Fair warning...everyone with plans 9/27-10/2 should change their plans now. We are from Maryland and I have been in Orlando for both Charley and Matthew. What a difference in both the service offered and the storms themselves.
The family and I were scheduled to arrive in Orlando mid day of the day Charley was supposed to impact Florida in the evening. Because Orlando wasn't forecast to take a direct hit, we decided to try to get there, hunker down, and ride it out. What can I say, we were younger and stupid then. Because most of Disney's electric, etc is all underground we thought we would be fine if we could just get there. We flew standby on an earlier flight. We got to MCO and were shocked to find the airport was closing and was a ghost town. Our flight was apparently one of the last few to arrive.
We hopped in our rental and headed to the Boardwalk. Along the way, we were planning to stop for alcohol, and a few other essentials. Needless to say the few places still open were mobbed so we decided to head for the hotel, figuring we could pick up a couple of things at the Boardwalk gift shop. We arrive at the world to find the parks had closed early, the gift shop is getting ready to close and they were putting the three of us in a king...apparently everyone from Tampa had evacuated in from the coast only to have it not hit Tampa but instead take a more direct hit in Orlando. They brought in food for us (Sandwiches early, then chicken fingers, chips and plenty other snacks) all complementary. We hung around the hotel bar (and there were so many people they were just handing people openers to open their own BYO wine, beer and liquor since it was impossible to serve everyone from the little bar. It was quite the party and a fond memory. They sent everyone to their rooms about an hour before the hit and all the balcony furniture was in the room and there was a letter about the storm.
It howled quite a bit once the storm hit. I believe they said it was a Cat 2 when it hit Orlando. We were up watching the Opening ceremonies of the Olympics and we could hear it. Never lost power and we were living like royalty-they had upgraded our room once I informed them the three of us didn't really want to sleep in the king together. But the interesting thing was, when we looked out the next morning, the sun was shining and the only damage we could see from our balcony was a couple of shingles on the ground from the roof. We hopped in our rental and took a ride around Disney property. We had Cinderella's Table reservations which were prior to park opening but they had delayed park opening and were going to honor everyone's reservations. Road crews had been busy on property. They had literally chain-sawed fallen trees just to clear a path in the roads but the rest of the fallen tree was left where it had fallen. We saw some tree damage at the Poly and we understood Animal Kingdom and the water parks got hit hard and were closed for a couple days, but we were in the Magic Kingdom that morning (late-think they opened at 9 or 10) like nothing had happened. Honestly, until we left the World at the end of the week, we really had no idea how bad the are was hit. Driving to the airport is when we saw the twisted road signs and tarps on so many roofs we lost count. We really were in a bubble.
Matthew was a little different. After having been through Charley as a direct hit, I decided we would go ahead with our planned girls trip. I was getting there first thing Thursday, getting the liquor and grocery and food runs done, hunkering down for the worst of it and my friends were supposed to fly in Friday night. I don't know if Disney just didn't think it was as big of a deal or what but the furniture was on the balcony and never got taken in, we never got a letter about it, and they were offering sandwiches for purchase (which were pretty darn awful from what I heard). Needless to say, we were fortunate my friends were able to fly in at all because of course their flights got cancelled. One ended up flyin in to Tampa but they were troopers and came down anyway. Two of my planned 3 nights of HHN were cancelled and the night we did go, it was so crowded and the food pop ups were not available and it was just exhausting.
Looking at Irma, I am glad my trip isnt planned until the end of the month. I wouldn't be going if it were planned for this weekend. But knowing my luck, another one will form by the time I am ready to travel so I am giving you fair warning now.