What was Disney World like on 9/11? The day the parks closed, and what changed after

What happened at Disney World on 9/11?

Tuesday 11 September 2001 began as an ordinary morning at Walt Disney World. Magic Kingdom was already open and guests were heading into the other three parks when the first plane hit the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m., WKMG News 6 recounted for the 20th anniversary.

After the second hit at 9:03 a.m., Disney announced on ABC that every Disney park in the world would close. It did so, WKMG says, before the FAA had even grounded flights nationwide.

Across Walt Disney World a parkwide announcement cut through the background music: the resort was now closed, and guests should follow cast members to the nearest exit. Disneyland, three hours behind, never opened that day.

Orlando's roads jammed as Disney, Universal and SeaWorld emptied at once. The Florida Highway Patrol told the Orlando Sentinel that traffic on I-4 near the parks was "almost to a stop", and dozens of Lynx and Mears buses were rushed in to move people.

How did Disney evacuate the parks?

By following a plan that already existed. WKMG reports that cast members were called to carry out "Emergency Plan A": they linked hands into human walls and swept the parks empty, all at once. Some of the people lining Main Street were in suits, from the offices rather than the parks, one guest remembered.

Most guests were not told why. A Frontierland cast member told HuffPost in 2011, as WKMG quotes it, that staff were told not to explain unless a guest asked. When he did tell one, the guest "just stood there blank faced".

Back at the hotels, the stranded were looked after. With no flights, Disney extended stays for guests with nowhere to go, resort restaurants absorbed crowds who would normally eat in the parks, and Mickey and friends were sent out to the hotels to keep children occupied.

Had Disney World ever closed like that before?

Not for a full day. WKMG says the resort went its first 28 years without closing its gates for a whole day. Hurricane Elena shut Magic Kingdom and EPCOT a few hours early on 31 August 1985, and Hurricane Floyd closed the parks early on 14 September 1999.

On WKMG's count, 11 September 2001 was the third closure of any kind.

It was the second time a national emergency had closed Disney parks. The first was the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, when only Disneyland existed. For Disneyland, Mickey Visit counts 9/11 as one of only four closures in its history, with the Kennedy day of mourning, the 1994 Northridge earthquake and the pandemic.

What was Disney World like after 9/11?

Quiet, and watched. The parks reopened on 12 September 2001 with makeshift bag-check tables at every entrance. The early checks were slow, guests were asked to take batteries out of electronics, and Orange County Sheriff's deputies stood in uniform inside the parks, which WKMG says was all but unheard of the day before.

Then the visitors stopped coming. From the Orlando Sentinel's reporting at the time, as collected by LaughingPlace in 2011:

• Hotels: occupancy at some Orlando hotels fell below 10%, and the few tourists could walk straight onto the most popular rides.
• Disney's shares fell 18% to $19.25 on the first day of trading after the attacks.
• Cast members: the Sentinel reported nine days after the attacks that Disney had frozen hiring and was cutting hours for most of its 40,000 hourly workers. The deepest cuts fell on 15,000 part-timers, some told not to come in at all until further notice.
• Celebrations: the 100 Years of Magic celebration still opened on 1 October 2001, but Disney postponed its media launch and told 5,000 reporters and broadcasters not to come.

Patriotic souvenirs sold fast. A Disney spokesman told the Sentinel that anything red, white and blue had seen "a dramatic rise in sales", and some stores ran out of the American-flag Mickey pin.

Why is there a no-fly zone over Disney World?

Because Congress wrote one into law in 2003, and the reason given was terrorism. The FAA's standing notice for Disney World bans all flying within 3 nautical miles of the parks, up to 3,000 feet above the ground, drones included. Only aircraft cleared by air traffic control, the military, police and air ambulances are exempt.

The FAA classes it as national defense airspace, so knowingly breaking it can bring criminal penalties.

The notice cites section 352 of Public Law 108-7, the spending act of February 2003. A federal judge refused to lift the zone that June, the Associated Press reported, after the Justice Department argued the parks were "an attractive target".

The sources disagree on who wanted it. WKMG describes the no-fly zone as set up "with the help of federal authorities" after the attacks. A 2014 McClatchy investigation, citing an Orlando Sentinel inquiry from 2003, says the provision was urged by at least one Disney lobbyist, not requested by defense officials.

It also ended years of banner-towing planes circling the parks. In 2013 the head of the FAA told Congress that without the law he would lift the Disney zones.

What changed for visitors, and what is still in place?

The bag check is the legacy you will meet. Disney's park rules still say every person, bag and item may be screened, and they ban weapons of any kind. Since 2001 Disney has added K-9 patrols, many more security staff and gates at backstage entrances built to stop a vehicle, WKMG reports, and high-tech scanners that make most manual bag checks unnecessary.

Two rules matter for packing. Drones are on the resort's list of prohibited items, and the FAA's no-fly zone around the parks covers them too, so leave one at home. Allow extra time at park entrances for screening, above all at rope drop.

One loss is sometimes pinned on 9/11. River Country, the resort's first water park, closed on 2 November 2001 and never reopened. WKMG lists the slump in tourism after the attacks among several reasons, along with bigger water parks nearby and awkward parking.