Tourists who came for a sunny Disney vacation are instead stranded by the storm

They went to Disney World for rides and photo ops with Mickey Mouse. Now they're adding an unexpected adventure to their Disney vacation: bundling up at the resort to ride out a powerful hurricane heading toward Florida.

In recent days, Hurricane Milton has grown from a nuisance storm system in the Gulf of Mexico into a historic hurricane that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has warned will be a “monster.” The rapid pace at which Milton worsened surprised forecasters — and left scores of Disney enthusiasts who weren't expecting airport closures or other weather-related travel disruptions stranded in the Orlando area.

“We've come to the realization that we're stuck here,” said Telissa Carpenter, an Indianapolis resident vacationing at Disney with her son for his 30th birthday.

The first time Carpenter heard of any weather concerns was over the weekend, the day after she landed in Florida. A notification popped up on her Disney app informing her that the resort was observing a rapidly advancing storm.

Hours later, she received another notification, this time from her airline: Her flight home scheduled for Tuesday had been canceled. Alternative travel options, including buses and trains, were also either booked or canceled, and the few available flights exceeded the family's budget.

It's a wrinkle that Carpenter has never experienced in her many years of vacationing at Disney.

“I understand it's hurricane season, but we've been doing this since 2017 and have never really had a problem in October,” she said. “We had no idea at the time of our planning and departure that the situation would be so serious.”

While Walt Disney World Resort has been operating largely as usual so far this week, it announced Tuesday afternoon that the theme parks will be closed starting Wednesday at 1 p.m., and “it is likely that the theme parks will remain closed on Thursday.”

The announcement came as Hurricane Milton barreled toward Florida Tuesday afternoon as a Category 5 storm with maximum sustained winds of 165 miles per hour, the National Hurricane Center said in a 5 p.m. bulletin that the storm was located about 480 miles southwest of Tampa . The hurricane is expected to approach the central west coast of Florida on Wednesday evening, with Milton keeping an eye on the heavily populated Tampa Bay area for landfall.

The storm has prompted evacuation measures along the coast. Further inland, in the greater Orlando area, where Disney is based, Orlando Airport announced it would close at 8 a.m. Wednesday.

According to the fan-run Walt Disney World Magazine, in Disney's more than 50-year history, only a handful of hurricanes have forced the parks to close. The area depends on tourists just as tourists from around the world seem to depend on it: Disney World, Universal Orlando Resort and other theme parks make the area the most visited destination in the United States, attracting 74 million tourists last year, according to The Associated Die Press reported.

Cara Prior, a preschool teacher from Thompson's Station, Tennessee, drove to Disney with her husband and 14-year-old daughter in the family RV on Saturday, looking forward to a fun week. But Disney is closing the campground where the family's RV was parked before the storm, and the family was relocated to a Disney hotel for free.

“I know we'll probably be a little nervous sitting in the hotel tomorrow,” Prior said in a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon, a few hours before the family headed to a Disney event called “Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.” ” But “we’ve been assured here that Disney has a generator on a generator on a generator – lots of backups.”

Others were able to cancel their Disney trips at the last minute. Kensly Williams, a physician's assistant in Fairbury, Nebraska, was scheduled to fly to Florida with her family on Wednesday. As the prognosis became increasingly dire, she decided to reschedule.

“I would never want to put my family in danger,” said Williams, whose children are 3 years and 6 months old.

She also didn't want to walk around Disney in a storm.

“I think anyone who has small children knows that they can't stand being soaked and change schedules very well,” she said.

Ashleigh Giliberto, a theme park vacation planner from Miami, said she strongly discourages travelers from coming to Florida this week if they don't have to.

“People save for years to go to Disney – the average person goes once in their life? For people, it’s a big trip that they look forward to,” she said.

“If someone came to me and said, 'Would you book me a room?' I would say, “No, I won't.” I won't make a new reservation during an active hurricane. I don’t think it’s wise,” she said.

Carpenter, the tourist from Indiana, said she was nervous about being stuck in Florida because of the hurricane. However, she received some good news: she now has a flight home for later in the week after her original flight was canceled. But she said she's still waiting.

“I’ve never experienced anything like this,” she said. “I don't know what it's going to be like, or what the consequences are going to be, or realistically if we're even going to be able to get home on Friday.”