Hurricane Irma

We are at Saratoga Springs, not horrible. Trees down, looks like Congress Park buildings took the brunt at this resort, mostly shingle and tree damage. Hoping everyone else in the state gets relief quickly. My sister works for Ohio Power and they sent 900 crew members down yesterday.

Here at OKW, we passed the storm just fine. A couple of trees down around the golf course, and a few branches down in parking lots, but now at 7pm the next evening, and it's mostly cleaned up. Seriously, you would never know that a hurricane came through last night. They reopened the main building around lunch, and the pool was opened by 3pm. Chip and Dale have been running rampant, and Dale even took my daughter's algebra homework and did it for her. If you're interested in seeing a great character interaction, search YouTube for "Dale Does Algebra".

I'm glad we came down, even if it was questionable judgement to drive into the path of a hurricane. We have had a good time bonding as a family, and it's been relaxing just hanging out at the resort.

The reason for the trip was that my wife had a conference she was supposed to attend on Amelia Island (outside of Jacksonville) on Friday and Saturday, and so we thought we'd blow our AP's (which expire on Saturday) before her conference. But today the conference was postponed, as Jacksonville suffered historic flooding. Luckily, OKW is discounting the room's cash price 50%, so we're just staying put and enjoying a few extra days in the parks before heading north again.

I would be interested to hear from others that canceled a Disney hotel when you see your deposit credited back. Mine hasn't shown up yet.

I also had to cancel my rescheduled hotel for this week because JetBlue preemptively canceled flights through Friday as they restart their FL schedule. My rescheduled hotel was the Swan and they've yet to confirm they'll refund my deposit.

DisneyFan1979;2506936 wrote: I would be interested to hear from others that canceled a Disney hotel when you see your deposit credited back. Mine hasn't shown up yet.

I also had to cancel my rescheduled hotel for this week because JetBlue preemptively canceled flights through Friday as they restart their FL schedule. My rescheduled hotel was the Swan and they've yet to confirm they'll refund my deposit.

No refund yet. My agent through Magical Journeys said it could take 7-10 days.

I rebooked my trip but am staying off property cause there was ZERO availability the week I could go in October. But my parents are giving me use of their time share so it all worked out in the end.

Am mostly bummed that I lost by FOP FP+!! I was able to snag one for late in my trip and now I'm resigned to the fact we'll have to wait forever to ride. Boo.

We have a trip planned arriving on Sept 19,flying into Orlando International. I am very torn. I don't know what to do at this point. I have no idea if magical express will be running due to the gas situation or if the airport and airlines will be back up and running. I feel so bad for those suffering through this and my vacation seems trivial. I just need to have information to make decisions. Does anyone have any info about airport or magic express operations?

We arrived about 2:30 (with a 9.5 hr drive instead of 7.). Things seem very business as usual here on property. We passed a lot of stations with gas but we also fought a lot of traffic. Seems very low occupancy here. Wait times in the parks are very short and there are 8 people total at the new WL quiet pool at almost 5pm.

Beware though if you are driving check conditions as the Sante Fe river could cause closing of 75 in both directions.

Kerry823;2506954 wrote: We have a trip planned arriving on Sept 19,flying into Orlando International. I am very torn. I don't know what to do at this point. I have no idea if magical express will be running due to the gas situation or if the airport and airlines will be back up and running. I feel so bad for those suffering through this and my vacation seems trivial. I just need to have information to make decisions. Does anyone have any info about airport or magic express operations?

In six days things should be getting somewhat back to normal in Orlando, especially as power crews from all over the country have been working to restore electricity in Florida. The airport reopened yesterday with limited operations and the airlines are getting their flights back on schedule. I haven't heard about Magical Express, but if the airport is up and running, I would guess that Magical Express is too.

DisneyFan1979;2506936 wrote: I would be interested to hear from others that canceled a Disney hotel when you see your deposit credited back. Mine hasn't shown up yet.

I also had to cancel my rescheduled hotel for this week because JetBlue preemptively canceled flights through Friday as they restart their FL schedule. My rescheduled hotel was the Swan and they've yet to confirm they'll refund my deposit.

My agent at Magical Journeys put the cancellation in last Friday, 9/8, and the credit was put back on my card, in full, on Thursday, 9/14. So it took 6 days. Was quoted 7-10 days.

We enjoyed our time at Disney but bugged out early Saturday morning ahead of pending landfall. Traffic was ok out of Florida through Georgia, but South Carolina was a virtual parking lot ... what takes a few hours to drive through, took us nearly 5 .... but, we made it !!