ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Florida theme parks including Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando and SeaWorld planned to reopen Friday after an assessment of the effects of Hurricane Milton.
Some Halloween special events won’t be offered and they won’t necessarily be fully functioning Friday, but the public is welcome back, the parks said in statements.
As Milton came ashore as a major storm Wednesday, all three Orlando-based parks shut down, putting a damper on the vacations of tens of thousands of tourists, many of whom hunkered down in hotels. Disney World, Universal and SeaWorld were all closed for at least part of Wednesday and all of Thursday.
Orlando International Airport, Florida’s busiest, planned to resume domestic arrivals on Thursday and departures Friday after mostly shutting down Wednesday.
The airport's closure prevented Simon Forster, his wife and their two children from returning to Scotland, so they enjoyed an extra two days of their two-week vacation on the bustling International Drive in Orlando’s tourism district on Thursday. Hurricanes seem to follow them since two years ago Hurricane Ian kept them from returning to Scotland after another Orlando vacation.
“Last night, it was quite intense, Forster said. “I was watching the palm trees sway back and forth outside my hotel room. How they didn’t come down, I don’t know. Scary stuff.”
Their hotel at Universal Orlando Resort had a party atmosphere Wednesday night ahead of Milton’s arrival.
“The bar was good fun,” he said. “Two extra days here, there are are worst places we could be.”
In Tampa, the animals were safe at popular tourist attractions ZooTampa and The Florida Aquarium, which were aiming to reopen Saturday.
The 1,000 animals at the zoo will remain in their night houses and hurricane shelter locations while habitats are cleared of debris, a spokesperson said. The aquarium also confirmed their animals are “doing well.”
“Our buildings weathered the storm well, as did our animals,” Roger German, president and CEO of the aquarium said in a Thursday news release.
The zoo sustained some damage from the high winds and does not have power, and the spokesperson anticipates the debris cleanup and restoration, which is already underway, will take a few days.
In Orlando, miniature golf was among the few activities available to tourists who had been locked down in their hotel rooms and rental condos with the parks closed. There was a line getting into Congo River Golf on International Drive.
Craig Greig of Glasgow, Scotland, would have been at the Magic Kingdom with his wife and 10-year-old if the theme parks had been open. Instead he was clutching a putter ready to putt golf balls over a man made lagoon filled with baby alligators.
“We just wanted to stretch our legs and get out of the hotel,” he said. “Especially for the little one.” He slept through the night as the hurricane, his first, roared through central Florida.
Disney World, Universal and other attractions make Orlando the United States' most visited destination, drawing 74 million tourists last year alone.
And Halloween-related celebrations have made October one of the busiest and most lucrative stretches.
Hurricanes in the Orlando area are uncommon but not unheard of. Three crossed the area in 2004 – Charley, Frances and Jeanne, and Hurricane Ian caused some flooding as it plowed through as a downgraded tropical storm in 2022.
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Associated Press Writers Andrew Dalton and Kaitlyn Huamani contributed from Los Angeles.
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Mike Schneider, The Associated Press
