Rainy Days at Disney World

[Webmaster]

How do you best tackle rainy days at Walt Disney World?

Do you tough it out with rain jackets and ponchos? Do you leave the parks?

 

As a local, I typically just leave and come back another day.

[manderson372]

We've just experienced a light sprinkle in late spring and fall; didn't gear up or let it slow us down. Once in the winter we got a shelter in place alert (maybe those are common?) but went to Epcot anyway because we were on the meal plan and my brother had saved all his snack credits for the holiday kitchens. The rest of us couldn't even hack moving from the land pavilion to the seas pavilion, but my brother stuck around and visited I think 7 nations?  I felt like the wind was worse than the rain because it broke our umbrellas and blew water straight in our faces, but I believe China and Japan were closed for flooding, so I guess the rain was pretty bad too 😆. 

Disneyland is different because it's chilly enough when it rains to layer up. We do raincoats and boots and then hide out in the Star Wars launch bay or the Captain E.O. theater if we need a break. Only once did we call it quits, and of course that was the night Blake Lively and Leonardo DiCaprio visited! 

[ckuada]

I have only visited twice in July, around 17 or so years ago and around 7 years ago.  For the earlier trip, it rained everyday at 3pm like clockwork.  For the later, I don't recall rain at all.  We left the park before 3pm nearly everyday.  However, on all but one day, the rain ceased after 20 minutes or less.  I think one day we were caught in Animal Kingdom and we waited it out in a quick service restaurant we lots of other people seeking shelter.  On another day, it just straight up stormed with hurricane threats.  I haven't been to WDW in a while, but would like to return soon.

What has been the latest rain pattern in July in recent years? ...between 1pm -5pm?   3pm-6pm?

[Webmaster]

It's typically after 3 PM if there are no large scale weather patterns in place (like a low pressure system last week). Yesterday it didn't storm until after 8 PM.

[Batuutravels]

Last July it rained every evening and we were typically heading out of the park at that time anyway. One afternoon it downpoured right as we were heading to a Be Our Guest reservation and we pulled on some ponchos and ran over from Winnie the Pooh. Our shoes and shorts were soaked when we got there and the restaurant is freezing so we weren’t super comfortable. 

[figment1986]

If your going to Disney on a rainy day, just plan out what you want to do... then figure if that attraction is exposed to the elements at all or completely covered / indoors. Currently only Tron and Space mountain will remain open if their is lightning in the area, but any covered / indoor attraction can and will remain open unless other issues happen (shows not able to dump because guests wont leave due to rain...) At Epcot the only attraction that will shut down is Test Track and it will not operate in the rain. Hollywood Studios has slinky Dog Dash, and Animal Kingdom has Everest and a few others which will cycle out or shut down...