We caught the tail end of the Move It! Shake It! Dance & Play It! Street Party, and the sky was not looking too clever. I suggested that we go and take cover somewhere, as by now it was starting to spit with rain – and visitors to Orlando will know that the rain can come on very suddenly!
We made our way into Tomorrowland, choosing to hangout near the Tomorrowland Terrace where the Dessert Party was being held, so that if the rain came pouring down, we wouldn’t have far to go. Sadly, in my ECV I’m stuck when it comes to pouring rain as you are not supposed to get the vehicle battery wet – and I really didn’t need that happening!
While waiting for the [at this point light] rain to stop, we took a couple of selfies, and had a Disney PhotoPass photo taken too – holding the poster I mentioned at the top of today’s report on the back of the park map.
The rain eventually started to fall a lot heavier, which was just so unlucky! We had already had major downpours put a dampener (no pun intended) on the two Halloween Parties we went attended, and now for the 45th Anniversary too? We were so glad to have that Dessert Party booked because they will still do firework if it’s only rain – if there is lightning in the area, they will cancel them.
So we just killed time hanging out in this area, trying to stay dry, and eventually moved towards the entrance for the Dessert Party which thankfully was under cover too. We joined the already started line, and could hear the rain coming down even harder.
Check-In time for the party is about an hour before the fireworks, so they should have been letting everyone in soon. But nope. For some reason, they decided to move the line outside into the pouring rain. By this point the rain was actually insane heavy – it had been a while since I had seen it that bad – and I asked if I could just wait under cover with my ECV. But the Cast Member said no! I explained that I couldn’t get it wet, but he wasn’t having any of it.
I did my best to cover up what I could with a poncho, and I was also really concerned about my camera, so was trying to cover that as best as I could too.
A lot of people by now were complaining about being left out in the pouring rain when we could have started to be checked-in, and also asking why the line had been moved outside. I have honestly never come across rude Cast Members before, but the three that were managing the check-in were so rude to the guests it was unbelievable.
They wouldn’t give any indication when we could be let in, and like I said wouldn’t even let me get my ECV out of the rain. I even offered to stand in the rain if I could just move the scooter out (even though I can’t stand for long periods of time) but nope.
Then came the thunder and lightning and it was game over. A few people snapped, including Steve and he asked for a refund, along with several others. One smart ass in the background said something like how it rains in Florida and you should just get over it. This wasn’t our first rodeo! Any other time, fine I would have had my poncho on and just sucked it up, but my main concern was the scooter malfunctioning and me being stuck.
Eventually a more senior (I guess?) Cast Member came along and took the names of everyone requesting refunds, and we did our best to just get out of the park. We managed to go through the shops towards the top end of Main Street USA where we held out for a bit longer, hoping that the rain would subside just a little bit.
You can see my timelapse below (no sound unfortunately!) of the crowds just making a beeline for the exit!
Once we realised the rain wasn’t going to stop any time soon, we decided to try and be as quick as we could and exit the park.
You have to remember that we had parked our car in the Magic Kingdom Parking lot so we couldn’t even just get a bus back home to Saratoga Springs! We still had to get to the car!
The Monorail wasn’t operating (for some reason – maybe the storm? I don’t know) so that meant everyone leaving the park had to pile onto the Ferryboat, which is slow loading, and there is only one boat at a time at the dock.
The rain was lashing down, so trying to see when it is very dark, when you are on an ECV trying to protect it from getting wet (whilst you yourself are soaked to the bone), as well as trying not to get in other people’s way (but who also walk in front of you without a care) and trying to protect your expensive camera is not fun at all. Because there was hoardings up in the general area, trying to figure which direction to go for the Ferryboat was a nightmare. But we eventually made it aboard.
When the weather is dry and sunny, it’s a lovely crossing – not so much in a storm. Once at the Transportation and Ticket Center (and it still pouring with rain) I wished we were still staying at our Home Resort of Polynesian Village as we’d be nearly home!
There is a store in the TTC area, so we hung out in there for a while, again hoping for a break in the rain. Steve rain ahead of me to the car, while I went as fast as I safely could on my ECV. This is not how I imagined our last night at Walt Disney World! We loaded up the mini-van and slumped, soaking wet into the car.
We were both so angry and upset about the way we had been treated, and that it had been spoiled in this way. When we got back to Saratoga Springs we rang up for pizza delivery as we were both really hungry – 3 hour wait they told us! They said everyone was ordering food in because of the weather… so our last meal ended up being a few snacks we had leftover.
So yeah… what would have been a great way to spend the last night of this epic, nearly 4 week Florida for my 40th birthday adventure, ended up a wet soggy old mess!
I can’t end on such a sad note though, so here are a couple of pictures of Wishes from the past…
And with that, our last full day in Florida is over… Tomorrow we are at the top of Disney’s Contemporary Resort for brunch at California Grill, before driving to MCO for our flight home to London.
Read about the day after:
Day 29: Top Of The World « coming soon
Brunch at California Grill / Travel Day – MCO to LGW
Read about the day before:
Day 27: Heroes & Villains
Epcot / Hollywood Studios / Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular / Club Villain