the whole time. Outside the wind was roaring, but we could only hear it when I opened up the door to briefly stick my head out. We never lost power, water, phone, cable or WiFi service.
When the dawn came, we could see that there was some damage to the landscaping. It is now 1PM and most of that damage has already been cleared. There were no flooding issues. We have just been notified that the resort restaurants already have reopened and the parks will open on schedule tomorrow.
On a humorous note, we received a message yesterday from the CBR management apologizing that housekeeping might be delayed during the hurricane. I think I can cope with that. The eye of a hurricane passed directly over us, and Disney is apologizing that our room might not be cleaned at its usual time, and even then they set out people to go from door to door to collect trash until the weather made impossible!
I am incredibly impressed with how well Disney handled this storm. On behalf of all the evacuees and tourists who are staying at the Caribbean Beach, I offer a hearty BRAVO! to the Walt Disney World cast members. You folks somehow turned riding out the eye of a hurricane into a minor inconvenience. Well done.
Being a theme park website, I think it's important to hear how the parks handled the disaster, and about general guest conditions during the storm. I don't think there was any slight to the millions of Florida residents and visitors that are now without basic utilities, homes, and property that may have included you and/or your friends/family. Positive stories like the one Don posted are often what keep people going in the face of adversity, and while I doubt everything for every person hunkering down at WDW was as rosy as portrayed, it's great to hear that in general the parks appeared to have fared well thanks to lots of advanced planning and the dedication of their cast members.
Kinda makes me think that a Kissimmee Super 8 is where they were staying based on the above comments (side note: on my first WDW trip I stayed at the Super 8 in Kissimmee and it was miserable -- they only provided transportation to the parks after you sat through a long time-share presentation each day, and the last bus back from Epcot left when the park closed -- and also when Illuminations started).
But, again, your mileage may vary. Maybe it was someone who wasn't in the know about the options available to them. Could also be one of those "let me speak to your manager" types who look for things to be wrong and ignore the things that are right because they love to complain.
Or, they could be on the ball, and had a genuine bad experience. Perhaps Caribbean Beach was fantastic, and one (or more) of the All Stars wasn't so good (you know, like when it comes to bus service to/from the parks during busy seasons, where moderate/deluxe resorts tend to have quicker service than the value resorts).
All I can say is that those cast members who stayed on site for the hurricane to try to help guests still have a good time, even through a hurricane, and no matter which resort they were at, are fantastic people for doing so, and did the best they could under trying circumstances.
Kinda makes me think that a Kissimmee Super 8 is where they were staying based on the above comments (side note: on my first WDW trip I stayed at the Super 8 in Kissimmee and it was miserable -- they only provided transportation to the parks after you sat through a long time-share presentation each day, and the last bus back from Epcot left when the park closed -- and also when Illuminations started).
But, again, your mileage may vary. Maybe it was someone who wasn't in the know about the options available to them. Could also be one of those "let me speak to your manager" types who look for things to be wrong and ignore the things that are right because they love to complain.
Or, they could be on the ball, and had a genuine bad experience. Perhaps Caribbean Beach was fantastic, and one (or more) of the All Stars wasn't so good (you know, like when it comes to bus service to/from the parks during busy seasons, where moderate/deluxe resorts tend to have quicker service than the value resorts).
All I can say is that those cast members who stayed on site for the hurricane to try to help guests still have a good time, even through a hurricane, and no matter which resort they were at, are fantastic people for doing so, and did the best they could under trying circumstances.
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