2. The weather

Oh, Florida and its cranky weather…

Weather can be one of the more… unique aspects of a visit to Florida. Calling it “The Sunshine State” can seem like a misnomer depending on if you caught the weather on a good or bad day. We have some of the most gorgeous weather in the US during the quiet months of winter, but our summer humidity can feel like the inside of a tea kettle. Indeed, locals don’t even look at the temperature most days—we keep an eye on the heat index, which takes humidity into account to tell folks if an 80 degree day will feel as intense as 95 degrees in another state. Common afternoon rainstorms aren’t usually enough to dampen a Disney day, but full thunderstorms in “the lightning capital of the US” can test the mettle of even the most stalwart traveler and shut down outdoor rides.

Oh, and hurricanes—you can’t ignore them, but if you’ve never been to Florida, you probably also don’t know what to expect from one. Hurricanes aren’t like tornadoes (we have those in Florida, too, by the way). A tornado is sort of a sudden, blustering nightmare affair—“You have FIVE MINUTES! YOU LIVE OR YOU DIE!” Hurricanes aren’t like that. They’re slow—painfully slow until they hit land. Some are so slow that you could probably outrun them on a fast bicycle if you got enough of a head start.

Hurricanes tend to be brutal to coastal areas but largely miss Central Florida bastions like Orlando. However, they can  reach the Most Magical Place on Earth on rare occasions, as Hurricane Irma proved. Ironically, the quiet days leading up to a hurricane are some of the most serene, low-crowd Goldilocks days you’ll ever find at Walt Disney World. A Disney resort is about the safest place you can be in Florida during a hurricane, but closed parks and resort lockdowns can definitely sour a vacation. There’s not really any surefire ways to completely avoid hurricanes either—hurricane season lasts practically half the year, peaking around September. Locals will tell you not to worry about them, and they’re right—the chances of one hitting during your visit and affecting Walt Disney World are infinitesimally small. Still, the slightest whisper of a hurricane warning can terrify the uninitiated (and apparently drive all the locals into a frenzy buying bottled water, bread, and spam? #FloridaProblems).

In short, Florida’s weird weather means that you may want to take some extra measures visiting WDW that you wouldn’t at Disneyland. Buy some rain ponchos from the camping section at your local sporting store or Walmart to keep on standby (be aware that they are hilariously overpriced in the parks). If you rely heavily on glasses, you may find your lenses fogging up on rare muggy mornings (if this proves really annoying, some anti-fog may be a good idea). No matter, what check the heat index before arriving to determine temperatures and decide what to wear. Winter in Florida can get surprisingly cold for those from warmer climates due to all the moisture in the air, and you’ll definitely find summers can feel more brutal than they do in Anaheim due to that thick humidity.

3. The wildlife

If you’ll be visiting Walt Disney World for the first time, one of the first things you might notice is the wildlife—Florida is sort of famous for it, and an entire ecosystem of critters have chosen to make their home in The Most Magical Place on Earth. Most of Disney resident wildlife fall into the “cute” category. On any given visit, you’ll almost certainly see adorable fuzzies like squirrels, bunnies, or even deer. You might see some of Florida’s gorgeous birds like wandering ibis, graceful cranes, majestic owls, waddling ducks, or anhingas sunning their wings. You may also see reptiles and amphibians like frogs, turtles, salamanders, and lizards—you can’t walk ten feet in Florida without setting a lizard skittering for cover nearby.

No one really gets worked up about Florida’s “cute” wildlife—it’s the other residents that make people nervous, and I’m not talking about “Florida Man”.

Walt Disney World definitely has its share of less-popular wildlife—most of which have a worse reputation than they necessarily deserve. Vultures and buzzards appear frequently in Florida and may be caught picking apart unfortunate carrion. Seagulls feign cuteness, but they’re just about the worst-behaved denizens in the state. The ones at Walt Disney World can prove quite the clever thieves—I’ve written before about their escapades dive-bombing unwitting guests outside of The Rose and Crown pub at Epcot to steal fish and chips (yeah, never feed these guys). Gulls and vultures don’t usually make headlines, however, that leave prospective Disney visitors with fear sweats.

You can’t talk about Florida without dealing with questions surrounding snakes and alligators. Yes, both can be found on Walt Disney World property. Fortunately, neither pose a significant danger to the average guest.

Disney knows that both snakes and alligators make guests antsy—snakes, for example, might rarely find their way into foliage around the parks. Once one is spotted, they are usually promptly scared off to a safe location or relocated. As for alligators, they do definitely inhabit Disney’s natural waterways, and they’ve even been known to find their way into park waterways on rare occasion. Disney has always taken a pretty active attitude about relocating gators once they’re spotted, but there are spots in the waterways that the cast members just let small gators be. In recent years, the company has upped their gator control efforts and added signs around shorelines and beaches to keep guests cognizant to stay away from water edges. The most important thing to remember with alligators is, like seagulls, never feed them— just leave them alone. If you see some knucklehead doing so, politely say something to a cast member immediately. The state of Florida and your fellow guests thank you for your vigilance.