Disney in the Rain

[diskids2]

Hi all....We are leaving for our trip on Wed. and the 10 day forcast calls for rain every day. It's fine with me....it may keep the temps down from mid to high 90's to low 90's and anyway....what's a little rain.....I'm going to Disney (Isn't if funny that no matter how many times you have gone you still get so excited!!!!!)

I've always gone in the winter or spring, so every day of rain is new to me....so my questions are:

1. What rides will close in rain and/or thunderstorms?
2. What strategies do you use to deal with the rain?
3. Any special items I need to pack other then ponchos and a second pair of sneakers and/or water type shoes (crocs, etc.)
4. I know that in the summer it is typical to have an afternoon thunderstorm almost every day....how long does it usually rain if this is the case?
5. Any thing else I may need to know?

Thanks everyone!

 

[bartleby1]

Rides close due to thunder/lightening, not really due to rain so much. Any outdoor ride can close when it is lightening.

What we usually do is save a few long indoor shows or rides for late afternoon. If it rains, we can escape the rain without "missing" anything. If it doesn't rain, it serves as a nice escape from the afternoon heat.

I don't know if you have young children, but if you are using strollers, don't forgot rain covers.

 

[Cool-Beans]

Rain doesn't cool things off down there like it does up here. It is just as hot and muggy after a rain as it was before...sometimes more muggy.

Bring an extra pair of shoes. They may not dry overnight (even with the ever-popular newspaper - tried it!) and walking around with soggy feet just sucks.

Everyone says that it only rains for 15-20 minutes, but that just isn't true. It often rains for hours. On occasion, it rains all day long. You will see this "It only rains for 15 minutes!" fallacy when you're there.

My rain strategy is to get out of it, but that's me. Lots of folks hang in there. Did it once, didn't like it.

The ponchos are okay if the rain is truly fleeting, but you begin sweating under them if the rain continues and end up just as wet.

All the outside rides close during rain (Test Track, Splash Mtn, etc) and the indoor ones remain open. The outdoor rides often close a few minutes before it all starts - they somehow track the weather and send them messages is what I was told. Inside rides all good. But the air is mighty cold when you're all wet. Brrr.

That's my personal opinion. It isn't the most common or popular opinion, but it is mine.

Good luck and have a great trip!

 

[diskids2]

Rides close due to thunder/lightening, not really due to rain so much. Any outdoor ride can close when it is lightening.

What we usually do is save a few long indoor shows or rides for late afternoon. If it rains, we can escape the rain without "missing" anything. If it doesn't rain, it serves as a nice escape from the afternoon heat.

I don't know if you have young children, but if you are using strollers, don't forgot rain covers.

I dont have young children although I'd love to go in a stroller myself !
I'm sure someone who does have youngsters will benefit from your tip. And, thanks so much for the thoughts regarding strategy!

 

[diskids2]

Rain doesn't cool things off down there like it does up here. It is just as hot and muggy after a rain as it was before...sometimes more muggy.

Bring an extra pair of shoes. They may not dry overnight (even with the ever-popular newspaper - tried it!) and walking around with soggy feet just sucks.

Everyone says that it only rains for 15-20 minutes, but that just isn't true. It often rains for hours. On occasion, it rains all day long. You will see this "It only rains for 15 minutes!" fallacy when you're there.

My rain strategy is to get out of it, but that's me. Lots of folks hang in there. Did it once, didn't like it.

The ponchos are okay if the rain is truly fleeting, but you begin sweating under them if the rain continues and end up just as wet.

All the outside rides close during rain (Test Track, Splash Mtn, etc) and the indoor ones remain open. The outdoor rides often close a few minutes before it all starts - they somehow track the weather and send them messages is what I was told. Inside rides all good. But the air is mighty cold when you're all wet. Brrr.

That's my personal opinion. It isn't the most common or popular opinion, but it is mine.

Good luck and have a great trip!

Thanks for you thoughts.....I'm just curious...if it rains all day do you stay out of the parks all day?

 

[exwdwcm]

Pack bandaids or moleskin- wet feet, socks or not, get blisters!

poncho or a nice raincoat or pull over with hood is great.

We always usually just keep going in the rain while everyone else is leaving- it makes for low lines! I know Test Track shuts down in heavy rain (I think!??). Not sure what else, as most everything else is inside. Maybe EE at AK?

There are so many indoor attractions and shows you can take in in the rain. A lot of people head for restaurants too for cover from the rain, so be sure you have ADRs! Spending some time in less visited attractions is fun too- like Innoventions, plenty to do in there and avoid the rain, or the Living Seas or the Land etc.

 

[Cool-Beans]

Thanks for you thoughts.....I'm just curious...if it rains all day do you stay out of the parks all day?

Yup. But I was only there once for all-day rain. Started around 8, 8:30 and continued until about 7:30 p.m.

We stayed in the room. Rain stopped for maybe tne minutes and we decided to go to Epcot, but it started again before we were in the car. Then we saw the Titanic exhibit. Then we did the Mystery Sleuth Dinner Show. Then bed.

We totally enjoyed both the Titanic exhibit and the show, so did not consider it a waste of a day.

 

[SFD998]

We have always found that the best time to hit some of the more popular attractions is when it rains. The lines die right down and you can get through a lot in a short period of time.

I don't like walking around in the rain any more than anyone else, but if you have a rain coat or poncho it is not too bad. Like a PP stated if you have a stroller make sure you have a cover. We have taken old ponchos and used them. It works pretty well.

If it is raining in the morning when you get up I would proceed into the park as planned. There are a lot of people that won't because it is raining. You will get a lot accomplished and if the weather clears up you could be heading out when others are heading in.

 

[bartleby1]

Thanks for you thoughts.....I'm just curious...if it rains all day do you stay out of the parks all day?

We just go and make the best of it. We were actually there during Tropical Storm Faye last August and experienced HEAVY rain for DAYS. We joked about it because only in Disney would you see so many people out walking around in weather like that!

The park to avoid if they are calling for heavy rain all day is AK. There seems to be very little shelter in AK. Future World in Epcot is pretty easy to do in the rain since you can dart from one pavillion to another and there is a lot to do in each pavillion. Test Track may be closed though. MK has a lot to do indoors also and since the attractions are fairly close together you can easily dart from one to another.

 

[Tinkerbell3014]

We have been caught in a few heavy downpours. Rain ponchos are a must. We have never let the rain ruin our day. We also have been fortunate to time it right as to be in an attraction and miss the whole thunderstorm.

 

[punkin]

I think they forecast rain every day in the summer in Orlando. I will be there with rain every day forecast as well.

 

[Disneymaniacs]

We were at WDW in May and it rained all or most of every day we were there. The parks were almost empty and with light rain the rides stayed open. After 2 days of rain we were tired of walking around in it so we stayed at the hotel. We let each of the kids choose a Lego set from DTD and they spent the entire day building and playing with them. Because there was no lightning, the pool stayed open and the lifeguards were still on duty. We had a great time in the pool and there were only a few other families there. The kids loved swimming in the rain! I hope its not as bad as you are expecting. The rain showers here usually come and go very quickly.

 

[catne]

We've been there many times with the "20-30 minutes rains", but have also been there with hours & hours of rain...somtimes pouring so hard you can barely see where you're going. We plod on...so many of the rides & attractions are inside, you just get to the next place & then you're out of the rain & having some Disney fun. And if you're there during a week of heavy rain, if you stayed at your resort all the time it's raining you wouldn't get much of a Disney vacation! The vast majority of rides & attractions stay open, even in pouring rain...even Splash & Big Thunder will keep going in the rain...they only close if there's actually lightening close by. We rode Splash, Big thunder & Test Track in the rain...still fun. If you think about it, splash & Test Track have a lot of the ride inside anyway.

We buy the cheapie ponchos...wear them walking between attractions, take them off just inside the next attractions, give it a shake & roll up tight, put them back in the little baggies. We never have them on long enough to get "all wet" from sweating, because we take them off once we're inside the next place...I do see people keeping them on inside, but not worth getting yucky from sweat. After you do it a few times, you'll get expert at rolling/folding them up tight again. We also take heavier-duty ponchos just in case we get the monsoon-winds with the heavy rain (hurricane driven storms) but so far the cheapie 89cent kind from Walmart have done us just fine. We typically use the same ones all day, and replace them if they rip. some trips we've used the same poncho all week -- that would be when it's all the once a day 20-30 minute rain. This past May 2009, we were there when it rained every day for 2-6 hours. We were pretty much going through one cheapie poncha a day, because the more you take them on & off the more likely they are to rip.

If you're in a value or mod resort with the air conditioning unit in the wall, we found the best way to dry the shoes was to push the chairs over by the A/C unit, turn the fan on high & prop the wet shoes up at an angle so the A/C fan is blowing on them all night...that worked great for us in late May...my heavy leather athletic shoes (special sole/orthotic inserts) dried completely overnight...DH's canvas sneakers dried overnight, too.

One thing to warn everyone if you're going during heavy rain...you'd think it's not a good idea, but I suggest you wear athletic shoes with good traction treds on the bottom. Because if you're wearing Crocs, leather sandals with slick leather sole, or flip flops you'd be safer taking them off & walking barefoot. We saw many people, all ages, slip & fall many times in May...everything from 3 yr olds to 20-somethings to grandmas. There are quite a few places that are tiled, or extremely smooth decorative concrete - those places especially get as slick as ice when they have 1/4 inch deep water on them. The walk-through areas of Innoventions in Epcot seemed to really be bad -- every time we walked by there in heavy rain, people were falling. Everyone we saw on falling had on Crocs, flip flops or slick-soled leather sandals...did not see anyone in athletic shoes on the ground in a puddle.

 

[bigbear]

We took our first trip to Disney, travelling from the UK, for the first two weeks of last August, and it was amazing. We were expecting rain every day BUT we had hardly any rain the whole two weeks and on the three occasions when it did rain (two afternoon, one morning) we were:
1. At Beauty and the Beast Show
2. At Finding Nemo Show
3. Having a late breakfast in O'hanas
I realise we wre very lucky but it jsut goes to show how well it can work out.
Can't wait to visit again but it looks like 2013! Keeping in the spirit on here though!