Rain the entire time at WDW?!?!?!?!

[jennyerin]

The dollar store ponchos are nice for little rain showers but are not helpful during a downpour. A more durable one - you can find them at Walmart or Target will help keep you dry. We were there one August during a tropical storm that lasted all week but were still able to do a lot of what we wanted. We just lived in our ponchos...

 

[goodgodmrsmolly]

Florida rain is not like I was used to in the midwest. It can be raining on one spot looking like a monsoon, then drive 5 miles and sunny as can be with no hint of rain. Happened this morning leaving for work. Could see the starts as I left, about halfway to Downtown it poured like crazy, wipers on high, then was dry at work. rained a bit this morning and sunny now. Just enjoy yourself, they will be some sun, some rain. As long at the lightning is not close, most rides stay open. Except Test Track, it closes when someone sneezes I think.

 

[philschrek]

We had three days of solid rain at the beginning of our trip last May. I was really worried about it with four kids but we still had a blast. We were soaked, but no one cared and actually one of the favorite memories from the trip was encouraging the kids to splash in puddles on the path from Beach Club to Hollywood Studios. They were actually shocked that we were telling them to do so rather than yelling at them for it Crowds were a little lighter, and most of what we wanted to do wasn't affected by the rain. We did have a good raincover for our maclaren stroller to keep the baby dry but we didn't even bother with ponchos for the rest of us.

 

[Dallas_Lady]

I take it this is your first trip to Florida.

It rains every day in the Spring, Summer and Fall. Then it rains every other day in the winter. Rarely is it enought to ruin the whole day, usually it helps cool things off and clears some of the crowds.

 

[amg35]

I take it this is your first trip to Florida.

It rains every day in the Spring, Summer and Fall. Then it rains every other day in the winter. Rarely is it enought to ruin the whole day, usually it helps cool things off and clears some of the crowds.

Why do people have to state things as fact, rather than their experience?

I was there in May a few years ago for 8 nights - one day of rain.

I was there in June 2011 for a week - one shower the entire week.

I was there this past October for 9 nights - no rain, no clouds.

The only "fact" is that you'll never know until you get there.

 

[kidd_freeper]

Embrace the rain!
After the rain is over, the attraction lines are much shorter.

We simply expect to get wet when we go to WDW.

 

[Postal68]

So I'm a little sad at the fact that I just spent thousands of dollars for my family of 4 and travel to Disney world this week only to find out that 3 out of the 4 days we are there will be 80%-90% rain.

any feed back on how we can manage to make this an incredible vacation even though it will be raining and thunderstorming on Thursday and Friday?

1- you're not there so how do you know it's going to rain all day every day
2- It rains almost everyday in Orlando for a short period of time
3- you can still have a great time at the parks if it is raining

 

[kenny]

Feel your pain. In April 2013 it rained almost everyday of a 9 day trip. I am a super planner and everything has to be perfect. Lol. Throw on top of that our 3yo had a 103 fever for the first 4 days

All that being said we still had a really good trip. Adjusted our plans a bit. For example skipped the stroller on heavy rain days. Brought a plastic bag to hold wet ponchos when we were on rides. Etc

Just embrace the trip. You can't controller the weather but you can control your attitude. Nothing makes a trip better then positive attitude.

One advice is have a change of shoes or ones that dry quickly. Wet shoes stink

Having said all that we leave in 10 days and it better be sunny!!! Lol

Good luck

 

[bucky1023]

was down two weeks ago... the weeks leading up to trip said rain everyday of my five day trip. Ended up having some record breaking days hitting almost 90 degrees on a few days.

I usually pay more attention to the % of rain they are saying... example they had rain everyday but the % was only at 20% or 30%.

Also rain at Disney is ALWAYS better than rain at home because your on vacation

 

[sunshine girl]

I see you've had plenty of advice about bringing ponchos. That is great advice. I ordered a big pack of throw away ponchos from Amazon for my recent trip.

But the big thing that made the difference for us on our one full-on-soaker-rainy afternoon at Disney was to also add UMBRELLAS. Make sure everyone can be mostly covered by an umbrella. Having a poncho plus umbrella made a huge difference because we were sheltered from the rain nearly completely. Our legs got a little wet, but overall we were fully dry.

We had a few members of our party who chose just to use the ponchos while the rest of us used ponchos plus umbrellas. Those of us with umbrellas were infinitely more comfortable. Those without the umbrellas got so uncomfortable they wanted to leave, while the rest of us were totally fine. Seriously, it is worth making space in your backpack for this, especially if the forecast is dire!

So to summarize: ponchos are necessary! Ponchos plus umbrellas = even better.

And lastly - we were not supposed to have any rain on our trip, according to the forecast the day we left. Two days later the forecast changed completely, and we had rain! It can go either way, best to be prepared.

 

[disnut8]

We arrive on Wednesday the 25th and Leave on the 28th of March

I went to weather.com and am seeing what I think you are seeing. The 26th is PM thunderstorms. So 80% chance you will get PM thunderstorms. But a thunderstorm doesn't last that long. Friday is 90% chance of thunderstorms but then again, you have a 80% chance of a thunderstorm. I just looked at what the forecast said for today and it was 60% chance of evening storms. And then I looked at the hourly forecast. Not even close to 60%. And it's 6:02 PM.

 

[Pembo]

Had a trip of rain a few years ago. Spent a very long 13 hours at the MK in pouring rain. We wore our dollar store ponchos and had an umbrella. Bring along some newspaper to stuff in your shoes at the end of a wet day, it helps dry them out. We were in a condo that trip so sneakers in the dryer worked for us.
I didn't mind the rain, however we also had a day of thunderstorms. They were constant and we just stayed in at our resort. That was our first day at Universal. It was quite fun to see Hogsmeade for the first time in the rain when the t-storms finally cleared out.

 

[JimmyV]

Why do people have to state things as fact, rather than their experience?

I agree. Here's what is NOT true...

It rains every day....(It doesn't)
The rain only lasts an hour....(It can. But it can also rain from sun up to sun down, same as anywhere else.)
The rain cools things down...(It can. Other times, the steam and humidity coming off the pavement makes it feel worse.)

 

[twinz]

I personally wouldn't wear Crocs when it is wet. I wore them once and found the ground very slippery.

 

[Mamapapa]

Not to be a downer, but you need to be prepared for rain all day and if it doesn't, then great! My last two trips had forecasts with rain all day. Don't worry everyone said, it never rains all day in Florida, just afternoon showers. It rained, ALL DAY, almost every day. Not showers, downpours. But did it ruin our trip? No, not at all! We got an hour or two here or there where we got great pictures, we became pros at the ponchos and storing them in plastic baggies in our backpack for easy on and off while going in and out of rides. We've never had rain ruin our trip. But I just need to be the bad guy here and let you know it can in fact rain all day, very hard, in Florida.

 

[gschon]

The percentage means there is a 80 percent chance you will get wet at some point during the day. Not a day with 80 percent rain.

 

[B&WMickey]

Keep in mind that weather forecast beyond 12 to 24 hours are often meaningless. Also forecast are essentially an aggregate of numerous computer models. These models are updated and reran every 6 hours or so. Large swings in forecast are common. Bottom line one point in time the forecast 3 days out might show a 90% chance of rain and a couple of hours later the forecast for the same day might show only a 20% chance. Don't fret too much. Pack a couple of ponchos for worst case scenario but I bet it won't be a multi day washout.

 

[KingofJapan]

We desperately need the rain here in Florida. We have been going through a little drought.

 

[ZoZo]

Don't despair yet! It's important to understand what the weathermen mean when they say "80% to 90%." That does not mean it will rain 80%/90% of the time on any given day.

It means that there's an 80%/90% chance there will be measureable rain (defined as one one-hundredth of an inch!) SOMETIME that day. Brief showers are common in Florida. So chances are it will rain a little while you're there - but probably not all of the time each day! That's not to say all-day rain couldn't happen - after all, Florida has tropical weather most of the time -- but it's unlikely to rain all day long. Even during hurricane season (which runs June through November), it doesn't necessarily rain every day. I was at WDW in 2005 during Hurricane Wilma - except for the day before and the day of the storm, it was beautiful weather the rest of the week!

Here's a web site I found that helps "interpret" what weather forecasts mean: https://www.utexas.edu/depts/grg/kimmel/nwsforecasts.html

Also, weather forecasts change frequently in Florida. I wouldn't trust a forecast one week out - or even a couple of days out. Don't panic yet - just bring some rain gear and check the forecasts closer to your trip.

 

[Eeyore's My Favorite]

I would check our local tv stations for the weather.... Www.wesh.com, www.local6.com & www.wftv.com. Had some good downpours come through today & definitely expect more this week. I don't mind Disney in the rain as it clears out a lot of people & you can get onto a lot of rides that you can't always slide into. I also don't wear sneakers during most of the year, since I've lived in Florida for almost 60 years I'm a flip flop girl - croc ones to be exact.

Whatever happens weather wise - enjoy your time at WDW we ran over there last week to Epcot after the weather had been nice & cool only for it to hit 87 degrees. That was unusual.