6 Ways Hurricane Irma Impacted Walt Disney World Guests

Even hurricanes want to go to Magic Kingdom.

By Jen Gallie /

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For only the 5th time in its history, Walt Disney World was forced to shut its doors this week.

Hurricane Irma, described as a Category 5 buzzsaw, made its way across the Atlantic and up into the Florida peninsula. The gigantic weather system had wind speeds of up to 185mph and caused catastrophic damage to many parts of the Caribbean.

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By the time Irma landed in Florida on Saturday the storm was already downgraded to a Category 2 hurricane but its path led it right towards the most magical place on Earth.

Now that the dust has settled it appears that the parks and hotels escaped with minimal damage and mostly fallen trees. For guests staying at the resort it was an uncomfortable couple of days waiting for the storm to hit and not knowing just what kind of damage the winds would bring. Luckily, there seems to only be a small amount of damage left in its wake.

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Walt Disney World isn't a stranger to Hurricanes, closing last year for Hurricane Matthew. This time they were well prepared but that did mean that guests were impacted by Irma.

6.The Parks Were Closed

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With the hurricane fast approaching, Disney announced last Friday that all of their parks and Disney Springs would be shut for two whole days.

At 9pm on Saturday Magic Kingdom closed up with the intention of not opening again until Tuesday. Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach would remain closed for the time being.

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