One Day, Two Water Parks

On my last trip my friends and I hit up both of Disney’s water park offerings, Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach, in one day. I had never been to the water parks before because I never wanted to give up time in the one of the four main theme parks. I thought doing both in one would be no problem, because I always thought of them as more of a half day experience. However, I found that I didn’t have time to experience all of the attractions. Maybe we weren’t the most efficient, but it is a vacation after all. In this entry I’ll detail our adventures at Walt Disney World’s water parks and provide some advice to those wishing to try it themselves.

First things first, if you are going to attempt this feat it’s best to have your own car. Waiting for a bus and having to transfer will take up way too much time. Also be sure to check the park hours so you can plan ahead. Unfortunately, on the day we did this there were no extra magic hours at the water parks. Perhaps if we had more time we would have been able to experience more of the attractions. We also go started a little later than we should have, but that was out of our hands. I also think it would have been easier if I had ever been to the water parks before. Since I had not experienced the water parks I spent a fair amount of time trying to get my bearings.

We headed to Typhoon Lagoon first. After figuring out the locker and towel situation we headed straight for Crush ‘n’ Gusher. It was a lot of fun! My words of advice for Crush ’n’ Gusher: tush up! It doesn’t feel so good when your butt hits the surface of the water coaster. Next, we headed off to knock some of the other slides off the list. Most of the slides are toward the rear of the park so it’s a pretty good hike to get to them. They were fun, but I have to say a lot of them are short! A spin around the lazy river was next on the agenda. We hopped out to hop into the wave pool. I have to say the wave pool was my favorite part of the park. Since I’m a Jersey Shore girl, I normally can’t swim with waves (without freezing half to death) until late July. It was a nice treat to bob in the breakers in May. Remember a horn blasts before each of the six foot swell to give swimmers fair warning. After a few more slides, we had lunch at Typhoon Lagoon (which was among the worst counter service I’ve had at WDW) before going from the storm ravaged tropical paradise to melting snow.

We retrieved our belongings from our locker, returned our towels, and headed to our next wet destination: Blizzard Beach. A great tip is to keep your receipt from locker rental. If you provide a same day receipt you don’t have to pay again! After getting settled with our new locker and reapplying sun block, it was time to see what this park had to offer. We checked out the map and decided to head for Teamboat Springs so we could all ride together. This family raft ride was a great time and I think it was my favorite slide all day! To get to the top of “ski slope” try riding the chair lift instead of schlepping up all of those stairs. I must admit I was a little nervous about it at first (I don’t like cable cars, chair lifts, and the like) but it was a pretty pleasant trip. We used the lazy river as transportation to the next few slides. The tube slides and the mat slides are both a lot of fun! After a few more slides and a little more floating along in the lazy river, it was time for the park to close.

I wouldn’t recommend trying to do both of these parks in one day if you are a first time WDW water park visitor. Not knowing the lay of the land was certainly detrimental to our success. Also, be aware that all those stairs in the Florida sun really take it out of you. We were pooped by the end of the day! I’m really looking forward to hitting up the water parks again. Next time I hit up a water park I’ll take more time to relax and really soak in the atmosphere, to hit all of the attractions, and take a few more much needed laps around the lazy river. Overall, we had a great time even without slipping down all the slides. Although, we didn’t spend as much time there, I think I liked Blizzard Beach better.

I will have to write another blog entry with more detail on the water parks at some point. Until then, please refer to the Unofficial Guide for information and tips to make the best out of your wet adventures.

Next time, in honor of the end of the summer, I’ll discuss tropical drinks at the Polynesian Resort’s bars….