Extreme Heat or Extreme Cold?

[HouCuseChickie]

Growing up in the northeast, we looked forward to going to WDW because it meant a break from winter. Now that I live along the gulf coast and have become much more heat tolerant, I couldn't stand going to WDW in real winter. I've been there when it was in the upper 20s to mid 40s with windchill and it was miserable. Granted, that area suffers from what I call "damp cold" (get it at home too) which can feel significantly worse than places that get much colder but have far less moisture in the air. That's not to say that upper 90s to triple digits is pleasant, but I'll take midday breaks at the pool over trying to stuff myself and my ski jacket into a Space Mountain vehicle any day.

 

[disneyfireman]

Cold sucks. Heat is easy. Ill take heat

 

[made in china]

We are currently in China, and had planned to visit SH Disney. But my family and I came to the conclusion that the tropical heat here is too much to tolerate.

I'm originally from Arizona, so 50c is tolerable to me if the humidity is low, but 41c at 100% humidity in Beijing last week just about killed us.
I've never been to Florida before, but I've heard the weather is similar......so no thanks!

If we are talking 20c/36f above or below "comfortable" then I'll take "cold" any time. Tolerating above freezing cold is easier than suffering high humidity moderate heat.

The extremes of either I'm not going to a theme park anyway!

 

[StephK]

Heat all the way!!!! The Florida weather is one of my favorite parts of WDW, i love a warm humid night!!!

 

[made in china]

Another benefit to cold: no flying insects trying to eat you!

 

[Trackmaster]

Another factor to keep in mind is that its not great for the outdoor roller coasters to run in the cold weather. Granted, Disney doesn't have many of these, but for the more extreme parks that are mostly coasters, this is one of the reasons that the seasons are shortened. The parks doing the holiday fests on the weekends have to limit the number of coasters to mostly only the ones that they're trying to run into the ground and get rid of. They can't run the newer, major ones that they're hoping to keep around a lot longer. Six Flags doesn't really seem to care about maintenance or reliability, so they'll do whatever and keep a lot of their top tier coasters open in 20 degrees weather and worry about the consequences later.

 

[zengoth]

Living in florida, i barely tolerate the heat and always wonder why i don’t see un-acclimated tourists dropping like flies. What few have mentioned that accompanies heat are the monsoon-like torrentials that seem to be getting more frequent.

By wdw’s 75th i fully expect the entire park(s) to be under a dome.

 

[J_Carioca]

There are no rides which would close or would be unable to operate due to heat.

However, there are numerous rides which would close because of snow or would simply be undoable when it got too cold (like, for example, every single water ride).

Adding to all of that, last time I checked it isn’t as difficult to walk around on hot ground as it is on ground covered with snow and ice.

Also, the idea about simply adding layers when it’s cold only works to a certain degree. That is, sometimes there aren’t enough layers in the world that can keep you warm enough. In addition, enjoy cramming yourself into the Space Mountain or RnR vehicles when you are dressed like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

Heat over cold in a landslide, IMHO.

Thank you! I get so tired of people saying "you can always add layers to stay warm, but there's only so much you can take off". Not just in this discussion, but in general. Those people clearly haven't had the joy of waiting for a bus in -30 Celsius weather, with the arctic wind coming at you sideways while icy sleet hits you in the eyes. Like you said, there aren't enough layers for that kind of cold.

 

[Shouldigo12]

Heat. It doesn't matter how many layers I wear in Winter, some part of me is always cold. Plus the cold can get dangerous very quickly, both from the temperature and things like icy roads. With heat I can just splash sone cold water on my face or make use of one of my holding fans and I'm solid.

 

[Disstevefan1]

I will weigh in as each extreme applies at WDW. Yes it gets really hot at WDW, but I have been there in the cold and it's worse in the cold. I think it's that there is still humidity with the cold, and we all know what makes cold bareable is low humidity and what makes cold feel worse is the humidity and the humidity is never low at WDW.

I remember watching a night parade in the magic kingdom when it was cold and it was my toes and fingers that hurt the worst, and there was no way to solve the problem, we were just too cold.

On the other hand, in the heat you can seek shade or a breeze and worst case just stop and sit. As we know, stop and sitting is the worst thing to do in the cold.

Extreme heat is easier to deal with.