And then the rain rain rain came down down down...

[C&D]

We were at DTD waiting on a pontoon boat back to Old Key West. It was raining with thunder in the background (some ways away). Our boat operator told us to come on board, as he was going to make one last trip before the weather set in. Well, it was only me and my wife and him and his wife (she was accompanying him this night) and we were glad to get the ride home. We got about 1/2 way home when the weather just let loose and the rain, lightning and thunder was all around us. We nervously joked about our situation, but obviously made it to our destination unscathed. Cool story though.

 

[Mybails]

We were at Flame Tree ordering lunch when the rains hit last July. Our party of 10 split leaving 3 of us to get the food. And then the fun was finding everyone down the paths. 9 ended up together and since I was already drenched i went searching for #10. but no problem, the sun came out, the heat came back and I dried. But we did sit for much longer than we planned and didn't get to Festival of the Lion King

 

[U.R._Courageous]

Hurricane Frances

My wife and I were suppose to get married at the wedding pavilion Sept 5th 2004, the same day hurricane Frances decided to visit. We had no choice but to come down from MI because Disney did not cancel the wedding yet...

We were upgraded to a turret room in the Grand's main building so I was able to watch most of the storm while we were on "lock down". The day before we went to the parks and it was VERY eerie. All the carts were tied down and they were actually making loud speaker announcements over the PA system while were in line for Kilimanjaro Safaris.

The Pavilion lost some tiles from its roof. It was very strange to see Cinderella castle with all the lights off except for the light in her private quarters to tell the kids that she was ok inside.

We were the first Fairy Tale Wedding ever actually canceled due to weather. We didn't hold the title long because other couples had issues that weekend and from the hurricanes to follow that year. We still keep in touch with our Disney Planner because of the shared "adventure". We were happily married December 5, 2004 at the pavilion with a reception at the boardwalk.

 

[Cynderella]

While my mom and I were riding TTA (of course ) it started raining. By the time we were unloading at Rockettower Plaza, it was a torrential downpour.

As we exited the ride and stepped onto the walkway heading down to TL, we quickly noticed the backup of people standing in the entrance/exit area to avoid the rain (which is a very small area, at least the part that's covered). Unfortunately, my mom and I, not to mention a dozen other people, were on a moving walkway heading toward a completely packed area.

I heard a poor CM screaming, "You have to move. People are coming down" over and over, but these idiots wouldn't move. I was ahead of my mom, so I literally had to start jogging backwards or risk plunging into the backup of people that was spilling up on the walkway. I was also worrying about my mom, who has physical problems and wouldn't be able to jog backwards once she got to the pile...I didn't want her getting hurt.

The CM continued screaming and started pointing at us, a fairly large group of people piling up with nowhere to go (literally). Finally, they started to disperse just as it seemed the situation was about to get dangerous.

The same thing happened to us when we were there in my previous post. As we got closer and were noticing the back up I started yelling myself. I was like Move it we're coming down!! And all the idiots just stood there until again the CM came. People are ridiculous! :hammer:

 

[Tinkrbell]

Easter Sunday 2004, we went to Epcot for the morning & most of the afternoon and the weather was fine. That was the only day it was sunny enough for me to get sunburned. By the time we got to Magic Kingdom that evening, it was getting cloudy, but we didnt think much of it. We got in line for Tomorrowland Indy Speedway & just as I was starting to climb into my car, the CM told me that no one else was going out because it was starting to rain with thunder & lightning, my younger brother was the last one they let leave before closing the ride. After he got back in, we headed over to Cosmic Ray's to get some dinner. Apparently, every one else had the same idea. There were no empty tables anywhere in the restaurant, so we sat on the floor & ate our Easter dinner of chicken strips & fries. It kinda sucked at the time, but now it is one of our favorite Disney memories.

This past October, it rained pretty much our entire trip. The only time it wasnt raining was during MNSSHP & the morning after when we had ressies at Cinderella's Table. We ended up doing a lot of rides we had never done before simply because they were inside.

When we were there in January, it was chilly everyday except the day we were leaving. Once again, we did many new rides & shows simply because they were inside & warm.

 

[AnimalMagnetism]

The same thing happened to us when we were there in my previous post. As we got closer and were noticing the back up I started yelling myself. I was like Move it we're coming down!! And all the idiots just stood there until again the CM came. People are ridiculous! :hammer:

Happened to me too - going the other way. There was actually a queue of people at the top of the conveyer waiting to get on the ride and because of some "failing to correctly get onto the ride" incident (how hard can it be!?) a backlog quickly developed - it was faintly scary being caught in the middle, with no way of going forward and a load of people pushing into you at the back. Was surprised it happened.

 

[bryPOD]

In January, my sister and I were at Magic Kingdom. The skies were clear all night long, and nothing in the forecast called for rain. We skipped Splash Mountain because my sister had her brand new Ugg boots on. We walked on to Big Thunder Mountain without having to wait on line. As the ride started, that's when we heard, what sounded like rain. Sure enough, it was pouring and rained on us the entire ride. Right after we exited the ride, we waited literally a few seconds before the rain stopped. It was just weird amazing timing...

 

[mickeymaniacs]

We were at Disney last October and we had great weather. Really hot out but nice. When we were there we saw on the weather channel that there were bad storms that were gonna hit home(we're from northern Indiana btw.) it was 9:30 at night so we go to bed and we get a phone call from my sister the next morning telling us that a neighboring town had half of it wiped out by an F3 tornado! We get little ones once in a while but nothing that big. My in laws had debris across their front yard! I have always been a fan of big storms but my DH hates them so he was really glad we weren't home. I couldn't believe it I figured we would get storms in Florida but they all hit home.We saw it on the news in Kissimmee, we were pretty suprised even though they kept pronouncing the town wrong.

 

[TubaGeek]

A few years back I was at DL because my band was in the Rose Bowl Parade, and it started raining pretty hard. Luckily, everyone in the band got these personalized matching ponchos from the band parents, and we were a pretty good sized band (350-ish) so all of a sudden there was a flood of high schoolers wearing the same jacket. I personally prefer DL in the rain! Well, except if you're getting on an outdoor ride and the seat is wet...

 

[alilance]

In May about two years ago my mom and I ended up riding TTA for almost over an hour do to a really crazy thunderstorm!! Usually those storms last for only 10 min. or so. But this one really lasted a while!! It was fun though!!!

 

[momofnine]

We were in Disneyworld in Aug. of 2001. A Hurricane came in and we were at the MK. Disney shut down everything and made everyone leave the park. The trees were bending in half, and the water was up past our ankles on main street. The first aid building was full of people who were hurt while trying to leave the park, some from walking down stairs and falling, etc... it was very scary. We went back to our motorhome at FW, wish they would have left open the restaurant or hoop-de-doo for us to wait it out, it was not a fun time in the trailer!

 

[echoreyn]

I have two.
Last summer, we were standing in the pouring rain waiting to sit down in the Fantasmic ampitheater when the really creepy guy from ToT told us that the show would probably be cancelled if the storm didn't let up. Luckily, the raiin eased up long enough for them to allow us to sit in the theater, but then it began to rain heavily again and there was an announcement made about its possible cancellation. Severely disappointed, we sat in the theater getting soaked until just about 10 minutes before the show was about to start. At that time the rain miraculously stopped and the storm clouds formed an open semicircle around the Fantasmic stage area so that the show could continue as planned. There's no doubt about it, it was magic!
This picture sort of shows what it looked like, though it looked much cooler in person.

Another time, my family and I were waiting in the fast pass line for Kali when we began hearing really loud thunder and seeing flashes of lightning not too far away. In order to make sure that all of the people with fastpasses got on in time, they closed the regular line and herded us onto the boats just as it was beginning to pour. We ended up being in for quite a wild ride as the wind made the waters choppy, the lightning struck overhead, and the sound of thunder filled the air. For a while, we even thought the rain had broken the pryrotechnics at the top of the hill, because the fire didn't appear for quite some time. My brother and I feared for our lives during that particular ride through, but my mom still thinks it was the most exciting river raft ride she's ever been on. :lol: She kept telling us she wished Kali was always that much fun!

 

[imamouse]

We've been stuck in the rain several times but nothing as bad as last September. We were on our honeymoon and we went to the first MNSSHP. We had never done this one before only MVMCP so I was super excited to see what this one was all about. The evening started out fine and we got our wristbands and everything. We went on Pooh and by the time we got out it was downpouring. This was near the end of the trip and it rained just about every night for an hour or so so we learned to just get a locker and bring out ponchos with us. Thank goodness we did. My DH ran to the locker and got the ponchos. We decided to make the best of it and try to get on some other rides in tomorrowland. It rained so hard that near the TTA we literally walked through puddles that were about 4 inches deep. Our shoes were soaked (and I wear Vans and let me tell you when they get wet they get heavy!) and the water was starting to work its way up my capris! Needless to say it s*cked big time because I was so excited to meet villians and trick or treat and pretty much everything was just washed out.

I was there that night - what a downpour! We slogged through ankle-deep puddles all night. The fireworks were delayed 45-50 min and then they ran the parade immediatly afterwards. We were soaked to the skin and it took days for our shoes to dry out. Thank goodness we each had a spare set of footwear.

 

[imamouse]

This is a great thread. I love the rain and bad weather. Anyone ever been there in a hurricane? What do they do for the guests?

Our family was at WDW the week of Sept 11-18, 1999 which is when Hurricane Floyd came calling. One day - It was either Wed or Thurs - all of the WDW theme parks were closed except DAK which opened at noon. We'd been to DAK the day before, but went back anyway and to our surprise; 1) it wasn't crowded and 2) we saw a lot more birds and animals than we had the day before. Talking with a CM, we learned that most of the birds and some of the smaller animals had been evacuated the day before (which explained why we didn't see them).

We were staying at All-Star Music, thankfully on the top floor. Some people in ground-level rooms were evacuated to the convention center at CS where the spent the night on cots. The resort was fantastic about keeping us informed - several notices were placed inside our room over the course of 2-3 days.

As for food - they brought the pastry cart around from behind the counter and allowed everyone to select what they wanted and then show the contents of your bag to the cashier. We also bought OJ and kept it on ice in our room.

The night the storm was due to hit, we sat outside our room and visited with other guests. The people next door to us were from Germany and we due to leave the next day, but their flights had been canceled. Unfortunately, the resort was booked, so they had to leave their room the next day and find another resort to stay in until their flights were rebooked.

The only complaint I heard was from the people who were evacuated to CS. Disney did not send busses to pick them up until 11 am the next day, so they were ready to get back to their rooms and shower, etc.

We had considered trying to evacuate to Tampa, where we had relatives, but the roads were gridlocked, so we stayed at WDW (good decision). However, we did cut our vacation short and drove home on Friday since Hurricane Floyd had taken a path fairly close to our home. We didn't receive any damage, but areas west of us were hard hit.

Overall, I think WDW did a fantastic job of keeping guests informed and reasonably satisfied during a major hurricane. We even received a refund of 2 days of park hopper tickets for each member of our family (2 adults/2 children).

 

[marni1971]

The evening of October 1st 2007 - those who were in it will remember it for more than Epcots 25th! First time I`ve seen waves on WS Lagoon not from boats....

Back in June 2001 we watched a wall cloud drop over Epcot from the CBR. I learnt the following day a funnel had dropped too but not touched down, the park went to Plan C evac.

 

[CajunEpcotLover]

The evening of October 1st 2007 - those who were in it will remember it for more than Epcots 25th! First time I`ve seen waves on WS Lagoon not from boats....

We were there this evening also! Walking through WS and thankfully it was during the F&W and the Route 66 tent was set up...we ended up in there for a while with my husband and friend holding the sides closed. We finally had enough and decided to try to walk (which ended up being a run) to England "hoping" to get a table to eat. By the time we got there we were soaked and stood on the stoops (after we put our name in) in the back to get out of the still pouring rain. When it started drizzling, I walked to check on our waiting time and another family of four was cancelling theirs and gave me their name so we could get in! I will never forget this! They were awesome!

 

[AstareGod]

As I write this, the huge random downpour of Baton Rouge is just ending. It fits.

Anyway, my best memory of bad weather at WDW would definitely have to be at the water parks last summer (2007). I work there and almost every day during the summer, we have some sort of rain closing... even though we say "rain closing" it really doesn't matter if it's raining, there just needs to be lightning within 6 miles of the park. So this one particular day, we must have closed for nearly two hours or so. One of the longest rain closings I've ever worked. Well we opened back up, and it was still raining... torrentially! I was at the top of Crush'n'Gusher, and the wind was blowing the rain so hard toward me for about 30 minutes, but it didn't matter since I was soaked to the bone as it was. But we all still kept working and making people happy. That's what it's all about, rain or shine.

 

[bkheart]

A few years ago 2 friends and myself were there for 11 days and it rained everyday-just about all day.BUT we were in Disney-no problem!

 

[BellaBelle27]

I have found a very reliable way of predicting thunderstorms over the years. All I have to do is stand in line for Test Track, and the storm will come. The certainty increases, the longer the period I've been standing in line.

haha So true! :ROFLOL:

 

[Nansafan]

Typical afternoon downpour we thought but this one wouldn't stop. We were safe at the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. They started the show with Indy taking the idol and then the rock rolling down. After that someone came out and announced that due to the weather the rest of the show was cancelled and that we could stay there and wait it out. Well they didn't tell the theater cleaning staff that we could stay. They came out and started to sweep and clean the seating area. One of the CM's asked us why we were still sitting there and we said that the guy who announced that the show was over said we could stay and wait the storm out. The CM's all looked confused that all these people weren't leaving. My cousin said that if "you were selling rain ponchos, maybe we could leave since it was raining so hard." A few minutes went by then all of a sudden there were CM's at the top of the theater selling rain ponchos right out of the box for $5. It was like buying a souvenir at the ball game. We've joked ever since that our idea got some cleaning staff CM a promotion.