Tell me about DL in the rain :(

[zakerdog]

We are going Friday and my only worry is Fantasmic, I have the dessert party booked. I imagine they will refund it if it gets rained out but I really want to sit and watch Fantasmic. We are there Sunday night too but it looks worse than Friday and I don't imagine there would be room to re-book anyways. Here's crossing my fingers that the show goes on.

 

[iLUVdisneyLAND]

kittyskyfish....
THANK YOU! I just wrote this down on my packing list! Very good little dl rain packing list!

 

[whimsy87]

I never would have thought of a spongy towel. What a good idea! We'll be there on Friday afternoon and Saturday. I'm not terribly worried about getting wet, but I'm worried that some of the people I'm going with will be whiney about the weather.

Who cares if it's raining? It's still the happiest place on earth!

 

[Kittyskyfish]

iLUVdisneyLAND - you're welcome! I also make sure to keep the basics in my backpack so I can get to my gear immediately.

FWIW - we're not worrywarts about getting wet. Heck, we're seasoned campers and hikers, plus WDW vets and Florida weather has us used to tromping around soaking wet.

Though cold air temps + wet clothes = the body feels even colder. If we get wet when the air is 70+ degrees, that's one thing. But there's a chance it'll rain during the morning and at night - and it's at these times the temps will be in the 50's. We could always go back to the room to change but that wastes a lot of time.

 

[disneegrl4eva]

Though cold air temps + wet clothes = the body feels even colder. If we get wet when the air is 70+ degrees, that's one thing. But there's a chance it'll rain during the morning and at night - and it's at these times the temps will be in the 50's. We could always go back to the room to change but that wastes a lot of time.

ThATS what Im worried about...being cold air and wet....and according to the forecast, its not a chance anymore...its supposed to rain straight through pretty much all saturday and at times on friday as well...and my concern is having an ecv cart sit outside in the rain or going over puddles...it might jack the thing up

 

[kinhops]

We are leaving next week & I'm looking at the weather forecast. It's too soon to see our whole trip but right now 3 days are up. AND, all 3 days have a 60% chance of rain. Bummer!

What type of stuff do you use at DL for the rain? Umbrellas, ponchos, what? Anything special?

How does rain affect the parks? Ride closures? Show cancellations? How about TTMM? Fireworks? Fantasmic? Parades?

Ack!

I remember we were there once during a rain storm and there was NO ONE in the park and all the rides had a 5 min wait. It was actually pretty cool.

 

[blackjackdelta]

One of my favorite times, the place gets to be like a ghost town, but it has not rained while I have been there for a long time.

Jack

 

[hurleysweety]

We are here right now and even though it's not raining, it's not crowded at all! It's nothing compared to our last trip end of september. We waited 30 min for toy story but that's about it. FP are readily available at all major attractions. Indy was barely a 15 min wait around noon. It was great! We are taking a break now then bundling up for the night. Here's hope and pixie dust that all the nightly entertainment is a go! And that Saturday is as good as today!

 

[Diznygrl]

I was there on monday, it was raining all day, and it was STILL flippin' busy. Maybe not "crowded" in the traditional sense, but still a whole lot more people there than I ever expected in the rain, especially since I've only heard tales of it being a "ghost town" in the rain. Wait times were still moderate, the only "walk-on" I really saw was Storybookland. I've been on sunny, beautiful days that were less crowded than that. Just my luck, I guess.

It was still an interesting experience I'll never forget!

 

[Eeee-va]

Friday was more crowded than Wednesday or Thursday, despite the rain. It was still pretty light until maybe 2 or 3 PM. Sometime between 10 and 10:30, Space Mountain had a 60 minute standby wait. (Buzz was still at 5, though, so that's something )

The rain didn't come down real heavy until after 10...I'll bet by 11:00 the park was a lot less crowded. (It's still been NOTHING like June!)

 

[DisCookie]

It rained late afternoon today (Friday), but was cloudy all day. I can't believe I was nuts enough to go on Splash Mountain and the Grizzly one. think I was able to do all the "big" rides, with the exception of the Toy Story one. I'll try to do that tomorrow

 

[3TinksAndAnEeyore]

Friday was more crowded than Wednesday or Thursday, despite the rain. It was still pretty light until maybe 2 or 3 PM. Sometime between 10 and 10:30, Space Mountain had a 60 minute standby wait. (Buzz was still at 5, though, so that's something )

The rain didn't come down real heavy until after 10...I'll bet by 11:00 the park was a lot less crowded. (It's still been NOTHING like June!)

We stayed until park closing and had a fistful of fastpasses we had collected throughout the day. The fastpasses were not really necessary, but we used them anyway. We were at DCA from about 7:30 - 9:50. We rode Soarin' (15 minute wait for standby), TOT x2 (10 minute wait for standby), and finally made it to TSMM (35 minute wait). We then headed over to DL to catch F! The light tower trick worked beautifully except that the show was cancelled about one minute into it.

We rode Indy and Space with our fastpasses, but standby appeared to be about 20 minutes on both rides up until closing.

Waits for rides were quite reasonable, I thought. There still seemed to be alot of people walking around despite the rain. Stores seemed pretty crowded. Billy Hill was super crowded at the 1:00 show and we couldn't get a table even though we got there 45 minutes early. The 2:35 show was cancelled because they moved the birthday party celebration from Plaza Inn to the Golden Horseshoe. The parade was truncated because slippery wet asphalt us dancers equals nothing good.

 

[Eeee-va]

Yes, Fastpasses were pretty much unnecessary! I have quite a few that we collected and never bothered to use. Throughout the morning (and into the evening on Wednesday and Thursday) just about every Fastpass we got had a window opening just 40 minutes later. Very few people were collecting them.

I say it was somewhat busier Friday in part because Wednesday and Thursday, Indiana Jones had a 10 minute standby at 2:30, and today it was a 15 minute standby. (And at 10:30 Tomorrowland was a zoo instead of a ghost town! Though again, wait times for Buzz and Star Tours were both 5 minutes--the latter phenomenon has been common for the last 10 years, though, true enough. )

I'm sorry Fantasmic got canceled Friday. Canceling it part-way through must have been really disappointing too! I was really hoping it wouldn't, but looking at the rain I had a bad feeling.

(zakerdog, I assume you got a refund for your seats? I'm sorry about that too. In the parks I was going, "The only reason I don't want it to rain on Friday night--well, aside from all the people wanting to see shows--was because someone on the DISboards had Fantasmic dessert seats and really wanted to use them!"

 

[liesel]

I was there on monday, it was raining all day, and it was STILL flippin' busy. Maybe not "crowded" in the traditional sense, but still a whole lot more people there than I ever expected in the rain, especially since I've only heard tales of it being a "ghost town" in the rain. Wait times were still moderate, the only "walk-on" I really saw was Storybookland. I've been on sunny, beautiful days that were less crowded than that. Just my luck, I guess.

It was still an interesting experience I'll never forget!

We were also there on Monday. At the beginning of the day, there was a power outage and ALL of the rides in Fantasyland and Tomorrowland were closed. It took a couple of hours to bring them all online one at a time. Star Tours was one of the last to be operating again. The failure occured when we were in line for Peter Pan, which was about a 10 minute wait at the time. We wasted some time wandering around looking for something that was open. On the other side of the park, pirates was a walk on and HMH was about a 5 minute wait once they opened both stretch rooms.

It poured all day until 5PM, but luckily we already had a lunch PS for BB and enjoyed a very leisurely lunch. All parades, shows, and fireworks were cancelled. Because of the cooler temps, everyone was in line for the indoor rides, most of which were between 5 and 10 minutes. There were far fewer people than normal, but they were more concetrated on fewer rides. The Fantasyland dark rides also had a power failure in the middle of the day, which led us to abandon the land altogether. Space and Indy were 15 (on Space, about 5 minutes longer than using fastpass). We rode pirates on 3 separate occasions and it was a walk on each time.

It was the day of the CM parties, and DL closed at 6. The weather got a bit better around 3:30 and we beat the rush to DCA and arrived there around 4:30. Soarin' was a 5 minute wait. Then we went to TSM. This ride, we were told, was a walk on all day. While we were there (rode 3 times in a row!), the wait was between 5-10 minutes. The line started about where you pick up your 3D glasses. We also did Muppet Vision and Monsters (also walk on). We had dinner at Taste Pilots Grill and the indoor seating was warm and comfortable. At the end of the day, we did about 21 rides, a long lunch at BB, and dinner and had a great time. If I could change anything, it would have been to somehow know about the power outage ahead of time, but what can you do? As for rain gear, we had cheap umbrellas that we purchased at Target the day before, raincoats, and plastic bags for our backpack and stroller seat. It would have been more fun if the temperature hadn't been so cool (we tried Astro Orbiter and froze, we then determined that these outdoor rides really weren't worth it), but it was an adventure and nice to see the park less crowded. BTW, we also did ISAW Holiday (walk on). Yes the seats were wet, but the building inside was nice and warm.

Have fun in the rain!! You're still at Disneyland (that's what I told myself when we were trying to find something to ride during the power outage!)!

 

[Eeee-va]

I, too, was surprised how busy the park was in the rain this Saturday. Of course, it was Saturday and not Wednesday...but the park seemed more crowded than it had been on Wednesday and Thursday, despite the rain.

Some ride times were very low, though. Our Fastpasses were completely useless--for Indy, it was raining so hard, they just routed standby and non-standby through the covered area of the queue just the same (even though they took our Fastpass). We cursed them for showing human compassion and then didn't use Fastpass for that again. For Space Mountain I think we got in line right when it came back from being down? So they didn't take our Fastpasses (the second time this trip!) but just waved us through the Fastpass line. Soarin', they still had Fastpass distribution going in the evening, I think, but there was no Fastpass line going; everyone was in through the same line and all. Haunted Mansion Holiday didn't even offer Fastpass.

We left Disneyland around 6 (maybe a little before) and there were an awful lot of people lined up for the parade, even though it was just the rainy day parade.

Now, after 6 PM in the rain, DCA was a GHOST town. Very nearly a walk-on to Toy Story Midway Mania (I still don't LOVE that ride--except smashing plates!--but it was real tempting to just ride it a kajillion times in the rain).

After 9 PM in the rain, even Disneyland was starting to empty out...walked practically all the way to the movie room on Indy with no wait, no wait on Pirates of the Caribbean (some boats actually went through empty), the only wait to speak of on HMH was to get into the 1/3 full stretching room from the lobby.

Entertainment offerings were sparse, though; I don't think they even got the Columbia out of its "dock" area and the Mark Twain appeared to be at its dock all day too. There were pretty big gusts of wind, so no fireworks.

The only thing that kept me from ADORING the rain was that crowds weren't THAT much lighter than Wednesday and Thursday, which had almost perfect weather (a bit chilly is all).

 

[Leofoenget]

Friday was more crowded than Wednesday or Thursday, despite the rain. It was still pretty light until maybe 2 or 3 PM. Sometime between 10 and 10:30, Space Mountain had a 60 minute standby wait. (Buzz was still at 5, though, so that's something )

The rain didn't come down real heavy until after 10...I'll bet by 11:00 the park was a lot less crowded. (It's still been NOTHING like June!)

I was there Thursday and Friday we closed down the park. It did rain on Friday and to tell you how dead it was very late in the rain, we walked on Nemo! We went into DCA Sat morning in the rain but before the sky opened up. Walked on everything.