May 15, 2009: Yellow Ponchos

[Werner Weiss]

When it's sunny at Yester World, guests are dressed in every imaginable color. But when it rains, the predominant color is yellow.

Link to Yellow Ponchos at Yester World.

Please discuss it here.

[KENfromOC]

My wife, stepdaughter and I last went to Disney World in July of 2005 and boy did it rain! As you said, out here in SoCal we are not use to that! At one point when we were landing there were strong thunder-head warnings and once we got on the Disney bus to our hotel we did see what I would descibe as a "water-spout" or small tornado. We were prepared though and we all brought light-weight rain jackets and mostly walked around in sandels. Actually we like the rain at times when it got so humid we were sweating anyway. Then we didn't even use our jackets letting the rain cool us off. The only downside was when they closed some attractions and the waterparks due to lightning. That happen whan we went to Blizzard Beach. We got in (all lockers were used already) and never did anything due to the weather! Bummer!

[Matterhorn]

This article made me laugh. I was working at Disney Online when they launched the WDW web camera that looked straight down Main Street at the Magic Kingdom toward Cinderella's Castle with an updated picture every 5 minutes (this was VERY cutting edge in 1998). I remember initially checking the camera a couple times a day and being amazed that every afternoon between about 2pm & 3pm Main Street would be very wet and any person in the picture was usually just a yellow dot. Having never been to WDW and since I grew up about 20 miles from Disneyland, I didn't realize how MUCH it rains in Florida during the summer. After I had been working for the Online Group a couple of years, my job took me to WDW and on checking into my Caribbean Beach Resort room, I was pleasantly surprised to see 4 Rain Ponchos on the table next to the coffee packets for the coffee maker in the room. I thought it was cool of my fine employer to supply the ponchos to their hotel guests. It was a perfect "souvenir" for the kids at home that couldn't come on the business trip. Upon closer inspection, I realized that if I took the ponchos, their cost would be added to my room, as was the case for the packets of coffee for the coffee maker. I left the ponchos on the table.

[MarkTwain]

I remember these! Heck, our family still uses our yellow ponchos when we go down to the parks. At least the clear ones have Mickey on the back; that's the best part.

[Mark Dewd]

According to a friend of mine who works at Universal Studios Florida, ponchos are the number one selling item in all of Florida's theme parks.

[Karlos the Jackal]

My wife and I were in Disneyand about a year ago and my wife bought a poncho. We looked for ones with Mickey on them but were told they didn't have them anymore. She had to settle for one that was clear with a generic "Disney Parks" logo on the back.

So what was the deal there? Were they just temporarily out of the Mickey ones, maybe? I'm pretty sure we checked in a couple of different shops. Hmm, it's a mystery.

--K

[Werner Weiss]

Originally Posted by Karlos the Jackal

She had to settle for one that was clear with a generic "Disney Parks" logo on the back.

That's too bad.

The Mickey artwork is fun and friendly.

The generic "Disney Parks" logo has a much charm of a financial statement. Essentially, that logo says, "The Parks and Resorts Business Segment of The Walt Disney Company."

[CathyFromOz]

The yellow poncho has become a story of legend in our household after our October 1997 trip to the Magic Kingdom.
I purchased one, my husband did not.
I stayed quite dry despite the torrential downpour, and he got absolutely soaked.
Seems a fairly boring tale but we still laugh about it to this day, and better yet we still have my trusty poncho which has weathered many more storms - mostly at Aussie Rules footy matches - here in our hometown of Melbourne.
Thanks Werner for the article. We had no idea the yellow ponchos were of "Yesterland" and reading about it brought back many fantastic memories of our Disney World vacation.

[FigmentFruitcake]

My goodness this brings back memories! Our family has had these since I can remember going to Disneyland on a regular basis. Seriously I must have about 3-4 DOZEN of the yellow ponchos! Probably around the time they stopped selling the yellow ones we were on a trip and it was raining like crazy and people were throwing them away!! I couldn't believe my eyes! I must have looked like a crazy person droving through all the garbage cans in Disneyland pulling out poncho after poncho...and then it started raining like crazy again, I bet those people were mad. But at what $7 dollars a poncho at the time (correct me if I'm wrong) I could have made a killing reselling them!