If you’re going to be in Disney World for more than a couple of days, there’s a high chance that you’ll run into a pop-up storm or some rain and potentially lightning during your trip!
When that happens, some rides around the Disney Parks might close for a bit for safety reasons. Here are the rides and attractions that you can expect to see close for weather!
While we were in the parks during one of those short times where there was enough bad weather to shut down some rides, and we took a look at what was closed around the parks! As you might expect, most of the outdoor rides were temporarily closed, but a lot of the rides that are completely indoors stayed open.
Note that most Disney World attractions (including those outdoor ones) don’t close simply for rain. Instead, the attractions will mainly close when there is lightning within a certain distance near Disney World.
Here’s what was happening in each park when we were there during some bad weather!
Magic Kingdom
Inside Disney’s Magic Kingdom, a lot of rides were down for the bad weather! We saw Astro Orbiter, The Barnstormer, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad…
…Liberty Square Riverboat, The Magic Carpets of Aladdin, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Splash Mountain…
…Swiss Family Treehouse, Tom Sawyer Island, Tomorrowland Speedway, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, and Jungle Cruise all on the list for being closed temporarily! All of those attractions are at least partly outdoors.
Some that were still open include “it’s a small world,’ Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, Peter Pan’s Flight, Haunted Mansion, and Mickey’s PhilharMagic show!
Animal Kingdom
Over in Disney’s Animal Kingdom, we saw that Expedition Everest, Gorilla Falls Trail, Kali River Rapids, and TriceraTop Spin were all down because of the weather.
Indoor rides like Avatar Flights of Passage, Na’vi River Journey, and Dinosaur all stayed open, along with a surprise one: Kilimanjaro Safaris! Even though it’s a completely outdoor ride, the safari trucks have canopies and can operate safely in the rain, and it remained open.
Hollywood Studios
Hollywood Studios is a good place to be if there’s bad weather, because a lot of the most popular rides are indoors! The only one that was closed for the weather was Slinky Dog Dash!
Other popular rides like Tower of Terror, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run, Rise of the Resistance, and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway were still operating like normal!
If you can brave the rain, we highly recommend putting on a poncho and continuing with all your Disney plans! Don’t let a little moisture get in the way of your vacation.
EPCOT
EPCOT only had one ride down as well: Test Track!
Soarin’, Living With the Land, Frozen Ever After, Spaceship Earth, and others were all still operating. It’s important to note that a big draw of EPCOT is the World Showcase, where you can walk around to try different food and drinks and see cool architecture from countries around the world. This is still possible in the rain, but it can be a little more daunting and difficult!
There’s the list of the rides that go down in Disney World when bad weather hits! Keep following DFB for more Disney planning tips!
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Anna says
They don’t close for rain, they close for lightning. If there’s rain and no lightning, they should stay open, barring any technical difficulties.
Mr . JOHN says
The rides out side close down inside stay open and the shows . If you go to the parks first timers you should find this out . I use to check the weather to see If it was worth to go if it was going to rain most of the day . If so change our park day today with reservations you cannot do it . I wish it would come back to normal once again .