Walt Disney World opened all four of its theme parks this morning as Hurricane Milton continued through the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida’s west coast. The theme park giant announced yesterday that they would close all four of their theme parks by 2pm. Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios were the first two parks to close at 1pm, and then EPCOT and Magic Kingdom closed at 2pm. Here’s a look at some of the preparations that were taking place earlier today before the storm arrived.
Walt Disney World Prepares for Hurricane Milton
Yesterday, we visited EPCOT to take a look at the preparations that were already underway at the theme park. Today, we took a look at preparations at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Magic Kingdom.
Here’s the statement that Walt Disney World made when choosing what time to close the theme parks today:
The Walt Disney World Emergency Operations Center is connected to weather experts and community leaders. Please know these adjustments have been made in order to leave time for our Guests and Cast Members to return to their Resort hotels or homes safely hours before higher winds are expected to reach Central Florida.
Hurricane Milton Preparations at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
There weren’t a lot of visible preparations at Disney’s Animal Kingdom today. Even precautions that we’re used to seeing like cling wrapping trash cans together wasn’t done this morning. The only notable preparations that we saw beyond removing umbrellas, was zip-tying some of the free-hanging lights.
Entertainment was still offered, and subject to the standard weather stipulations such as no lightning in the area and no heavy rain.
On our way out of the park, we saw Disney Conservation Cast Members taking apart the Purple Martin housing at the front of the park. They were wonderful to talk with, and noted that the Purple Martin’s are in South America right now as part of their normal migration patterns. The housing has to be removed when the forecast calls for wind speeds of 50mph or more. The Cast Members had already visited EPCOT to remove some of the housing over there as well.
Hurricane Milton Preparations at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
At Disney’s Hollywood Studios, there was signage at the entrance to the park noting that it would close at 1pm.
While we didn’t see anything strapped down at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, we did see a number of merchandise and food kiosks strapped down at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Other preparations included zip-tying umbrellas or removing them completely.
It looks like Disney may have preemptively lowered the level of Echo Lake as well.
While character encounters largely continued like normal, other entertainment like the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular didn’t have any showtimes today.
Hurricane Milton Preparations at Magic Kingdom
We’ll take a quick lap through Magic Kingdom before the park closes early for the day to allow Cast Members and guests to get back to their homes and hotel rooms safely before the worst of the storm arrives later in the evening.
Some of the Lightning Lane tappoints were covered, and Cast Members were checking for Lightning Lane access via phones.
The Walt Disney World theme parks will remain closed through Thursday, October 10th, with a tentative reopening planned for Friday, October 11th.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
