Contact your flight carrier, travel agency or disney whomever you booked through and explore the options and advisory.

For now until Friday it's not going to be certain where it will hit and how strong it will be.

Have any of them been through a hurricane? If things get bad, they may not just drive to the airport and catch their flight home after the storm.

They sound like some of my in-laws. Stubborn and not all that bright. If you didn’t have kids involved I’d suggest you stay home and let the geniuses suffer the consequences of their folly.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Good advice. I have been through many. This sort of experience is LIFE ALTERING. I am not kidding.

PASig, I'm sorry, but I have to agree with all of those that say STAY HOME, especially the locals. Mother Nature can be a real bitch at times and this sounds like one of those times. Does anybody really think that kids 2-8 will have a good time under the possible conditions?

Jim

Just to be clear, when I posted the OP should "hope for the best" I was referring to what he should do for the next few days while waiting at home in PA. At no point was I suggesting he fly down here and hope for the best.

I really hope your vacation works out.

+I recall seeeing tapes of American tourists desperate to get out of Mexico after one of these storms. They were from the Midwest. Pretty traumatized people from going through the storm itself. Show those tapes to your relatives.

I am going to see how we look late Friday night and if I have to I'm going to put my foot down or at least try my best.

If this thing is a Cat 4 and hits the east coast of Florida just east of Orlando, how bad does that affect Orlando?

It’s not just damage that you need to worry about. It’s infrastructure, supplies etc. Hell getting gas could be a bitch up into TN with most of the Gulf Hurricanes.

So best case you go down. You are not directly affected by “dangerous” weather but you are still gonna be effected by shitty weather, no fuel, bare grocery stores, possible a large number of closed venues......etc. etc.

Basically if you fly in plan on enjoying the hotel bar.

That’s my two cents.

Also for what it’s worth voluntarily putting a bunch of adults with my happy ass in danger is one thing and hey screw it you pays your money you takes your chances. Voluntarily putting a bunch of kids in danger seems irresponsible to me

If it's a Cat 4, hitting just east of Orlando...well, Orlando will have tropical storm winds and rain for a good 4-6 hours before the landfall (that's usually the eye making landfall, so half the 200-mile wide (???) storm will already be over land).

Then, if it weakens to maybe a Cat 1 before passing over Orlando, it's still gonna suck being in a hotel. I'd guess a day w/o power should be expected. Consider Tuesday and Wednesday wasted. Who knows after that.

That's my guess, assuming landfall South/East of Disney sometime on Tuesday...

EDIT: "cslinger" makes great points, above.

Also: If you're flying in Saturday, you might get a decent day on Sunday, and maybe you'll get Thursday and Friday at a park (but likely not if it's as strong as they are predicting).

- Brian

The evac traffic and general state of panic will be more dangerous than the storm itself. 3 major arteries trying to handle millions coming north. Way More will die on the hwy than from the storm.


It’s not worth it unless you want to hunker down to see a storm. That might be fun but the ensuing lack of basic services and power after will be miserable.

airport will be shut down for a while along with no gasoline for a couple of days at least.

I e ridden out quite a few storms. The aftermath Sucks.

No gasoline, probably no electricity, no air conditioning. Take a deck of cards and a couple of cans of Veg-All.

Hurricanes are huge. It's not a popup storm covering a few square miles. All of Florida will be a mess, even the panhandle, eventually. When the coast of NC got bashed with 2 hurricanes last fall even here I live (Raleigh area) was pummeled with rain and high winds, 30-40 mph. And random tornadoes occur.
You really need to avoid that area.

If the current forecast and path holds, you need to cancel tomorrow evening. Do not give your wife or in-laws any input or option, cancel. Period. End of story.

I live in the Ft Lauderdale area and it's crazy here. Long lines for gas, stores out of water, and it's just going to get worse. I am sure it's the same in Central Florida right now.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I am going to see how we look late Friday night and if I have to I'm going to put my foot down or at least try my best. offer to drive to the airport and somehow miss the turn, repeatedly, until the plane has taken off.

Another approach, edited above? Being semi-serious.

There is nothing your inlaws can do to you that can compare to being stuck in a freeway jam of desperate people, going zero MPH, with no gas in the tank and gas stations near the freeway either drained of gas, or closed due to 100% of their employees being smart enough to get out of dodge. Yes, in that scenario you would have the moral high ground for having thought about the problem, but that's about it as there's not going to be any other high ground nearby.

In case you haven't been there, Florida is flat, and already wet. High/Safe ground is pretty far away, and reachable only via a very limited network of roads.

It's too late now but this might be worthwhile to someone. Vacation weather insurance.

When I was a plebe there was a firstie that was basically assigned me to help on the football team. Show me around. Be a workout buddy, etc. He was huge. An offensive tackle. 6’9. Monster of a guy. The question was what the hell was he going to do in the army. He ended up going to flight school. Couldn’t fit in a helicopter. Long story short he ended up multi engine certified and eventually found his way to one of the NG squadrons that are hurricane hunters (think it was Louisiana)


The point of the story is


Only guys like him should be flying TOWARDS a hurricane


You go away from these storms. Not to them

I was one of the early commenters, wrote to wait till Thursday, and use common sense. At this point, Emergency Operations Centers are going to be activated all up/down the coast of Florida. The forecasters have no surety as to landfall, they do know that the storm slowed, and it is a major one.

I've already placed staff on Alpha/Bravo schedules, and have been told to expect mandatory evacuations of all low lying areas, mobile-home parks and assisted living facilities. PD & FD are already in full prep, Urban Search & Rescue is mobilizing, as is FPL. This is all the way down in Miami-Dade. The storm has been slowly tracking lower to the Southwest.

Stay home, enjoy the quiet weekend. Most of Florida will likely lose power, and have mandatory evacuations along the coastline. Hospitals, utility crews, and life/safety will be very busy. They will not be able to respond to calls once wind speeds clear 35-40MPH. If you have a choice, common sense dictates you stay safe/stay away.

President Trump has cancelled his trip to Poland because of the storm's potential damage.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:

quote:

Originally posted by sourdough44:
Is there time to readjust the vacation?

Nope.

My wife, her sister my and in-laws have been planning this for over a year now. I was told basically to STFU about any more hurricane talk and barring our flight getting cancelled, we are going.

Never mind that we now getting down there JUST before what may be a Cat4 hurricane passing over the whole Orlando region. I can’t wait to be stuck in a hotel with no power or anything with 5 kids age 2-8 for potentially days.

So your wife and inlaws want to take their kids and your kids, directly into the path of a Cat3-4 hurricane and most likely an evacuation notice???

Do they have any idea how difficult it is down here before, during, and after a hurricane for a local, let along someone on vacation? How does sitting in a hotel, that is completely full without A/C, without power, without bottled water, without hot food, and possibly no food at all. Can't drive anywhere because the streets have too much debris to drive for OHHHHH 4-7 days. Can't fly home either...….Ohhh and no tv and most likely extremely poor cell phone if any at all.


The hurricane is scheduled to hit on Monday, I live in Pompano Beach, FL where the NHC track is a good 150-200 miles North of me. You cannot buy a case of bottled water, I mean anywhere. All of the gas stations are out of gas already and the ones that do have it, have 2 pumps still working (out of 12-15 pumps) and a line of cars 1/2 a mile long, the grocery stores looks like they're going out of business in 2 days the shelves are so empty, pouring rain on and off about half of the time, and you plan on flying in on Saturday, 2 days before a massive hurricane is scheduled to hit (Cat3+), directly in the NHC path with NOTHING, no food, no bottled water, no nada???? Even if it misses you by 150 miles, there will be so much rain that you'll need a canoe to get from your hotel to Disney.

Does something like this, look like something you would want to put your kids in front of?
https://www.bing.com/videos/se...7B72E54&&FORM=VRDGAR

Jimmy you forgot to mention limited law enforcement, and severe disruption of the drug supply network. Picture addicts who cannot get a fix but have guns with most roads blocked due to fallen trees. It is impressive to view the night sky RIGHT from your hotel as the roof is gone. Without electricity the night sky is quite beautiful. I guess you have to have first hand experience to understand. Better put aside some funds for a good psychologist to treat your kids who now have PTSD.