So Disgusted-Weather

[Kalliope]

Yep. I don't worry about walking around in thunder and lightning or even torrential rain. If there is a hurricane about to hit I will stay inside the hotel as instructed but outside of that I just go with it and deal with being wet.

Maybe you should. http://www.bradenton.com/2015/07/09/5888057/florida-lightning-strike-fatalities.html

 

[stackyallred]

I'm ok with storms and I have even resolved to be perfectly happy if a day is a wash due to dangerous weather. What I'm bummed about is out 9:30 AM arrival into MCO Tuesday morning. I'm having visions of sitting in our airport for 12 hours... However, it is really a possibility to encounter bad weather and delays anytime we travel. I just am feeling a bit whiny that I KNOW it's really likely to impact us!

 

[kandb]

We have a BOG dinner reservation on Tuesday night, hope they are not going to close the parks on Tuesday. We arrived here on Wed at 5:30pm, we got off the plane and it started to rain with lightning and thunder. We had to wait over 1 1/2 hours for our luggage to come off the plane, due to the lightning. JetBlue worker told me a luggage worker was struck by lightning 3 or 4 weeks ago.

 

[Meldev]

We had downpours 5 of our 7 days last September-October. Literally pouring for hours each day - so much so they even had to cancel Fantasmic! (Which was the only night we could see it had the dinner package and all) - last two days were nice.... It was mentally tough on us (ponchos on and off of 4 kids and ourselves over and over) - but the kids remember the rides and fun! So that's all that matters!

 

[BarbieGal457]

All of my trips my whole life it has rained, and my trip this past May-June it poured daily and for long periods of time. It didn't affect anything at all! As long as there is no lightning and it is safe to do so, we will continue walking/eating/shopping/riding unless instructed otherwise. A nice thing about the rain is it really clears out a lot of the crowds. I'm not a fan of ponchos but my boyfriend is, so he wore one and I wore a really light hoodie and it worked fine. I always say "we're not going to melt!" so as long as it's safe, we go for it. I won't let rain ruin my day or my vacation, we just roll with the punches. Last trip it was torrential in MK, and when we came out of Be Our Guest, there was a double rainbow over Fantasyland and it was breathtaking! We've also done the water parks in the rain (no lightning obviously) and found it to be really fun as well. We're already wet so what's a little extra rain?!

 

[scrapquitler]

We were at WDW/Universal during a tropical storm one year, and we got VERY wet, but we were still able to have a great time. Definitely put your ponchos on and go to the parks.

 

[wilkeliza]

I worked in the parks when Sandy hit the NY/NJ area. The system itself stayed out of FL and stuck to the ocean but we would get bands of heavy showers every day. A lot of the outside attractions were up and down through out the day. So try to plan your outside stuff (Big Thunder Mountain, Test Track, Seven Dwarfs) as soon as you can. If you have a fast pass for it is and it isn't open you will be given an anytime fastpass for that attraction or a list of others. If TT goes down expect Soarin's line to be long even FP. The rain shouldn't be too constant and should pass as the bands of the storm pass through so you'll have a few hours of clear sky, a few hours of rain, a few hours of clear, repeat until storm has passed.

Each attraction is a little different in lighting. Basically though if you can see it, chances are outside attractions will be shut down. It is possible though for you not to see it and stuff to be closed because if there are reports of a dangerous system moving in quickly they may shut down to be proactive. All depends on the manager making the call that day.

 

[Indio]

We were at WDW during Tropical Storm Debbie in 2012. It rained all day every day for 4 days straight. My best advice is don't wear sneakers! They will be drenched and there is NO WAY to dry them out. There were signs in the laundry that said "NO SHOES IN DRYERS". We did go to the parks every day - no waterparks, but we don't usually do them anyway. It was wet but we had fun. We were walking thru ankle deep water. Just keep your chin up and make the best of it. I know it's a downer, but you can still have a great vacation. Just remember - no sneakers!!

 

[DisneyFive]

Praying the weather turns out to be mostly beautiful for all you at WDW this next week. Personally, rain sucks at Disney, period. Hope you have as little as possible.

Dan

 

[ddavev3]

I remember one night being in the Magic Kingdom and heat lightning (I don't think it was raining) was lighting up the sky. Things were going on as normal and I was trying to be a good sport, but I just kept thinking how odd it was that I seemed to be the only one concerned as I was walking in Fantasyland.

There's really no such thing as "heat lightning." It's just a term used for very distant thunderstorms where the sound of the thunder dissipates before it reaches you. It's perfectly safe to be outside if you see lightning on the horizon but don't hear accompanying thunder.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_lightning

 

[rlduvall]

A few years ago I heard a tip on a Disney podcast about how to dry your tennis shoes out if you get them wet. Wad up newspaper and place it inside the shoe; it absorbs all the moisture. I tried it and it does work. As for the OP, I totally understand how you feel. Living in Oklahoma, I do love storms and the rain . . . just not on my vacation.

 

[BobC]

I'll be there tomorrow morning.

I have a friend in Orlando and it rains daily in the afternoon. Every time she calls me after work it sounds like she's driving thru a war. But these only last an hour.

Concerned about Erika but oh well. Well make it!!

 

[sharona]

I'm ok with storms and I have even resolved to be perfectly happy if a day is a wash due to dangerous weather. What I'm bummed about is out 9:30 AM arrival into MCO Tuesday morning. I'm having visions of sitting in our airport for 12 hours... However, it is really a possibility to encounter bad weather and delays anytime we travel. I just am feeling a bit whiny that I KNOW it's really likely to impact us!

Can you try to be proactive and change your arrival if at all possible. Can you move up your flight by a day or maybe push out your whole trip by 3 days? I guess this depends on how you've booked. We usually fly SW so can change our flights at will and if you book hotel only you can cancel/rebook usually up to 48 hours before.

 

[BigAlsGal]

Try not to fret. I know its hard but the weather is just so unpredictable!! We went in April. Our forecast was very similar to yours. We only saw an evening of light rain.

One of the nights I looked at the forecast it said 100% chance of strong storms all day the next day. I prepared for the worst. Woke up to a beautiful day and checked the weather again. It went down to 20%!! I had just checked it a few hours earlier!! Keep your chin up.

As far as going when it's lightning yes I would still go. There are thousands of lightning rods at disney. If lightning is gonna strike anywhere in the vicinity it's going to hit one of those rods. Might scare the hell out of me though!!!

 

[icicle]

We're arriving tomorrow so just planning to do our best in the rain. Some of our favorite memories on past trips happened in downpours.

I've seen lots of mentions to pack ponchos but pack ziplock bags too!!! We are also packing more pairs of shoes than we normally would so we have options to switch out wet shoes.

 

[DisMom829]

We were at WDW during Tropical Storm Debbie in 2012. It rained all day every day for 4 days straight. My best advice is don't wear sneakers! They will be drenched and there is NO WAY to dry them out. There were signs in the laundry that said "NO SHOES IN DRYERS". We did go to the parks every day - no waterparks, but we don't usually do them anyway. It was wet but we had fun. We were walking thru ankle deep water. Just keep your chin up and make the best of it. I know it's a downer, but you can still have a great vacation. Just remember - no sneakers!!

We were there in 2012 also! My DD had Dance Down Mainstreet, it was storming when she boarded the bus to go to the parade line up. It was storming as we parked the car at the Magic Kingdom (somewhere I have pic of us all in Frogg Toggs, but about 5 minutes before the start of the parade, the sky broke and it cleared up. It rained every single day that week. I second the don't wear tennis shoes. We opted for flops or Crocs by day 2. We still had an amazing vacation!

 

[GreatLakes]

Maybe you should. http://www.bradenton.com/2015/07/09/5888057/florida-lightning-strike-fatalities.html

Yeah, still not worried. I wouldn't be fishing out on a lake or in the middle of an opened field but in a themepark the chances of a person being hit are slim. Lightning will seek the fastest route to the ground and at Disney World you will pretty much never be that route.

 

[Nancyg56]

Here now and yesterday was the first day we did not miss the deluge. It was pretty awful but since there was no help for it, we just got soaked. We were all in the same boat! Lol! I agree that a warm sweatshirt in your back pack is s good idea because the restaurants seem cold after getting wet, but aside from that, and wet sneaks, it's not too bad.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

On our 2011 trip we had two days of very heavy and steady rain. The rain doesn't usually bother us, we just soldier on, but the first day we went to Animal Kingdom and it was miserable. The plentiful trees were pouring water on us besides the rain and there were so many puddles they couldn't be avoided. The only fun was when we went on Everest in the pouring rain! But our next day at Epcot was fabulous! The park was nearly empty, we were walking on attractions, and having a grand time. It came down steadily for the whole day, and when we got back to the hotel we were soaked through even though we'd been wearing ponchos, but we still had fun. I hope you can find the Magic even in the rain!

 

[TSR6]

FLORIDA WEATHER BE LIKE:

...AND 15 MINUTES LATER BE LIKE: