Are the water parks a must do?

[Wrightfamily]

I have three little ones ages 2,5 and will be 7. We will be at Disney for a week in May. Would you recommend doing the water parks? I have planned on doing them but I just wonder if its really hard to fit them in. Also if the resort (POP) pool is more sufficient. We are looking at spending $200. for the package but I wanted to get some feedback to make sure we should.


Thank You
Misty

 

[vicki_c]

Disney resorts all have great pools.

I personally wouldn't try to squeeze in the water parks on a first trip, with littler kids.

I'm sure you will have plenty to do with the parks and your resort pool.

You can always add the water parks + more feature to your tickets after you get there if you decide you want to go.

 

[redrosesix]

I don't think I would spend the $200 for kids that age, especially since you are only staying a week. We get the WPF&M add on, but we are there for 2 weeks. DD is 9, an excellent swimmer, and we would all choose to go to a water park over a park day.

Downtime at the resort is a necessity, so the pool as Pop should be fine for them.

 

[cantwaitforwdw]

Last year we went to WDW and stayed at POP. We really wanted to go to the waterparks because we have never gone before so we made sure to get the waterpark option. We were a group of three families that travelled together with children that were aged 2, 5, 10 and 17 and we all agreed that we wouldn't ever take the time to go again. We all agreed that we would have rather spent that time at the parks. The pools were sufficient.

 

[ntsammy5]

That age might be a little much - my wife has been to Disney about 45 times and has never been in a water park - I've been quite a few times to the WP and love them - For kids that age it might be hit or miss though. The lazy river is fun as is the wave pool at TL - there are kids areas IIRC, but haven't been to those - when we went the first time in 1991, my youngest was already a teenager - they did love River Country, but sadly that's been closed for years.

 

[creativeamanda]

You can do what I'm doing--we are staying a week (9 days), but are just buying a 1-day waterpark ticket when we decide we want to go. For us, it was a better deal, because we ant to go--but only one day.

 

[1hero2princesses]

A must do? I would say no. They are fun though and if you have the extra time why not try just one? We went 8 days last year and took one day in the middle of the week and did Blizzard Beach (kids 5,3,1 at the time). My DH and 2 older kids loved it. We spent open till close (closed at 5) and I had to drag my DH out (we were some of the last people to leave). We found it to be a very relaxing day, a good break. We just paid the one day entrance fee. We are going again this fall and plan to do the same. The only problem we are having now is DH wants to try Typhoon Laggoon but I really think BB is really more suited to our kids, the the TL wave pool makes me really nervous with my little guys. Also, have your kids done a lot of water parks? Mine love water parks and love slides so that makes a difference too.

 

[ckdsnynt]

water parks are great fun and we plan to spend a day at one this May when we go to the world but we already have leftover water park tickets. With children your age, I would probably not spend the money. The resort pools will be great and save money for other things. When our children were small, we never spent the extra money to take them to the water parks. Enjoy your vacation!

 

[christa112]

The water parks are awesome, but I don't think I would do them your 1st visit. We waited until our 3rd trip because of our children's ages. My dd was 4 and still unable to do a lot at the parks. I would wait.

 

[sandym718]

I guess I have a differing opinon than most here. We LOOOOVED Blizzard Beach and will be back this year. When we went in 2007 our kiddos were almost 3 and almost 5. It was definitely one of their favorite parks, they loved it MUCH more than DHS or AK. Even the little ones can do so much, they let them wear a vest on everything, you are NOT restricted to the kiddie areas at all (thought they did like "bigger" one as well). The only thing they couldn't do were the speed slides (2 or 3 I think). Even my little girl (about 36" tall) was going on huge slides, doing a zip line, everything. They were in heaven. I should add that I think a big part of it for my son was that he was allowed to do these things. He's very small for his age, and most other parks restrict regular-size slides by height. Even now, at almost 7, we doubt he'll be able to use the slide at our summer pool - it's 48" and he's about 46, maybe by summer's end... So BB was a HUGE treat for him to be able to do all that.

 

[PrincessBelle94]

For kids that age, I'd say pass.

 

[Amy&Dan]

I agree with the consensus! Our first trip we did the waterparks and I was sorrry we did. Because the wp's and Disney Quest I think are better for longer trips and older kids. When my kids were little, I found a water park the most aggravating thing to do with them!

My kids are older now (12 and 15) and we wouldn't not do them or DQ. But it took us several trips before I felt like we were ready to branch out. I agree if you really want to try one, see how your trip goes and then consider buying a one day ticket. If you add that option and don't use it, you wasted a lot of money.

Have fun on your first trip! There's never a trip that can match it in most ways.

And your kids will love the Pop pool. Mine still do and they are older and have stayed at many resorts by now. That whole resort is an experience in and of itself and so fun!

 

[CLR4321]

To me it's not worth it because it's just me, my boyfriend and my 4 year old DS. DS will be too small to go on the big waterslides, and so if me and my BF wanted to go on any, we'd be going it alone while the other one of us waited with DS in the kids area. If we go again in the future and have another adult with us to stay with DS, we would consider.

 

[minimi.4214]

i agrre above all, with little kids you should wait for them to grow up

 

[momlady]

I'm reading this with interest since we are heading to WDW in 2 weeks with some 2004 tickets with only the "WPand more" option left on them (the park days were all used up), as well as 7 day base tickets for the parks. I was debating whether my 2 boys (almost 14 and almost 11) would enjoy DQ or the water park more! I guess we will play it by ear and see what the weather is like.

 

[ScrapperBelle]

I guess it really depends on your family. For our family, the waterparks are a must. We took our DS when he was 4 and he had a blast. Of course he has been around water and swimming his entire life, but kids do not have to be strong swimmers to have fun and find lots to do there. There are many slides that allow you to ride with your child or for all of you to ride together.

On our last trip, we took our 14 mo. old granddaughter to both TL and BB. She loved it! Yes, she mostly had to stay in the kiddie area, but she loved sitting at the very edge of the wave pool with us and fell asleep both days in the lazy river (we have some cute pics of that!).

The hotel pools are nice, but we have a pool at home...so our kids like the "extras" at the water parks like the slides, wave pools, and of course swimming with sharks!

 

[Sher]

We have actually never done the waterparks. Frankly, I figure if we don't take the time to go to these things here in Illinois then there is no reason we would waste precious Orlando time there.

sher

 

[pdmedic]

We looked at getting the water park tickets one day out of 11 down there and will probably pay for the Water Park Fun and More tickets which are a $50 add on for the 10 days and include DisneyQuest which are son wants to do which would be $40 each so for an extra $10 we can go there and to the water parks a couple of times instead of DisneyQuest once.

 

[Magalex]

This will be our first time trying the water parks (probably TL). Our DS is now 8 yrs old. When he was younger the resort pools were very nice and he was happy with them. But we have never taken him to any local water parks and my DH and myself are curious about the WDW water parks. So we thought it would be fun to have his first water park adventure be on Disney property. Also he wants to do Disney Quest so we are buying the ADD-ON option. Last year he was asking to have a day to visit Universal and I am not really interested in Universal(especially in June where the sun will be beating down) so I offered the Disney water parks and Disney Quest. He is thrilled and very excited. The WDW water parks look so clean too. We are staying at POFQ close to TL. I think we will enjoy visiting in the morning for a few hours.

 

[wdwmom0f3]

We have never been to the water parks as a family, but my teenage DD went last year with a friend. I asked her if it was something that she would like to do again and she said no. It could be because we have a pool at home so they get plenty of swimming in here. For me personally, I hate to blow a day at Disney in the water. Maybe if we were there for two weeks.