Overview

• Retrospectives recount that Walt Disney World decided with Universal and SeaWorld to shut all parks, with Disney closing at about 11 a.m. on September 11, 2001.
• Guests learned of the attacks largely through phone calls from home in an era before widespread mobile internet, prompting confusion and early departures.
• Cast members managed an orderly evacuation, reportedly forming a human wall on Main Street, U.S.A., and directing visitors back to resorts where characters greeted families to help calm nerves.
• The parks reopened the next day with expanded bag checks that continue today, with accounts noting early inspections by Orange County Sheriff’s deputies and reports that guests were asked to remove batteries from electronic devices for verification.
• Flight shutdowns stranded tourists across Central Florida, leading many to drive home and contributing to a broader slump in travel that the articles frame within remembrance of the 2,977 lives lost.