Hurricane Jeanne 2004 Live Updates from WDW
GH, 8:30pm, 9/26/2004 – Contemporary – Just received another voicemail: All Contemporary Food & Beverage open as usual tomorrow; no private dining. Business Center remains closed. All Parks open tomorrow. There is still a driving curfew from 6pm until 6am tomorrow AM…Winds sound much, much calmer now… no whistling around the balcony doors…except for the occasional gust… what a relief after listening to it for 18 hours…
GH, 7:55pm, 9/26/2004 – Contemporary – there are 3 monorails in-house… there isn't any way to get to the platform right now… so can't get 'em all in one shot… Things haven't changed much… still windy/rainy… but more like a typical stormy day with high winds… You can tell things are different though since they have only a few doors open to the outside… people from the Garden buildings can come back and forth… you can get outside from a few points… most doors are still sandbagged and blocked off… Many with towels to catch the water blown in underneath them.
JohnathanS, 9/26/04, 7:15pm Grand Floridian — Hi Deb and AllEars folks! I'm currently staying at the Grand Floridian for a brief solo trip, and wanted to report my WDW experience with Hurricane Jeanne. We were confined to our buildings from 7:00 AM until just before 4:00 PM. The rain and winds were heavy, but I never felt unsafe. CMs had limited breakfast and lunch offerings in the lobby. We were able to leave our buildings at 4:00, but there is still a curfew in effect in Orange County until 6:00 AM tomorrow. There are lots of limbs and debris outside as well as a few broken lamps. Other than that, I didn't see any significant damage. At one point, however, I was pitched forward by the wind…it's still pretty strong!
So far, the Magic Kingdom is expected to open tomorrow. I'm not certain about the other parks. I did have to cancel my BCV room for tonight, but am still safely tucked away in my room at Sago Cay. The monorail passes just outside my room, and a little bit ago they had a utility vehicle out checking the track. The CMs here have been wonderful throughout the storm, and I think WDW has weathered it just fine!!
Karen Walsh, 9/26/04, 2:30pm Contemporary Hello All Ears: We are riding out the storm at the Contemporary Hotel. Our room is on the 12th floor, facing the storm. At one point, the wind was blowing so hard the patio doors were bowing inward. The carpeting by the window got soaked–no way to keep out that much rain. They confined us to our rooms at 1 a.m., but at noon we discovered that the stores were open, as were Chef Mickey's and the Concourse Steakhouse. We had a nice lunch at Concourse, and liberally thanked the employees for being here to take care of us. They told us that there had been a large number of convention cancellations, so many of them were able to stay the night in guest rooms.
Because we had read Anita Answer's trip report from the last hurricane, we stocked up on beverages in our room, which has a refrigerator. We also laid in a supply of snacks in case there wasn't food available today. But someone showed up at our room at 9 a.m. with coffee, juice and fresh pastry–so someone must have been here baking quite early. The wireless internet has been going strong throughout the storm, so we've been able to let our families in Wisconsin know we are OK. We feel pretty safe here–although I did feel the building move this morning while I was doing yoga on the floor! I was surprised to find housekeeping in our room cleaning at 2 p.m.–we certainly didn't expect to get a cleaning today, but there they were, cheerful as ever.
We haven't been told anything yet about whether/when the parks might be open tomorrow. The rumors are flying–one is that Animal Kingdom won't open for a couple of days and that the other parks should be open at noon tomorrow. But we've been unable to confirm that from any Disney staffer. We're going to try and take our digital camera into the parks on Monday and will send pictures if we see any damage.
I'm writing this from the Outer Rim bar, where we have a ringside seat watching the horizontal rain on the outside and the housekeeping staff valiantly trying to wet vac the water on the inside. There's football on the TV and a beer on the table–so it's not Epcot, but it's not bad! People here are in pretty good spirits. The arcade is crammed with people and there are plenty of staffers on duty for help or questions. This is our first hurricane–we had a tornado come within five blocks of our house in June, so we've had an eventful weather year! More from hurricane central later–keep up the great work on the website.
Shelley Graham, 9/26/04 10:45am, Boardwalk – We just returned from breakfast in the convention center. The lobby is packed with people. Timon was still in the lobby and there were areas for kids to color and get balloon animals. Goofy and Max were headed to the lobby while we were getting on the elevator. There was some minor flooding around the doors and there was some water dripping near the carousel chandelier. Before breakfast we were shooting some video and an awning above us came off, hit the bakery awning and landed on the boardwalk. They are having boxed lunches for us from 11-3pm. We have not had any issues with power or cable and are supposed to be in the worst of it now.
GH, 4:15am, 9/26/2004 Contemporary – Well, of course after I hit the ‘send’ button at 12:30 saying it was pretty quiet, the winds picked up. We got a 1:30am voicemail inviting all Guests to stay in their room until further notice… if we need anything, we’re to call the front desk. The winds have really picked up. Just peeked out the window (I’m in the Tower on the 12th floor) and it is really moving fast and furious out there. You can see the palm trees swaying and the little “gum drop” trees with their twinkling lights just seem to be almost ‘shaking’ in place… Across the water, the Castle is still lit up… and the Grand Floridian is also aglow… when you look out that far, you can’t see anything unusual in the darkness except for some rain. Message light just came on…4:08am voicemail… no breakfast service on the concierge floor here…
GH, 9/26/2004, 12:30AM – Contemporary – at 12:30am things are still quiet outside. The Contemporary Cast Members have been great and have kept people informed of what’s going on. We’ve had several voicemails and flyers under the door from the staff as things change. They’ve brought all the balcony chairs and tables into the rooms earlier today. The revolving door in the front lobby is boarded up. Heard around 9:30 that all food and beverage outlets are closed as of 11pm and will not be open for breakfast. They had boxed breakfasts that you could go down to buy (and they also sold them in the Garden buildings as guests cannot come to the Tower building). All of the shops are closed as of 11pm until further notice. Also heard that there will not be housekeeping services tomorrow. Have been advised to be prepared to be in the room for up to 24 hours. They have 3 channels of movies that they added to our rooms… so that helps with entertainment. Fitness Center on 3rd floor closed at 9pm; is supposed to reopen at 6am.
Everything else (Parks, Downtown Disney, Transportation, etc.) is also closed on Sunday according to the announcements. The word is that after the storm they want people to stay in rooms until crews can complete evaluations of the area and notify Cast and Guests that it is safe.
