So there’s a lot of prep work in the Parks before a hurricane arrives, and obviously a lot of planning. My team has been cleaning up the backstage areas all week, then just keeping them clear when others dropped things off. 😦
We stayed open until 9pm on Saturday and had a ‘soft’ close. Actually, there were few guests in the park so that was an easy task to accomplish. Everyone assumed that guests would want one last day of freedom before hunkering down in their hotels, but not so much. Last year guests were unhappy due to limited food items in the resorts, so my team had extra carts displaying consumables for guests to purchase – most did not. The Guests I talked with had bought food before arriving and purchased extra activities & toys for their kids to do if they were cooped up in their hotel room.
Since the majority of my team was together for last year’s Hurricane Matthew, this storm was much easier to prepare for. It was hurry up and wait………which gave me time to walk the Park during my lunch. Interesting.
Lamps were secured before the winds came:
F&W Merchandise kiosks were stripped and the sides rolled up by Saturday.
Tables and umbrellas were ready for tropical storm and hurricane force wind gusts.
While some of the smaller kiosks/carts were closed early.
BTW – all photos were taken while the park was open.
One of the coolest things I saw, was the utility trucks being staged. I had heard that quite a few were staying on property since we were centrally located, but it looked like they were being dispatched from our parking lot.
Next post will be our plans at home…………and riding out the storm.
Darden Travels 