Don't Let Hurricanes Rain on Your Disney Parade!

Tony Desiere: 00:00:04

It's another edition of the Wands and Wishes podcast as we help you plan the best Disney World and Universal Studios vacation.

Lauren MallaRD, of all the magic travel, I'm Tony Desiri, and this episode is rather special and very timely as well, especially with Hurricane Milton coming through the state of Florida. And it's just passed and it just happened to really, really wreck some havoc on not only Disney World, but central Florida in general.

So what happens if you're on a Disney trip and a hurricane is coming, or you planned a Disney world trip and a hurricane is coming? We're going to talk about what you can do if you feel like there is going to be a major, major weather disruption in your vacation.

Because I think this is one of those topics that a lot of people don't ever want to think about. But it's very real when you're planning a trip to central Florida. They get about six hurricanes a year in this, in the Florida area.

Some are small, don't do much. Some can shut the parks down, as we saw with

Lauren Mallard: 00:01:25

That's right.

Tony Desiere: 00:01:25

All of a sudden, a storm is about ready to come.

Lauren Mallard: 00:01:27

Zachary yeah. So, so really hurricane season, we see it kind of fire up late May, and it goes all the way through October, sometimes November.

And so it's really a good half of the year that we have to kind of think about that. And we never know when they're going to pop up.

The good thing about hurricanes are the fact that we get a pretty good amount of time to know kind of the track that they're taking.

And I will say Disney is really, really fantastic with the protocol that they take and the flexibility that they provide the guests once they know that a hurricane is in their path.

Tony Desiere: 00:02:01

All right, so let's talk first about the people who are planning a trip. And let's say they're leaving Tuesday, and all of a sudden, here comes Hurricane Milton, or Hurricane Ian from a couple of years ago.

Whatnot so what can they do to say, hey, listen, I don't think I'm going to be going. I know this is pretty bad. I don't want to fly in and mess with that.

First things first is this is one of the reasons you and I love doing what we're doing, because we can handle that for you.

Lauren Mallard: 00:02:28

Yeah, I think that's where. This is the one shameless plug that I'll give us for this episode. Is that on? Actually, I had that situation on Sunday.

I had a client who was going down, supposed to check in Sunday evening and decided with just how quickly everything was changing with Milton that they did not want to go.

And so I actually, I was at Dollywood on Sunday and I spent the first 4 hours of my day on Sunday with an airpod in my ear, waiting for the hold music, waiting to talk to somebody at Disney to take care of my clients.

Tony Desiere: 00:02:59

Right.

Lauren Mallard: 00:02:59

So it's either you book with a travel agent, which doesn't cost you anything, and we will take care of that because we deal with this on a daily basis, not daily as far as hurricanes go. But this is our all sorts of.

Tony Desiere: 00:03:11

Cancellations for whatever reason.

Lauren Mallard: 00:03:12

Absolutely. And we are happy to do that for you. Or on the other hand, if you book it on your own, then you're unfortunately the one that's taking care of.

Tony Desiere: 00:03:20

Them and you're going to navigate all of that stuff. Things you might not be familiar with, they're going to be as very helpful as you can.

But like you said, the experience of knowing what you can get your clients, how you can rearrange it to still give your clients maximum value, are something you and I can absolutely provide.

Lauren Mallard: 00:03:34

That's right.

And the resolution of that phone call, actually, it was very simple and it was a really positive resolution in the factory that because the governor of Florida had issued a state of emergency, then it's very straightforward with Disney, they're happy to do any modifications, cancellations, anything like that, without any penalties to the client. So these particular clients decided just to cancel. And we can rebook when they're ready. So they got a full refund with no fees imposed.

And then other clients I've had this week have decided to modify their dates. And so we simply just move those funds over. So it's actually very simple and we'll talk about travel insurance too.

But in both of these cases, travel insurance was not involved because once there is a named storm or if the governor has declared a state of emergency, it's pretty, it's pretty straightforward with all destinations they just want to keep their guests safe.

Tony Desiere: 00:04:29

Yeah. And that's a very good distinction that you have to make here. It does have to be a sort of state.

Lauren Mallard: 00:04:34

That's right.

Tony Desiere: 00:04:35

This is, this is a hurricane. There is a warning. The National Hurricane center. It's nothing.

Just a bunch of thunderstorms that are going to be coming while you're planning on your trip. This has to be one of those newsworthy events.

Lauren Mallard: 00:04:46

That's right.

Tony Desiere: 00:04:46

And you will get taken care of by Disney. But you make a very good point.

I mean, if you are a busy person and you're planning your trip, you don't these things, seven, 8 hours, you can be on hold with Disney depending on the emergency and the circumstance. And you'd rather have somebody else do it if you were running around and you got 100 errands to do.

Lauren Mallard: 00:05:03

Zachary. Definitely. And we're also, we're watching the forecast as much as possible.

We're definitely not going to advise you on what you should do, but we can let you know what we're seeing and so that you can help yourself make the most informed decision that you can.

Tony Desiere: 00:05:18

All right, let's talk about if you are on property, if we're already planning the trip and you are going and the hurricane arrives, this is one of the great perks about staying on property.

Lauren Mallard: 00:05:30

That's right.

Tony Desiere: 00:05:30

They are very good at this.

They are very good at, one, keeping you safe, and two, providing the entertainment for your children and even yourself, as well as food that you will need while you wait out the hurricane and anticipating of the parks opening up again to continue along with your vacation.

Lauren Mallard: 00:05:46

Yeah. I think with a company like Disney, as big as they are, I think safety is their number one priority, especially in situations like this.

So they, they put in, in place some curfews so that everyone had to be in their room at a certain time last night before, before the winds got too bad. They did have character meet and greets at pretty much every resort that I saw in the lobby.

They're trying to make that fun for everybody as much as possible.

But, you know, I've also heard, like, if you're going to ride out a hurricane, and I don't know if there's truth to this or not, but everyone says the safest place to be is Disney. And, you know, I don't doubt it, to be honest.

Tony Desiere: 00:06:24

Yeah, the hotels are amazing. And one other thing, too.

If you are planning on going and you're, you're like, I know this is the time of year for hurricanes and I don't know if one's going to start up and get to me.

All right, listen, I'm not trying to put the fear into you, but if you're one of those people that doesn't like being rained on, and maybe you're thinking if a hurricane comes, try to book one of those hotels where you are encased without going one building so that you can go from your door to the lobby to get food and talk to anybody that you need to talk to without having to go outside.

Lauren Mallard: 00:06:55

Yeah.

Tony Desiere: 00:06:56

So some of these resorts, it's a good walk to the main area where food is.

Lauren Mallard: 00:07:00

Yeah.

Tony Desiere: 00:07:00

You know, we stayed at Port Orleans, Riverside. It's a good walk to the area where boat rights is and where you're going to go do that.

Some all star resorts, all star music, you're walking outside in the rain.

If you don't want to do that, find a hotel where it is all kind of encapsulated into one area so you can go down and enjoy your food, enjoy the meet and greets, enjoy the entertainment without having to leave the actual building.

Lauren Mallard: 00:07:22

Yeah. My mom and I actually were just having that conversation this morning because she and I are both people watchers.

I love to people watch, and especially at Disney. And so sometimes the hotel lobbies are such a great place to do that.

And so I told her, I said, you know, if I wasn't down there with the kids, because I think the kids would really be bored out of their mind if we were just in room. And if I knew there was no real danger, I actually think it would be, you know, a really nice place to be if I was going to have to ride out a storm.

Disney is going to provide me that entertainment and people watching, of course, to the extent that we can be safe to do it.

Tony Desiere: 00:07:57

And also, too, they're going to provide as much food as they can. I mean, as much as the cast members can be there during a storm.

You know, living in Florida may not get as many people to a particular resort to staff it properly, but they're going to do the best they possibly can. There's food kits that you can get. There's just ways to get you fed and also entertained.

I mean, it's great to see that they can get cast members to be a Donald and Daisy for an afternoon, for kids, to keep them, to keep them pretty occupied.

Lauren Mallard: 00:08:25

That's right. And we're talking about riding out the storm.

they're reopening tonight at: 06:00

What I have seen, I didn't have anybody in this particular situation this week, but what I have seen is that guests could go to the front desk, let them know that you're leaving early due to the hurricane. And if you have booked your trip with a travel advisor, this is actually recently changed.

It was where the guests just went through the front desk and everything was done through them.

But what I've heard this week is that you let them know that you're leaving due to the hurricane, and then they will let you know that your travel advisor will need to call to go ahead and initiate that refu

Tony Desiere: 00:09:24

So let's say I want to, I'm down there, but I've gone down with a special room discount or a special ticket discount or some sort of discount that's available at that particular time. But I'm rebooking. How do I work it with Disney? Do I get the same price? Can I get different discounts if I'm booking at another time?

Lauren Mallard: 00:09:41

That's a great question. So we'll start with just the ticket only purchase.

So let's say, for example, let's say you were down there and you were on that four part magic ticket that we talk about. That's such a great deal. Well, that was only available through the early fall of this year.

So what happens with a ticket only purchase is they're non refundable, but the value of that ticket remains on your account indefinitely. And so let's say you spent, just for round numbers, let's say you spent dollar 500 on your ticket.

That $500 value will stay there, but it will not necessarily get you the same tickets in the future.

It will go towards however much that youre four day ticket or whatever you're going to purchase for your future trip will be, and that amount will come off of that.

Tony Desiere: 00:10:26

All right. Now what about the trip insurance, as you mentioned earlier?

Lauren Mallard: 00:10:29

So we can, there's a couple of different options for travel insurance with Disney. Disney offers a travel insurance that is, I believe it's dollar 95 per adult. Children under the age of 17 are included for free with that.

So if you have a package, a family of five, then your trip is insured for $190. We can add that travel insurance anytime between deposit and final payment.

Once the final payment has been made on your package, you cannot add travel insurance through Disney. Now, people will ask me the specifics of what is covered.

And because we don't sell insurance as travel agents, all I can really do is send you the policy itself to let you see the specifics of it.

But the types of things that are covered are things like trip interruption, trip delay, luggage loss, sometimes some medical things, if you have to go to the doctor when you're down there, different things like that. They're not going to come into play as much for things like hurricanes.

So you want to really read the fine print of that a

Tony Desiere: 00:11:45

All right. Now, the parks, very rarely do hurricanes cause a closure of the parks. It certainly has happened. Hurricane Ian closed it down.

This, obviously, this one we just had, Hurricane Milton has closed it down. But it doesn't happen very often that the parks are closed. But nevertheless, it can be kind of wet. Even post hurricane, it can be kind of sloggy.

So prepare your travel for a possibility that something like this could happen.

Lauren Mallard: 00:12:11

Yeah.

And, you know, there's pros and cons to this, too, because I've actually heard from clients before that being there either before or after a hurricane is actually the best time to be there because the crowds are so low. Yeah, because so many people have canceled.

Because if this is your one and done to go to Disney World, you certainly want to spend thousands of dollars and know that it's going to be kind of a wash the entire trip.

But if you are going and say you visit once a year and you're not as worried about a few rainy days and you can be safe during the part of the hurricane coming, then. Yeah, you can see some, some lower crowds on the days before or after.

But you want to make sure that you are going with, whether you want to travel with an umbrella or ponchos, bring extra shoes, make sure that you bring extra shoes, make sure that you're not walking around and wetland just stinky shoes or wear crocs, you know, just really think about those types of things and how wet you might be during th

Tony Desiere: 00:13:06

You know, I have a issue, I have a thing with the shoes because this is one of the reasons I no longer go on the river Rapids ride at animal Kingdom because I had wet socks and wet shoes and I was miserable all day.

Lauren Mallard: 00:13:19

Yeah, I don't like wet shoes and wet socks.

Tony Desiere: 00:13:21

I've said whenever my wife or my kids were like, let's go. I'm like, all right, I'll go back. I've just had that horrible experience of not having, having a secondary pair to then go, well, these are wet.

And shoes say stay wet forever.

Lauren Mallard: 00:13:35

They do. Forever.

Tony Desiere: 00:13:36

You throw them in a dryer if you can find one.

Lauren Mallard: 00:13:38

Yeah, they smell terrible.

Tony Desiere: 00:13:40

Exactly. So, yes, bring an extra pair of shoes if you know you're going into some storm season, whether it's hurricane or not.

Lauren Mallard: 00:13:47

That's right.

Tony Desiere: 00:13:47

Try to have an extra pair lying around so in case you do run into some storms, because I tell this story all the time. When my wife and I were dating back in the nineties, she's a Florida resident. She grew up in St. Petersburg. I was from New Hampshire.

I was down visiting a friend, got to meet her. I went back down to visit her. We went to Busch Gardens.

Lauren Mallard: 00:14:05

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Tony Desiere: 00:14:05

And we were dating, had a date at Busch Gardens. And like, it was late one afternoon, and we just rode a ride and my wife was like, we need to leave. And I was like, why?

She goes, because the storm is coming. And I was like, it's like, beautiful. What are you talking about? I'm from New Hampshire. We don't get this changes in.

I looked up, she goes, trust me, it's. By the time I got to the parking lot, it was my ankles. I was in my ankles. It was, it came. She saw it coming.

She could, she could look at the distance and saw it and knew it was coming.

Lauren Mallard: 00:14:33

Yeah.

Tony Desiere: 00:14:34

And it, by the time we got to the parking lot, it was, it was already ankle deep in water.

That's how quickly you can get this in the summertime, whenever and if you're going during, especially this type of season where hurricanes are brewing and things could be popping and you may not get, you might get just a tropical storm. It's going to drench you all the way and it comes quick.

Lauren Mallard: 00:14:54

It does, it does. Just be prepared.

A lot of people say, you know, it's going to rain every day in Florida, but if you're there during an especially rainy season, then just, you know, you just got to prepare yourself for that.

Tony Desiere: 00:15:04

How would somebody monitor that while they're on the parks weather apps? Or how does, how does that happen with clients who say, I hear something might be brewing? I don't even know if I'm in the path.

Lauren Mallard: 00:15:15

Yeah.

So I always tell people the best thing to do is to really monitor that with the weather channel, with the different news outlets that are around and just talk to people while you're down there and find out, hey, how, how affected do you think that we are going to be?

And then just use your own judgment because you're going to know how safe you can personally feel, and we can't advise you one way or the other on that.

Tony Desiere: 00:15:38

And by the way, the engineering at these parks is incredible. They are, they really, you might have seen pictures of Tropicana Field. The roof was kind of blown up.

You're not going to see the Epcot ball roll down the street.

Lauren Mallard: 00:15:51

We hope not.

Tony Desiere: 00:15:51

Right. Like, they're, they're incredibly engineered to these things.

So you're not going to get a lot of massive destruction in central Florida with these hurricanes, but you can get a lot of debris that kind of falls down, things that will fall down in the park and they will make it all safe and sound for you to return to your visit.

Lauren Mallard: 00:16:08

That's right.

And that's why they closed the parks even today, once the hurricane had come through, they want to make sure that those wind speeds are safe enough to where they feel like guests can safely enjoy the park.

Tony Desiere: 00:16:18

All right. So that is some of the things you might want to do when you are going at this time of year.

But like you said, you know, hurricane season, it's a wide, it's not just October. It's a wide variety of times where a hurricane can pop.

Lauren Mallard: 00:16:30

That's right. And, you know, people will ask me, well, when can I go and avoid, and this comes up all the time with cruising. When can I go and avoid hurricanes?

Or, you know, what, what am I supposed to do? I'm gonna book a cruise and it's during hurricane season. Well, I've got a cruise booked for next October myself.

And, you know, sometimes we have to just book when you want to go and then we can deal with it at that time.

Tony Desiere: 00:16:51

Yeah. And that, and that's a little different because in a cruise ship, my parents cruise a lot, and they've always on cruises during hurricane season.

The cruises will take alternate routes because they know if you, you know, if you watch the weather Channel, you know where the hurricane is and you know where it's heading. So cruise boats take the same thing. They are moving vessels so they can move out of the way. Yes, yes.

When you're stuck at Disney and they say a hurricane is coming off the Atlantic, per se, and it's going to go to Miami and maybe south of, let's say, Naples. Just going to stay on the bottom part of the. Yeah, you may not get hit, but that storm can switch.

That storm can move, but you're not moving if you're at the Disney resort, that's not moving.

Lauren Mallard: 00:17:32

Right.

Tony Desiere: 00:17:32

So those are the kind of things that. Yeah. Pay attention to that because you may, early in your vacation, hear about an Atlantic storm that's just going to hit the south of Florida.

Lauren Mallard: 00:17:41

Right.

Tony Desiere: 00:17:41

But it could switch and head to central Florida.

Lauren Mallard: 00:17:43

That's right. Stay aware.

Tony Desiere: 00:17:44

Yeah, exactly. Because my parents live in Ocala, my son is in Gainesville, and I've told, they've said many times it's not supposed to hit us two days later.

Lauren Mallard: 00:17:52

Yeah, it hit us.

Tony Desiere: 00:17:53

I lost my grill cover, lost our gazebo, whatever it is they've, they've got going. All right, so any final thoughts on hurricanes or traveling during inclement weather?

Lauren Mallard: 00:18:05

Yeah, I think that we've pretty much covered it.

I think it's just kind of one of those things that you've got to keep yourself updated, keep yourself informed, and just prepare accordingly whether you're going to travel or whether you're going to wait it out.

Tony Desiere: 00:18:18

Now, I hear you're going to be out next week.

Lauren Mallard: 00:18:20

I am.

Tony Desiere: 00:18:20

Where are you going?

Lauren Mallard: 00:18:21

Yes, I am. I am so, so excited. This is not really a typical topic on our podcast, but I plan other trips other than just Disney and Universal.

And I actually have been invited by sandals and beaches resorts down to the beautiful island of Jamaica. It's actually one of my favorite destinations and I'll be there for an entire week.

Tony Desiere: 00:18:42

Wonderful.

Lauren Mallard: 00:18:43

Yeah, we're going to see every sandals and beaches property. We're actually going to have a big event at the Montego Bay Convention center next week where the prime minister's going to be there.

Tony Desiere: 00:18:52

Wow.

Lauren Mallard: 00:18:52

A lot of different things to hear about this. Yes. So follow me on Instagram at all the magic travel. I'm going to have a lot of stuff on there about that trip.

If you have anything that you'd like to reach out to me as far as an all inclusive vacation, we do those also. But yeah, I'm really excited about it.

Tony Desiere: 00:19:10

All right. I will hold the fort while you are gone and can't wait to have you come back next week. If you'd like to reach us, Lauren, at all the magictravel.com.

as you mentioned, travelwithtonydmail.com dot. We'd love to help you plan any trip that you are taking regardless of the location.

But again, we focus on this podcast on Disney and Universal, but doesn't mean we can't help you in any other trip or any other place that you would like to go.

Also, if you'd like to reach us and give us some ideas of what you'd like us to talk about on this podcast, you can reach Lauren or myself at our email. Please again, leave us a five star review. If you like the podcast, please share it with your friends as we continue to grow.

So be safe out there, everybody.

And again, these are just some of the tips that we can give you if you're planning a Disney world or a universe vacation around the hurricane season in the state of Florida. All right, that'll do it from the wands and wishes podcast. Be safe, everybody,