Well, we have been lucky with crowds & weather until 6:00 tonight. And then the rain came. And came. And came.
Along with lots of thunder & lightening. We were headed to Epcot for a Soarin fastpass & dinner in Italy. Made it to the International Gateway, held there for about 20 minutes. Seemed to slow down so we decided to head right to Italy. Ha! Made it inside the park. Halfway up the bridge to France, it let loose again. Found an umbrella that is set up for Food & Wine. Waited another 15 minutes or so, then kept going as it slowed down.
The biggest problems we had were all the poor drainage on the walkways. There were several areas with inches of water. Many people were just taking their shoes off & carrying them. We finally made it to Tutto Italia, about 1/2 hour before our ADR. They sat us immediately. There was very loud thunder as we ate. By the time finished it had slowed down again.
We made our way back to the International Gateway, avoiding the puddles as best as we could. The Friendship boats weren't running due to the lightening. At the base of the bridge back to he resorts, was a mini lake! Seriously, from the concrete posts to about 3 feet from the boat dock was 6- 8 inches of water. Most people were trudging thru & it was mid calf. There was 1 drain at the bottom near us that my DH & I pushed debree from several times. We tried to wait for the water to go down, but it just wasn't happening. No Disney staff around for about 15 minutes, even tho the boat captains had to see the situation. A few cast members finally showed up & just stood there looking.
Guests were trudging thru all that water with lightening still going on. Then we heard the CMs talking- apparently one of the small boats at the dock the Disney people use was taking on water & sinking!
DH & I finally got tired of waiting & we did as several others had done & straddled the curb along the path until we were past the water. We were wearing our ponchos, so except our feet, we were pretty dry. It is just unbelievable that Disney doesn't have better drainage in some of these areas. I understand tropical rains, but really, a few more appropriately placed drains would help an lot. Disney pulls their cast members away from pools etc, when there is lightening, but they have guests walking thru all this standing water.
We're in a room facing the boat dock & have a few inches of water on the balcony too. Well, hopefully it'll be better tomorrow!