Thunderstorms and Water Parks

[Mboothby]

I seem to recall, my first visit to WDW was during "thunder" weather and we tried to visit Typhoon Lagoon and they closed it. Is this still common practice? Does WDW close its water parks during days when there are highly probable thunderstorms? What about hotel pools? This is something I'd not given much thought to, as I do not usually visit WDW during the summer months, but we've got TL on our itinerary and it'd be nice to know what the parks practices are as a head's up.

 

[KCritter]

We were there last week, and they closed Blizzard Beach due to thunderstorms more than once. First they announced that there was a severe thunderstorm warning for the area and they would keep everyone informed. About twenty minutes later, they announced all the water activities were closed and everyone had to come down off the 'mountains' and off the sandy beach area. (A lot of people were perturbed by this, as it was still bright and sunny there, but you could see lightning off in the distance. I mean, really people, it's for your own safety.)

If the park is closed for more than 30 minutes AND you have been there for less than 3 hours, they will give you a complimentary ticket to return another day.

The resort pools closed down during this time as well.

 

[michelem]

Just wanted to comment on when it is still sunny and you hear thunder...We'll 2 summer's ago off the coast of NJ beaches we saw lightning out on the horizon (3 miles). It was still sunny blue skies where we were but we started packing up, 10 minutes later we heard sirens. About 1/2 mile down the beach 2 guys were throwing a football and were struck by that lightning on their "sunny" beach. One of them died instantly. That was a sad lesson that when you hear thunder you get out of water and go to shelter and don't wait until it starts raining.

 

[Ronda93]

We were at AKL 5/16-23. We went to the pool four or five afternoons and every time we were ordered out of the water at some point. I don't know if there are differing levels of alarm, but they sometimes would not allow us to walk through the courtyard area to return to our room. We were on Zebra trail - it was convenient and they would shoo us back into the building.

Our party was just two adults, but if I'd been there with children who were looking forward to a swim I'd have been very disappointed. Yes, it usually rained and a few times we heard thunder, but day after day it was like a cruel joke.

If you have your heart set on a long time at the pool and they are in their "quick storm every afternoon" mode, I'd plan for a morning dip just to make sure it didn't get rained out.

 

[primax]

After the storm passes the pools and water parks should re-open.

 

[mickeymom629]

We were at TL Spring 2002 and it was a beautiful morning. Soon, the clouds came and the rain and then thunder and they evacuated the park. We went back to the resort for lunch and waited an hour or so until it cleared. When we went back, it was much cooler barely 80, and my kids had a blast because it wasn't crowded at all--we felt like the only ones.