IvyandLace
Certified pixie dust user
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2000
Friday, August 13th
~2:00pm-We arrived "home" and since we were unable to get the ice cream we wanted (EVERYTHING closed at 12:30pm in the Magic Kingdom including the much anticipated Main Street Ice Cream Parlor), we thought we'd just swig by POP's food court to pick up something sweet. Holy smokes!! People EVERYWHERE!!! It was craziness. If you have ever been in any kind of snowstorm in the South, you'll know what I'm talking about. People grabbing food off the shelves, lines snaking all throughout the food court for hot food...the line to check out was probably a 30-45 minute wait! Yikes! I didn't have my camera with me at the time (sure wish I did!), but I came back a little later and this is what it looked like.
In comparison, this is a shot of the food court during the same time of day (1pm) on day we checked-in!
I have to give kudos to the POP century food court employees who were very efficient in dealing with the chaos...even prompt on the filling of the all-important Frozen Coke machines!
I like this picture, taken in the food court of Pop Century. You can see the weather channel on in the background.
Weather continued to be drizzly and cloudy.
Friday, August 13th
~4:00pm-The rain and the winds had started to pick up, and we were all enscounced in my mom and sis's room next door watching the Hurricane reports when there was a knock on the door. A CM handed us a hurricane update with suggestions for safety (keep away from windows, doors; stay in your room; etc.)-there was also movies listed on the update for our enjoyment. Yippee!! (Where's the popcorn??) Never thought I'd be taking pictures of the television on my vacation, but here they are!
Sis and I decided to take one last walk around the resort with a stop at the food court to refill our mugs with Frozen Coke (addicted). On our way there, we were told that the food court was closed and would not reopen any time soon. Needless to say, we were shocked to hear that POP would just close their doors on their guests without some sort of warning. Thankfully, we had plenty of food in our room, including milk, cereal, bread, sandwich fixings, and snacks, but what about all those families that weren't so prepared?? What about those people that were diabetic?? This is the only thing that we came across in the hurricane that we felt was not handled correctly. If they were going to close the food court, let people know! POP was great about constantly leaving us messages concerning park hour changes, changes in housekeeping, etc. but no message was sent concerning this. (POP did reopen their food court from 11pm-1am for guests and let people know of this via phone messages later in the evening.)
Here are some pictures taken around the resort at that time.
You'll notice that the "hippy dippy" pool's sign clearly says "Pool closed", but there were still people in it!!
Seeing the empty bowling pin pool in the Fifties section was really eerie!
Friday, August 13th
~7:00pm-As the winds picked up, we definitely "battened down the hatches"! Although we peeked occasionally our of our windows, as Hurricane Charlie progressed closer to the Orlando area, we moved away from the windows and prepared for the worse. We had the flashlight from our car kit in the room, and I was busy packing up snacks and bottled water in a cooler that I put close to the bathroom in case we had to evacuate to that area. The winds produced a sort of "howling" train sound...the very sound that people say you hear when a tornado is approaching!! Needless to say, that was when I started to get nervous! There was one point when we heard a tree crashing to the ground followed by the break of glass and screaming...mom, sis and I dashed to "my" room through the connecting door and bounded on the king bed with my DH (who was tired of watching Disney movies and had moved on to extreme sports!). Here is the picture of us right as the Hurricane was over us; you wouldn't know it, but we all have our sneakers on, ready...just in case!
Nervous smiles...all around!
Friday, August 13th
~9:30pm-The weirdest part of the whole storm was that as soon as the eye passed us, there was an immediate sense of peace...of calming! Very strange and hard to explain unless you have experienced it! The little pines in front of our rooms at POP were bending almost to the ground when we had last looked out of our window, but we were shocked to see them blown over when we ventured out after the storm was over! Here is a picture of them before
and after
.
This picture is a bit dark but shows more trees down...and the affects of lots of rain!
(We had so much rain that it leaked beneath our door and soaked the carpet!)
I'll finish up soon with Part 3...IVY
~2:00pm-We arrived "home" and since we were unable to get the ice cream we wanted (EVERYTHING closed at 12:30pm in the Magic Kingdom including the much anticipated Main Street Ice Cream Parlor), we thought we'd just swig by POP's food court to pick up something sweet. Holy smokes!! People EVERYWHERE!!! It was craziness. If you have ever been in any kind of snowstorm in the South, you'll know what I'm talking about. People grabbing food off the shelves, lines snaking all throughout the food court for hot food...the line to check out was probably a 30-45 minute wait! Yikes! I didn't have my camera with me at the time (sure wish I did!), but I came back a little later and this is what it looked like.
In comparison, this is a shot of the food court during the same time of day (1pm) on day we checked-in!
I have to give kudos to the POP century food court employees who were very efficient in dealing with the chaos...even prompt on the filling of the all-important Frozen Coke machines!
I like this picture, taken in the food court of Pop Century. You can see the weather channel on in the background.
Weather continued to be drizzly and cloudy.
Friday, August 13th
~4:00pm-The rain and the winds had started to pick up, and we were all enscounced in my mom and sis's room next door watching the Hurricane reports when there was a knock on the door. A CM handed us a hurricane update with suggestions for safety (keep away from windows, doors; stay in your room; etc.)-there was also movies listed on the update for our enjoyment. Yippee!! (Where's the popcorn??) Never thought I'd be taking pictures of the television on my vacation, but here they are!
Sis and I decided to take one last walk around the resort with a stop at the food court to refill our mugs with Frozen Coke (addicted). On our way there, we were told that the food court was closed and would not reopen any time soon. Needless to say, we were shocked to hear that POP would just close their doors on their guests without some sort of warning. Thankfully, we had plenty of food in our room, including milk, cereal, bread, sandwich fixings, and snacks, but what about all those families that weren't so prepared?? What about those people that were diabetic?? This is the only thing that we came across in the hurricane that we felt was not handled correctly. If they were going to close the food court, let people know! POP was great about constantly leaving us messages concerning park hour changes, changes in housekeeping, etc. but no message was sent concerning this. (POP did reopen their food court from 11pm-1am for guests and let people know of this via phone messages later in the evening.)
Here are some pictures taken around the resort at that time.
You'll notice that the "hippy dippy" pool's sign clearly says "Pool closed", but there were still people in it!!
Seeing the empty bowling pin pool in the Fifties section was really eerie!
Friday, August 13th
~7:00pm-As the winds picked up, we definitely "battened down the hatches"! Although we peeked occasionally our of our windows, as Hurricane Charlie progressed closer to the Orlando area, we moved away from the windows and prepared for the worse. We had the flashlight from our car kit in the room, and I was busy packing up snacks and bottled water in a cooler that I put close to the bathroom in case we had to evacuate to that area. The winds produced a sort of "howling" train sound...the very sound that people say you hear when a tornado is approaching!! Needless to say, that was when I started to get nervous! There was one point when we heard a tree crashing to the ground followed by the break of glass and screaming...mom, sis and I dashed to "my" room through the connecting door and bounded on the king bed with my DH (who was tired of watching Disney movies and had moved on to extreme sports!). Here is the picture of us right as the Hurricane was over us; you wouldn't know it, but we all have our sneakers on, ready...just in case!
Nervous smiles...all around!
Friday, August 13th
~9:30pm-The weirdest part of the whole storm was that as soon as the eye passed us, there was an immediate sense of peace...of calming! Very strange and hard to explain unless you have experienced it! The little pines in front of our rooms at POP were bending almost to the ground when we had last looked out of our window, but we were shocked to see them blown over when we ventured out after the storm was over! Here is a picture of them before
and after
This picture is a bit dark but shows more trees down...and the affects of lots of rain!
(We had so much rain that it leaked beneath our door and soaked the carpet!)
I'll finish up soon with Part 3...IVY
IVY 
