All Those At Wdw On 9/11 Please Check In Here...

[Blueberry]

As we are about to commerate the second anniversary of 9/11, I thought it would be nice if all the DIS folks at WDW on that fateful day would once again step forward.....




We were at the MK on 9/11 and it is a day I will never forget, nor will I ever forget all the people who lost their lives that day and our many heroes who gave their lives trying to save others. I think the Disney people were tremendous and handled the whole situation with extreme professionalism, there was no panic or anything and all went smoothly...

GOD BLESS THE USA AND OUR TROOPS EVERYWHERE...

 

[Blueberry]

bump....

 

[TiffJ]

We were there! It was our day off from the parks. I remember me & my mom getting ready for a day of shopping while we were watching the Today Show. Watching in disbelief. It took some time for the ramifications of what happened to set in. I will always remember that day and the people that lost their lives. I pray for their families.

 

[melanie18]

We were getting ready for breakfast at Chef Mickey's. We stayed away from the parks before they closed. Ended up driving our rental car back to NJ instead of flying.

 

[kdibattista]

We were there as well... staying at CBR. We were getting ready to go to MGM when we saw it on the Today show. Never will I forget that day. We pretty much spent the rest of the week glued to the TV.

GOD BLESS ALL THOSE LOST AND THEIR FAMILIES

 

[K9pal]

It was our second day, we had slept in a bit later and saw the first tower at the end of the "Good Morning America" show... we knew something tragic had happened, but not the extent of it. Turned off the TV and headed to the MK. We were in the Timekeeper when they began evacuating the parks, so we didn't hear the announcement. At the end of Timekeeper, there's a great shot of the Towers, and I remarked to DH that it would be a long time before the one would look like that again. We came out and immediately noticed everyone silently heading in one direction. We asked another couple what happened, and they told us the park was being evacuated because both Towers were now hit. We grabbed a seat at the ice cream parlor to let a lot of the crowd get out, and ended up sitting with a bunch of people from the East who were frantically trying to get out on their cell phones, and that's when we found out the Towers had collapsed and about the other 2 planes. What so impressed us was not only the professionalism of the CM's and how quickly they could evacuate everyone, but the kindness and friendliness of all the guests. There was no panic at all. We got to the buses and of course the line was a mile long, but an empty bus pulled up near us and we got on - the driver was in regular clothes.
(it's now 8:46 AM and they are playing a tribute to 9/11 on the radio...)
I asked, and she said they were in a meeting when they heard, and everyone who drove a bus just ran out and grabbed an available bus and headed to the parks.

We are getting ready to leave for WDW tomorrow, first time we've been back since then. Truthfully, it has taken me this long to feel that Disney magic again.

God bless those who lost their lives, and their families. We will never forget.

 

[crazywig]

we were there too.

staying at the GF sept 8-15

that day we had breakfast at cindy's then over to epcot. we were in the movie they show at the living seas when the announcement was made that the parks were closing.

we didn't find out what happened until we were at the monorail and a CM we chatted with told us. was THE quietest monorail ride ever back to the ttc.

we flew home to mass. on the 15th. it was our original flight, it was not cancelled or postponed! we were very lucky as i was 8 wks pregnant and not happy about the idea of driving home.

 

[kdibattista]

I also remember my husband running into a couple later that week in the gift shop and apparently they got married that day at Disney.

 

[Gary M]

DW and I were staying at the AKL, Sept. 10-15, 2001. On 9/11 we had not turned the TV on that morning. We were getting on the WDW bus to go to the AK when some people were talking about the airplanes crashing into the WTC. We went back to our room and watched TV most of the week. We had a terrible time getting a flight back to Indy on the 15th., but got home about 12 hours later than scheduled.

DW and I were arriving into MCO when the space shuttle accident happened. Our TTC driver told us about the accident at the baggage claim. I hope our trip this Dec. is uneventful.

 

[zurgswife]

We were a WDW for that day.....we had decided to get up with EE and do Epcot. We actually think we were on Test Track at 8:46...dh's shoes were bothering him so soon there after we headed back to BWV to get a different pair. DH's sister and BIL were staying there also, I decided to call them and see what they were doing (hadn't done this any other day). She informed us what was happening...we watched for a few hours and them dh needed some "magic" we walked to MGM....we went into WWTBAM and by the time we finished the park had been pretty much evacuated. We walked slowly by to BWV....It was an errie afternoon....BW Pool was closed so we went to Stormalong Bay...you could just see tons of people on the phone trying to reach love ones and friends.....Disney did a wonderful job.

We weren't able to get flight home so we drove the entire way to Philly....In a sports car.....(thought it would be fun to drive just dh and I during our adult only week at disney)....was not practical to drive home in ....

 

[pintrader]

I am leaving for MK right now. http://disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=436058
MK is having a special ceremony.

 

[nyyankees5]

Our DFamily was also there that week. We were celebrating DS 3rd birthday a couple of weeks early. We were heading down to breakfast at the Courtyard by Marriott in DtD when we saw a small crowd watching the big scree tv in the lobby.... thought there was a fire in some hotel in Florida. We we got into the restaurant DS started to misbehave and DH took him into the lobby for a break and that is when we found out. That's when we went up to our room to watch the news for the rest of the day. I also tried to reach my family.... I have brothers who worked across the street from the WTC and before I had my DS I also worked across the street. Lots of friends and family are FDNY or NYPD. It is one trip I will never forget......


It was very hard to explain to DS that he couldn't see Mickey that day. I tried to walk to Dtd, but by the time I got there they were closing up. The next day we headed over to the MK.... what an eery feeling to be thinking about what was going on at home, and trying to watch the parade.

We were also stranded for a couple of days, and decided that we would just drive our rental car home. I have not gotten on a plane since then.....

We will be making our 1st trip back on 9/26/03 and getting on that plane. I will be hard not to remember all that has happened.

My thoughts and prayers are with all New Yorkers today as well at the FDNY, NYPD, PAPD.

My God Bless our Troops overseas, as well as the rest of us.


NYYANKEES5
Erin

 

[Samirella]

I was actually the morning cast of a live stage show at WDW on September 11, 2001. We already had our morning meeting and most of the cast members had gone to the cafeteria for breakfast while we waited for our first show. Someone came in and told us the tv in the cafeteria was reporting that an airplane crashed into the World Trade Center. We turned our greenroom tv on and watched the whole tradgedy unfold. It was very difficult to go onstage and perform knowing what was going on and knowing that there were guests in the park who didn't know what was going on. Everytime we came back from doing a show, there was something else that had gone wrong. The most frustrating part was seeing on CNN that WDW had closed. Our management kept denying it and we had to continue doing shows until the 'official' word trickled down around noon.

 

[Scott2tune]

I was with my DD10 and DS12 at Epcot on our second day of our trip to WDW followed by the cruise.
Of course we left very early for EE at Epcot and we were completely unaware of the attack. I did notice that the WDW employees were all using walkie talkie's at an usual pace but thought nothing about it at the time.
At about 11:00 am we were sitting ready to see Cranium Command when the lights came up and the attendant said, "due to the circumstances in NY and Washington Disney is cloing the park." We literally had not idea what had happened- Disney personnel did not tell us. I asked around and some had "heard" there was some kind of bombing. My first thought was - did a Disney building get attacked?
I called my wife back in Newport Beach and she told me what had happened. We went back to our BCV and watched on TV.
Devastated, shocked, anguished, and anger filled my head.
The next I brought my kids and donated blood during a rain filled day at the adjoining hotel.
We continued our trip and the absolute highlight of the trip was having dinner the next evening at Epcot's Japanese restaurant. My kids and I sat with two other families from the midwest and shared stories and feelings about what had happened.
We created a matching funds program at our office and the next year visited Ground Zero with our DS's 8th grade class.

Our thoughts and prayers go the victims and their families.

In the meantime our next trip to WDW is 9/27.

 

[Scott2tune]

I was with my DD10 and DS12 at Epcot on our second day of our trip to WDW followed by the cruise.
Of course we left very early for EE at Epcot and we were completely unaware of the attack. I did notice that the WDW employees were all using walkie talkie's at an usual pace but thought nothing about it at the time.
At about 11:00 am we were sitting ready to see Cranium Command when the lights came up and the attendant said, "due to the circumstances in NY and Washington Disney is cloing the park." We literally had not idea what had happened- Disney personnel did not tell us. I asked around and some had "heard" there was some kind of bombing. My first thought was - did a Disney building get attacked?
I called my wife back in Newport Beach and she told me what had happened. We went back to our BCV and watched on TV.
Devastated, shocked, anguished, and anger filled my head.
The next I brought my kids and donated blood during a rain filled day at the adjoining hotel.
We continued our trip and the absolute highlight of the trip was having dinner the next evening at Epcot's Japanese restaurant. My kids and I sat with two other families from the midwest and shared stories and feelings about what had happened.
We created a matching funds program at our office and the next year visited Ground Zero with our DS's 8th grade class.

Our thoughts and prayers go the victims and their families.

In the meantime our next trip to WDW is 9/27.

 

[spearenb]

My DW and DD was staying at WL on that date and when it happened, we were eating at Crystal Palace with Pooh and friends. We didn't know that anything had happened until we came out of Mickey's tent way in the back and didn't see anyone back there... really. They had already moved all people down the road to move them out. I had a hard time getting my 2yr old DD out of the playground as she had it all by herself! Of course, she still doesn't understand what happened and since we are going back the first time in Nov. I don't want to tell her that planes crashed on this date. I will never get her on the plane.

While we didn't know what was going on, we did overhear numerous people who where either webcasting on their cell phones or talking to others. We didn't want to jump to conclusions on overhearing them but, it was true to what they were saying.

My DW didn't want to fly back so we drove our rental all the way back to WV. It was actually a good ride back knowing that all in the family was safe.

Prayers and thoughts still go out to all who was affected. We will never forget.

 

[Belle5]

we were evacuated after the Beauty and the Beast stage show. What a sad week.

 

[goofyernmost]

You know it really is sad how so much association with 9/11 has to do with planes. The fact of the matter is that of the approx. 3000 people killed that unbelievable day, if memory serves me correctly, only 147 of them were on a plane. The rest were sitting in their offices within a building.

Airplanes and air travel took a hard rap for that because it is the most visable of the problems. Three planes ran into three buildings and one crashed in a field. I suspect that there were literally thousands of planes in the air at the time. It is a hard memory to erase but it is an irrational memory. No one would want to be on the ones that were involved but many, many planes arrived safely at their destinations that day. Statistically, still the safest place to be.

 

[momx2]

We were there. We were staying at ASMo. It was our off day. We had slept in and just taking our time getting ready. I was watching Soap Opera Network (LOL, don't have it here). I had already talked to my Dad, who was keeping our 6mon. old baby. It was just me, DH, and DD (3) there. Then my dad called me back and said "are you watching tv?" Well, I was, but not the right stations. He told us and we turned the channel. My DD asked "why did that plane fly into that building" I just said a mean man flew it there. She accepted that and went back to coloring. Thank goodness she wasn't about a year older. I would have really bothered her more.

I wanted to drive home right then, but my dad and DH thought that was crazy. I'm glad we didn't now. The next day in the parks felt surreal. Can't really explain it. I just remember looking at the sky all the time. But we had lunch at Cindys and my DD got great pictures with Cinderella and the prince. She was so happy and so unaware. I remember that vacation being the one of our best and also the saddest.