My Favorite Disney Water Park Attractions

Ever since last summer, when I planned a weekend trip to Disney World centered around visiting its two water parks, I’ve been hooked on those water playgrounds.  Both Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon offer up a lot of fun for kids of all ages and if you haven’t checked them out yet I highly recommend them. I love just about everything about them: from themeing, to slides, and everything in between. There are so many great things to discuss when diving into Disney’s water parks. This week I wanted to discuss my favorite attractions.  These are some of the things that keep me coming back to Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach time and time again:

 Typhoon Lagoon

Crush ‘n’ Gusher is more than a slide, it’s a water coaster. Guests board rafts for one to three guests and ride this attraction up, down, and all around until they are dumped out into the pool below.  It is a lot of fun to experience this unique attraction especially if you ride with friends or family! Hearing them scream and laugh is really what makes this a such a good time.

My other two favorite attractions at Typhoon Lagoon aren’t slides at all!  Shark Reef is a unique experience I truly love.  Here guests can snorkel in a salt water environment filled with fish and, you guessed it, sharks. Now sharks are not my favorite animal (quite frankly, they freak me out), but these are just little sharks so I’m never afraid to jump into this attraction. The water is a bit cold at first, but you’ll get used to it quickly. A little chill is well worth the experience of getting to swim with the fishes.

The Surf Pool is easily my absolute favorite attraction in Typhoon Lagoon’s line up. I am a beach bum at heart and have grown up swimming in the ocean so imagine my thrill to be able to swim in waves at a Disney park. This attraction is a real workout if you swim out into the deeper area, but you’ll be able to float over the waves out there rather than battling them in the shallow areas. As an added bonus it is a riot to people watch in the wave pool. You can easily tell who is comfortable swimming in waves and who doesn’t have much practice at it.

Blizzard Beach

Teamboat Springs is my favorite water slide attraction I’ve ever experienced, including the Aquaduck on the Disney Dream. Guests slosh down this slide in rafts made for up to six people. Maybe the group element is what I love about this one because I find myself giggling the whole way down every single time. It may not be as thrilling as Summit Plummet, but it is way more enjoyable for me and more accessible for most guests. This one gets my highest praise!

Runoff Rapids is another exciting attraction which is thrilling, but not terrifying. Once again, guests board tubes and slide down singly or in pairs. There are three slides to chose from after you make your way to the top up what seems like a ton of stairs. Runoff Rapids is a little bit off the beaten path tucked into the back of the park.  This may keep the crowds down in the queue even though they are some of the better slides in the park.

Sometimes you might just need a break from all those thrilling slides. Both water parks feature awesome lazy rivers to fulfill your relaxation needs. Castaway Creek at Typhoon Lagoon and Cross Country Creek at Blizzard Beach both offer a lovely tour around the park where you can float along and just soak in the atmosphere. I could spend hours going with the flow in either of these attractions. I also like to use them as a mode of transportation from one point to another in the parks! Many times it is easier and more fun to just hop in the river rather than walk across the park.

I also have to give a shout out to my favorite snacks in the water parks. The mini donuts sold at both Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach are just the thing to munch on when you are relaxing pool side. They’re available by the half dozen or dozen, but you’ll want the dozen. These little fried bits of deliciousness offer up plenty of customizable possibilities since you can select your toppings. Not only can you pick if you’d like to eat them plain, with sugar, or with cinnamon sugar but you can also have different sauces for an extra fee. Chocolate, white chocolate, and raspberry sauces are all tasty additions to the donuts so get a bunch of friends together and go crazy with a dozen or two.

You may have noticed I left the most thrilling attractions off my list of favorites. Summit Plummet and Humunga Kowabunga are simply not my cup of tea. Just looking at Summit Plummet at Blizzard Beach gives me the creeps so there’s no way you’ll see me sliding down at 50+ miles per hour any time soon.  That’s the beauty of Disney’s water parks; there are attractions for those brave enough to take a very fast plunge, but there are plenty of fun things to do for those of us who are a bit more on the wimpy side. I’d definitely rather than take a few spins around the lazy river than wait in line to scream my head off on my way down one of these speed slides.

How about you?  What are some of your favorite things to do at Disney’s water parks?  Let me hear your thoughts in the comments!

A special thanks goes to Neil Citro for providing this week’s photos!