So we opened the island to a small cluster of shivering guests, stuffed into the winter coats they hadn't expected to be wearing in Florida. No, I couldn't see all the way across Frontierland to the Country Bear Jamboree from the middle of the river, like I could on a clear day, but I could see from the dock on one bank to the other, which was all I really needed. I drove over the crew who worked the snack stand on the island without hassle. What happens when you drop a blanket of Yankee winter air on top of warm Florida water?Īctually, the morning's fog wasn't too bad when I arrived. Instead, Arctic air blows sharply into Florida, shrouding the still-warm waters and soil. (Certainly no local would be fool enough to come out in this weather, either.)Ī freeze doesn't come to Central Florida the way it arrives up north, with weeks-long gradual cooling into the 30s and 20s, leaves turning, and warmth slowly escaping the ground. Most people coming down for the holidays would be traveling that day, making it a busy day at the airport, but not at Walt Disney World. It was Saturday, two days before Christmas. That day I was opening at Tom Sawyer Island, driving rafts across the river. Watching other opening-shift cast members shiver in their jean jackets and sweatshirts while I stayed toasty warm, I was glad that I had dressed as someone should for near-freezing temperatures – despite the fact that I now lived in Florida, where the weather wasn't supposed to do this. With the forecast calling for temperatures to fall into the 30s, I hauled my Chicago winter coat from the back of the hall closet. The morning of Decembrought one of those fronts. But once a decade or so, a nasty cold front penetrates the state, freezing orange trees, tourists and even residents. So, in solidarity with those guests and cast members bracing themselves for the cold this weekend, I offer this chapter from my Stories From a Theme Park Insider book - The Day That It Snowed at Walt Disney World.Įven in December, the weather in Central Florida remains pleasant on most days. But those of us with long memories might recall that it has snowed (okay, flurried) at Disney World before. There's no precipitation in the forecast, however, so it looks like "snoap" will be the only thing falling from the sky this chilly Christmas in the Orlando area.
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