Hurricane Irma Update

Well friends, if Hurricane Irma had not hit Florida I would be writing to you today about the amazing trip we just took to Walt Disney World. Giving you advice about Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, sharing the food goals we achieved and reminiscing over another wonderful Disney Vacation. Of course we did not get to go on that trip and I am very grateful that we were safe and not down in Florida during such a terrible weather pattern. This doesn’t mean that we have not been hit with waves of sadness that we were not enjoying the things we had planned out for our trip. Especially when you see so many pictures on instagram of people enjoying beautiful days at the most magical place on earth. We have already booked our next trip for January, which I will share with you our plans and the reason why we booked again so early next week, but our trip in January will look vastly different from our plans for this trip. Our main purpose for this September trip was the DVC party at the Animal Kingdom. This is one of the benefits of DVC membership, in the last two years they’ve been hosting special ticketed events, free of charge, for Disney Vacation Club members. This event went off without a hitch. Great for those down in Florida, disappointing for us. I think that’s what’s been the hardest thing over the last week is knowing if we had been able to postpone our trip just a couple more days we would have been able to still enjoy a wonderful planned vacation. Of course life commitments did not allow us the opportunity to accommodate for that.

So if you’re wondering what things looked like during and immediately after the hurricane here are a few clips I found on YouTube. This gives you a clear visual as to how terrible the storm was and why the parks were closed and the airport was closed. This clip is of the damage done around the Epcot Resort Area:

This video is of Port Orleans Riverside Resort during the storm. Makes me very grateful we were not there.

Although resorts were on early curfews, it appears as though Disney did not disappoint by providing entertainment for guests.

I mentioned in the post about our cancellation experience that I would let you all know when we received our funds back from our trip. We cancelled our trip on Sunday September 10th. This cancellation would have included our room reservation at Saratoga Springs and our dining plan. On our statement it says our funds came back in on the 13th, in reality it was the 14th. Not bad really. 4 days after cancelling. We had one pay-ahead dining that we were able to cancel through My Disney Experience. These funds were returned to us within 24 hours. We cancelled our tickets on the 12th and saw the funds return to our credit card on the 14th. This really continues on with my overall satisfaction with the customer service we reserved in all aspects of cancelling our trip.

This whole experience made me realize why September to November is a down time at Walt Disney World. Maybe this makes me sound a little dim but I had always thought it was because of kids heading back-to-school and parents not wanting to take their kids out of those first important weeks of classes. I am wrong, September is quiet because it is Hurricane Season! Will this decrease our chances of heading down in September, maybe. We enjoyed traveling down in September because it was so quiet and because there’s special events going on. I know many people travel down during this season because of the free dining plan. There will always be a reason not plan a trip down. Whether it’s hurricane season or your kids are knee deep in extra curricular activities. Maybe you get terrible winters and are worried about a snow storm changing your plans. Don’t let these possibilities stop you from making plans, plans to vacation as a family. Making memories to last a lifetime. That’s what were doing. Planning another great vacation, let’s just hope we get to enjoy it this time. Happy Planning Friends.