[00:00:00] Dana Stanley: What happens when your dream Disney vacation just happens to collide with a hurricane?

[00:00:10] Dana Stanley: For a lot of us, we focus so much on the snacks we’re gonna get, and the fireworks and our carefully planned itineraries that we can forget all about.

[00:00:21] Dana Stanley: That we can forget all about hurricane season in Disney World. And that happened a hundred percent to me and my family last year. What was supposed to be just a short five, six day trip in Disney World actually turned into eight days, which sounds like a good problem to have. And while the kids thought it was a ton of fun, I think it was like one of the most stressful.

[00:00:46] Dana Stanley: Just general travel experiences probably of my life

[00:00:49] Dana Stanley: and while we definitely had and while we definitely had fun and overall I do not regret the trip at all. It was also a very rainy, stressful kind of weird trip and full of lessons I wish I had known ahead of time. So in this episode, I’m walking you through what it’s really like to be in Disney World, staying at a resort when everything shuts down during hurricane.

[00:01:21] Dana Stanley: Day by day, I’m gonna share the things that were unexpected. I’ll share the things that were unexpected, things that surprise me, just the way that Disney handled things like peanut butter and jelly kits and sandbags lining up the word walk.

[00:01:40] Dana Stanley: Plus, I’m gonna go over the things that I wish I had known and things that I want you to know when it comes to Disney World Hurricanes, refunds, and weather travel insurance. Is a good idea for you and your trip.

[00:01:56] Dana Stanley: So how I wanna talk about hurricanes in Disney World is kind of just like a firsthand retelling of how I experienced it personally, just firsthand. Instead of just listing out, you know, policies and things that you need to be aware of, I wanna share with you what our trip looked like, and I wanna share with you what our trip looked like in case it can help better prepare you.

[00:02:24] Dana Stanley: Or maybe you’re listening to this because you found out that there is a chance of a hurricane coming to Disney World. I wanna share what our trip look like and what could potentially your trip could look like. Because hurricane season in Orlando officially runs from June 1st through November 30th. So it’s like a long period of time, but the real peak is August through October.

[00:02:53] Dana Stanley: And when I did a little bit more research, it looks like September 10th is where the amount of chance of hurricane really peaks. So if 80% of Florida’s hurricane activity happens, so if 80% of Florida’s hurricanes happen in this short period of that late summer stretch and you’re visiting Disney World during that time, I’m not saying avoid it by any means, actually, September is like the cheapest time of year to visit Disney World, and October is one of my favorite months for.

[00:03:32] Dana Stanley: For weather and the different festivals, but it does mean that you have to know certain things, especially when it comes to rescheduling your trip travel insurance, things about renting DVC points and what to do if and when this happens to you, which is what happened to me. And that’s getting stuck at your resort with your kids and not really having anywhere to go.

[00:03:56] Dana Stanley: So let’s start with our trip, and this started back on October 4th. We checked into the boardwalk, and I wanna clarify something and kind of just nip it in the bud that I think some people might be wondering like, why the heck we went during a hurricane? And it’s two things that happened. First, the hurricane hit truly like the night that we were supposed to fly home, like we were going to fly home.

[00:04:22] Dana Stanley: The morning after the night, it actually touched down, so the very tail end of the trip. So when we left for Disney World, there was a tropical storm coming, but it wasn’t a hurricane yet. It was just a storm, and it was like 50 50 weather. It would turn off into the Atlantic or actually become a hurricane, which it did.

[00:04:44] Dana Stanley: And the second thing is we couldn’t really cancel our trip. I did not have travel insurance, which we’re gonna get to later, and I rented DVC points. If you’ve listened to the podcast for a while, you know that I love renting DVC points, which is essentially borrowing or renting points from a Disney vacation club member that have points at deluxe resorts like the boardwalk.

[00:05:10] Dana Stanley: When we stay at the boardwalk, we are 99% of the time staying by renting DVC points. I just have never had to cancel. We have never had a blizzard and can’t fly in. We’ve never had a hurricane. We’ve never gotten like deathly ill or any reason in the past to have to reschedule.

[00:05:35] Dana Stanley: And the thing with renting DVC points is because the DVC member is booking a room in your name for certain dates, you’re pretty much stuck.

[00:05:47] Dana Stanley: There are DVC brokers that have different cancellation policies, which usually require. Which usually include almost like store credit, like it’s not a refund, but we can cancel these points, but we can cancel this room and you can put it towards something else. The problem is that this was such a short, the problem is that it, the problem is that this was so last minute.

[00:06:19] Dana Stanley: There are other brokers that offer like a hundred percent cash back protection policy, but they’re usually more than 120 days. And then it, as it gets closer to your trip, let’s say between 120 and 61 days, then you get 90% of your money, and then between 60 and 16 days, you get 60% of your money. So if it’s less than four days before your check-in day, there’s not much that you can do really at all except lose your money.

[00:06:49] Dana Stanley: And that’s where we were again, we were packed, we were ready to go. And that’s when I started seeing things online about this storm getting bigger and bigger and faster and faster. So there was not much I could do. So there’s not really anything you can do in this scenario. If you don’t have travel insurance, which I didn’t have or think about because again, I’ve never needed it before, but before you write off in your mind, while I’m never renting DVC points, listen to the rest of the episode because there are things that can easily be fixed.

[00:07:27] Dana Stanley: If I had just gotten travel insurance and we also had a great vacation and we also had a great vacation, the chances. Of Disney actually closing for a hurricane are very, very slim,

[00:07:41] Dana Stanley: but the chances are also not zero. Disney World has closed something like 20 days across all the parks in the last decade or so. So if you are traveling during these times, it’s definitely something to keep in mind. I just wouldn’t want it to deter you from booking a trip.

[00:08:00] Dana Stanley: So when we arrived in Orlando, and this was not a big deal yet, we went right into our park plans like normal. So our first day was great. We went to Animal Kingdom and later hopped to Hollywood Studios, and I actually loved this night. It was amazing because we did. Kind of like a Star Wars themed night.

[00:08:20] Dana Stanley: So we met Darth Vader, we built lightsabers. It was like the thing, it was the night that my daughter was looking forward to the most, and I’m glad that we did it in the beginning of the trip, especially ’cause of what was to come, and this day was completely normal. Then the following day there was crazy rain at Magic Kingdom.

[00:08:41] Dana Stanley: And this is kind of funny because. The rain, like the system that was bringing the rain actually had nothing to do with the hurricane. It was like a separate system that was going through. And this is when I realized I have been in normal rain in Disney World before, but not like torrential downpours like this.

[00:09:01] Dana Stanley: I mean monsoon kind of rain. And it kind of ended up being the worst timing when kind of the heavens opened up because we were truly just walking into Magic Kingdom and there’s not any cover except for the shadow overhang of the monorail. So we were literally like ducked under the monorail track just trying to stay outta the reign before bolting to security.

[00:09:31] Dana Stanley: It was. Really, really raining and coming down hard, and I learned a lot from this day because I remember one, I wore sneakers and like instantly regretted it. I always pack waterproof shoes, but on this day I just didn’t throw them in my bag. I kind of just thought sneakers would be better. They’re not like they get truly soaked.

[00:09:54] Dana Stanley: We were wading through puddles. It was miserable.

[00:09:58] Dana Stanley: I also learned that my rain jacket was maybe good for like a light rain, but it was like probably the only time ever I wanted a poncho, and I despise ponchos if you know me at all. I really do not like ponchos. I still didn’t get one. I didn’t regret not having one. I just wish I had like a proper rain jacket, and this is when I found.

[00:10:24] Dana Stanley: What the cast members were wearing. ’cause it’s kind of like a mix between a poncho and a rain jacket. Like it has thick rubber. It has a really deep hood. It has a long length. So like when you sit on a wet seat or something, your bottom is covered and it’s not gross. So I was analyzing like what the cast members were wearing.

[00:10:45] Dana Stanley: ’cause I’m like, look, they’re not wearing ponchos. They’re wearing this type of rain jacket that looks like it would travel really well. And while I cannot confirm that it is the exact one I found as dang close as I could on Amazon, and that is what I am bringing with me on every trip from now on, I will definitely link it for you because when it’s like torrential downpours, you don’t want something that’s like that swishy material or like water resistant.

[00:11:15] Dana Stanley: You need plastic, like you need rubber.

[00:11:18] Dana Stanley: And it was funny ’cause the kids were fine. They were under the rain stroller, cover hunky dory with fans to keep the air moving. My oldest, who wasn’t in the stroller had like a Zara poncho that is like just the best poncho, and I wish they still made it like a travel poncho that folds into the pocket.

[00:11:41] Dana Stanley: She was set. My husband just like, doesn’t care at all about getting wet and has a shaved head, and he was like, what is, what’s a big deal? He was like in his flip flops, having a great time. I was not feeling that way. I felt very wet and disgusting and wanted new shoes and a new jacket immediately. I didn’t have it.

[00:12:00] Dana Stanley: So lesson learned do as I say, not as I do.

[00:12:04] Dana Stanley: But you know what we pushed through this was kind of the day where I was like, oh boy, there’s a lot of rain in the forecast. Like, I kept checking the weather a lot. The storm predictions were not getting good, and this was like the start of our trip. So it was kind of a bummer to be stressed about the weather already.

[00:12:23] Dana Stanley: That’s my personality. I couldn’t look, even though I knew the weather was gonna change a million times, I was getting a little stressed about it. And sure enough, by the next day, that’s when my fear happened. And Milton Hurricane Milton was officially named as a hurricane on October 7th, so the third day of our trip.

[00:12:47] Dana Stanley: And I wasn’t feeling great at this point because. The prediction of when the storm was coming was the day that we would be flying home. So it was expected to hit truly like comically, but down to the hour of like when our flight was, and I am terrified of flying. I have flown on the tail end of storms at the beginning of storms.

[00:13:13] Dana Stanley: There’s always a lot of turbulence. I do not like it. And the good and bad news about this particular hurricane is it kept getting pushed earlier and earlier, like it was moving pretty quick,

[00:13:26] Dana Stanley: which was good in one sense because I was hoping it wouldn’t be the day we were flying home, but bad in the other sense that it would be like smack dab in the middle of a trip.

[00:13:36] Dana Stanley: But on this day, we actually got by some miracle to see Happily ever after at Magic Kingdom that night. That was not what I expected, just because the way it, it was just raining so much. I thought for sure the fireworks would be closed. And that was the one thing, like I really would’ve been bummed if we missed and.

[00:13:58] Dana Stanley: We got to see it and I was a very happy camper and my baby boy who did not have a good time at the last time we were at the fireworks ’cause he was so tiny, he loved it. He was clapping and pointing and it really just kind of made, you know, my mom heart very happy that night and I was just so thankful that that’s what we got to do.

[00:14:22] Dana Stanley: So the hurricane was officially announced on October 7th, and by the morning of October 8th when we woke up, that’s when it became official from Disney that they were planning to. Shut down the parks and were preparing and starting to prep for Hurricane Milton and I wanna read exactly what they said and let you know that there was not announcements over the loudspeakers or cast members knocking on our door or something slipped under our resort room, like a letterhead or anything.

[00:14:56] Dana Stanley: Truly, if you wanted to know anything of what was going on. You had to be on the app or on their website. Otherwise, everything was like very chill. Like it was kind of, I actually wanted a little bit more information, like I wanted to talk to people about it. I wanted to talk to the people staying there. I wanted to talk to the cast members like I wanted to know.

[00:15:21] Dana Stanley: If this was like not a big deal and I should feel calm or like, should I be freaking out more? It was a little it. I mean, it was a good thing. It just felt odd to me, like I just wanted to talk to someone about it. Very much a me thing. And so when you open the app, it said on Wednesday, October 9th, our theme parks and Disney Springs will be closed in phases, beginning at 1:00 PM.

[00:15:46] Dana Stanley: And then it went on to say, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom will close at 1:00 PM Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Disney Springs will close at 2:00 PM It is likely that the theme parks will remain closed on Thursday, October 10th, and I wanna talk about this. We will consider opening Disney Springs on Thursday in the late afternoon with limited offerings.

[00:16:12] Dana Stanley: And you can kind of cue the panic attack here because we were supposed to check out on Thursday, October 10th, and this is also the day.

[00:16:23] Dana Stanley: Because we were supposed to check out on October 10th and go home, and it was not looking good in terms of flights, and it looked like we were for sure going to be stranded. So I’m picturing like, we’re gonna be homeless and we’re not gonna have a flight out. And honestly, in my mind, my immediate thought was worst case scenario, we can go to Swan and Dolphin, which is just a short walk away.

[00:16:50] Dana Stanley: Surely they will have availability,

[00:16:53] Dana Stanley: but what I was hearing that I had not had to deal with before is Disney will stop new bookings because a lot of locals will purposely book resort stays at Disney World because they don’t wanna be sheltered at home with no power. They know that Disney is safe and there’s gonna be like fun things to do and they will book.

[00:17:19] Dana Stanley: They will take a small drive and prefer to stay at Disney than at home, which I’ve seen a lot of things online of people being upset about this. I think it’s smart. I think, I think that’s actually kind of a great idea. I do understand how maybe that could take away from the people like me who are like genuinely have nowhere to go.

[00:17:43] Dana Stanley: So that’s what Disney will do, is they will limit. They will pause new bookings. They’re kind of like locked out so that they can better take care of their already existing resort guests and have more rooms for extended stays.

[00:18:02] Dana Stanley: And I was kind of learning about this in real time and was just stressed that Disney wasn’t even going to let us stay, which of course. Ended up not being the case and we were fine. And I will get to that.

[00:18:14] Dana Stanley: So after I read the message that morning and I was so scared to fly home and I thought we were gonna be homeless, we were supposed to go back to Magic Kingdom, and I just did not have it in me like I was just. Already stressed to the max. So I switched our Magic Kingdom Day to Epcot simply because it’s like infinitely easier when you’re coming from the boardwalk and had kind of a stressful day in Magic Kingdom already.

[00:18:42] Dana Stanley: And we were like rained on and then we went back for fireworks. So honestly, I was just kind of like, magic kingdom out, Epcot so, so chill and easy for us. So that’s what we did.

[00:18:53] Dana Stanley: It also reaffirmed on this day to always, always have your dining reservations set for where you’re already going to be. So we had brunch reservations at Ohana. My daughter really wanted to go to Meet Stitch, and it made perfect sense on a Magic Kingdom Day. It did not make sense on an Epcot day. It was like such a pain in the butt to go from Epcot all the way over to the Polynesian, and I said to myself, yep, this is not worth it.

[00:19:23] Dana Stanley: You should always just stick to where you were. I didn’t cancel it in this scenario because we really wanted to go. But yeah, just remember that. Don’t book things that are not in the immediate area of where you’re already gonna be.

[00:19:36] Dana Stanley: The very good thing about this day, and I got so randomly lucky that I had planned it this way and it was not intentional at all, but I actually booked two rooms for this stay. It was supposed to be three days at one room. Three days at the other through two confirmed DVC bookings. What that means is there was two reservations that happened to overlap with the check-in and the checkout.

[00:20:06] Dana Stanley: I bought both of them. So the first one was at Boardwalk in a studio, and the second one was a boardwalk and a one bedroom.

[00:20:14] Dana Stanley: So this day that we were going to Epcot and going to Ohana, we were. We checked out of our studio, went into the park, left our bags with bellhop while we were there, and then we were just waiting on the one bedroom. The extremely lucky thing is that we ended up having this one bedroom for when the parks were closed,

[00:20:39] Dana Stanley: and the thing about a one bedroom is when you have three kids, it feels huge compared to a small studio. So we had, you know, a kitchen and like a small dining room table. The kids could eat. I mean, it was just, we had room to, you know, spread around and do games and we could cook and get food and truly like hunker down versus a studio.

[00:21:07] Dana Stanley: We would not have had that. We would’ve had like kitchenette and a lot less room. So, very lucky. I said it probably a hundred times for the rest of the trip of like. I can’t believe that we are so lucky that we switched to a one bedroom. So now we are settled into our one bedroom. It’s October 9th and the closure has started, so the airport closes down.

[00:21:34] Dana Stanley: There’s no flights in or out of Orlando Airport and Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios shut down at One Magic Kingdom. Epcot Disney Springs. Close at two. And on this day we just stayed at the resort. Like this day was really weird, like it was a gross day weather-wise. It was very, very windy, like significantly windy.

[00:21:59] Dana Stanley: It was gray and kind of misting, very much like how a hurricane is on its way would feel. And we saw a lot of people going into Epcot and. We certainly could have. We have annual passes. It wouldn’t, it was already like a park day that we had planned, but I just needed to figure out when we were getting home and where we were going After the 10th, we needed to make sure that we had a hotel room.

[00:22:32] Dana Stanley: So I chatted with the cast member at the resort and they were wonderful and great, and I very nicely begged that they had two more nights in the room that we were staying in. That was like, the biggest thing is I didn’t wanna. I very much just wanted to stay put in our room. Like I was, like so happy in the room and had all our stuff settled in and I didn’t wanna have to pack up and move again.

[00:23:02] Dana Stanley: And that was no problem. They knew that we were staying in a DBC room, which I think helped. They did not let us stay for free, certainly, but they did give us a slight discount on what that room would be. Rack rate, which was wonderful.

[00:23:20] Dana Stanley: Once I knew we weren’t homeless, we were kind of just exploring the resort and I was kind of looking at it from a, and I was looking at everything through an observation of like, this will be an excellent experience for me to know of how things happen, what they do. When you’re in Disney for a hurricane, that was my positive spin, is now I have like firsthand knowledge and can let my members know how all of this works.

[00:23:51] Dana Stanley: And it was very cool and impressive to see everything that the staff and the crew were doing to make everything safe. You don’t think or realize how many like loose objects are everywhere around the parks and the resort. So all of the pool chairs were getting brought in and stacked all the flower pots, like anything decorative signs, everything was removed or was removed and or strapped down.

[00:24:28] Dana Stanley: So on the boardwalk, they have these kind of like carnival games. They were literally, if you wanna call it like, I know there’s a actual technical term for it, but like Saran wrap, they were truly Saran wrapped, so nothing was flying in or out of them.

[00:24:45] Dana Stanley: And as we approach closer to that one, 2:00 PM mark, just. So many things started happening at the resort. In fact, when I was in line getting our room extended, that’s when the character started coming in. So I have like this really cute video of having my son in the stroller next to me. And Chip is just, I mean, really spending time with the baby.

[00:25:13] Dana Stanley: He ended up getting. A marker from the cast member who was helping me with the room and getting paper and writing like notes to the kids. I still have them like long, like what’s their names with like a little note and then a signature. We met like three or four characters. There was Chip Dale and Goofy, I believe, in the lobby that day.

[00:25:37] Dana Stanley: And already the girls were like, oh, this is fun. I love hurricanes, because it was just cool. And then they had.

[00:25:44] Dana Stanley: And then they started setting up things in the lobby. I wanna say. There was like a table and some music equipment, kinda like a little DJ dance party. They had a pretend bonfire, like little Fire and marshmallows, but they were like, like stuffies. They were busting out coloring books and crayons and all the kids were just, all they wanted to do was be in the lobby.

[00:26:13] Dana Stanley: So we did that for a little bit. We went shopping in the gift shop ’cause that was still open and they had everything discounted, 25% off. I shouldn’t say everything, but they had a lot discounted at 25% off when it came to. Games and coloring things, activities, board games. They had peanut butter and jelly sandwich kits that were truly like, like a huge loaf of bread, and then a full peanut butter and a full jar of jelly for $10, which I actually thought was a great deal.

[00:26:48] Dana Stanley: I know I heard some people making fun of it, but I’m like, no, that’s like for Disney. That’s a great deal. So they were doing everything they could. To make food available. They stocked like the coffee bar, they stocked like carousel coffee, which is right next to the lobby with more just like grab and go food.

[00:27:09] Dana Stanley: At Bellevue Lounge, which is the lounge at Boardwalk, they had just like quick breakfast things, like a breakfast box for like five bucks that came with water and a protein bar and a bagel and cream cheese. They had lunch and dinner boxes for only $7, which again, good deal for Disney. The kids’ meals were $6, so they made sure that like you had food available to you.

[00:27:35] Dana Stanley: The boardwalk is kind of unique in the sense of there isn’t a lot of dining inside the boardwalk. There’s carousel coffee and there’s the lounge, but you have to go outside to go to any of the restaurants because they’re on the boardwalk. So we decided like we have nowhere else to go. We’re gonna just, and we.

[00:28:00] Dana Stanley: And we decided, you know, where else do we have to go? We’re gonna just put our rain gear on or lack thereof, and we’re going to brave the storm tonight and go have dinner. Because it was supposed to, because it was projected to come truly overnight. So it was windy and it was misting, but we were allowed to go outside.

[00:28:23] Dana Stanley: We weren’t like sheltering in place or anything at that point.

[00:28:26] Dana Stanley: As soon as we walked outside and we were heading to Trattoria Al Forno, which is one of my favorite spots on the boardwalk for just. Easy Italian food. And it was really funny because we were outside for maybe like 10 feet when a door like magically opened and we were kind of pulled inside from a ca by a cast member.

[00:28:49] Dana Stanley: Like, come here, get outta the rain, stay dry. And I realized it was the Flying Fish restaurant that’s on the corner. So they were using flying fish, which was closed to usher people and stay dry. Into Trattoria Al Forno ’cause they’re connected from the inside. So it was kind of cool to see how they were just handling things and had umbrellas for everyone and towels.

[00:29:15] Dana Stanley: They had sandbags up against the door like they were so ready.

[00:29:20] Dana Stanley: And we had a really nice dinner. We had wine and the restaurant was pretty fairly empty and it was just nice. And then we. I did our normal nighttime routine and we went to bed.

[00:29:33] Dana Stanley: So the night of the ninth while we were sleeping is when the hurricane touched down, and when I tell you we slept through it, we truly slept through it. I did not hear any wind. I didn’t hear any howling or shaking or creaking. Uh, it was completely fine. And one of the things I think that helped with that was the actual location of our room was in a corner.

[00:30:00] Dana Stanley: So we had a garden view room, but truly as far as you could go, like let’s say there’s like an L shape of two wings, we were truly in the corner most room.

[00:30:13] Dana Stanley: So it already felt very protected. Like the doors out to the balcony were even more on an angle, if you can imagine that. So we were tucked in the corner, so even the wind wasn’t really hitting us straight on, and I’m curious how it felt in the other rooms and maybe we just got lucky.

[00:30:34] Dana Stanley: One of the things I wondered too, is the day that we were switching from the studio to the one bedroom, Disney and Disney boardwalk knew that the hurricane was coming at that point, and I wonder if they strategically put us in that room. I’m just speculating, but it was like a very specific room that felt very protected, and I don’t know if that was on purpose.

[00:30:56] Dana Stanley: So that brings us to the morning of October 10th and we woke up and we immediately went outside to just assess the damage. ’cause it wasn’t raining at all and the wind had died down almost completely. And the most glaring thing was just the branches, like big branches and leaves. I mean, truly everything was a mess, like a carpet of just leaves on everything.

[00:31:22] Dana Stanley: There were a few things that were just truly broken or needed to be repaired. You know, the pools were a mess. Everything was just a mess, but.

[00:31:32] Dana Stanley: So we ended up having breakfast back at Terria Al Forno. Everything was so nice and quiet. We were like the only people there. So we had breakfast and we headed out to the lawn there at the boardwalk, which is where my kids liked to play. And there was probably like 20 to 30 kids just playing on the lawn and they were playing with the acorns.

[00:31:54] Dana Stanley: There were so many acorns from all of the trees, and they were. Stockpiling them and putting them into cups and Gatorade bottles and, I don’t know, it was like lure of the flies and the kids were having a blast.

[00:32:09] Dana Stanley: They also had the arcade still open and the community hall, and they were using the conference center as like just this huge like play area for the kids. They had movies on. They had. Little sand kits like the Colored Sand. They had games, they were doing dance parties, and by this day my girls were on like a first name basis with the cast members that were there doing all these dance parties,

[00:32:38] Dana Stanley: because what Disney will do is they’ll have something called the Ride out Crew. So these are cast members. And honestly they were all like college age girls in our case, honestly. And they will stay on site for the duration of the storm so they’re not traveling back and forth. So everyone that we saw the night before, they were the same girls that were there in the morning and they’re like going, Hey Sailor, hey story.

[00:33:05] Dana Stanley: Everyone was just very great from the resort, front desk to the restaurants, to getting coffee to the characters, like everyone was just. So nice and making sure that you were happy and taken care of while you were there.

[00:33:19] Dana Stanley: Like they even had coffee out that morning for people that was free, just like a full like coffee bar, which I thought was really nice. So for the kids, they remember, you know, being in the arcade literally with Pluto, like they were playing games with Pluto and having. The time of their lives for me. And then for me, it was interesting being in Disney World and truly not being able to go to the park.

[00:33:49] Dana Stanley: You know, we try to take resort days or rest days, or at least like a half a day, but during cruise nap.

[00:33:56] Dana Stanley: But when we were in the room for cruise nap, it was really nice just sitting there and not having anywhere to be like, I could not go anywhere. So I didn’t have FOMO or feel like I was wasting my money ’cause we have a park ticket. Like that was a very good feeling that I don’t really know how to recreate.

[00:34:14] Dana Stanley: But I did like it in the moment. I think I watched like Seinfeld and had a cup of tea or something. It was great.

[00:34:20] Dana Stanley: Now, the day before, just like Disney’s announcement had said, we kind of expected that they were gonna have like a delayed opening and we would go somewhere or do something on that day, but they never opened. And I am assuming that’s just because it was such a mess. Like it would’ve taken a long time, I’m assuming to.

[00:34:39] Dana Stanley: Clean everything up because that’s just what the boardwalk looked like, so I can’t imagine what the parks looked like in that scenario.

[00:34:46] Dana Stanley: After cruise nap, we got dressed for dinner and we walked over to the beach Club and we ended up eating at Beaches and Cream, which I’m kind of shocked about. We didn’t have a reservation and it looked like a mad house when we got there, but. We sat down right away. We had a great dinner and that was the end of the day.

[00:35:09] Dana Stanley: The following day was like the classic calm after the storm, so the airport reopened. So we could have flown home technically on this day, but we ended up rebooking our flight for the following day, and I’m glad we did because this day ended up being. Like great weather. It was sunny but not too hot. We went to Hollywood Studios and we went to Epcot and everything that we did was just extra bonus stuff.

[00:35:39] Dana Stanley: ’cause we had already done it already. And I mean, we had a great day. I met up with a friend who had also been hunkered down. In Disney during the storm and we got very cold, very much needed glasses of champagne and France. So it was like a bit of a redemption day for sure. But it was also odd because we were like ready to go home at that point.

[00:36:02] Dana Stanley: Like eight days in Disney is very fun. But the added stress of everything that was going on, we were just ready to like go home and take showers in our own shower and sleep in our own beds. And you get it.

[00:36:15] Dana Stanley: It was also good that we waited an extra day too, because I expect that the airport would’ve been insane that day versus just that one extra bonus day. The day that we flew out, our flight was super smooth. The storm was truly gone, the storm was truly gone, and the airport was not busy or credited at all.

[00:36:40] Dana Stanley: And the airport wasn’t busy or crowded. Our flight wasn’t delayed. Like we got very lucky in that sense, just waiting that extra day.

[00:36:49] Dana Stanley: So. What did I learn from this trip? I learned that if we had booked directly with Disney, it would’ve given us access to the hurricane waiver policy. So how this works is if a hurricane warning comes out within seven days of your trip, you should be able to cancel or change your reservation without any cancellation fees or any issues at all.

[00:37:18] Dana Stanley: So if there is a hurricane or storm, that’s something to keep an eye on around the seven days of your check-in so that you don’t miss the window to cancel or possibly change your dates.

[00:37:34] Dana Stanley: But that hurricane policy does not work if you didn’t book through Disney. So in our case, we booked with a third party that was, we booked through a third party renting DVC points, which means we were essentially on our own. And I wish we had travel insurance that covered hurricanes that would’ve been.

[00:37:59] Dana Stanley: That would’ve been the only safety net that we would’ve had. So going forward, if I am renting points, which I 100% will do again during hurricane season, I’m going to be getting travel insurance.

[00:38:11] Dana Stanley: And I would do it right away before the storm is actually named, because while travel insurance could cover, you know, the resort and my flights. You can’t wait until it’s announced that it’s a hurricane and then get travel insurance. So it would be something that I would do right away after booking my resort.

[00:38:33] Dana Stanley: If it turned out that I did book through Disney, maybe they had a promotion or something for the fall, I would also keep in mind that that promotion or discount that I use. Doesn’t always carry over if I reschedule because of a hurricane, like they don’t guarantee that they will try to apply the same offer, but you could end up paying a little bit more unless there’s a deal that is still running for when you reschedule the dates.

[00:39:00] Dana Stanley: I also learned to really pack like better rain gear, like for myself and not just for my children, because the kids were fine and I was not, I needed. That heavy duty raincoat that I was telling you about, I should have brought my waterproof shoes, which were sitting back in the resort and should have brought those waterproof shoes that were just sitting back in my resort being useless, which I did use the next day and learned my lesson.

[00:39:26] Dana Stanley: By the way, I,

[00:39:27] Dana Stanley: I also learned that being at a resort where the rooms are in the main hub. Was very helpful. So we had access to the dining, nearby coffee and all those indoor activities I was telling you about without actually leaving the building.

[00:39:43] Dana Stanley: But if we had been somewhere like Caribbean Beach Resort or the Polynesian, or the rooms are kind of separate from the main hub. It would’ve felt a lot more isolating, especially if we physically couldn’t leave our rooms. So location does matter in a hurricane more so than a normal trip, obviously.

[00:40:05] Dana Stanley: Another thing I learned was I wish we had been like mentally prepared of missing more work and school than we were expecting. So if you’re traveling during hurricane season, I would kind of just mentally. Budget for at least just the possibility of getting stuck, like build in a day or two of wiggle room, don’t plan, like a huge party or something for work, like the day that you get back or the day after you get back.

[00:40:34] Dana Stanley: Just like prep that as a possibility just in case it could happen.

[00:40:39] Dana Stanley: I also learned that Disney does a really, really good job. Of keeping the guests safe and like very distracted between the characters popping in and out. All the games and crafts and dance parties going on in the lobby and the community halls. The discounted games and puzzles, the food kits, like they were really trying to still make everything feel special.

[00:41:06] Dana Stanley: And it did. And really that part was like genuinely impressive.

[00:41:11] Dana Stanley: So that’s what it’s like to be stuck at Disney World during a hurricane, and I’m sharing this not to scare anyone away of hurricane season. I mean, it is again, such a slim chance that this would ever happen. But I love that I have this episode to share with people. That are wondering what it would look like and also, or maybe you’re listening to this because you just found out that there could potentially be a hurricane or there is a hurricane during your trip and you know, to read the fine print, get travel insurance and expect the unexpected.

[00:41:49] Dana Stanley: Alright, that’s it for today. Thanks for sticking with me through this episode, and I will see you next week.