Last Minute Rainy Days Planning

Our rescheduled trip (due to LA fires) is next week :grimacing: It snuck up on me for lots of reasons, including my DH being an VA employee and lots of uncertainty about his job. We’ve considered canceling but have decided to seek some joy where we can find it. Hopefully we can find it in the rain, as 2 of our 3 days are forecasted to be very rainy.

We’ve been to DLR twice before, but it’s been a bit. I did a solo trip to WDW last year and put so much planning into that trip but I can’t figure out what I should be for this one. It will be my family of 4 (2 very teenager-y daughters) and my parents (mid-70s). We have multiple food allergies in our crew, so the Food and Wine Festival won’t be a huge focus for us. I’m hoping you all can help me with my last minute questions.

Which rides/lands are best to rope drop in the rain (i.e. the rain won’t cause a lot of shut downs)?
Best places to eat or hangout and get dry when it is raining?

Should I create TPs for each day or just have general strategy?

What is the best strategy for using MPLLs (we’ve already paid for them) if it is rainy and crowds are low? I use BG1.

Here is our loosely-planned itinerary:

3/12: Rain forecasted for most of the day
RD DL (early lunch at Hungry Bear) mid-afternoon → DCA (Dinner Wine Country Trattoria 5PM ADR) → RS Shaboom at 6:57PM and MPLL or ILL RsR

3/13: DCA closes at 5PM; Rain forecasted for most of the day
RD DCA hoiping to do a lot with low crowds but will lots shut down bc of rain → evening DL with a Focus on Galaxy’s Edge (Oga’s 8:50PM)

3/14: No rain forecasted!
RD DL (Brunch-ish meal at Carnation Cafe 10:50 AM) → midday DCA for a couple of repeat favs (WC Trattoria ADR 5:10 PM - will probably cancel) → DL River Belle Terrace 8:10PM (planning to cancel) ->GE Fire of Rising Moon 9:30PM

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paging a couple people I think visit DL often.
@Jeff_AZ @lolabear_la
There are a few other regulars here. Jeff might be able to tag a few more in.

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The nice thing about Disneyland is that rain is usually less disruptive to operations than at WDW, because it isn’t rain that usually shuts down rides – it’s lightning. And most rain storms in SoCal are not lightning storms, as opposed to Orlando.

That said, rain can shut down some rides.

The unfortunate news is that many rides are slow starting up in the morning at DLR. I can’t count the number of times Indiana Jones has had a delayed opening when I was there, for example. But most headliners are indoors and so are no more likely to be down due to rain than due to other issues.

We had a conversation on another thread about rain at DLR - I’ll see if I can find it.

I think for the most part, then, it’s just common sense:

  1. Wear a poncho or rain jacket. It’s more important to be warm than to be waterproof in SoCal.
  2. Choose indoor rides and attractions if possible during heavier rain
  3. Many restaurants have indoor and outdoor seating. Try to eat somewhere with mostly indoor or request indoor if both are available.
  4. You may be rewarded with shorter lines as locals will tend to avoid the parks when it rains.
  5. Entertainment will likely be abbreviated. Fireworks more likely to be cancelled vs. projections only, etc.

Overall your plan looks good. Wine Country Trattoria is the one that I think you may struggle with on a rainy day as most seating is at least partially uncovered or under a trellis.

You can still have fun on a rainy day!

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Here’s the list of attractions affected by rain:

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I like your plan. Per the link @Jeff_AZ shared above, just keep your eye on those to pivot at RD as needed. I’d add that waterproof shoes and/or socks are, I find, a really great way to keep moving. Dry feet are so key! The rain is chilly in SoCal this time of year, so keep that in mind, too.

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Like Jeff mentioned, not a lot closes for lightning. But because so much of DLR is outside it does very much depend on how rainy it is (and therefore how wet are the ride vehicles/tracks are) if they then move to close them.

The list he linked too is great. I will add to that list that if it’s the rare storm that brings a lot more water than the parks are used to dealing with some additional ones that will get too waterlogged to continue loading guests because of a risk of slipping: Astro Orbiters, Dumbo, Casey Jr.

In DCA with so many rides being out in the open in the Pixar Pier and Paradise Garden areas the lines for Toy Story (half inside) and Little Mermaid will balloon when it’s raining. And there will be the most closures in that area, so that is the only area that I would potentially avoid. But Carsland might also be tough since Racers sometimes is impacted (usually only with lightning, but there are times when its rain) and always Luigi’s is offline as the ground has to be dry for the trackless vehicles to work.

I think the biggest challenge in DL is finding a place with a seat & under cover to ride out the rain so I find it very helpful to have ADRs especially since they tend to give the ADRs the priority (if they can) to the ADR’s to sit inside. But some places (Cafe Orleans, Carnation Cafe & River Belle Terrace) only have so much seating inside so those aren’t guarantees at all. QS places with indoor seats or good cover will become jammed. The ones in DL that are inside: Golden Horseshoe, Red Rose Tavern, the indoor portion of Alien Pizza Planet, a small portion of Plaza Inn, and then like 5 small tables in DL’s Starbucks (Market Cafe). Then good covered but still outdoor seating will include Hungry Bear Cafe, Ranco del Zocalo, and parts of Galactic Grill and possibly some of the patio seating outside Alien Pizza Planet (the part that borders where the walkway into the Spact Mtn ride entrance).

In DL the indoor places will be: Starbucks (Fidler Fifer Practical, but a lot of these booths get filled and stay filled by the same party the whole time the rain passes, it’s the go-to spot for rainy day hanging out), a portion of Smokejumpers tables, a portion of Flo’s Cafe tables. Then there are a lot more covered tables in DCA between the Paradise Gardens area especially and also in Hollywood land nex to Philharmagic.

One place they close in heavy rain to avoid tracking water onto the carpets is Mr. Lincoln’s and that might include the lobby area and DL exhibits in there. If it’s not closed yet, that is an excellent and interesting place to hang out and peruse and is connected to the Disneyana store as well which is always so fun to peruse. If that is closed then Tiki Room and the Castle Walkthrough will be your only other indoor walkthrough attractions. For rides with an indoor or covered queue, the Fantasyland dark rides except for Alice, Buzz, Star Tours, Space, Nemo Subs, Millenium Falcon and Rise will be good ones to head for cover. If you have a Visa card you could so go see if the meet is happening in the Star Wars Launch Bay, but they don’t have anything else open in there, I don’t think.

Then in DCA the rain will drive a lot of crowds ot the Animation Building but if you wanted to do it anyway, then there’s a lot in there you can do all at once to divert yourselves for at least an hour: Animation Academy, Turtle Talk with Crush, Sorcerer’s Workshop, Anna/Elsa meet and the lobby itself. It’s also attached to an art store, Off the Page which is fun to peruse. And across the street from the Philharmagic which is always cute to see and has a lot of capacity to absorb those seeking cover.

I do feel like you have a good setup for most of your plan, Wine Country Trattoria being the one exception for not quite being ideal in rain. Storyteller’s and Hearthstone Lounge right in the Grand Californian next door might be good alternatives to check (but Hearthstone doesn’t do reservations). Plus you can wander the Grand Californian lobby to also keep out of the rain. Just note you will be exiting the parks security perimeter by entering the hotel so when you come back into the parks (or downtown Disney) you’ll have to redo security. And the lines out of the Grand Californian can get backed up easily so it can take an extra 10 or so minutes if it is.

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Thanks for all the great advice! Heading to Northern California for some college tours and then we will be on our way to DLR. We will overnight in Santa Cruz - anyone have a recommendation for a fun morning activity in the area? It does’t look like good beach weather, so right now we are planning on a quick redwood hike in Henry Cowell State Park.

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Maybe @stlouie?

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This sounds awesome. :heart_eyes:

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March is not beach weather in central CA!

The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is free to walk around. Attractions require tickets.

Maybe brunch/lunch at The Buttery.

Enjoy!

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We stopped for lunch there last summer on the way to Monterey. We ate at Taqueria Los Pericos…it wasn’t fancy, but the fish tacos were excellent!!

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How was the trip? Did your plans work? I hope it was magical!

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Anyday at Disney is a good day. But honestly, this was my least favorite of all our trips. It wasn’t one specific thing but a bunch of little things that all added up to a less than stellar experience. It was very rainy for significant portions of each day and also quite cool. The rain and temps didn’t keep the crowds away. So many rides were down for significant portions of the day that we ended up with lots of MEPs, but because so much was down (or went down while we were in line) the MEPs were kind of worthless. We were stuck (more than 10 minutes) on broken rides several times. And, the food was mostly disappointing. My last trip was at WDW so my food expectations may have been too high.
After all that complaining, we still had fun and I’m glad we went - but I usually leave eager to return and I’m just not feeling it this time. I have a work meeting at Universal Orlando next fall, so I’m going to give that a try.

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So sorry to hear you had a bad rainy day as opposed to the often not bad rainy days! I’ve had a couple of those over the years as well. Not fun.

But glad you managed to still enjoy the trip overall. Next time come in May or June. It is perfect weather IMO. Warm, sunny, but not too hot, and it cools down nicely in the evening.

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