Dorian disruption

Walt Disney World
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so i think my facebook friends are probably tired of hearing me talk about disney and dorian.

we were supposed to leave yesterday, 8/31 and stay until 9/8 for our disney trip. when dorian first formed, all the initial projections of “it’s a nothing storm that will fizzle” clearly, uh, didn’t pan out. i was a total nutcase last week wavering back and forth on what to do, afraid any decision i made would turn out to be the wrong one. my mom, who is coming with us, kept telling me it would be fine and we should just go. this is when it was still projected as a cat 1/ cat 2 storm, though cat 3 talk was starting and comparisons to andrew were becoming more frequent. it took me a several days to be ok with that, and as of thursday afternoon, we were still set to go as planned.

well, the category 4 talk started up really fast and then we started getting calls and texts from family telling us they were worried about us going. stores were already empty by this point and we didn’t want to risk getting stuck in our room multiple days. so late thursday night we decided to not go and friday morning and all day our TA was pushing everything back to the following week for us, new arrival 9/7 until 9/15.

i just hope we made the right decision. dorian still can’t seem to decide what it’s going to do and this morning (sunday) it’s now a cat 5 and orlando landed back in the cone. obviously, safety is our first priority. but if we moved it back and it ends up missing, i’m going to drive myself absolutely crazy, especially if next week ends up being a whole lot busier due to other people also pushing back a week. i read comments on various sites about how other people had done this for past storms and the following week was like summer vacation crowds.

i had to get creative with our dining and fps, but was able to get almost everything back. still trying for o’hana breakfast. we were able to reschedule hotel, get free dining back, and reschedule the halloween party. RIP slinky dog, 7dmt, and FoP fps, but i knew those were a goner. also RIP fountain of nations, we were looking forward to seeing it one final time but now it’s scheduled to close before we arrive. i also hope they find a new home for joy/sadness/baymax by the time we get there, as my kid was looking forward to meeting them.

i don’t know if anyone’s read this far, just needed to get all of this out. i just hope it doesn’t go from one of the least busy to one of the most busy weeks thanks to dorian.

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A lot of people seemed to push back months so I will have my fingers crossed for you and low crowds!

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I would say the majority of people can’t just reschedule for the following week. That’s just a guess, but in the past I feel like it has been the following month that has got busier.

Regardless, I think you have done the right thing. You just don’t know if it is going to hit or not, and I certainly wouldn’t be able to enjoy myself while wondering if I was going to spend a day sheltering from a hurricane.

You’re going to WDW, it will be fab.

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or MORE and not being able to fly out…no groceries. I understand the frustration @DisneyCubs, but I too think you made the right decision

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Better safe than sorry. I know it’s a major headache and disappointment. Praying for all in the path and hope that the aftermath is minimal

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Like you we had a scheduled arrival of 8/31 made 6 months ago, and pushed it out one week to 9/8 after agonizing over all the same things you went thru. Will next week be busy? If the fact that we were able to reschedule all but 2 of our FP’s and ADR’s a week later than originally scheduled with less than 10 days before arrival is any indication, I’m hopeful it will not be too bad. Lets keep our fingers crossed!

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Those closures at Epcot expected this coming week may be delayed. They’ve started preparations, so are unlikely to suddenly be putting up more walls. Obviously they could still stop the m&g, but I think FoN might still be visible.

The main thing is to be safe and make the right decision for your family. And I worked out many years ago that usually whatever you decide to do will be the right decision at that moment.

Keep an eye on those FPs; others may push their vacations back even further and free up their Fps for the rides you want.

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let’s hope so! the fact i was able to get every ADR minus 1 and every FP minus the big 3 wasn’t too bad. had to get creative on some times (some much later than i thought breakfasts but that might not be a bad thing) but fingers crossed we snag an ohana.

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We had to do the same thing. We’re supposed to arrive yesterday and are going this next Saturday instead. I think we will still be fine crowd wise because kids are still having to be back in school and what not so I don’t think there will be a big difference. We got all of our same ADRs and some of our FPP but that didn’t surprise me. The hard to get ones were the popular rides anyway.

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Dorian is the second strongest hurricane in the Atlantic basin Ever :*(

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FYI, TP keeps a record of historical crowds. I looked back at 2017 when Irma hit, and the week following showed crowds slightly higher than predicted (about 2 points on average). I would expect about the same for next week (assuming current models are accurate and the Dorian skirts the coast). May even have less of an impact since Irma actually resulted in the parks closing for 2 days.

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it’s amazing. if it wasn’t disrupting everything, the weather nerd in me would be fascinated. that’s of course not to say i’m not terribly worried for everyone in the path. but this storm has defied every prediction every step of the way. it was supposed to be a nothing and look at it now… weather is crazy.

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update, got o’hana adr!

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You can’t change the past so don’t dwell on it. But you have a future to look forward to and WDW will be as great as you allow it to be.:smiley:

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decision to reschedule confirmed with the announcement of parks closing early tomorrow.

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Oh my god, @DisneyCubs. Early closing? Uh oh. I’m leaving next week and thinking of trying to upgrade from a moderate to deluxe in case Juliet (or whatever) becomes a problem. Idk, it just sounds safer — and certainly less dull — for my solo trip.

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that’s a pacific storm, you’re totally fine

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Juliet is on the Pacific, I believe, but yeah, there’s a little nasty one off the coast of Africa trying to get some momentum, so you never know what may come. :frowning:

I wonder what effect the immense pressure and winds of Dorian might have on the path or chances of that storm becoming something worrisome? Or if it has any impact at all?

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Oh! I had confused Juliet with the one coming in from Africa. My bad. Too many hurricanes to keep track of these days. :cyclone:

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let’s hope it stays on it’s northwesterly track. i’m keeping a close eye on it too.