Disneyland in the rain.... :)

[Disney Hot Mama]

Disneyland and rain do make a nice match! My daughter and I arrived yesterday (Friday 1-4-08) at 4 PM. With heave rain predicted and us arriving so late we were hoping that the rain came and people would leave Well about 5:30 PM it started.... At first not to hard but then it was coming down in gallons... We were prepared - with umbrellas and rain jackets. It really was not to cold but just wet. We did - not in this order - Buzz, the subs, It's a Small World, Pinocchio, Snow White, Peter Pan, Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Thunder Mountain, 50 Years with Steve Martin and dinner in the Golden Horseshoe. Indy was closed and we could have gone on several others with NO wait but I was feeling a bit out of it so we left about 8 PM. All this was done in 4 hours!!!!! I think we could have done everything if we stayed a few more hours.

My advice if you are going today or tomorrow... dress in layers, bring an umbrella and have fun! You will get wet but will have fun too!

 

[Tink33]

We will be there tomorrow with rain coats and umbrellas.

 

[eym]

that great i'm goin later today

 

[spazzyjazzy]

Disneyland in the rain is the best!!

 

[blackjackdelta]

I love the parks when it is raining. Completely different experience.

Have fun.

Jack

 

[mommaU4]

When we used to live in Burbank, if rain was in the forecast, we'd purposely plan a trip to DL!! We knew it would be almost empty and as long as we came prepared with ponchos, umbrellas, etc. we'd have a GREAT time!!!

 

[mommaU4]

OOPS! Double post!

 

[mommaU4]

Oops, make that triple post! Either something is up with the DIS or I need to go back to sleep and get more rest! LOL

 

[Laurabearz]

So this is how one hits 27,000 posts on the DIS Momma...

My favorite day to go to WDW was on a rainy Christmas morning... take about a ghost town! Of course this was way way back in the E-Ticket days...

 

[MagicalMomAZ]

I agree it's a different experience - we went in the summer months once & it was just a constant mist - not cold at all. It was very neat I thought & especially nice w/ shorter lines.

 

[Sherry E]

s

 

[Sherry E]

Hey, everyone. I am new to these boards but a LOOOOOOONG time Disney freak. I hate to - excuse the pun - rain on everyone's parade, but I seem to be the only one who does not appreciate rain at Disney. I am a lifelong SoCal resident, so it often does not rain at all and when it does, like today, it pours. My friends and I were at Disneyland and Calif Advent in September - still considered the off-peak season, but they had just put up the Halloween decorations - and it started to pour heavily on us. I like to take a lot of photos and it really killed my mood when I got soaked. My friends didnt want to pose and I didn't want to drag out the camera and film and get them wet, and rain was pounding in my face so I couldn't see. It was a mess. Yes, we went to the Emporium and got slickers but when one of my friends commented that she could not get her head through the opening, we checked the tags and realized the slickers were for kids! We are 40-year-old women! Still, I had a sense of humor about it and wanted to take some silly pictures in our pint-sized slickers, with our sopping wet hair, but my group wasn't having any of it. See, we like to take in the whole Disney experience - the browsing, shopping, people watching, dining outside, picture taking, and riding the rides. If we were just going for the purpose of riding thing, it might have been bearable, as we could just walk very quickly to our destinations and get right on, but the heavy rain really put a damper on the rest of the experience. Maybe light rain would be better and more tolerable. And yes, we did get right on several rides with no wait, but I find that to be the case more and more with certain rides. It seems to be timing and luck of the draw. We were also just there two weeks ago - the extremely busy weekend right before Christmas - and we walked right on certain rides then too, like Holiday Small World. And then hours later, the same ride had a line longer than any I have ever seen! I hate the huge crowds, but I also hate getting waterlogged when trying to snap a picture of the giant Mick-o-lantern on Main Street! But, for anyone who has never been to the park during the holiday season, it sounds corny and cliche to say it, but it IS magical. That is my favorite time to be there - crowds or no. I just LOVE Disneyland at Christmas, and the Grand Californian is the best hotel to stay in for a cozy, relaxing rest in the lobby/hearth area, where you will get a free show from the carolers who come in and sing by the Christmas tree every night. Goofy's Kitchen was in full swing too, UNLIKE in September, when they seemed to be a little lazy and not on their toes. They are now adding gratuity to the bill (for a self-serve buffet meal!), which they did not do years ago, so they had better be on their game year-round at those prices and added gratuity (for what?)! Sherry

 

[JadeDarkstar]

i hated the rain becouse it was my bday and becouse we were not prepaied. our umbrellas went missing before we left boy was i mad, but rt got a 10doller unbrella and has another suviner. I think this time we will have rain coats in case becouse i love the rain i was only mad couse my bday and we had waited to go to pirates island for that day but with rain no could do

 

[Tink208]

When my older son was 6 years old, he and I went down to Disneyland for Veteran's Day weekend. (My husband had won one day tickets in a raffle, so "all" we had to do was pay for airfare, hotel, and two child's one day tickets.) We flew down Friday night, during a nasty storm, and didn't get to the hotel until very late (door to door, it took as long to fly to LAX and then take the shuttle to the DLH, as it had taken us to drive down the previous year). It was still raining in the morning, but we bought Disneyland ponchos and went for it. Our tickets were not hoppers (and because they had been donated by Disney to the fundraiser, the were not actually able to be upgraded), so we decided to do CA the first day. It was just fine and while perching on a bench sipping our hot cocoa at one point, my son looks up and sees a friend of his from school and her mother! If it had been a regular sunny day crowd, we probably would never had even seen them. It was great because we ended up hooking up with them in Disneyland the next day (when it turned out to be sunny and beautiful), which made it more fun for all of us.

 

[kellymom]

When we used to live in Burbank, if rain was in the forecast, we'd purposely plan a trip to DL!! We knew it would be almost empty and as long as we came prepared with ponchos, umbrellas, etc. we'd have a GREAT time!!!

We did this as well, but we lived in Huntington Beach (born in Burbank though). I was just going to type the same thing. But if there was rain, as soon as dh got home from work off to the park we went. It was the BEST!

 

[mommaU4]

So this is how one hits 27,000 posts on the DIS Momma...

My favorite day to go to WDW was on a rainy Christmas morning... take about a ghost town! Of course this was way way back in the E-Ticket days...

Don't give away my secrets....

When my older son was 6 years old, he and I went down to Disneyland for Veteran's Day weekend. (My husband had won one day tickets in a raffle, so "all" we had to do was pay for airfare, hotel, and two child's one day tickets.) We flew down Friday night, during a nasty storm, and didn't get to the hotel until very late (door to door, it took as long to fly to LAX and then take the shuttle to the DLH, as it had taken us to drive down the previous year). It was still raining in the morning, but we bought Disneyland ponchos and went for it. Our tickets were not hoppers (and because they had been donated by Disney to the fundraiser, the were not actually able to be upgraded), so we decided to do CA the first day. It was just fine and while perching on a bench sipping our hot cocoa at one point, my son looks up and sees a friend of his from school and her mother! If it had been a regular sunny day crowd, we probably would never had even seen them. It was great because we ended up hooking up with them in Disneyland the next day (when it turned out to be sunny and beautiful), which made it more fun for all of us.

That's so cool. What a great memory.

One of my favorite memories from being at DL in the rain, is a time when my DH and I went alone for the evening while the kids stayed home with Grandma.
It started drizzling while we were there so we grabbed some hot cocoa, found a dry spot to sit, and just hung out. We snuggled, people watched, and enjoyed being there after dark with everything lit up, not having to rush around or do anything except be together.

 

[bumbershoot]

During our first trip to DL as adults, in Sept '05, it was raining even down in San Diego. As we got to the trams it started raining harder, and we had the park practically to ourselves until well after noon. The main line we had was Indy, but right after we had done the child swap thing it started pouring harder (and we ran off to get a poncho for DH and an umbrella for me and DS). It was really a good way to be reintroduced to DL, with such short lines for half the day.

This last trip, in December, it rained while we were at DCA. DH and DS were absolutely miserable. Oh man they hated it!

So I sent them back to the hotel, I put on my poncho (adult sized, LOL...you have to make sure that it's the right size! and unless you have two side by side while folded you can't see the difference easily), I already had my Crocs w/o socks, and I just had a blast. Went on Grizzly twice (after dark, in December, while it rained) and LOVED it. Oh man it was fun. Went on ToT for the first time, and half of us were in ponchos...we all started to steam up b/c it's warm inside of there, but no one wanted to deal with holding a bunched up poncho, so we all just kept them on. Pictures were pretty funny.

Later I went back to the hotel, and since it had stopped raining, DH went back and had a few hours to himself at the parks while DS went to sleep. If it had still been raining he wouldn't have gone.

I love it in the rain, but DH and DS don't...everyone's different!

 

[eduk8r26]

We just got back tonight. Got to Disneyland at 11 or so, went right to Peter Pan and waited about 10 minutes. Same with Dumbo. I haven't ridden those rides in years because of the long lines. Rain was threatening all day, but didn't really start until about 4:30. then was pretty steady until we left at 6. We rode more in 5 hours than I have in 2 days, and only used 1 FP, for Indy, and that was the longest wait. One of the CM's said there were only 20,000 people there yesterday. So I'm convinced rainy days are the best times to go!

 

[actionvaughn]

I'm only a fan of the rain.. when I'm inside. I got home a few hours ago too, and I have to say it was a great day though. It's been raining pretty hard for two days straight so it had a big effect on the crowds... I kept wishing that we'd get torrential downpour for half an hour so I can really see the parks empty! Yeah. I'm evil.

I'd say it wasn't as bad as it could've been. I want to be more protected from the rain and without precious electronics... Or someone to hold a gigantic umbrella for me!

 

[Disney Hot Mama]

Or someone to hold a gigantic umbrella for me!

That is a great thought...
I wonder if we can hire someone to do this for us...