Cancel Star Wars Dessert Party?

[Mambo Junkie]

The day I am scheduled to be at DHS and I have a dessert party booked, it's calling for 100% precipitation. Would you cancel? Does the show still go on? I don't care that much about the party, the desserts or the drinks. I booked it strictly for the viewing area. I will still go to DHS that day, just not do the party. What would you do/advise?

 

[Mambo Junkie]

Also, there is a 1 day cancellation policy. Does that mean I can cancel the day before any time up until midnight?

 

[famy27]

I take all Orlando forecasts with a grain of salt.

We were just in WDW from Sept 1-7. The prediction was for continous all-day rain, 100% chance for at least the first four days We landed as the hurricane was moving past and actually flew through the hurricane. When we landed, it was dry. We had small periods of rain on Friday and Saturday, but it was not longer than 20-30 minutes at a time. For MNSSHP, we had some rain from 6:00 to 6:30, and then it was fine the rest of the night. Tuesday and Wednesday were completely dry and clear. It wasn't even humid. Someone started a thread here about the weather and claimed he/she would have a miserable time because the weather was going to be so awful. We took the opposite approach. We brought ponchos and prepared for rain, thinking that the rain would cool down temperatures and thin out the crowds, so it was fine with us. We ended up barely needing the ponchos. We did the Star Wars dessert party. I booked it the night prior (probably some poor weather forecast watcher's cancellation, as there were no spots a few days before) with the very same forecast you're looking at. We had zero rain during the party. Of course, it may still rain, but I'd just bring a poncho and not worry about it.

Also, how soon is your party? Forecasts in Florida change by the minute

 

[CAS239]

Likely that it won't be raining that late at night. Who knows, you might not even get any rain at HS that day. Florida storms are generally scattered and while you should be prepared for rain, I wouldn't cancel.

The 100% chance of rain could rain for half the day at MK and HS not see a drop.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

I will do a wait and see, but if it is raining, do they cancel the fireworks? I was sooo disappointed when we did the Wishes dessert party and it rained. People stood in front of us and we couldn't see; our only option for a view was to stand in the rain, plus I was so excited for the view for my 2 DGDs to see Tinkerbell fly and of course, she didn't fly. We didn't even eat the desserts.

 

[Accident]

Keep in mind the desert party is inside and then you go outside to a preferred viewing area. You might actually get the best experience if it does rain as you can wait until the last second to get in the rain and it'll still be a good spot to watch.

I'm rather close to HS where I live and there's been lots of nights where i'm watching the fireworks from my porch while it's raining thinking I can't believe they are still running them. Then again even that close and it's still far enough for different weather so it may not have been raining there..

Dont' go by percent. It's always going to say rain and 100% just means there is no chance you wont see some type of rain. It doesn't mean 100% of the day will be rain. www.clickorlando.com/weather/attractions has a really good 24 hour hour by hour listing of when the rain will be around. (click hourly above the day by day image near the top). It probably won't be accurate but at least you'll get an idea of what the next 24 hours will look like. Also the attractions is what they call the disney property area.. but again grain of salt all of this because it's not uncommon for disney parks to all have different rain that day. It's not like other parts of the world where rain is a large, slow moving thing that lasts awhile. Fast showers that race through the state and go all different directions is the normal.

 

[writerguyfl]

Intellicast is my favorite weather site because it predicts when rain is expected by hour of the day. Here is the upcoming Lake Buena Vista forecast:

The bottom graph is precipitation. The point where it drops off is right around 9pm each day. (On the actual website you can place your cursor over the graph and it display the time.)

Link to Lake Buena Vista forecast at Intellicast: http://www.intellicast.com/Local/Weather.aspx?location=USFL9833

Edited: Looks like Accident beat me by four minutes with his weather map!

 

[Accident]

Edited: Looks like Accident beat me by four minutes with his weather map!

I like your map actually, I never knew of a good source to see hourly rain more than about 24 hours out so that will come in handy also. My link I tend to use for the radar to see where the rain currently is and if it's heading towards the park I'm thinking of going too but this could be helpful in weekend planning

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

We were at Epcot a day that had a massive down pour starting about 8 pm with a 9 pm Illuminations. We got trapped in Mexico (3 times on Los Caballeros, people, 3 times!!) so I was chatting with the bartender at La Cava. He said they very rarely cancel fireworks and will delay 30 to 45 minutes to see if things will clear up enough to go. Sure enough even with torrential downpours and flash flooding (well, okay, I'm exaggerating, really big puddles) Illuminations went off when the rain got lighter at 9:40 ish. Interestingly, the DHS show went off on time at 9:45 and we're pretty sure Wishes was moved up so it looked like all 3 fireworks shows were going at the same time (Quick, we've got a break in the clouds - shoot off everything!)

So I agree with the pp who said you might have the best experience one can hope for in the rain - a great place to see the show, an indoor space to wait out any delays, and a cast member who will lead you out right before you need to be there. Perfect. Although if you do get the downpours that last through show time and they do cancel, I assume you're out the money so I guess you do have to weigh that risk. I don't envy you that decision. Good luck and I hope you have a great time.

 

[rlk]

We watched Star Wars Fireworks in the rain. The CMs all said that they almost never cancel the fireworks unless there is lightning in the area.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

Thanks! It's funny looking at the weather map because the 3 heaviest booked days I have are Friday, Saturday and Sunday. No plans for Monday or Tuesday. Last night I moved my AK day from Tuesday to Wednesday. Lots of availability; I'm stoked and ready to go. I would move my first 3 days but I have so much planned and near impossible ADRs and fps to switch last minute, so I'm packing my rain poncho and hitting the road tomorrow!. Side note - every trip I pack my ponchos and every next trip I have to hunt for where they're stored. This trip I found my old yellow ponchos and the clear ones with Mickey on the back that replaced them. Super excited! (lol, I know; it's the little things)