Forever Magical
Page 1 of 2

The Disneyland Resort in the Rain

It feels like it has been raining every day this month. I’m trying to figure out how people in Seattle and Portland deal with it. It is cold and wet and I find it hard to get motivated but we had established meetings with people at the parks so we ventured out anyway.

Rainy days at Disneyland used to mean trekking through deep puddles just to get inside the park. The parking lot didn’t have the best drainage system and it seemed at least someone from our group would get parked in the biggest, deepest puddle possible. Riding in the trams you could watch the water spilling out. We’d sometimes joke that the characters should ski behind us in the tram’s wake. Disneyland’s Main Street wasn’t much better. There are stories that a couple of years back they used the Omnibus to transport people back and forth not as an attraction but to help them avoid the flooded street.

I’d usually just find a seat near the ragtime piano player on Main Street, Rod. His piano would be inside the Refreshment Corner to keep it from getting wet. So rain or shine we knew he’d be there. Down by his feet was a heater that he had set up so it kept not him warm but us warm, too. I’d sip on a hot chocolate or hot cider and enjoy the heater’s warmth and the piano tunes. It was great for driving away the rainy day blues.

A few drops won't keep this family from DCA

When we would venture out past Main Street it felt as if we owned the Park. Often times you’d only see a couple of other people. The rain seemed to send people home or back to the hotel. Most of the attractions remain open and with the small crowds they’re often walk-ons. On one rainy evening there were just four of us on Casey Jr. and we asked the cast member, if possible, to leave off the sound. She obliged and we just listened to the train ride along the rails. As we climbed the hill we recited Casey’s self-assuring “I think I can, I think I can” and then sang the song we knew far too well from our previous visits. We’d been riding in the caboose, which has a partial covering, but we were still pretty wet from the knees down which were left uncovered.