Disneyland in February

[Tattylou]

I'm looking for some reassurance....I know it is never a bad time to go to Disneyland, right?!?
We live just outside of Boston and usually go away April school vacation...April weather has always been good to us at WDW and at DL.
Next year we decided to mix things up and go February school vacation (President's day week), mainly due to my son's baseball schedule. I found a good deal on direct flights Boston to LAX and bought them....so there is no changing it now lol. I'm not worried about crowds on President week - I've done Easter week at WDW. DH is a teacher so I'm stuck with school vacation trips. I know how busy it can get.
My concern is more weather related - I now see that it is the "rainy season" and looks like average highs are high 60s. So I booked Desert Inn because it has an indoor pool and the kids like to swim. I assume it is too chilly to swim outside in Anaheim in Feb, right? How rainy is rainy? High 60s and rain is still better than the 20s and snow/ice that is usually Boston in February, so there's that.
Any other suggestions, advice, etc for DL in February is appreciated....
Thanks!

 

[dieumeye]

Relatively speaking, it doesn’t rain all that much. It certainly can, and will, rain in the winter time. This year seemed especially rainy.

When it does rain it’s not necessarily very hard or for very long. It can be cloudy and raining and then an hour later be blue skies. A rain hard enough that you wouldn’t even want to go outside is more rare and when it does happen it won’t last long. There are also days that are rainy most of the day, but that tends to be more mist or on and off drizzle so you can just throw on a poncho or even just a jacket and it’s not bad at all.

More good news is that even the lightest misting tends to keep locals at bay, so these kind of days are just about the only times you’ll find legitimately light crowds anymore. Check back through posts made earlier this year and you’ll find tons of people who were loving rainy days, and even hoping for a little rain!

It may rain, but it’s very unlikely to be the kind of storm that would shut down an entire trip. Buy some cheap ponchos from a nearby store (instead of expensive Disney ponchos) and you’ll be fine.

And by the way, you won’t see a ton of people in outdoor pools at that time, but there will always be a few people swimming no matter how chilly it gets.

 

[lalasmama]

So I often go late January to any random time in February. I've had a wide range of weather. Most often, it's cloudy with maybe a day or two of afternoon sun. Some days it's warm enough for capri pants and short sleeved shirts, but almost always need at least a sweatshirt in the morning and after the sun goes down. Just for a fair warning, this last February was freakishly rainy and cold. Daily highs were in the low 50s, and mid 30s overnight. I spent a lot of time in my parka in the morning and late afternoon! There was 1 afternoon I was able to be in a long-sleeved tee, and one afternoon I was able to wear just a "base layer" shirt (made by Columbia, it's a shirt with a reflective layer inside so it reflects your body heat back at you). The other days I needed a sweatshirt with an additional layer underneith. While it wasn't bad, it definitely was a challenge! Much more commonly is a couple bits of quick rain on one day, and otherwise cloudy.

As for the pool at Desert Inn, I won't swim in it. The chemical smell is impressive. A friend of mine used to manage pool chemicals, and said it should never be an overwhelming smell. I ended up with quite a skin reaction when I took a dip in their hot tub on my first stay--like burning my skin, making it painful to wear pants, and developing a case of folliculitis that took a week or so to get over. That was several years ago. When I was there in Feb this year, I could smell the chlorine from the third floor outside above the pool, so decided not to risk it.

 

[Creen14]

We went February 23 this year for a week.
We lucked out and had no rain. That being said, it looked like it rained quite a bit in the weeks before we went.
The mornings and evenings were cool, but we spent every afternoon at our hotel's outdoor pool. We are from Canada so we find it warm enough to swim. And lucky for us, the pool was never busy

 

[Gaugersaurus]

More good news is that even the lightest misting tends to keep locals at bay

I'd say it's less light mist and more if it rains enough to make the ground wet lol. As a local I think most of us have learned that rain=low crowds so if it's a light mist you'll get the people who are in the "it's raining DLR won't be crowded" camp heading to the parks in force. Then again light mist for most is probably heavy rain for us SoCal people

 

[dieumeye]

I'd say it's less light mist and more if it rains enough to make the ground wet lol. As a local I think most of us have learned that rain=low crowds so if it's a light mist you'll get the people who are in the "it's raining DLR won't be crowded" camp heading to the parks in force. Then again light mist for most is probably heavy rain for us SoCal people

Yeah, you can literally see people turning to leave the park when it starts to sprinkle. One of the lightest days I saw all year was a Sunday in February when rain was forecast, but it never ended up raining. It was light all day until the evening, when I guess people realized that it wasn't going to rain after all.

I agree that now that "rainy days mean light crowds" is a thing, it'll mean that rainy days will be as packed as any other day as more locals get conditioned to think "it's raining! let's go to Disneyland for the low crowds!" Just like "it's the superbowl, let's go to DL since it probably won't be crowded!"

 

[Erin M]

I've gone in February two years in a row now, both times a week after you will be going. We had great weather both trips. I don't think we even had a sprinkle? It does get cold at night that time of year, so plan for layers and if you plan to sit on the ground for shows, bring a little blanket or an extra sweatshirt to sit on.

I will say, when we went in November and it did rain (drenching, cats and dogs, apocalypse rain), we still managed ok. We were just happy, wet people.

 

[LizzyS]

We've gone in late February multiple times and only been rained on once, which was actually quite bad, but in all our trips, that's been it, so I feel no room to complain. People were in the DLH pool when we were on our last trip this past February, actually! February has been a great time of year for us to visit, tbh. There are some refurbs this time of year, but DLR offers enough to keep you busy when a handful of things are down.

I will second the layers thing because, though it's wonderful during the day, it can get a little chilly at night.

 

[tarheelalum]

It will be far better then the weather in Boston but often bad weather for southern California. It rains from time to time. But sometimes its just cold at night. 30s/40s and 50/60s in the day and sunny. You won't know until you get here but it smokes Boston weather any day. Enjoy your trip.

 

[Tattylou]

Thank you all!! I'm definitely feeling more confident about the decision to go in Feb. @tarheelalum you are exactly right, it will be better than Boston in February without a doubt. My kids have been wearing shorts once it starts finally breaking 50 or 60 in April here. So 65 in Feb would feel like heat wave to us.
@lalasmama now I'm a little worried about that indoor pool at Desert Inn. Can anyone suggest other places with indoor pools, but also super close walk to parks? We like a hot tub too.
Thanks!

 

[lalasmama]

Thank you all!! I'm definitely feeling more confident about the decision to go in Feb. @tarheelalum you are exactly right, it will be better than Boston in February without a doubt. My kids have been wearing shorts once it starts finally breaking 50 or 60 in April here. So 65 in Feb would feel like heat wave to us.
@lalasmama now I'm a little worried about that indoor pool at Desert Inn. Can anyone suggest other places with indoor pools, but also super close walk to parks? We like a hot tub too.
Thanks!

Iindoor pools aren't common at all around the Anaheim area. I actually have no idea of anywhere else with an indoor pool other than Great Wolf Lodge.

 

[Mike_M]

I’ve made numerous Feb trips over the years and only this year was it surprisingly cold and wet weather. In years past, it’s been warm and pleasant more often than not and I suspect it will be again.

All in all, I like going in Feb and will do so again.

 

[Bruin_mouse]

We just went this past February for four days. It rained one day off and on. If you're coming from Boston in February I wouldn't worry about it. Our "weather" out here is a nice day for east coast folks.