THE CALIFORNIA DELUGE : Drenched Disneyland Draws the Determined : Amusement: For most visitors, the lack of lines outweighed any rain-related discomfort. Nevertheless, the park closed two hours early.

The Happiest Place on Earth closed two hours early Tuesday, but not before Disneyland visitors enjoyed rides that were soggy but uncrowded.

After sloshing through puddles in the Disneyland parking lot, tourists were greeted by “Little Mermaid” tunes played over the loudspeaker. A voice said: “The weatherman has a favorite saying: ‘Into every life a little rain must fall.’ And today looks like it’s the day.”

“It’s very wet, but we’ve only got a couple days, and we’d rather look at (Disneyland) in the rain than not at all,” said Tracey Ferguson, 28, of Australia.

“The good thing is that we’ve found that while you have to queue up for almost everything in America, here there are no queues at all,” added her friend, Kevin Behm, 25.

A spokesman said the park closed early because of “inclement weather.”

“There’s not a whole lot of people out there right now,” spokesman Matt Blaty said. “We have to cancel our parades because there’s the danger of floats that could slide and the dancers can’t perform properly.”

Blaty said the park has closed early about a dozen times in the past 10 years. Even during the hours that Disneyland was open, several of the rides were shut down for reasons of either safety or unpopularity during the rain.

“If the People Mover ride’s braking system gets wet . . . we just don’t want to chance it,” Blaty said of the attraction that features elevated open-air cars with metal canopies. “A lot of people just don’t go on it anyway. It’s not even worth keeping open because of the lack of business.”

Yellow ponchos with a picture of Mickey Mouse emblazoned on the back dotted the park. At $4.25 for adults and $3.75 for children, they were selling like hot cakes, one salesperson said.

But Jeff Peake, 17, of Australia was not wearing any rain gear.

“It’s nice here, but it would be better if it were dry,” he said.

Peake said he was not disappointed that the park would be closing at 4 p.m. “I don’t think I could stay that much longer,” he said. “We’ve been in the rain, and we’ve just suffered.”

Some, like Lisa Lloyd, 32, of Fallbrook, came to avoid lines for attractions.

“We decided a rainy day was a good day to avoid them. We’ve actually been having a really good time,” said Lloyd, who carried umbrellas, ponchos and rain boots for her children, twins Brittany and Nathan, 8, and Nicholas, 5. “We can go on rides over and over. We’ll come again on a rainy day.”

Only a few miles away in Buena Park, Knott’s Berry Farm was closed because of the rain. Last Wednesday’s drenching also closed the park.