Planning for rain--Help!

BryANDJessMom

Mouseketeer
Joined
Aug 20, 2010
Messages
497
Hi! We are leaving for WDW on Friday...there is rain and thunderstorms predicted. We are from California so we have absolutely no rain gear for summer (doesn't rain here from about April until Nov...this year hardly any at all). Anyway, should I buy the kids lightweight jackets? I have ponchos from the dollar store....but accuweather is predicting. 5 hours of rain some days. Also, all the rain jackets I found seemed very thick and hot. Any recommendations? My kids are 10 and 11...

Thanks!
Nancy
 
Ponchos will be fine, chances are you won't be standing around in the rain, just walking in it to your next destination. Might want to make sure everyone is in "secure" shoes ie not flip flops. Flip flops in the rain can get a little dangerous if you're not careful.
 
Some will say buy cheap ponchos to bring with you. They also sell them at every disney shop for like $12.

Personally I find the little umbrellas sold in the parks to be more versatile, easier to deal with and more likely to be reused. My strategy is to buy one if it rains for more than 20 minutes or so. Otherwise I don't worry about it.
 

Put on your ponchos and go have fun! I love it when it rains at WDW - scares alot of people away and it feels like you have the park to yourself!

Oh, and if you know it is going to rain I would buy heavier duty ponchos so they hold up longer.
 
I just got back from WDW, and it did rain a bit pretty much every day. My kids (4 and 7) wore the Packable Navigator Rain Jacket from Land's End, and it worked out really well. Those jackets pack up quite small and are very thin/light, so they're easy to carry around. My kids stayed nice and dry, could move around much easier than in ponchos, and didn't complain about being too hot.

We've used both dollar store ponchos and Totes brand ponchos at WDW for the kids before, and they were either too flimsy, too hot, too big, stuck to them too much, hoods didn't stay up, etc., and the kids HATED them and were miserable wearing them. With these jackets, they were totally fine. I'm thrilled with how well they worked out!

For us adults, we've found that the Disney brand ponchos are the best. The dollar store ones are too thin, so they blow around and stick to you and rip easily. The Totes brand ponchos are really heavy and hot. And rain jackets don't work, because generally you can't wear your bag underneath them to keep it dry.
 
I'd invest in better ponchos than the dollar store ones. The dollar store ones are short, sleeveless, and if you have hair they will not stay on your head. We bought Coleman brand ones and they kept us mostly dry. They were only about $5 (got them at Big Lots) so cheap enough where we didn't feel guilty about tossing them at the end of the week.

Even the Disney ponchos you can buy on property are much better quality. We bought these last trip (forgot our ponchos in the room) and they were around $10 I think (maybe less) and they worked very well.

When they are calling for that amount of prolonged rain, you'll want better coverage. The dollar store ones are fine for the quick pop-up shower. I wouldn't do rain coats because then you'll be warm, and they'll likely be more expensive.
 
I would say buy the ponchos at WDW. We have brought the dollar store ones, and we have brought more expensive ones, and both times, we wound up pitching them in the trash and buying WDW ones. The WDW ones just seem to work better. Basically, when it rains at WDW, you just throw a poncho on and just keep going. We have done a "monsoon" rain in the winter and we just kept going until we were too cold to do more- you shouldn't have that problem since it is summer. You will want to figure out shoes that won't drive you crazy if they are soaked. You also want to be sure and have some shoes to alternate, because depending on your shoes, they may not dry out by the next morning, plus shoes will rub a little in different spots when wet, so you might need a change. I also highly recommend using body glide on your feet in general to avoid blisters, and when it rains and your shoes might be rubbing in spots different than usual it can be even more of a help. You will probably want to wear shorts instead of jeans or pants. We had to wear jeans when we did it in the winter because it was cold, and the reasons we finally had to shut it down mid-afternoon was because the bottoms of our pants were soaked which made us really cold.

Most of the rides will keep going in the rain. Test Track won't, so if there is a good chance of rain later in the day, you want to try to pick that one up early before the rain starts. Other than that, you just keep on going and enjoy the fact that the lines are usually shorter.
 
The nice thing about the ones bought at WDW is that if they rip - and they usually will - you can exchange it for a new one.
 
We brought dollar ponchos last trip, and they were WORTHLESS. We sprung for Disney ponchos, and OMG - they were SO much better. They're substantial, so we dried them out and took them home ... SOUVENIR. They're so nice, I'm almost hoping it rains on our next trip so we can bust out the Mickey ponchos.

That said, my husband and daughter went to Peru recently, and we invested in some real rain gear for them. They may prefer to wear those on the next trip, and believe me, the price of Disney ponchos seems cheap compared to North Face rain jackets.

Bottom line, it depends on how much you want to invest. If you do go with the cheap-o ponchos, just know that the nicer Mickey ones are never far away. The stores bust them out like clockwork when it rains!
 
My family and I have a different approach. We just get wet! It is so hot and humid, that by the time it starts raining, we are already wet with sweat and it feels great! We wear teva sandals that are waterproof, but that is it. We just keep on going while the park empties out and have loads of fun. you will too!

BTW: We do have sense enough to get inside when lightning is present.
 














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