Monday, September 26: We got off the boat earlier than we’re often awake, which left us plenty of time to drive over to Walt Disney World, check into our hotel, spend some time in Epcot, have a nice dinner back at the hotel and then spend a bit more time in Epcot. I got this shot of the hotel during our dinner break.

 

Tuesday, September 27: Headed to Hollywood Studios and had a good day but for the emergency alert coming through on our phones about the hurricane warning. That’s a new one. Having already been watching the reports of Ian heading to Florida, we weren’t taken unawares and had already decided to shelter in place, having heard how well the Disney hotels handle big storms (though we were not at a Disney-owned property but right next door to several). Seem less risky to stay put than try to figure out where to go given the uncertain path of the storm.

 
Wednesday, September 28: Confined to the hotel. All the theme parks were closed, but the hotel had food options for us so we didn’t have to dip into the storm supplies I’d stocked up on. We’d also bought a jigsaw puzzle the day before to work on so we had something to do besides laundry in between looking out the windows at the rain and watching coverage of the storm on tv.

 
Thursday, September 29: Woke to find we had slept through the worst of the storm overnight. The hotel hadn’t even lost power or water (we’d filled our cooler at put it in the shower just in case). By dinnertime, the rain had pretty much stopped and we ventured outside to see what we could see. Mostly it was a lot of branches and leaves and other plant matter scattered around and a few flooded areas.

 
Friday, September 30: The parks opened up and we headed to Magic Kingdom. We did not take advantage of the three hours in the morning that were only for on-property hotel guests because we were planning a late night and getting up early was even less appealing than usual. We closed the park down around midnight after partaking in the Halloween party festivities.

 
Saturday, October 1: Went to Animal Kingdom, then on to Disney Springs for shopping and the Cirque du Soleil show.

 
Sunday, October 2: Started in Epcot, hopped to Magic Kingdom, and ended at Epcot. We missed the actual 40th anniversary of Epcot by a day but the signs were still up and the merchandise plentiful.

 

*****
On this date in 2011 to 2021: No entries
2010: On Acting Old
2009: Hitting the Trail
2006 to 2008: No entries
2006: Evening Star Quilts
2003 to 2004: No entries
2002: Goal Check-in #4