All the Times Disney World Has Closed As of October 2024

On October 10^th, 2024, something quite unusual happened.

The theme parks at Walt Disney World never opened to the public.

Safety concerns involving Hurricane Milton forced the full-day closure, something that had only happened a handful of times previously.

Of course, as you know, one of those instances lasted much longer than the others.

Here are all the times Walt Disney World has closed for the full day as of October 2024.

The First Early Closure

Disneyland Resort had already closed early a couple of times before Walt Disney World opened.

Even so, we’re talking about something that was a once-a-decade kind of occurrence at Disneyland.

That pace held during the early days of Walt Disney World as well.

In fact, the parks almost made it through the entire 20^th century without a full-day closure!

Since we’re living in the aftermath of a pandemic, that’s a fact that’s sorta difficult to reconcile. It’s totally true, though.

After Walt Disney World opened in 1971, it wouldn’t suffer even a significant partial shutdown until 1985.

That was the first hurricane instance requiring a theme park modification.

Hurricane Elena became a Cat-3 storm, forcing park officials to proactively close Magic Kingdom and EPCOT early on August 31^st, 1985.

This storm occurred so long ago that they were the only two parks Disney had even opened at that point!

Nothing came of the weather event in Central Florida, though. It hovered off the coast of Florida before making landfall in Mississippi.

The First Full Closure

Disney World wouldn’t experience a full-day closure until 1999, 28 years after it had debuted.

By this point, all four theme parks were operational, which made Hurricane Floyd that much more stressful.

Cast Members were stretched thin at the time, and Hurricane Floyd was hovering at the high-end Cat-4 status.

In fact, the storm needed only two more miles per hour (MPH) on its average to reach Cat-5, something it never did.

That wasn’t the only surprise here. Disney World closed early on September 14^th and then announced it wouldn’t open on September 15^th.

So, September 15^th, 1999, was the first full day when Walt Disney World remained closed for the full day.

On September 14, 1999, Disney World closed down for the first time in its 28-year history, due to the impact of Hurricane Floyd pic.twitter.com/dCiJPnx1VO

— RetroNewsNow (@RetroNewsNow) September 14, 2019

While “better safe than sorry” applies here, Hurricane Floyd never achieved landfall in Florida as expected.

Instead, the storm ran parallel to Florida’s coast and eventually made landfall on September 16^th in Cape Feare, North Carolina.

The 9/11 Closure

Anyone alive and old enough to remember the 9/11 attacks realizes how trivial side discussions are.

People died that day at the hands of terrorists, and that’s all that matters here.

So, I’ll gloss over details for the time being and refer you back to this article I wrote in 2020.

Since the federal government quantifies Disney theme parks as potential targets for extreme terrorism, it acts quickly.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that many government officials believe Disney must be protected at all costs.

As soon as news broke that the Twin Towers plans had been hijacked, security officials notified Disney to close the parks.

Disneyland Resort was three hours behind and was never close to opening that day.

The story was different at Walt Disney World, where guests had already filtered into Magic Kingdom.

Long story short, park guests entered the parks, were there for a matter of minutes, and then found themselves being escorted to the exits.

Disney did keep its resorts open, and I’ve read countless praise about the behavior of Cast Members throughout the process.

Given how chaotic the unprecedented event was, Disney handled the crisis admirably.

The Nightmare of 2004

For nearly 33 years, Disney World operated without incident.

Walt Disney’s belief that he had chosen relatively safe proved valid time and again.

Strong storms repeatedly petered out before they reached Central Florida…until August and September of 2004.

In terms of horrific hurricane seasons, that was the one Central Floridians remember as the start of the modern era.

The issue wasn’t a single storm but rather the entire hurricane season.

In less than six weeks, three different named hurricanes forced park closures.

So, after having one such incident from 1971-2003, three occurred in a matter of weeks.

The first was Hurricane Charley, a Cat-4 weather event that was still a hurricane when it reached Central Florida.

That turn of events caught many of the region off-guard. Disney World hadn’t originally planned to close.

Once the storm proved more troublesome, park officials quickly acted, closing the three parks that had already opened.

Meanwhile, Disney’s Animal Kingdom never technically opened that day.

Depending on the report you believe from the time, Charley was either a Cat-1 or a lower-end Cat-2 when it reached Disney World.

That happened on August 13^th, 2024. By September 4^th, Hurricane Frances had formed, and it was a Cat-4.

Flabbergasted park officials preemptively closed the parks early on September 4^th, and nothing opened on September 5^th.

That proved wise since Hurricane Frances made landfall twice in Florida and devastated the region.

The storm was Cat-2 when it reached Florida but weakened into a tropical storm by the time it arrived at Disney World.

Finally, Hurricane Jeanne, a Cat-3, forced another closure on September 26^th.

The notable part about this storm is that it made landfall in almost exactly the same spot as Frances.

Recent Hurricanes

By now, you can spot the trend that hurricane issues have escalated during the 21^st century.

To be fair, part of that is due to Disney World acting cautiously to protect the safety of guests.

Also, there was a fairly prolonged gap between the nightmare of 2004 and the next event, which was Hurricane Matthew.

That storm was a Cat-5 at one point, reaching 165 MPH, before reaching Florida as a Cat-3.

Disney World closed at 5 p.m. on October 6^th and remained closed on October 7^th. The storm never really threatened Orlando, though.

Less than a year later, Hurricane Irma became a devastating Cat-5 with 180 MPH winds.

It was a scary Cat-4 when it came ashore in Florida. So, Disney closed early on September 9^th and never opened on the 10^th and 11^th.

That was the first storm MickeyBlog ever covered. You can read more about it here.

Two years later, Hurricane Dorian somehow proved even worse, reaching 185 MPH as a Cat-5.

That one was utterly chaotic for Disney, as it arrived mere days after Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge debuted at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Disney understandably didn’t want to close the parks all day, but the parks adjusted their hours on September 2^nd, to close early.

Here was my report from then, and I’ll also point out a nice story that came of it.

The Pandemic

I’m not ready to pull this particular Band-Aid off quite yet.

What I’ll say is that I vividly recall where I was on March 11^th, 2020, the day Rudy Gobert touched all those microphones. 

I was sitting at a bar on Marvel Trivia Night when I realized that the world was about to shut down.

There I was, sitting in a crowded room of people, knowing that any number of them could already be infected.

And the worst part? I don’t even drink. I was just there for a burger and Marvel trivia…which I lost.

As soon as I went home, I wrote this, the first of many articles about Disney’s unprecedented crisis.

Another one came soon afterward. Please don’t judge me for a couple of laughably bad takes – it was a wild week.

Then, MickeyBlog spent the time from March 16^th through July 10^th writing about Disney theme parks that weren’t open.

Those were strange times, my friends. And when we discuss Walt Disney World and Disneyland closures, that’s 99 percent of the days.

Disney World closed for 116 days, while Disneyland shut down for more than a calendar year.

And if you were in any way involved with keeping hope alive as a Cast Member or MickeyTravels agent, please know that I’m in awe of you.

Recent Hurricanes Part II

By now, you realize just how much has to happen for a Disney World theme park to close.

Even several of the instances I’ve discussed weren’t full closures. Instead, one or more parks shut down earlier than usual.

Instances like October 10^th, 2024, are extraordinarily rare in the annals of Disney World history.

Instead, they’re much closer to what happened on October 9^th, 2024, when the potential impact of Hurricane Milton prematurely closed the parks.

We’ve tracked a couple of other recent situations like this as well.

In 2022, Hurricane Ian proved a slow-moving Cat-5 hurricane whose impact is still felt in Florida to this day.

The storm became the costliest ever in the Sunshine State and arguably the most deadly as well.

At Disney, Hurricane Ian shared similarities with Hurricane Milton in that park officials gave the rare “shelter in place” request.

That’s something Disney World has done less than ten times in its 53-year history. That’s DEFCON 1 for Disney.

The difference with Ian is that while its flooding annihilated many parts of Florida, it lost hurricane status in reaching Orlando.

So, that one, as hellish as it was, largely left Disney World alone.

Universal Orlando Resort suffered flooding and lost part of a building, an indicator that the area wasn’t entirely spared. It just…could have been worse.

THE Most Recent Hurricanes

Two months later, Hurricane Nicole proved less threatening in a general sense.

Alas, the Florida coast was still suffering from the lingering devastation of Hurricane Ian.

So, even though that storm was “just” a Cat-1, Disney World still performed a phased closure on November 9^th, 2022.

The parks closed at 5 p.m., which wasn’t that early, but it was before the scheduled end of park hours.

Since that storm was the least aggressive we’ve discussed today, Disney World reopened without incident the following morning.

Now, we have Hurricane Milton, the second named storm of 2024 to affect Disney World.

This hurricane caused an early closure at 2 p.m. on October 9^th, 2024, and then a full-day closure on October 10^th, 2024.

In reading this article, you can appreciate just how rare it is for Disney World to close entirely for a full day.

That’s how unique Hurricane Milton was. Thankfully, it followed the trend of largely avoiding Mickey Mouse’s home.

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