The Time We Went to Disney World During a Hurricane, Part 1

Months ago we planned a trip to Disney with our friends, the Smiths, mainly because there was a dental meeting taking place there and because it would be Fall and we'd be able to do Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, and also because it's Disney World and you don't have to have a reason to go. We've been looking forward to this trip for quite a while, so you can imagine our dismay when the news broke that Hurricane Matthew had taken a turn for the west and would likely be in Orlando sometime Thursday evening through Friday evening, especially since we were arriving Thursday afternoon and had plans to go to the NSSHP Thursday night...

Not to be deterred, we decided that as long as they didn't cancel our flight, we were going. After all, we all had the time off, everything planned and paid for. They cancelled every flight to Orlando after ours, but not ours, so off we went! Ironically, Alabama was and still is under drought at this time.

 

The flight was smooth and the weather was looking pretty good. Lu has been on an airplane at least two other times that I can think of, but man, she was EXCITED! She was talking non-stop during the whole flight and was truly entertaining!

 

 

When we arrived, the weather had not really gotten bad, but we had reservations at Chef Mickey's, so since we were staying in the Contemporary, we checked in and went to lunch.

As we were eating, the clouds started moving in. We hopped on the monorail hoping to have a little park time, but it was really windy and rainy by this point, so we just rode back around and went to the hotel arcade for a bit.

 

The Smiths were staying at Bay Lake, which is attached to the Contemporary by a little bridge walkover. Once we got checked in to our room and unpacked a little, we walked over to their room, which was more like a suite/condo. I thought we were going to be knocked off the walkway going over, but I digress.

We hunkered down in their place, made dinner, after some unsuccessful attempts to get room service or restaurant food, and looking back, it was a really fun night. The kids played together and we sat around and chatted, while watching the weather. We knew by this point that the park was going to be closed the whole next day, but we were still on vacation, so all was good!

Friday morning, Julie and I went to our lecture and the rest of the gang had breakfast at Chef Mickey's. They had warned us that the characters wouldn't be in the restaurant, but then they brought them out in the hotel!

 

They had planned hunker down activities like games, bingo, dance party and movies in the hotel to keep the kids busy for a while.

 

Between the activities and hanging out in the Smith's room, we had a pretty full Friday.

Around 5 o'clock, they lifted the curfew in Orlando and opened Disney Springs, so after walking around the grounds a bit, we hopped on the bus and went down there. It was still pretty wet and CROWDED, like MAJOR CROWDED, so we got right back on the bus, went home and had a home cooked meal (including appetizers) prepared by the one and only Julie Smith with the limited number of items we could scrounge up from the market. It was pretty darn good, considering! It was a long day and a half, but we made the best out of it, and there is no one I would rather haven ridden the storm out with!

 

Next up, the parks!!!

Spoiler alert: The weather was beautiful the rest of the time we were there!