Mom stays at Universal Studios Hotel “ready” for Hurricane Milton

• Allison Gilgenbach checked into a Florida hotel at Universal Studios before Hurricane Milton.
• The mother and her daughters, 11 and 8, intend to continue their vacation at the resort and feel safe.
• They brought battery-powered lights and had InstaCart deliver extra food and water.

This essay is based on a conversation with Allison Gilgenbach, 45, a training manager for an IT company in Cleveland. It has been edited for length and clarity.

After entering our hotel room at the Universal Orlando Resort in Florida, my daughters Reagan, 11, and Ryann, 8, and I looked for the nearest exits and stairs.

The last time Reagan checked the weather app, Hurricane Milton was predicted to hit central Florida around 5 a.m. Thursday. We wanted to find the quickest route to safety in case we had to evacuate the room and the elevators weren’t working.

I packed battery-operated lights and candles in our luggage and six battery-operated phone chargers for my phone. The hotel seems to have a lot of food available, but I ordered a case of water and snacks like Lunchables via InstaCart just in case.

It’s our first time at Universal. We booked our vacation a few months ago between Reagan and Ryann’s birthdays. Upon hearing about the possible hurricane, my travel agent asked if we wanted to cancel or change our travel dates.

I extended our trip by 2 days

Normally I’m a bit of a scaredy cat, but for some reason this didn’t worry me too much. The path is unpredictable and I feel like this area and the hotel structure are prepared for hurricanes. If there is one anywhere, it’s probably one of these resorts.

I observed Facebook posts in Disney groups and some people on the platform had said the same thing. They said this is usually where a lot of people from the coast, like Tampa, come inland to settle.

I originally booked the trip for Tuesday to Saturday. However, since we didn’t want to spend the entire vacation in our room, we decided to extend the vacation until Monday after checking that there would still be a lot of activities going on in the hotel.

We waited in line for two hours to check in. The card machines were out of service for a while so everything had to be done by hand. People were trying to check out early and at the same time others were showing up looking for a room.

Since the park was supposed to close at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, we used the rides on Tuesday afternoon. We had planned to go to the shops at Universal CityWalk after breakfast, but it was pouring rain so we returned to our hotel instead.

The staff organized lots of activities for the children, such as painting and crafts. Films were also shown, such as the “Harry Potter” series. But we were in the arcade almost all day. We spent about $300 on the arcade machines alone.

My children are taking advantage of our situation. “Can we get more ice cream?” they said.

The staff at our hotel reassured us

I don’t mind the cost of the arcade since we would have spent money at the park anyway. My parents – who were a bit worried about us at first – sent the girls some money via Zelle so they could play a few extra games.

My daughters are not afraid. They saw me asking the staff who lived nearby if they were nervous. They said no because they’ve been through this before, and they’ll keep everyone updated.

The girls and I have some experience ourselves, although not directly with hurricanes. We had some Tornado windsstraight line winds and pretty bad thunderstorms in Ohio. We all go to our basements and squat down.

Still, I just pray that Milton is short-lived.

Are you affected by Hurricane Milton and want to share your story with Business Insider? Please send the details to [email protected]