The Happiest Place on Earth provides the ultimate in escapism. You know that it’s always out there, and so you anxiously anticipate your next visit. You want to leave all your troubles behind by entering the Disney Bubble. Here, you’re completely immune to the struggles of the outside world. All you know is Disney, and that’s all you need and want.
Alas, life sometimes supersedes the genteel. No matter how strong a sensation you might have about leaving the world behind when you’re at a Disney theme park, it’s artificial. I’m not trying to ruin your illusion or shortchange the process. I’m simply stating that even while you’re vacationing in a place of total joy, the wheels of life keep on spinning around you.
Sometimes, that means the Disney Bubble bursts.
The next time you read the headlines about an event so dramatic that it forces the closure of a theme park, think about the situation from the perspective of Disney employees. The responsibility park planners face in protecting their charges comes with incredible pressure. At times, they must make decisions regarding the welfare of thousands of unsuspecting guests as well as cast members. They don’t take this burden lightly.
When cities such as Anaheim and Orlando are beset with difficulties, the brain trust at the Mouse House must weigh all the available information. It’s a grim responsibility rarely appreciated by the millions of guests who pass through Disney theme parks each month. And sometimes, the choices that Disney park planners must select require the closing of the front gates. Such cataclysmic events have transpired only a few times in the history of the Happiest and Most Magical Places on Earth. What follows is a discussion of the handful of instances that Disney shut down for the day – inspired, of course, by the recent closures forced by Hurricane Matthew.
Death of a President
Image: Disney
In October of 1959, the offseason for the Happiest Place on Earth, an innocuous visit became a fascinating bit of Disney folklore. The visitor in question was a Massachusetts Senator who would make global headlines 13 months later. At that point, he won the election to become the 35th President of the United States. Two years after that, on an ill-fated day in Dallas, Texas, an assassin shot him. John Fitzgerald Kennedy died only a few minutes later. He was only 46, and the tragedy of his death lingers to this day.
Prior to his time as POTUS, Kennedy had done something novel at Disneyland. He hadn’t visited for the rides, the performances, or the Davy Crockett memorabilia. He arrived with one goal in mind. He held a diplomatic meeting with Ahmed Sékou Touré, who was the recently elected President of Guinea. Touré was only 37 when the two men met, making him five years younger than Kennedy. They connected due to their youthful outlook on the world.
Why were they talking? Kennedy held a specific title at the time. He was chairman of the Subcommittee on Africa of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. The two leaders shared a mutual interest: Guinean independence. Kennedy flew out to the West Coast in order to meet his counterpart at the Happiest Place on Earth. The two of them agreed that they could hide in plain sight by meeting at such a popular tourist destination. Given that few pictures exist of this meeting, their logic, while unusual, was sound. They made inroads that day that carried over to JFK’s brief tenure as POTUS.
Kennedy’s death led to an odd historical footnote, one that even Disney archivists get wrong. The man the world called JFK died on a Friday afternoon. As a tribute to the Democrat whose political beliefs ran counter to the founder of the company, staunch Republican Walt Disney, Disneyland closed. As is oftentimes reported, however, the park didn’t close early on the day that the assassination transpired. Instead, Walt Disney himself made the decision to close the park on the following day, which was Saturday, November, 23, 1963.
Image: Disney
A famous picture exists of a Disney cast member standing beside a sign that informed guests of the closure. The situation wasn’t quite as novel at the time, though. In its earliest years, Disneyland already closed on Mondays and Tuesdays during the downtimes on the park calendar. While the unannounced Saturday shutdown was a first in the history of Disneyland, it was a trivial concern to Americans, who were still mourning the death of the President.
Perhaps the oddest twist to the story is a bit of Disney trivia. Research suggests that on the same day Uncle Walt was making the call to close the gates at Disneyland, he also discovered the land that would become Walt Disney World. According to this account, Disney acquired a 12,000-acre parcel from the Demetree cousins, Bill and Jack, in the hours that followed JFK’s assassination. Then, when Uncle Walt refueled his plane in New Orleans, vexed cast members finally got in contact with him to alert him to the death of the American President. It was at this point that he respectfully chose to shutter the park the following day.
Blame it on the weather
Image: Disney
In the 38 years that followed the assassination of JFK, Disneyland only closed on three occasions. If you consider yourself a Disneyland history and trivia buff, you’re likely to guess wrong about one of them. Oddly, you’re armed with too much information here. One of the most frequently cited facts about the Happiest Place on Earth’s history of closures is that it shut down in 1994 in the wake of the Northridge Earthquake that transpired on Monday, January 17th. That’s untrue.
A careful investigation of local news articles from the time reveals that Disneyland opened that day on schedule and remained open throughout the day. The only concession to the disaster was that guests couldn’t ride any attraction until park inspectors carefully examined each structure to authenticate its safety.
Instead, the other two days when Disneyland closed in the 20th century were fairly innocuous. In each instance, the decision to close was weather-related. Each time, the choice proved unnecessary. In March of 1983, a local storm caused $100 million in damage, the equivalent of roughly a quarter-billion today. You can read some details about this storm here. The most interesting is that tennis icon Billie Jean King’s home absorbed so much structural damage that it was immediately condemned and torn down. You can understand why Disney erred on the side of caution that day, even if the park survived virtually unscathed.
For similar reasons, the park never opened on December 16, 1987. Weather forecasters feared a devastating onslaught of snow, sleet, and rain. Yes, it snows at times in southern California, albeit rarely. In this particular instance, Disney closed because it “blew”.
Described as a “howling storm” in the headlines, this article explains the situation from the park planner’s perspective: “At lower elevations, where it did not snow, it rained and blew – weather so inclement that Disneyland closed its gates unexpectedly for only the third time in 24 years.”
Get a haircut!
Since you now know that the second and third times the park closed were weather related, you’re likely wondering about the first time. That day was August 6, 1970. Disney called the Anaheim police department in hopes that law enforcement agents could stop an insurrection. Who were the disruptive park attendants? Hippies.
Technically, they were Yippies. What’s the difference? Abby Hoffman’s branch of hippies carried a political agenda, and that was enough to give them an ever-so-slightly different name. In 1970, said political agenda included an impromptu appearance at the Happiest Place on Earth. According to the 200 or so protesters who attended that day (some reports go as high as 300), the Yippies wanted to demonstrate their distaste for the American presence in Vietnam. They held what they called “The First International Pow-Wow” in Anaheim. Their tongue-in-cheek assertion was that they must first liberate Disneyland before they could free 19-year-old soldiers from serving in Vietnam.
If you’re like me, you think this sounds like a thin excuse to hang out at the Haunted Mansion all day. Hey, we’ve all been there, right?
Image: Disney
Disney officials were decidedly not amused. When they heard that a group called the Youth International Party was invading their home turf, they sprang into action. Disney not only notified the police but also requested that the officers take the matter seriously. Anaheim cops showed up in – I kid you not – riot gear. The entire situation must have seemed surreal to ordinary tourists that day. One moment, they’re eating cotton candy and thinking about heading over to Tom Sawyer Island. Then, they see police officers in military gear charging into the park. Some of them probably thought they were watching a new show.
Alas, the situation was quite real. The Yippies planned out the invasion to the point that they had leaflets they handed out to curious onlookers. Here was their official itinerary:
- Black Panther Hot Breakfast: 9am—10am at Aunt Jemima’s Pancake House
- Young Pirates League: 11am on Captain Hook’s boat
- Women’s Liberation: 12 noon rally to liberate Minnie Mouse in front of Fantasyland
- Self Defense Collective: 1pm—2pm at shooting gallery in Frontierland
- Mid-Day Feast: 3pm barbecue of Porky Pig
- Late in the afternoon Yippies plan to infiltrate and liberate Tom Sawyer’s Island. Declaring a free state, brothers and sisters will then have a smoke-in and festival.
- Get it on over to Disneyland, August 6. YIPPIE!
The whole affair sounds satirical to me, but park officials have to take all perceived threats as serious matters. They overreacted a lot, though, and that’s not really up for debate. Disney informed the police that Bank of America sponsored It’s a Small World and had a presence on Main Street. Since the bank also had a connection to the Vietnam War, with many Yippies claiming the corporation bankrolled part of it, there was cause for concern. To wit, less than six months prior to the silly Disneyland incident, students in Isla Vista, California, burned down a Bank of America location. Since that happened only 130 miles away, everyone in the Anaheim police department and at Disneyland was sensitive to the potential for disaster.
When the Yippies arrived, the cops weren’t abrasive. To the contrary, they simply requested that the protesters be cool. Question: when you’re tried this approach with other folks, how well has it gone? Exactly. The Yippies quickly started permeating the park with marijuana smoke and at one point formed a conga line. As they conga’d, they sang the chorus of 1967 Johnny Colón classic, Boogaloo Blues. If you’re unfamiliar with the tune, the hook is, “LSD’s got a hold on me.” Imagine hearing a bunch of people singing that at Disneyland today, much less in 1970.
Disneyland officials decided at 3 p.m. that they’d worried over nothing. There were as many law enforcement officials acting as plain clothes cops at Disneyland that day as Yippies. What could possi-blye go wrong? Roughly 90 minutes after the Vice President of Operations at Disneyland sang the praises of non-violent protesters, Yippies swarmed Tom Sawyer’s Island, just as indicated on the leaflet. Give those stoners credit for crafting a schedule and keeping it. The only disappointment is that they didn’t attack at 4:20, but maybe that reference wasn’t a thing in 1970.
Image: Disney
Anyway, the Yippies escalated the situation when they tore down the American flag, replacing it with their own version, fittingly one with a marijuana leaf in the middle. This quirky protest shouldn’t have caused problems, but some patriots visiting the park that day mistook the Yippie flag for the Viet Cong’s banner. Disneyland’s mood took a sharp turn at this point, and park officials quickly realized their control over the situation was slipping.
An announcement came over the loud speakers that for only the second time ever, the park would close early. All of this took place around 5 p.m. Disney was still clearing out guests at after 7 p.m., but several of the stoned Yippies didn’t accept the polite request to leave. They took their protest over to Disneyland Hotel. That’s why roughly 20 Yippies wound up arrested during a nonviolent protest that park officials felt went much better than expected. How pleased were they with the behavior of the protestors? Here was a quote one of them made at the park that afternoon:
“They (the Yippies) may look a little different, but they are just here to have fun.”
Then again, he followed that statement with this one only a couple of hours later:
“That’s it! No more mass marching. No more demonstrating. No more singing. You’re no longer welcome here. You need to leave the park.”
It was that kind of day at Disneyland.
9/11
The saddest recent reason for a Disneyland closure was the terrorist attack on 9/11. The difference in tone between the Yippie protest and this situation is total. One was serious but humorous. The other is seared into the memory of every American.
On the morning of 9/11, terrorists had flown two different planes into the Twin Towers by 6:03 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. Thirty-four minutes later, a plane targeted the Pentagon. Disneyland was scheduled to open at 9 a.m. that morning. As park officials watched the events unfold on the East Coast, they had plenty of time to weigh the information at hand. The situation was quite different at Walt Disney World. The first attack happened just as the park opened, and guests were only a half hour into their park experience when the second tower fell.
The power of Disney was oddly noticeable at this moment. As news coverage interrupted local broadcasts across the country, anchors revealed all the pertinent information that morning. In the midst of reports on lost lives, destroyed property, and survival tips, an odd headline stood out. All the major networks as well as cable carriers such as CNN noted that all Disney theme parks would close for the day.
The fact that this point was recited so frequently underscores how rarely Disney closes up shop for the day. To that end, the only other time Disneyland has closed recently was the day before their 50th anniversary celebration, and they did so in order to prepare for the spectacular party thrown the next day. Also, Disney hosted VIPs the day that they were closed, so park guests attended. Disneyland simply wasn’t open to the public.
The circumstances of 9/11 were much more chaotic. They also reflect the danger of the Disney Bubble as much as anything you’ll ever read. On the morning of the terrorist attack, early risers were blissfully unaware of the situation. They entered Walt Disney World, anticipating a full day of theme park attractions. One of the worst jobs cast members ever had to perform was to inform guests of the tragic events. This was especially difficult for the vacationers from New York, who learned from a stranger that their home city was under attack.
You can imagine how jarring a sensation that must have been. One moment, you’re relishing in the sensation of an early morning walk down Main Street. Next, a cast member tells you about the tragedy and that park is closing immediately. You have to return to your hotel, all the while worrying whether your loved ones are safe. Sure, it’s a trifle compared to what the experience would have been for New York residents had they stayed home that day, but it’s a brutal reversal of fortune from your intended vacation plan. The entire purpose of a Disney trip is escapism. For those touched by 9/11, reality tracked them all the way down at Walt Disney World.
The situation became more surreal as the day evolved. Disney cast members entered a kind of lockdown mode wherein they closed all their gates and started asking for photo identification from all guests. Employees could take nothing for granted since the theme park was considered a potential target for a secondary attack. Oddly, cast members received instructions not to notify guests about the attacks, yet most anecdotes from that morning indicate that they did so anyway. Secrets like that are impossible to keep, and on-the-fly rules like that are impractical at best.
Even the park closure announcement was a bit inscrutable: “Due to circumstances beyond our control, the Magic Kingdom is now closed. Please follow the direction of the nearest Cast Member.”
For visitors unaware of the terrorist attacks, the sudden audio notification must have sounded so unlikely. The parks had opened less than an hour before, after all. What happened next was that much odder. Cast members received instructions to perform an unlikely reenactment of Hands Across America. They clasped their hands together and formed a Disney Employee Wall. Once they had enough cast members in line, they pushed toward the park hub, its center, and then toward the front gate. They were not to touch any guests, but the actions indicated that something strange was going on. Disney was pushing its guests out, and they were using employees to do it.
Once vacationers returned to their resorts, Disney did an admirable job of keeping them safe and secure. Plus, they offered complimentary park tickets for later use. During the instances where circumstances have dictated that Disney provide this exchange, the new tickets are good for several years, giving the impacted visitors plenty of time to make their return.
Cast members also work hard to entertain guests trapped at their hotels. During 9/11, Disney kept their resort pools open until midnight, and these recreational facilities were unsurprisingly quite full throughout the day. As another nice consolation prize, cast members who wear costumes head to the various resorts. It’s basically all hands on deck for the company’s characters. They spend countless hours in costume at the resorts, entertaining the troops as it were. As odd as this may sound, many guests trapped on days when Disney closed its theme parks have wonderful memories. That’s because of unforgettable cast member interactions. And those happened on days as gloomy as 9/11. That’s how phenomenal Disney cast members are.
Trying to reason with hurricane season
When the gates at Walt Disney World are closed, the most likely explanation is a hurricane. This revelation isn’t a shock to anyone who visits Florida often. That’s because hurricane season is a way of life near the coast. While Orlando resides inland a bit in Central Florida, the distance from a Disney theme park to the Atlantic Ocean is only 65 miles. Clearly, any sort of weather event off the coast will have ripple effects in Orlando at a minimum, and potentially disastrous ones in a worst case scenario.
Disney officials were well aware of this concern when they constructed Magic Kingdom and Epcot, and that explains why the space directly underneath Spaceship Earth is always dry. Clever architects anticipated possible calamities and constructed marvelous buildings capable of withstanding high winds and heavy rain.
That’s not to say that Walt Disney World is impervious to hurricane season. To the contrary, countless vulnerabilities exist across the four theme parks, the most dramatic of which are at Animal Kingdom. Years of wildlife cultivation could fall apart in the blink of an eye. Zoologists have to provide protection to the residing animals to offset such concerns. During hurricane conditions, loyal cast members spend entire days caring for their charges, refusing to leave in spite of personal peril. If you take nothing else from this piece, please understand that Disney employees are among the finest people on the entire planet.
From a financial perspective, however, Animal Kingdom isn’t the largest concern. In 2015, Magic Kingdom counted approximately 20.5 million guests through the turnstiles. That’s an average of more than 56,000 people daily. Even on a soft day where crowds are barely half that amount, Disney has to protect the safety of 30,000 guests…and that’s just at Magic Kingdom. Literally every day, the company is tasked with the safeguarding of more than 100,000 visitors. When something happens to a single guest, the situation becomes headline news. Imagine the media onslaught if tragedy suddenly befell lots of Disney guests.
Visitors aren’t the only concern. Disney staffs 62,000 cast members in the greater Orlando area, all of whom require equal protection when a potential hurricane travels inland. In combination with the travelers who don’t work for the company, Disney has to worry about roughly 175,000 people whenever the weather takes a turn. Should they fail to protect any of them, they’re financially liable in court.
For these reasons – and also because it’s the ethical thing to do – the staff at Disney theme parks pay special attention to the weather. Any time a potential storm shows signs of heading inland, cast members craft contingency plans about what to do and how best to respond to what insurance companies describe as an act of God. It’s a harrowing task and one of the most arduous responsibilities for any corporate employee in the continental United States.
Cynics are quick to note that Disney is incentivized to keep their gates open since they don’t get paid when the park closes. The facts show that this assertion is off-base. In times of imminent danger, Disney is the gold standard in protecting their charges. On multiple occasions, the company disregarded all financial concerns in favor of shutting down Walt Disney World due to the threat of hurricane. The most recent example is Hurricane Matthew, which forced Disney to close all four of their Orlando theme parks early on October 6, 2016. They also chose not to open on Friday, October 7, 2016, making this one of the rarest days in park history. Even in the case of JFK’s assassination and the 9/11 terrorist attack, the parks were open for a time before closing early.
This closure is a textbook example of how much Disney prioritizes customer and employee safety. The estimate in 2004 was that each day Walt Disney World was open, it earned $3 million. Inflation adjustments alone would bring that total up to almost $3.8 million today. Since a single day ticket cost “only” $54.75 that year as opposed to $110 in 2016, it’s fair to say that Disney lost somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 million for its closed day. That’s the cost of doing business in a hurricane region.
Passing the time at Disney during Hurricane Charley
Prior to 2016, the most recent such incident occurred in 2004. Hurricane Charley was the second major hurricane of that year. The first one, Alex, entered the continental United States in the Carolinas, doing most of its $7.5 million in property damage at the Outer Banks. That was the first week of August. Only a few days later, Charley started to head inland. Importantly, this hurricane was at maximum strength when it came inland. For a Category 4 hurricane, that’s a terrifying proposition.
Not coincidentally, the storm with 150 mile per hour winds caused $16.3 billion in property damage. In Florida alone, the damage was $13 billion. At the time, it was the second costliest weather event in American history. Orlando residents were actually caught somewhat off-guard by the situation. That’s because the hurricane turned around, thereby placing the city directly in its path. Once Disney and the surrounding theme parks such as Universal Studios Florida and SeaWorld understood that the hurricane would strike Orlando at full force, they quickly moved to close the parks at 1 p.m. on August 13, 2004. Thanks to the magic of YouTube, you can actually hear the announcement in the video above.
As you might imagine, this decision caused a lot of chaos. Think about the matter from the perspective of a park guest. They’ve planned the trip for months if not years. Suddenly, they’ve unknowingly left the safety of their home to travel to a hurricane when they’d expected mouse ears and a giant turkey leg instead. And that brings us to one of the quirkiest parts of a tourist destination.
Florida natives are extremely familiar with hurricane season. It happens each year, and several different storms bear watching on an annual basis. They know how to handle each weather event since they have the training. On any given day in Orlando, however, a large portion of the population consists of visitors who are unfamiliar with the ways of Florida. Or hurricane season. This dichotomy is extremely dangerous. One group of people, the residents, knows exactly how to behave. The other of people has absolutely no idea.
Waiting out a hurricane at Walt Disney World
Despite the differences between the two parties, everyone has the same basic needs. They require food, water, power, and the lighting that comes with said power. Television and internet access would be nice as well, and that was almost as true in 2004 as it is today. Florida natives know where and how to stock up on these necessities. Guests from out of town are in a different situation.
Thanks to the clever applications of Disney transportation and Magical Express, many visitors don’t need a car to get around the various theme parks. Even in August of 2004, ten months prior to the debut of Magical Express, guests frequently entered the Disney Bubble sans daily transportation. They let Disney handle the situation for them. These trusting loyalists discovered the downside of the premise when Hurricane Charley arrived.
So, what was Disney like for those park guests who traveled to Florida only to discover that they were living Clark Griswold’s Wally World nightmare? What would your thoughts be? The most important one is that you need to feed your family. Disney’s resorts are great about taking of guests during such situations. They prepare Hurricane Meals and other bagged lunches. No, they aren’t free today. Disney charged $12.99 per Hurricane Meal during the Matthew storm, so it cost about the same as a Quick Service meal at a Disney restaurant.
In 2004, the resorts were much more generous with food, something Disney fans grumbled about in 2016. People trapped at Disney back then received four boxes per room, and they were free as a sort of emergency meal plan. Still, as a guest, you spend your time fantasizing about the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater (at least I do). You’re not looking for a hastily prepared ham sandwich and an apple.
In 2004, the food that sustained most Disney resorts travelers consisted of:
- Two peanut butter and jelly Uncrustables
- A 24-ounce bottle of Dasani water
- A bag of chips
- Two boxes of raisins
- Twinkies
Anyone reading this that has food allergies is shuddering in horror right now and rightfully so. Disney’s combat packs aren’t quite as thoughtful as the gluten-free, allergy-conscious meals they’ll happily prepare for you at the restaurant.
The real problem Disney visitors faced during the hurricane – other than the undeniable safety concern – is that they had nothing to do. They left their daily routines behind so that they could come to Disney and have plenty of entertainment options. Instead, when they arrived, they discovered that the staff at the resort recommended that they stay in their room all day. And if they could bring the furniture in from off the deck, that’d be nice, too. Otherwise, it might fly off into Bay Lake. The staff was a bit too busy at the moment to do it themselves. They had more dangerous items to tie down.
Disney resorts always offer entertainment options in the lobby, and that was true during the weather event. As you might imagine, these interactive games were overcrowded and less than fun than usual due to the tension in the air. In crisis situations, some guests are wonderful enough to try to make the best out of a bad situation. Others…well, you know. They blame everyone in sight and throw tantrums, lashing out at anyone in a cast member uniform. They also specifically choose not to befriend their fellow travelers.
The situation was an odd juxtaposition of guests enjoying a once in a lifetime experience, thereby turning a negative into a positive, and disgruntled vacationers making no attempt to disguise their dissatisfaction. Anecdotally, some of the Disney visitors trapped indoors during this period have claimed that they made lifelong friends during their stay since it was a shared memory between Disney fans. That’s something the disgruntled can’t claim, although I can hardly blame them for feeling sour throughout the storm. Spending lots of money to visit Walt Disney World only to wind up trapped in your hotel room and fear for your safety isn’t the optimal way to spend the day.
The perils of restlessness
As far as the dangers everyone faced, they came in odd forms. Have you ever considered a Slippery When Wet sign’s placement at a set of stairs? When you see one, you should turn around and find an elevator. Otherwise, you could trip and fall and break your neck, thereby proving the veracity of that infamous parental warning. During a hurricane, nobody puts up the sign, but the potential for disaster still exists. Anyone coming in from outside tracks water everywhere, and it’s got no place to go.
Leaving the hotel is also a pain. First of all, you’re explicitly warned by cast members not to do it. Still, some stubborn guests ignore conventional wisdom and head off on their own. What they discover is transportation is precarious. Hurricanes always lead to gas shortages in the impacted regions. Anyone willing to drive you around could choose to ignore Florida law, which precludes price gauging during hurricanes. They take their chances that you won’t report them since they know they’re doing you a favor by solving your cabin fever.
Disney visitors who left the property during Hurricane Charley quickly discovered that the city of Orlando effectively shut down after dark. The governor’s office and mayor’s office collectively agreed that a curfew was best for all affected towns. So, even if you could find someone willing to drive you away from your hotel, you had nothing to do. Staying inside and eating an Uncrustable while playing Disney games is what passed for entertainment. There’s nothing about the situation that screams, “Vacationing at the Most Magical Place on Earth!”
The movie 2012 was not based on 2004…but it could have been
Once Hurricane Charley passed, an odd historical footnote occurred a few weeks later. Hurricane Frances, the sixth major story of that season, also headed inland, this time from the Florida Panhandle. It reached Orlando on September 3, 2004, less than three weeks after Charley had done the same. While Frances wasn’t quite as damaging, it still caused property damage in excess of $9 billion. That’s two massive weather events that reached Orlando in 20 days.
Having so recently prepared for a similar event, Disney officials recognized that they had to treat Frances the same as Charley. Once again, Walt Disney World closed. The difference is that they shut down for an entire day on September 4, 2004, something that never happened during Charley. They also closed early on September 3rd. Disney described it as “an abbreviated schedule” with Animal Kingdom closing at 5 p.m., Hollywood Studios at 6 p.m., Magic Kingdom at 8 p.m., and Epcot at 9 p.m.. Finally, they closed again for the full day on Sunday, September 5th. Yes, Hurricane Frances wiped out an entire weekend at Walt Disney World including two whole days at the parks.
To their credit, Disney was the gold standard in disseminating information during the catastrophic situation. This was their statement on September 4:
“As of this afternoon, all Walt Disney World Guests are well and safely housed in our resort hotels. All areas of the Walt Disney World Resort are safely withstanding the storm and continue to have power.
We anticipate opening our theme parks on Monday, Sept. 6, however we will not open unless it is safe for our Guests and our Cast. We continue to monitor the storm through information from the National Weather Service and consultation with emergency preparedness officials.”
As far as trivia notes go, it’s amazing that the company has closed their Orlando property early only a handful of times, yet two of them occurred in such a short timeframe. And 2004 hurricane season wasn’t finished yet. The deadliest weather event of that year was Hurricane Jeanne, which formed on September 13th. More than 3,000 people died during this storm, most of them on tropical islands south of Florida. Jeanne’s American impact wasn’t quite as severe since it dissipated as it reached the coast. Still, it caused roughly $7.7 billion in property damage. Since everyone at Disney knew how terrifying this particular hurricane was prior to its arrival, park planners once again exercised every possible precaution. They closed the parks on September 26, 2004.
Summarizing the 2004 season, Walt Disney World closed early on August 13, 2004 and then again on September 3, 2004. The park followed this by closing for full days on September 4th and 5th, the ONLY time in the history of Disneyland or Walt Disney World that the parks closed for consecutive days. After that, yet another storm caused them to shut down on September 26th. In the storied existence of Walt Disney World, the park has closed for a full day only five times…and three of them occurred in September of 2004. That was irrefutably the worst month ever to visit Orlando.
Fallout from the storm
A park with as much vegetation and man-made landmarks as Walt Disney World couldn’t escape three different hurricanes without some damage. To the credit of Disney architects and structural engineers, the amount of property irreparably harmed was minimal. Flagpoles in multiple parks were wrecked, including one at Pecos Bill’s that the winds whipped until it was almost at a right angle.
Many of the guide signs in place at the various themed lands in Magic Kingdom suffered various impairments, a couple of them fatally so. Several of the trees there also became uprooted during the storm. Tom Sawyer Island suffered the brunt of it, as its foliage couldn’t withstand the wrath of the hurricanes. Multiple cast member buildings outside the parks lost their roofs at least partially. A couple had their entire roofs fly away. One hundred mile per hour winds sound bad in theory, but it’s only when a person faces the damage left in its wake that they appreciate the savagery of Mother Nature.
When admirers discuss the plucky, can-do spirit of Disney cast members, they do so because of the way these employees act during such trying times. The Disney staff worked around the clock after the storm ended so that the park could open again. The most amazing feat was on August 14, 2004. On that day, in the wake of a storm that caused 11 figures in property damage, Disney opened with business as usual. There were only two concessions to the hurricane. The FastPass system wasn’t operational, and the monorails were down most of the time. I cannot stress enough that Disney employees are amazing people.
Hurricane Floyd
Five years prior to Charley and Frances, Hurricane Floyd set a dubious record. It became the first hurricane to force the closure of Walt Disney World since its inception in 1971. Putting the situation another way, Disney never had to close during hurricane season for 27 years. Then, it had to close four times in five years.
The difference between Floyd and its successors was primarily in the way that guests discovered their information. The late ‘90s were the Wild West of the internet. Not everyone had an understanding of, much less constant access to online activities. Many who did were still using dated solutions such as AOL. What does this have to do with vacationing in Orlando? Few people could check the web to receive status updates about the hotel, the parks, or even the weather. As such, a larger number of guests wound up stranded during Hurricane Floyd. Also, the front desks at hotels were even more chaotic than in 2004 and 2016. They were the equivalent of 411 AND 911 for imperiled guests.
Take a moment to appreciate the power of rapidly disseminated information. In 1999, guests relied on cable television for virtually everything. What happens during 100 mile per hour winds? Cable television and power both go out. Getting trapped at a Disney hotel during Hurricane Matthew was inconvenient. Disney fans still had their phones, tablets, laptops, and the ability to access streaming videos to pass the time. That wasn’t an option in 2004, and it wasn’t even a consideration at the turn of the millennium. Guests of Floyd had it the worst of anybody. They had to rely on information at the front lobby and from Disney cast members at the various parks. It was a mob scene and legitimately one of the worst days in the history of Walt Disney World.
However, unlike the later hurricanes of 2004, Floyd wasn’t at maximum velocity when it reached the coast of Florida. In fact, it largely remained parallel rather than moving inland as was the case with Charley, Frances, and Jeanne. Floyd unexpectedly changed directions last-minute and didn’t enter the United States until Cape Fear, North Carolina, more than 500 miles away. And by that point, it had reduced from a Category 4 to a Category 2 hurricane.
As far as The Walt Disney Corporation was concerned, it was the greatest near miss ever. Once again, the theme park located only 60 miles away from the Atlantic Ocean had survived a hurricane scare. They would feel safe for almost five years. Yes, Walt Disney World was open for 33 years before their first major hurricane reached the property, a statistic that everyone involved with the Florida Project gladly would have accepted in the 1960s.
To this day, the Most Magical Place on Earth has proven strikingly fortunate with regards to the near misses of hurricanes. Even the 2016 threat, Hurricane Matthew, once a Category 5, deviated from its projected path, thereby sparing the citizens of Orlando yet again. The power of the Most Magical Place on Earth even extends to its weather.
