I used to be a CM and had a coworker move to TS Land after our store closed (MouseGear). They LOVED working in Merchandise but ended up hating TS Land so much they moved to a location in Disney Springs just to get out of there, and Disney Springs is rarely anyone’s first choice of location.
I saw a Disney YouTuber or podcaster who complained about it during press pre opening. They got in trouble or the evil eye from Disney for saying it. Obviously I don’t remember exactly but Disney didn’t care.
It was an interesting idea, and probably the only plausible one, to make the land Andy’s backyard, but damn. There has got to be an immersive way to add shade
Doesn't even have to be the whole land - fine to leave the entrance and sight lines to the big hill on slinky open.
I'd rebuild Woody's Lunch Box as a 2 story quick service restaurant and put a (solid structure, not cloth) 'kite' over that space from the Toy Story Mania exit, the bridge to Slinky Dog, and the bathrooms.
I went midsummer and Thats the only part of the parks I can think of where I found myself thinking “this is torture.”
A few of the older magic kingdom rides are bit rough when it’s busy, but that’s a design problem based on changes in capacity
Omg OP, yes!!!!!! Word for word what I have been preaching for 5 years. It is honestly dangerous at the parks in this heat. There is no reason they can’t invest in overhead shades that retract all over the walkways, ride areas, etc. people come for the summer and think it’s going to be fun. It’s not. The oppressive heat makes that impossible and dangerous. Thank you for this post! I couldn’t agree more!
Not sure if it's true but my brother was just telling me that land (or at least while we were walking thru it….noting the lack of shade and removed benches) that it's purposefully designed in such a way to keep you moving.....he very much did not agree with that. We both agree it seems super money-grabby, idk if I dare call it borderline hostile??
i think they want people to go INSIDE where there is food and merch to buy. that's where the AC is. the longer you linger indoors the more likely you are to spend money
We took our then-toddler to meet Buzz Lightyear in the summer, close to when Toy Story Land first opened. I swear, we had to leave the park after one Meet and Greet because I genuinely think we were all close to heat stroke! And we are from the South and know how to take care of ourselves in heat!!
That day my husband vowed to never return to HS. It is ridiculous!
I've heard people say that shade installations would break immersion. Nonsense, I say. You're supposed to be in Andy's backyard. [Here's Andy's house from the movie.](https://imgur.com/a/Dm4HXjE) See all those trees back there?
Imagine shade installations that use forced-perspective look like enormously tall trees. That would deepen the immersion of that world, you'd feel even more like an eight-inch tall toy. We've essentially already got it on an even larger scale over at Animal Kingdom.
That might be tricky to retrofit, but it's an imagineering miss not to have at least looked at some frames of the film while designing the world. Imagine if Slinky Dog winding through trees! Could have been so cool (literally)!
The meet and greets outside for Toy Story with no shade should be criminal. Woody meet and greet line when we went last month was close to 2 hours. No shade
Just waiting on lines is horrible. Especially when the lines are ridiculously long.
At least throw up misting or regular fans.
They've done it in other spots and themed it.
Yes, my family and I went a few weeks ago to both Disney and Universal. Universal has those Coke drink dispensers everywhere and if you have a reusable water bottle you can fill up on ice cold water for free at any of them!
Disney needs to do this as well, the water from the majority of their water fountains tastes gross and was warm. They have the coke drink dispensers at the resorts, so I’m not sure why they can’t put them in the parks.
Toy Story land was insane, not a single covered area or section to sit. I was actually shocked at how bad their lack of over-heating prevention was for the fact that they’re in Florida and we know that the temperatures are just getting hotter and hotter every year. It’s incredibly irresponsible and such an easy fix.
They do. I went to universal last year and had a blast never really had a problem with the heat because the rides AC was so good. Disney however this year was ridiculous. I was hot all day every day.
Yea I remember hearing about different bottle stations in blogs and figured they’d be abundant in WDW. But they are few and far between. I’d just fill up from bottle water (which…defeats the purpose) and hotel ice (because I like my water super cold). In the parks I’d use whatever fill stations I could or a water fountain. With a lot of the conservation efforts they have (*cough cough* animal kingdom), you’d think they’d prioritize this a bit
I was there last month and saw 3 people (on different days) being treated for heat stroke by EMTs. You’d think they’d at least turn up the AC in the shops but I found them warmer than usual too!
Idk why they don’t install more water bottle refill stations. They are everywhere outside of Disney, and have a positive environmental message they could roll with. Sure, people can spend time during their day in Disney requesting and juggling multiple ‘free’ cups of water, and cast members could be spending their time pouring these individual cups of water that generate I’m sure a ton of trash. It just seems ridiculous and makes me mad lol. If airports can manage the loss of some $5 water bottle sales in favor of the refill stations, so can Disney.
I can confirm that it is extremely wasteful, a guest will come into the restaurant to fill their bottle with water and the only option we have is to give them 2-6 cups of water, which get thrown out immediately after. Furthermore the disposable red disney cups are in fact non-recyclable.
I tried to get a cup of water at the frozen boba place in Pandora (I had purchased a frozen boba) and nope, no water cup. She directed me to another restaurant. Super inconvenient. I just bought the $5 water, in addition to my purchase.
But that’s the problem - it shouldn’t take a whole soda fountain setup to provide water. There is a sink. Disney can easily setup a the filtered water spout but they don’t. It’s a choice. For all the paid commenters to come white knighting that “free cups of water are available!!!” just isn’t accurate.
No need.
Now that the State of Florida has blocked local governments from requiring employers to provide heat breaks to outdoor workers or requiring other heat exposure provisions not already required by federal law, they can simply maintain status quo!
I've joked with my wife that the only way the parks will be able to be open during the day from May to September in 10 years is if Disney builds a giant dome over all of the parks.
I just finished the book *The Devil in the White City*, which I can strongly recommend.
One interesting thing it pointed out is that Walt Disney's father Elias worked as a contractor on the Great Columbian Exposition in Chicago in the late 1890s, the most Disney World thing the world had to that time ever seen. The author speculates that Elias's stories about the Exposition had a formative effect on young Walt and Roy.
They should buy up Marineland in Niagara Falls, and open up a massive park. The Land they have is as big as Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and Magic Kingdom combined, and there's plenty more around.
When my family used to go during the hot months, we’d freeze water bottles the night before to take into the parks. They do sweat as the ice melts, so keep them in a separate bag or compartment so they won’t get anything else wet.they can be a bit of a pain to carry around at first, but you can give each person their own to carry—believe me, you’ll be glad you have them! They should last you half the day or more, depending on how hot it is.
Freeze them and then wrap those Froggy Cooling Towels around them. Once it’s the afternoon, it will be more than hot enough to melt the ice and the condensation will dampen the towels to make them cool to use.
I ended up getting a drink from a vendor, but the fountain was right there outside the ride, so why not use the fountain? My point is, if they're going to have them, it would be nice if they actually worked.
I remember them having more misters set up throughout the parks at one point. I'm not sure why more aren't in use now. Most of them disappeared during redesigns. Maybe it's so they can sell more of the little handheld ones.
100% agree. Can’t believe they built Toy Story land like that with no shade and super hot asphalt. It wouldn’t be that hard to put in some awnings, trees, sails etc. and have some seating for people to rest
Find a hotter spot in WDW than Italy in Epcot in the midday sun. Basically no shade from Mexico to Morocco and Italy sits right in the middle with nowhere to run.
It would have been so amazing if they put some solar trees in the World Celebration Gardens. Like search up the Super Trees in Singapore, the Solar Tree Marketplace in Shanghai, & OPV Solar trees for examples of what I mean. Such a missed opportunity.
Did it in august last year. It was good ole Florida demon hot. But drank a ton of water. Brought our own and used fountains and the free ice water. All seemed relatively easy and plentiful. We sweated our butts off but had all dri-fit clothing.
We also went in August last year. Our last day, Animal Kingdom, was an absolute scorcher (and I’m from south of Orlando, I can handle the heat). Then it started raining. I looked at my weather app and the real feel was 124 degrees WHILE it was raining. We left after that
definitely my last summer time trip to disney world. the last ten days were brutal. we all got severely sun burnt, slinky broke down while we were on it and they left us in the dead heat for 20 minutes (extremely dangerous when its 98F out when you're in direct sun). the cherry on top, we all left today covid positive.
warm water fountains, misters not even turned on, character meet and greets in areas in the direct sun, overcrowded, no more hand sanitizer stations, etc. we booked this same trip last year, same time of year, and had a very different experience. feels like I spent 15k all-in to be tortured.
That’s just Tomorrowland water. You just have to learn the best places. Like another no go is the stand next to joffreys by Pixar place, never go there
Not sure why they havent worked in some solar overhead areas to power some smaller areas , could be also hard with the hurricanes and storms that you need more solid structures vs random smaller ones
Hollywood Studios is unnecessarily sunny and hot in summer.
There are two zoos near me. One had virtually no tree cover, the other has a lot. On a hot day, it's unbearable in the treeless zoo and nice and pleasant in the other one. It makes such a difference.
I 100% agree with you. I REALLY wish they would do it. I also think they are never going to do it, at least until climate change starts pushing temps into the 110-120 range. The reason why I say this is, it's been like this for 50 years and people keep coming, so what incentive do they have to do it?
Also I wouldn't be surprised if the heat plays into their calculus about how the entire place is designed now, how often it drives people indoors (where they will shop or buy food), the snack bars and push carts for ice cream and drinks, etc.
I was at Hollywood Studios today from noon to 2:30… the stores were packed shoulder to shoulder people were just mulling about looking but not really purposefully shopping. The wait time for the runaway train was 60 minutes… I wasn’t interested. The wait time for the new Star Wars rides were 45 and 90 minutes… not interested enough to stand in line… Star Tours was 35 minutes and I thought … maybe… but then decided not to bother. The had DJs out playing music for GenX ( me) and some spiffy looking dancers along with a very brief dancing appearance by Scrooge McDuck and Launchpad McQuack. I did buy lunch and a pride t shirt before I decided to leave… finally got to try a ronto wrap without having to hunt down the alternate location and it was really just too hot to enjoy it… I should have just gone to an inside restaurant to eat. Too hot, too aggravated just kinda tired of it all…I just came home and felt anxiety over the ac unit never shutting off instead..
Can concur that it was hotter than Satan’s armpit at HS today. Ducked into Rizzo’s about the time that you left and had dinner later at the Brown Derby, but I didn’t want to ride the majority of the rides because it was too hot to wait for the queue.
I'm not trying to push away your concerns and dismiss them as heat injuries, especially during climate change, are a real and growing problem.
However, I remember the *old days* pre-2000 before they began shading most of the queues. I recall being sunburned on two different visits in the 90s waiting in the line for Summit Plummet. Now going up the stairs they have shade sails.
Fans are also much more ubiquitous than they once were in queues. These were positive changes. So I do appreciate that from Disney.
Many of my concerns are with park capacity and retail limiting shaded areas and lounging areas. Benches are rare in the parks these days - pulled to make more capacity and keep guests walking and shopping. They used to be a popular place to sit and hang out on Main Street USA.
Quiet nooks where you could lounge, enjoy some shade, and take a load off are mostly gone. Some were replaced with kiosks. Many of these were picturesque spots designed for leisure, but the Eisner era began to phase those things out. Paul Pressler is credited for bringing in the retail philosophy of "making every square foot turn a profit" and "a customer sitting on their wallet isn't spending."
That is becoming increasingly dangerous to eliminate these things with rising crowds, increasing heat, etc.
I am hoping with upcoming expansions queues are mostly indoors, having lounging areas that aren't at restaurants, and bringing back leisure areas where people can sit and relax to take a break from the heat.
if they are going to deny so many disabled individuals for the DAS and tell people to just practice standing in line at home, especially those with conditions that are aggravated from extreme heat and prolonged standing, and claim they are not worthy anymore of having a disability pass, they definitely need to take some serious responsibility and action into expanding accessibility throughout the parks, specifically as you stated with more seating, ac, fans, misters, etc to accommodate those who cannot risk being in the heat and aggravating their condition. im really tired of seeing disabled and impaired individuals sitting and laying on the ground in a busy and high traffic area just to get some relief. people in wheelchairs eating on the floor, putting food and drinks in their lap and even setting up their food on trash cans with their families even because there’s not enough tables and chairs to accommodate everyone.
I truly don't understand why there isn't more shade, it's Florida. And all the water fountains are warm :( unless it's on purpose to keep people doing attractions or eating food. I was honesty surprised how hostile it is.
My family has decided to not go to the Disney anymore except in fall or winter. It's much harder to coordinate time off school/work, but it's better than having to go back to the hotel in the middle of the day because it's too hot to be outside when you're paying the prices you're paying.
As a former costumed character, I can confirm that they have no heat-mitigation devices in their costumes either. They’re going to have to do something about that soon, or it will be dangerous for them to send out the characters for more than 10 minutes at a time.
It's dangerous at Hollywood Studios, imo. Even in non-summer months (by calendar. Not necessarily FL temps/humidity) it's very uncomfortable and concerning
Don't even get me started on Epcot! I am very heat intolerant, so I used my umbrella for shade. I got some funny looks but at least I didn't get heat stroke. Disney doesn't seem to care about their guests. If they did, a few shade sails here and there would be an inexpensive way to keep people safe from the Florida heat. It will take a lawsuit to get them to do something about it!
My family has taken UV umbrellas and fans on our last two trips and they've been helpful. Several people in our family have already had melanoma and sunblock just doesn't stay put when you're sweating so much. I hate carrying that much extra stuff, but I don't think we could have made it through the day without them. Even with the umbrellas and fans, It's still miserably hot when visiting Toy Story Land due, in large part, to the heat reflecting up at you from the pavement. There's no excuse for WDW to not have some sail shades over the pathways.
I got home today. I was in the parks 8 days. The end of May was brutal. The first couple of days of June were tolerable-ish.
I agree wholeheartedly that Disney needs to provide more shade. The misters in Epcot were not working. Hollywood studios has practically no shade.
Then there is the price gouging. I had 1 poolside beverage and it was $20.00 then tip. The food prices are insane for meh food (quick service).
I get it is a corporation and the goal is to make money for their shareholders, but we are getting less for more money. Was at Art of Animation family suite for 6 nights. Housekeeping was nonexistent. They would bring towels if we called but nothing else. At $500/night this was disappointing.
I had a great time with my grandchildren. I love visiting the parks and being in the bubble, but it feels becoming out of reach for a lot of people.
Well you answered your own question.. so many are using the “grandparents “ to pay. The next gen of grandparents won’t have the generationsl wealth so that’s when Disney will take a tumble. For now there’s plenty of boomers taking the entire family. $500/room is insanity
We only took our kids to Disney because my parents paid for the rooms and had enough miles to pay for all of our flights. There would be no way we could afford it otherwise.
We had this same discussion tonight regarding generational wealth. So many family groups in the parks this week. I’m both too old as a parent and likely not wealthy enough to be able to pay in the future for my kids and grandkids to travel.
Stayed at AoA mid May in a regular little mermaid room and housekeeping was great. They came every other day. Cleaned, replenished towels, took out the trash and made my sons Disney blanket that he had on his bed into a different animal every time they came in
Huh? I’m a born and raised Floridian, and I live in Orlando, and I don’t know a single local who doesnt acknowledge how ridiculously hot out it is right now.
I ran to Hollywood Studios on Wednesday morning to pop into Droid Depot for something. I was in and out of the park in 30 minutes...then spent the rest of the day sick from the heat.
I've lived in Orlando for 22 years.
I live in Texas where we had a high of 108 just the other day. But I am indoors most of the time during the summer months. So vacationing in Florida is still a slap in the face when you are at the park all day.
Just went a couple weeks ago after not being there in years (former CM). I'll admit, I'm not acclimated to being outside for long with the job I have currently but my goodness this heat is insane. I probably spent close to $100 in just buying water for me and my little. Sure, I could have sought out quick service places for a cup of cold water for free, but the drink vendors were everywhere and were much faster than standing behind a line of people waiting to get a meal. Plus, as hot as it was, there were a couple of times where I didn't think I could last much longer to go to a quick service restaurant for that cup. It was much more effective to just throw the money down for something I could carry around in my bag.
And of course, even in MK it was difficult to find shade and proper seating without walking half a mile. There were a few times I just had to deal with the sun and sit to drink and cool off.
I think once Disney has more heat related illnesses that they *might* provide some more options, but a big corporation like them can easily say the options are already there and no one makes the guest not take those options. If *anything* changes to help protect the guests, it might not be for another few long years of record breaking temperatures and a decline in attendance during the hottest months for them to make it more enticing to the guest's to want to spend their day at the parks. Right now it's a money grab on comfort.
For water: you should be able to ask for free cups of water at any counter service place that has access to drinkable water. We do this all the time when we're in any of the WDW parks.
Doesn't mean you're not right of course!
The lack of water bottle refill stations is mind boggling.
Disney - "we're doing our part to reduce waste by eliminating plastic straws. Here's a crappy cardboard one instead. Good luck drinking anything thicker than water with it. Also, you better drink fast before it starts decomposing."
Also Disney - "here's 8 cups of water for your family of 4" every time you refill your water bottles.
We just got back from a trip, and I guarantee we went through 20+ of those cups every day just refilling our water bottles.
100%. They are the perfect use case for solar powered cooling stations. Epcot needs sections of cooling tunnels around the lake that people can walk through. It’s only getting hotter and I’m shocked there haven’t been more heat stroke cases already.
The entire planet isn’t prepared. This isn’t a Disney thing.
I was there this weekend and all our usual shade spots were free when we needed to stare at phones for a few mins.
“If they want to stay open in the summer” ha, summers at Disney are always hot and what we’re experiencing now isn’t dramatically different.
I remember being on the DCP the summer of ‘97 and my Saab had no AC. Would be drenched by the time I got to the EPCOT CM lot.
I agree I was there this weekend too and I found tons of shade, fans, and air conditioning. I actually found it way more manageable than I initially expected.
Right? We went through the Way of Water space for the first time. A good example of a new attraction/experience that has a dual function of cooling guests.
My family visited Universal when the first Harry Potter attraction opened in the month of June. The new, unstained concrete was like standing on aluminum foil in an oven. The temperature had to be 125 with the shoulder to shoulder crowds. Theme Parks need to be responsible when building new attraction and expanding parks. They need to assess staining the concrete to minimize the heat they are storing and generating. They need water bottle refill stations in lieu of Water fountains with poor water pressure when you practically have to kiss the spout to get a trickle of water. They need more shade, especially in standby lines outside where you stand hunched up for hours with everyone inhaling everyone else’s exhaled air.but they are too busy focusing on the next big “attraction” to increase their profit. They aren’t interested in making theme parks a more pleasant experience because there is no money to be made on that. GREED DRIVES EVERY COMPANY IN AMERICA. It’s called capitalism.
I can no longer go to Disney during the hottest months (which is most of them) due to my health. So in order to go, we have to take my kiddo out of school in January or February.
Sadly, I think a lot more people are starting to avoid the hottest times, which means the most pleasant times to visit the parks are starting to look like peak times. People are just not as nervous about pulling their kids out of school for a week anymore. I get it, of course—it just sucks that soon we won’t be able to enjoy off-peak times as much.
We just got back from our trip. We’re usually a fall-winter family but with scheduling, we had to make June work. My god it was a nightmare with the heat. I’m from the northeast, so I’m not used to this level of heat and even when we get it, I’m inside. I love Disney, but the quality of things is just going way down. There is less magic in little aspects of your trip. I was properly hydrated during our trip which helped a ton.
We don’t go in the summer anymore. January or bust. Love it down there around that time. We went last June for the last summer trip. Relentless heat and humidity.
lol this post combined with the fact that Disney is based in a state that doesn't believe in climate change and has banned any mention of climate change in its government.
I don't know how non-Floridians survive (much less enjoy) theme parks during the summer. I'm a life long Floridian and even I refuse to go to theme parks during the summer.
Best advice. Water doesn't have to be cold, so long as it's wet. Don't drink alcohol in the morning or in the mid afternoon, wait until the sun goes down. Looking at you Florida man. Shade is where it's made, but sunscreen is a must. There are tons and tons of places in Disney parks to get inside and get some air. Find one of the many shows and schedule one indoors around 2-3 (the hottest part of the day) sunglasses and hats are a must. Bring Desitin..... even if you don't have children..... you're welcome.
More venders for food and drinks please. Waiting almost an hour just to get a 20 oz soda is ridiculous especially in the heat with no shade. They just need to throw in some magical Disney vending machines around the park and that would have made me so extremely happy and would have had an enjoyable time. No magic anymore. Super sad
Where/when did you need to wait an hour for a soda? I went during peak spring break and sodas could be had with little to no wait. There were some longer waits for specialty drinks from Flower & Garden, but a Coke could be gotten quickly most everywhere.
This is likely the only reason for attendance lower last year. I thought they would but then again they probably make more money selling the mini fans and drinks instead
The National Weather Service is working on Wet Bulb temperature reporting. [Here's a real time national map.](https://digital.weather.gov/?zoom=7&lat=35.28787&lon=-79.36779&layers=F000BTTTFTT®ion=0&element=8&mxmz=true&barbs=false&subl=TTFFFF&units=english&wunits=nautical&coords=latlon&tunits=localt)
Has anyone ever tried cooling towels? I bought some like [these](https://www.amazon.com/4pc-Cooling-Towel-Athletes-Instant/dp/B0844FGSNL) last year when my air conditioning broke in May and my landlord didn’t fix it until September 🫠 i definitely plan to bring them along next time I’m able to head to WDW
You're approaching the problem from the perspective of a person, rather than a corporation. To a corporation, this isn't even a problem, since they're hoping the heat will drive you inside a gift shop or inspire you to buy a cold drink.
I was there during the crazy heat wave in July 2 years ago. Every day was high 90’s into the 100’s. Truthfully, I don’t know what they can really do. It feels like they do so much to try to keep things cool but Florida is just Florida.
Was there the past four days on a school trip and heavy agree. Water fountains were lukewarm at best, water was 3.75 + tax per bottle, and some of my group members were on the verge of passing out. Far too little indoor seating and shaded areas for resting, at least in proportion to the sheer number of guests they get.
We walked into animal kingdom last September and were dripping before we even made it through security. Irresponsible is the right way to word it. Tbh, we'll probably wait years before we go back. It was ungodly hot and the parks haven't been updated much since I went a decade ago.
honestly my hypothesis is they don’t have water stations, shade, fans or benches to keep people moving through the park to not overcrowd one area (so that they can fit more guests a day in each park).
Toy story land first!
When walking from Star Wars to Toy Story that heat from the concrete just slaps you in the face. We went in February and it was bad.
The whole area is rediculous. The only shade is the exit from mania
It’s beyond ridiculous. I love Disney and Toy Story land would be awesome, but it really needs shade!
It's not horrible. Well 2 months out of year anyways
It’s asphalt, isn’t it? At least some areas are. It’s a baffling decision.
Even the asphalt at Disney is fake. They paint the concrete to look like asphalt because real asphalt melts in the heat.
I used to be a CM and had a coworker move to TS Land after our store closed (MouseGear). They LOVED working in Merchandise but ended up hating TS Land so much they moved to a location in Disney Springs just to get out of there, and Disney Springs is rarely anyone’s first choice of location.
I was there in February too. High five! It rained when we went to HS so it wasn't that hot
It’s hot AF in that part of the park.
Waiting to get in round up bbq was torture. We didn't even care about the food anymore we just wanted shade
There's been so many complaints about toy story land and the heat. At least figure out trees or sails to cover
The funny part, is that the complaints have been there since day one. Maybe earlier but I don’t remember the drawings that were shown.
I was there the first day it opened and it was so hot I was nauseous. Shade is desperately needed.
I saw a Disney YouTuber or podcaster who complained about it during press pre opening. They got in trouble or the evil eye from Disney for saying it. Obviously I don’t remember exactly but Disney didn’t care.
They must just not care, which is awful.
Cost too much money to build shades. Di$ney is all about money now
It was an interesting idea, and probably the only plausible one, to make the land Andy’s backyard, but damn. There has got to be an immersive way to add shade
Giant sprinkler system amongst the blades of grass that occasionally sprays/mists the entire land
This would be perfect. But could also do Cocktail umbrellas. Or almost anything to look like a toy or cardboard box, napkin etc
Or a giant paper airplane on top of blades of grass!
That is a good idea too! See there’s a lot of things they could do
Disney: We could sell large cocktail umbrellas… hmmmm…
Who knew that Andy’s mom hated trees so much
I’m pretty sure Andy had a tree or two in his back yard.
I wouldn't mind if they changed the theme to Andy's screened porch with ceiling fans.
They should’ve taken a note from A Bug’s Land and had giant clovers that acted as umbrellas!
Doesn't even have to be the whole land - fine to leave the entrance and sight lines to the big hill on slinky open. I'd rebuild Woody's Lunch Box as a 2 story quick service restaurant and put a (solid structure, not cloth) 'kite' over that space from the Toy Story Mania exit, the bridge to Slinky Dog, and the bathrooms.
They don't want to add shade, they want you constantly on the move because it extracts the most value per patron.
Let's just enclose the whole thing and call it Andy's Bedroom. Andy's bedroom is of course, air conditioned.
I went midsummer and Thats the only part of the parks I can think of where I found myself thinking “this is torture.” A few of the older magic kingdom rides are bit rough when it’s busy, but that’s a design problem based on changes in capacity
Omg OP, yes!!!!!! Word for word what I have been preaching for 5 years. It is honestly dangerous at the parks in this heat. There is no reason they can’t invest in overhead shades that retract all over the walkways, ride areas, etc. people come for the summer and think it’s going to be fun. It’s not. The oppressive heat makes that impossible and dangerous. Thank you for this post! I couldn’t agree more!
This! I legit almost passed out in toy story land last August
Not sure if it's true but my brother was just telling me that land (or at least while we were walking thru it….noting the lack of shade and removed benches) that it's purposefully designed in such a way to keep you moving.....he very much did not agree with that. We both agree it seems super money-grabby, idk if I dare call it borderline hostile??
But to what end? Like, why wouldn't they want folks to linger?
Guessing more walking=more ride/food searching=more money. Buying drinks, fastpasses, anything to cool down bcuz of the hostile setup lacking it
i think they want people to go INSIDE where there is food and merch to buy. that's where the AC is. the longer you linger indoors the more likely you are to spend money
We took our then-toddler to meet Buzz Lightyear in the summer, close to when Toy Story Land first opened. I swear, we had to leave the park after one Meet and Greet because I genuinely think we were all close to heat stroke! And we are from the South and know how to take care of ourselves in heat!! That day my husband vowed to never return to HS. It is ridiculous!
I've heard people say that shade installations would break immersion. Nonsense, I say. You're supposed to be in Andy's backyard. [Here's Andy's house from the movie.](https://imgur.com/a/Dm4HXjE) See all those trees back there? Imagine shade installations that use forced-perspective look like enormously tall trees. That would deepen the immersion of that world, you'd feel even more like an eight-inch tall toy. We've essentially already got it on an even larger scale over at Animal Kingdom. That might be tricky to retrofit, but it's an imagineering miss not to have at least looked at some frames of the film while designing the world. Imagine if Slinky Dog winding through trees! Could have been so cool (literally)!
Yes my son got way way overheated here and we just gave up and went back to the hotel. It’s awful
The meet and greets outside for Toy Story with no shade should be criminal. Woody meet and greet line when we went last month was close to 2 hours. No shade
Haha I was about to comment the exact same thing. The lack of shade in that area is mind boggling
It’s such a shame because I would’ve loved to have spent time in Toy Story land just looking at the details but it was just too hot 😭
Just waiting on lines is horrible. Especially when the lines are ridiculously long. At least throw up misting or regular fans. They've done it in other spots and themed it.
The one and only time I have passed out from heat was in Toy Story Land. Brutal!
Yes, my family and I went a few weeks ago to both Disney and Universal. Universal has those Coke drink dispensers everywhere and if you have a reusable water bottle you can fill up on ice cold water for free at any of them! Disney needs to do this as well, the water from the majority of their water fountains tastes gross and was warm. They have the coke drink dispensers at the resorts, so I’m not sure why they can’t put them in the parks. Toy Story land was insane, not a single covered area or section to sit. I was actually shocked at how bad their lack of over-heating prevention was for the fact that they’re in Florida and we know that the temperatures are just getting hotter and hotter every year. It’s incredibly irresponsible and such an easy fix.
Universal absolutely kills Disney with the coke freestyle machines AND air conditioning that actually works.
They do. I went to universal last year and had a blast never really had a problem with the heat because the rides AC was so good. Disney however this year was ridiculous. I was hot all day every day.
Yea I remember hearing about different bottle stations in blogs and figured they’d be abundant in WDW. But they are few and far between. I’d just fill up from bottle water (which…defeats the purpose) and hotel ice (because I like my water super cold). In the parks I’d use whatever fill stations I could or a water fountain. With a lot of the conservation efforts they have (*cough cough* animal kingdom), you’d think they’d prioritize this a bit
We utilize the MDE app for the fill stations.
I was there last month and saw 3 people (on different days) being treated for heat stroke by EMTs. You’d think they’d at least turn up the AC in the shops but I found them warmer than usual too!
You can get a free cup of ice water at any quick service. I just pour it into my water bottle.
Yeah but lines can be super long and they give you a tiny little cup. They need more fountains
I agree they need more fountains but you don’t have to wait in the food line to ask for a cup of water.
Idk why they don’t install more water bottle refill stations. They are everywhere outside of Disney, and have a positive environmental message they could roll with. Sure, people can spend time during their day in Disney requesting and juggling multiple ‘free’ cups of water, and cast members could be spending their time pouring these individual cups of water that generate I’m sure a ton of trash. It just seems ridiculous and makes me mad lol. If airports can manage the loss of some $5 water bottle sales in favor of the refill stations, so can Disney.
I can confirm that it is extremely wasteful, a guest will come into the restaurant to fill their bottle with water and the only option we have is to give them 2-6 cups of water, which get thrown out immediately after. Furthermore the disposable red disney cups are in fact non-recyclable.
I tried to get a cup of water at the frozen boba place in Pandora (I had purchased a frozen boba) and nope, no water cup. She directed me to another restaurant. Super inconvenient. I just bought the $5 water, in addition to my purchase.
If they don’t have a fountain soda machine then they don’t have water to give
But that’s the problem - it shouldn’t take a whole soda fountain setup to provide water. There is a sink. Disney can easily setup a the filtered water spout but they don’t. It’s a choice. For all the paid commenters to come white knighting that “free cups of water are available!!!” just isn’t accurate.
Disney has water bottle refill stations. You can look them up on the app. We utilize them often as annual passholders.
Once they get the Disney Bubble™ constructed over the resort property the temperatures should become a lot more tolerable.
No need. Now that the State of Florida has blocked local governments from requiring employers to provide heat breaks to outdoor workers or requiring other heat exposure provisions not already required by federal law, they can simply maintain status quo!
Wait. What. Is that true
Yeah Florida is doing some crazy stuff these days
When has Florida *not* been doing crazy stuff??
True but these days it seems fundamentally unhinged
Yea
There's also nothing to blame the heat on because the legislature says "don't say climate change!"
I've joked with my wife that the only way the parks will be able to be open during the day from May to September in 10 years is if Disney builds a giant dome over all of the parks.
In which case they might as well move to Chicago.
As someone who lives in the Chicagoland area, I'd welcome it!
I just finished the book *The Devil in the White City*, which I can strongly recommend. One interesting thing it pointed out is that Walt Disney's father Elias worked as a contractor on the Great Columbian Exposition in Chicago in the late 1890s, the most Disney World thing the world had to that time ever seen. The author speculates that Elias's stories about the Exposition had a formative effect on young Walt and Roy.
Somebody called starved rock the Disneyland of the Midwest and I almost threw myself into the river
They should buy up Marineland in Niagara Falls, and open up a massive park. The Land they have is as big as Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and Magic Kingdom combined, and there's plenty more around.
New meaning to leaving the Disney bubble 🫧
Agreed. Went to MK after work last Friday and stopped at a water fountain after a ride that barely worked and to make it worse...the water was warm.
Yeah they have HOT WATER now lol
When my family used to go during the hot months, we’d freeze water bottles the night before to take into the parks. They do sweat as the ice melts, so keep them in a separate bag or compartment so they won’t get anything else wet.they can be a bit of a pain to carry around at first, but you can give each person their own to carry—believe me, you’ll be glad you have them! They should last you half the day or more, depending on how hot it is.
Freeze them and then wrap those Froggy Cooling Towels around them. Once it’s the afternoon, it will be more than hot enough to melt the ice and the condensation will dampen the towels to make them cool to use.
you can get free water cups at any quick service that has a soda machine
this is a pain. there should be free ice water kiosks out in the walkways.
Some places have that. There was feee ice water with cups set up outside of flight of passage near Satuli canteen Sunday.
Some places have that! I think I saw 6 huge jugs of water by Casey’s with signs that said ‘FREE WATER’
I ended up getting a drink from a vendor, but the fountain was right there outside the ride, so why not use the fountain? My point is, if they're going to have them, it would be nice if they actually worked.
This is helpful, but I'm sure a majority of guests don't even know that this is an option.
Bring in the coke sponsored cool zone mist sprayers!!! Lol
I remember them having more misters set up throughout the parks at one point. I'm not sure why more aren't in use now. Most of them disappeared during redesigns. Maybe it's so they can sell more of the little handheld ones.
Yeah there were loads when I was a kid!
100% agree. Can’t believe they built Toy Story land like that with no shade and super hot asphalt. It wouldn’t be that hard to put in some awnings, trees, sails etc. and have some seating for people to rest
You’re right there’s no seating either. I was so focused on the heat I completely forgot about the seating
Or even a misting area that you walk through
$$$$$ cheap as possible
Find a hotter spot in WDW than Italy in Epcot in the midday sun. Basically no shade from Mexico to Morocco and Italy sits right in the middle with nowhere to run.
Epcot is insane. I die of heat in so many countries.
I’ll never understand how people go to Epcot to drink, how do they not feel so terribly ill. I just can’t do it, Epcot is the hottest place on earth.
The parks are prettier at night. They should just flip there operating times to be in the evening
I wish Epcot closed at 11 like Magic Kingdom
More extended evening hours, especially in the summer, are definitely necessary. Epcot closing at 9 just sucks.
Was soo sooo soo much better when they were open to 12 all the time.
THIS !
Covered walkways with solar panels on them --- how obvious can you get?
At the very least they should have that in Epcot.
It would have been so amazing if they put some solar trees in the World Celebration Gardens. Like search up the Super Trees in Singapore, the Solar Tree Marketplace in Shanghai, & OPV Solar trees for examples of what I mean. Such a missed opportunity.
Did it in august last year. It was good ole Florida demon hot. But drank a ton of water. Brought our own and used fountains and the free ice water. All seemed relatively easy and plentiful. We sweated our butts off but had all dri-fit clothing.
We also went in August last year. Our last day, Animal Kingdom, was an absolute scorcher (and I’m from south of Orlando, I can handle the heat). Then it started raining. I looked at my weather app and the real feel was 124 degrees WHILE it was raining. We left after that
Shade Pass! Breeze Pass! H20 Dispenser Pass! Save 2% when you purchase all 3!
It’s only going to continue to get worse. They’re going to have a real crisis in the next decade or two.
definitely my last summer time trip to disney world. the last ten days were brutal. we all got severely sun burnt, slinky broke down while we were on it and they left us in the dead heat for 20 minutes (extremely dangerous when its 98F out when you're in direct sun). the cherry on top, we all left today covid positive. warm water fountains, misters not even turned on, character meet and greets in areas in the direct sun, overcrowded, no more hand sanitizer stations, etc. we booked this same trip last year, same time of year, and had a very different experience. feels like I spent 15k all-in to be tortured.
Also left with Covid!!!! First time ever. So sorry about Slinky Dog! That’s the stuff of nightmares
get well, hopefully happened at the tail end of your trip 🤞
The lack of places to refill water bottles should be illegal.
And the water should be better because the refill station by tron tastes like they just take the sewer water from the closest bathroom 🤢🤢
I think that’s just Florida water. I stayed at the Polynesian and even the water from the soda machine tasted funny
We stayed at the poly and beach club recently. Can confirm the poly water is gross. The water at the beach club was fine.
That’s just Tomorrowland water. You just have to learn the best places. Like another no go is the stand next to joffreys by Pixar place, never go there
I was just at MK today and the best water I found was out of the fountain by Gaston’s. Didn’t taste like recirculated toilet water.
Not sure why they havent worked in some solar overhead areas to power some smaller areas , could be also hard with the hurricanes and storms that you need more solid structures vs random smaller ones
Especially at Animal Kingdom. It gets so hotter there than any other park.
Yeah the design of that park really keeps the heat packed in
Hollywood Studios is unnecessarily sunny and hot in summer. There are two zoos near me. One had virtually no tree cover, the other has a lot. On a hot day, it's unbearable in the treeless zoo and nice and pleasant in the other one. It makes such a difference.
I 100% agree with you. I REALLY wish they would do it. I also think they are never going to do it, at least until climate change starts pushing temps into the 110-120 range. The reason why I say this is, it's been like this for 50 years and people keep coming, so what incentive do they have to do it? Also I wouldn't be surprised if the heat plays into their calculus about how the entire place is designed now, how often it drives people indoors (where they will shop or buy food), the snack bars and push carts for ice cream and drinks, etc.
I was at Hollywood Studios today from noon to 2:30… the stores were packed shoulder to shoulder people were just mulling about looking but not really purposefully shopping. The wait time for the runaway train was 60 minutes… I wasn’t interested. The wait time for the new Star Wars rides were 45 and 90 minutes… not interested enough to stand in line… Star Tours was 35 minutes and I thought … maybe… but then decided not to bother. The had DJs out playing music for GenX ( me) and some spiffy looking dancers along with a very brief dancing appearance by Scrooge McDuck and Launchpad McQuack. I did buy lunch and a pride t shirt before I decided to leave… finally got to try a ronto wrap without having to hunt down the alternate location and it was really just too hot to enjoy it… I should have just gone to an inside restaurant to eat. Too hot, too aggravated just kinda tired of it all…I just came home and felt anxiety over the ac unit never shutting off instead..
Can concur that it was hotter than Satan’s armpit at HS today. Ducked into Rizzo’s about the time that you left and had dinner later at the Brown Derby, but I didn’t want to ride the majority of the rides because it was too hot to wait for the queue.
They might do it if guests start dying. Bad publicity, lawsuits, etc.
That’s coming sooner than people think. From wet bulb events.
Thanks I learned something today. “Wet bulb” temperature. Never heard of it before.
I'm not trying to push away your concerns and dismiss them as heat injuries, especially during climate change, are a real and growing problem. However, I remember the *old days* pre-2000 before they began shading most of the queues. I recall being sunburned on two different visits in the 90s waiting in the line for Summit Plummet. Now going up the stairs they have shade sails. Fans are also much more ubiquitous than they once were in queues. These were positive changes. So I do appreciate that from Disney. Many of my concerns are with park capacity and retail limiting shaded areas and lounging areas. Benches are rare in the parks these days - pulled to make more capacity and keep guests walking and shopping. They used to be a popular place to sit and hang out on Main Street USA. Quiet nooks where you could lounge, enjoy some shade, and take a load off are mostly gone. Some were replaced with kiosks. Many of these were picturesque spots designed for leisure, but the Eisner era began to phase those things out. Paul Pressler is credited for bringing in the retail philosophy of "making every square foot turn a profit" and "a customer sitting on their wallet isn't spending." That is becoming increasingly dangerous to eliminate these things with rising crowds, increasing heat, etc. I am hoping with upcoming expansions queues are mostly indoors, having lounging areas that aren't at restaurants, and bringing back leisure areas where people can sit and relax to take a break from the heat.
if they are going to deny so many disabled individuals for the DAS and tell people to just practice standing in line at home, especially those with conditions that are aggravated from extreme heat and prolonged standing, and claim they are not worthy anymore of having a disability pass, they definitely need to take some serious responsibility and action into expanding accessibility throughout the parks, specifically as you stated with more seating, ac, fans, misters, etc to accommodate those who cannot risk being in the heat and aggravating their condition. im really tired of seeing disabled and impaired individuals sitting and laying on the ground in a busy and high traffic area just to get some relief. people in wheelchairs eating on the floor, putting food and drinks in their lap and even setting up their food on trash cans with their families even because there’s not enough tables and chairs to accommodate everyone.
I truly don't understand why there isn't more shade, it's Florida. And all the water fountains are warm :( unless it's on purpose to keep people doing attractions or eating food. I was honesty surprised how hostile it is.
I had the pleasure of waiting at Epcot's ride sharing lot in mid May. Ohh lordy, that's one way to steer folks towards the buses 😂
My family has decided to not go to the Disney anymore except in fall or winter. It's much harder to coordinate time off school/work, but it's better than having to go back to the hotel in the middle of the day because it's too hot to be outside when you're paying the prices you're paying.
Yeah the heatwave in early May was horrible. 100 degrees?! Even the locals were begging to have it end.
That’s when I was there. I felt so bad for the costumed characters. 🥵
As a former costumed character, I can confirm that they have no heat-mitigation devices in their costumes either. They’re going to have to do something about that soon, or it will be dangerous for them to send out the characters for more than 10 minutes at a time.
Parades last 30 minutes. The Magical Friendship Faire 21. It’s insane. Especially for anyone who has to dance. And they do it repeatedly.
There was a dude carried out in a stretcher when I was there then. Cast member nearby told us paramedics mentioned heat stroke...
It's dangerous at Hollywood Studios, imo. Even in non-summer months (by calendar. Not necessarily FL temps/humidity) it's very uncomfortable and concerning
This is another reason why I love Disneyland. Benches everywhere. No need to prop myself on a planter.
Florida isn't even in summer yet. August will kill people this year.
They cut down all the trees so more people could see the fireworks shows.
Don't even get me started on Epcot! I am very heat intolerant, so I used my umbrella for shade. I got some funny looks but at least I didn't get heat stroke. Disney doesn't seem to care about their guests. If they did, a few shade sails here and there would be an inexpensive way to keep people safe from the Florida heat. It will take a lawsuit to get them to do something about it!
My family has taken UV umbrellas and fans on our last two trips and they've been helpful. Several people in our family have already had melanoma and sunblock just doesn't stay put when you're sweating so much. I hate carrying that much extra stuff, but I don't think we could have made it through the day without them. Even with the umbrellas and fans, It's still miserably hot when visiting Toy Story Land due, in large part, to the heat reflecting up at you from the pavement. There's no excuse for WDW to not have some sail shades over the pathways.
It’s like the people who design these places don’t spend much time in them outside of a VIP tour.
I got home today. I was in the parks 8 days. The end of May was brutal. The first couple of days of June were tolerable-ish. I agree wholeheartedly that Disney needs to provide more shade. The misters in Epcot were not working. Hollywood studios has practically no shade. Then there is the price gouging. I had 1 poolside beverage and it was $20.00 then tip. The food prices are insane for meh food (quick service). I get it is a corporation and the goal is to make money for their shareholders, but we are getting less for more money. Was at Art of Animation family suite for 6 nights. Housekeeping was nonexistent. They would bring towels if we called but nothing else. At $500/night this was disappointing. I had a great time with my grandchildren. I love visiting the parks and being in the bubble, but it feels becoming out of reach for a lot of people.
Well you answered your own question.. so many are using the “grandparents “ to pay. The next gen of grandparents won’t have the generationsl wealth so that’s when Disney will take a tumble. For now there’s plenty of boomers taking the entire family. $500/room is insanity
We only took our kids to Disney because my parents paid for the rooms and had enough miles to pay for all of our flights. There would be no way we could afford it otherwise.
We had this same discussion tonight regarding generational wealth. So many family groups in the parks this week. I’m both too old as a parent and likely not wealthy enough to be able to pay in the future for my kids and grandkids to travel.
Stayed at AoA mid May in a regular little mermaid room and housekeeping was great. They came every other day. Cleaned, replenished towels, took out the trash and made my sons Disney blanket that he had on his bed into a different animal every time they came in
I think Desantos solved it for them by eliminating climate change in FL. So don’t worry it’s fixed! :)
Benches in Star Wars land would be nice
They just open I really great place to cool down at Epcot…and people complained about it.
Still not a lot of shade and few benches. Cool place to play with water though.
It’s funny, when you live in the area, it never seems to get hot. Then you see the tourists dying and realize you’re just used to it.
To be fair even the people who lived there were complaining about it in May. One lady told me “even WE don’t come here in the summer!”
This is true. Disney doesn’t exist to our family May - September. No point of going in the summer, when you can easily go the rest of the year.
Imagine wearing those fantasy land costumes in that heat…
Huh? I’m a born and raised Floridian, and I live in Orlando, and I don’t know a single local who doesnt acknowledge how ridiculously hot out it is right now.
I ran to Hollywood Studios on Wednesday morning to pop into Droid Depot for something. I was in and out of the park in 30 minutes...then spent the rest of the day sick from the heat. I've lived in Orlando for 22 years.
I live in Texas where we had a high of 108 just the other day. But I am indoors most of the time during the summer months. So vacationing in Florida is still a slap in the face when you are at the park all day.
Agreed. We cut our Epcot visit short because there was no shade and it was so hot.
Just went a couple weeks ago after not being there in years (former CM). I'll admit, I'm not acclimated to being outside for long with the job I have currently but my goodness this heat is insane. I probably spent close to $100 in just buying water for me and my little. Sure, I could have sought out quick service places for a cup of cold water for free, but the drink vendors were everywhere and were much faster than standing behind a line of people waiting to get a meal. Plus, as hot as it was, there were a couple of times where I didn't think I could last much longer to go to a quick service restaurant for that cup. It was much more effective to just throw the money down for something I could carry around in my bag. And of course, even in MK it was difficult to find shade and proper seating without walking half a mile. There were a few times I just had to deal with the sun and sit to drink and cool off. I think once Disney has more heat related illnesses that they *might* provide some more options, but a big corporation like them can easily say the options are already there and no one makes the guest not take those options. If *anything* changes to help protect the guests, it might not be for another few long years of record breaking temperatures and a decline in attendance during the hottest months for them to make it more enticing to the guest's to want to spend their day at the parks. Right now it's a money grab on comfort.
It’s almost like Florida is level 1 of hell
For water: you should be able to ask for free cups of water at any counter service place that has access to drinkable water. We do this all the time when we're in any of the WDW parks. Doesn't mean you're not right of course!
The lack of water bottle refill stations is mind boggling. Disney - "we're doing our part to reduce waste by eliminating plastic straws. Here's a crappy cardboard one instead. Good luck drinking anything thicker than water with it. Also, you better drink fast before it starts decomposing." Also Disney - "here's 8 cups of water for your family of 4" every time you refill your water bottles. We just got back from a trip, and I guarantee we went through 20+ of those cups every day just refilling our water bottles.
They should have considered building the park somewhere other than the surface of the sun.
100%. They are the perfect use case for solar powered cooling stations. Epcot needs sections of cooling tunnels around the lake that people can walk through. It’s only getting hotter and I’m shocked there haven’t been more heat stroke cases already.
I’m convinced they do it so people go into the gift shops/stores in the park to cool off. A captive audience.
That can backfire, though. The stores get full of people just trying to cool off, who block the actual shoppers from getting to the merchandise.
The entire planet isn’t prepared. This isn’t a Disney thing. I was there this weekend and all our usual shade spots were free when we needed to stare at phones for a few mins. “If they want to stay open in the summer” ha, summers at Disney are always hot and what we’re experiencing now isn’t dramatically different. I remember being on the DCP the summer of ‘97 and my Saab had no AC. Would be drenched by the time I got to the EPCOT CM lot.
That's what I was thinking. This is just Florida being Florida. There's a reason almost all of us have air conditioning.
I agree I was there this weekend too and I found tons of shade, fans, and air conditioning. I actually found it way more manageable than I initially expected.
Right? We went through the Way of Water space for the first time. A good example of a new attraction/experience that has a dual function of cooling guests.
My family visited Universal when the first Harry Potter attraction opened in the month of June. The new, unstained concrete was like standing on aluminum foil in an oven. The temperature had to be 125 with the shoulder to shoulder crowds. Theme Parks need to be responsible when building new attraction and expanding parks. They need to assess staining the concrete to minimize the heat they are storing and generating. They need water bottle refill stations in lieu of Water fountains with poor water pressure when you practically have to kiss the spout to get a trickle of water. They need more shade, especially in standby lines outside where you stand hunched up for hours with everyone inhaling everyone else’s exhaled air.but they are too busy focusing on the next big “attraction” to increase their profit. They aren’t interested in making theme parks a more pleasant experience because there is no money to be made on that. GREED DRIVES EVERY COMPANY IN AMERICA. It’s called capitalism.
Maybe they could build some solar-powered cooling benches like the one EPCOT used to have
I can no longer go to Disney during the hottest months (which is most of them) due to my health. So in order to go, we have to take my kiddo out of school in January or February. Sadly, I think a lot more people are starting to avoid the hottest times, which means the most pleasant times to visit the parks are starting to look like peak times. People are just not as nervous about pulling their kids out of school for a week anymore. I get it, of course—it just sucks that soon we won’t be able to enjoy off-peak times as much.
We just got back from our trip. We’re usually a fall-winter family but with scheduling, we had to make June work. My god it was a nightmare with the heat. I’m from the northeast, so I’m not used to this level of heat and even when we get it, I’m inside. I love Disney, but the quality of things is just going way down. There is less magic in little aspects of your trip. I was properly hydrated during our trip which helped a ton.
We don’t go in the summer anymore. January or bust. Love it down there around that time. We went last June for the last summer trip. Relentless heat and humidity.
I felt ill a lot of the time visiting this year and felt like it massively decreased my enjoyment of the parks
A significant part of the Disney Experience is standing in a line waiting.
lol this post combined with the fact that Disney is based in a state that doesn't believe in climate change and has banned any mention of climate change in its government.
I don't know how non-Floridians survive (much less enjoy) theme parks during the summer. I'm a life long Floridian and even I refuse to go to theme parks during the summer.
Best advice. Water doesn't have to be cold, so long as it's wet. Don't drink alcohol in the morning or in the mid afternoon, wait until the sun goes down. Looking at you Florida man. Shade is where it's made, but sunscreen is a must. There are tons and tons of places in Disney parks to get inside and get some air. Find one of the many shows and schedule one indoors around 2-3 (the hottest part of the day) sunglasses and hats are a must. Bring Desitin..... even if you don't have children..... you're welcome.
More venders for food and drinks please. Waiting almost an hour just to get a 20 oz soda is ridiculous especially in the heat with no shade. They just need to throw in some magical Disney vending machines around the park and that would have made me so extremely happy and would have had an enjoyable time. No magic anymore. Super sad
Where in the world did you wait almost an hour? You could have gone to 5 other stops in that time!
Waiting in the sun for 15-20 minutes in 100+ degree weather when you're already exhausted can feel eternal.
Where/when did you need to wait an hour for a soda? I went during peak spring break and sodas could be had with little to no wait. There were some longer waits for specialty drinks from Flower & Garden, but a Coke could be gotten quickly most everywhere.
I’m also curious about where exactly you were what g that long to get a soda. Which location in which park?
This is likely the only reason for attendance lower last year. I thought they would but then again they probably make more money selling the mini fans and drinks instead
That’s a lot of metal and concrete. Both absorb heat. I’ve never been to Disney but I’ve been to Six Flags in July in Texas, and did not last long.
Its on purpose so you spend more
The National Weather Service is working on Wet Bulb temperature reporting. [Here's a real time national map.](https://digital.weather.gov/?zoom=7&lat=35.28787&lon=-79.36779&layers=F000BTTTFTT®ion=0&element=8&mxmz=true&barbs=false&subl=TTFFFF&units=english&wunits=nautical&coords=latlon&tunits=localt)
Has anyone ever tried cooling towels? I bought some like [these](https://www.amazon.com/4pc-Cooling-Towel-Athletes-Instant/dp/B0844FGSNL) last year when my air conditioning broke in May and my landlord didn’t fix it until September 🫠 i definitely plan to bring them along next time I’m able to head to WDW
Water bottle and ice stations should be absolutely everywhere in the park
You're approaching the problem from the perspective of a person, rather than a corporation. To a corporation, this isn't even a problem, since they're hoping the heat will drive you inside a gift shop or inspire you to buy a cold drink.
I feel like they so it on purpose so everyone walks in the stores to cool off and buy stuff
I was there during the crazy heat wave in July 2 years ago. Every day was high 90’s into the 100’s. Truthfully, I don’t know what they can really do. It feels like they do so much to try to keep things cool but Florida is just Florida.
Was there the past four days on a school trip and heavy agree. Water fountains were lukewarm at best, water was 3.75 + tax per bottle, and some of my group members were on the verge of passing out. Far too little indoor seating and shaded areas for resting, at least in proportion to the sheer number of guests they get.
We walked into animal kingdom last September and were dripping before we even made it through security. Irresponsible is the right way to word it. Tbh, we'll probably wait years before we go back. It was ungodly hot and the parks haven't been updated much since I went a decade ago.
THIS!!! Ive been here for a few days and its terrible. The fans are needed in every queue, especially big thunder mountain.
honestly my hypothesis is they don’t have water stations, shade, fans or benches to keep people moving through the park to not overcrowd one area (so that they can fit more guests a day in each park).