Four and some more go to Florida: Day 10 Hurricane Irma

[The Fatadder]

Index
Today hurricane Irma was due to hit Florida, so understandably everywhere was on shutdown in order to prepare. So given that we would be in the hotel for the day we were very glad that the children took advantage of a rest, not waking until 8am. The morning routine was also a lot less stressful with no sun cream to apply to the children. The plan for the day was for Animal Kingdom, with FastPasses sorted for everyone tall enough to ride Flight of Passage, while Nanny would take the short ones on Navi River Journey. It was also the only trip to Animal Kingdom where we had planned to ride both Everest and Kali Rapids. Dinner was intended to be a 60th birthday celebration for my parents at the California Grill. Irma of course had different ideas…

So today’s instalment will be a little difference to the usual, mostly just me talking about the weather and watching the level of the canal…
IMG_7140 (2) by Rich Pedder, on Flickr

With no parks open we were looking at a long time in the room, for the morning there was just rain, a lot of rain. The girls were entertained with a combination of Disney Jr on the TV (and our first experience of Puppy Dog Pals which we now all love) and playing with their new toys.

Mid-morning Imogen finally gave in and went for a nap, It was starting to get a little difficult to explain to Evie why she was unable to go to the parks. Fortunately the continuing trickle of new toys and games continued to keep her happy.
IMG_7141 (2) by Rich Pedder, on Flickr

My brother had come on holiday with a final university assignment half finished, so at least the parks being closed gave him a chance to get it sorted.
IMG_4474 (2) by Rich Pedder, on Flickr

IMG_4465 by Rich Pedder, on Flickr

The rain continued to get heavier throughout the morning, but the water management system was doing its job and the canal level was staying very low. Flooding remained our biggest worry, while the wind levels were still no worse than normal.
IMG_4487 (3) by Rich Pedder, on Flickr
IMG_4494 (2) by Rich Pedder, on Flickr

Lunch consisted of the rolls obtained from Olivia’s the night before, the Italian ham and emmental was actually really tasty once it had been heated up. After lunch we started to experience issues with the TV connection, losing Disney Jr for 20minutes followed by intermediate dropouts. Not a good situation when it is the only thing keeping Evie sane! Once Imogen had awoken from her nap we gave her some walking practice, getting her up to 2 steps unaided.
IMG_4479 by Rich Pedder, on Flickr

After lunch I headed out for a walk around the resort in the rain, the wind had picked up a little although the weather was little worse than an autumn day in Devon. The golf course in particular looked like it could be back in England. Passing the lighthouse I spotted a lifeguard by the pool, so headed straight back to the room to fetch Evie for a swim.

We drove over to the pool and had a very long swim in the rain despite the water being on the cool side. We left the pool just before they closed it at 3pm, as we left the changing room you could see the lifeguards removing the sunbeds and performing the final preparations for the storm.

After a short drive back to the hotel it was time to watch the Frozen DVD, followed by some more time playing with Evie’s dolls.

For dinner there was not a lot of choice so we headed up to Olivia’s, they had a special hurricane menu consisting of a cheese burger, chicken nuggets, Marinara pasta or cheese pasta. The food was nice enough, however the selection was very limited compared to what was on offer at the Deluxe resorts. Should have pressed harder for Wilderness Lodge.
IMG_4527 (2) by Rich Pedder, on Flickr
IMG_4534 (3) by Rich Pedder, on Flickr

As we left Olivia’s, the rain started getting really heavy and the wind starting to get a lot stronger, the water level on the canal was now higher than before they drained it. It was time to crack open the last of my Kona beer selection, the Castaway IPA (which was nice but not quite to the standard of the Fire Rock) along with a slice of the OKW hurricane cake. Given our inability to actually get to the park, instead I occupied myself on the Dibb reading the rest of Stewboy’s trip report.
IMG_4536 by Rich Pedder, on Flickr

Once Evie had gone to bed it was time for another DVD… it was time to finally watch Captain America Winter Solider. We had downloaded Civil War on Sky the previous Christmas before realising we hadn’t seen part 2…
IMG_4538 (3) by Rich Pedder, on Flickr

After the film I headed out the front of the room to check on the weather, the water in the car park was now running like a river. Out the back, you could no longer make out the water level in the canal, instead I tried to gauge the distance between the bank and an alligator warning sign with the logic that should the water reach or pass the sign, get the suitcases packed.

Later in the evening a curfew was declared telling everyone to stay inside until further notice.

The toilet pressure was now starting to fall, requiring a double flush to get sufficient water out of the system. So as a failsafe a bucket was found and the bath was filled up with water. We also ended up having our first very brief power cut (which may have been Disney switching over to their own generators.)

I was about to go to bed at around 10:30, and having a flick through Facebook I saw it mentioned that Irma’s path had moved. Turning on the news on WESH2 the worst was confirmed, Irma had changed her mind and was now heading straight for Disney. The next few hours were a mixture of reading hurricane threads on the DIBB, watching WESH2, looking at Facebook posts by Denis Phillips from ABC Action Weather (who was posting lots of interesting bits) and of course stepping outside to see first-hand. It was interesting to see the outside broadcast units, especially the footage from Disney Springs.
IMG_4544 (2) by Rich Pedder, on Flickr
IMG_4547 (3) by Rich Pedder, on Flickr
IMG_4549 (2) by Rich Pedder, on Flickr
IMG_4556 by Rich Pedder, on Flickr

Then eventually in the early hours of the morning, around 2 hours before Irma was due to hit, I went to bed and slept right through it. Poor Helen didn’t though!

Tomorrow we should have been at SeaWorld riding Manta, Mako and Kraken…

[saratogajan]

Brought back memories. We were at SSR and my son (aged 21) slept for 12 hours right through it. I was awake all night! My husband and I just ate and drank all night! It was scary when we saw the course of the storm had changed. Enjoying reading your reports.

[Goldia]

This must have been a weird couple of days on lockdown, certainly not the normal holiday and trip report fare.

[Cinderella]

What an experience!

[The Fatadder]

Originally Posted by saratogajan

Brought back memories. We were at SSR and my son (aged 21) slept for 12 hours right through it. I was awake all night! My husband and I just ate and drank all night! It was scary when we saw the course of the storm had changed. Enjoying reading your reports.

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I think I could easily have slept through it all, it was just too fascinating to keep looking at what was going on. A very surreal experience sitting around eating and drinking with something so powerful and destructive coming towards you. Even more surreal than the day before walking around an empty magic kingdom going on rides etc while the rest of the state prepared for the worst.

Originally Posted by Goldia

This must have been a weird couple of days on lockdown, certainly not the normal holiday and trip report fare.

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Not the best way to spend two days of the trip, especially with so much planned. But certainly a much better way to spend it than those stuck in villas etc with no power (and worse still no AC!)

Originally Posted by Cinderella

What an experience!

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The odd thing was that when I was Evie's age I was in Essex visiting relatives when Michael Fish's "hurricane" hit, I remember the damage seeming a lot worse after that than Disney post Irma.
Makes for something a little different in the trip report!

[kansaskitty]

I would have been really scared, can’t believe how chill you all were!

[Melvin Pearce]

We stayed up to 3am watching the American news on the TV and worried about our guests at our villa.

But it seems they also went to bed and slept through it which we found out later when we finally managed to speak to them.

Melvin and Lesley

[collybird]

Of course the Hurricane hit the day you had FoP FPs and an ADR at California Grill!