Are water parks relaxing?

[Gru]

I'm thinking of booking a trip for August 28-sept 2. We have never been to the water parks and I 'm trying to plan park days. I know we should get to water parks early before the lines get long. I was wondering do most people find the water parks relaxing or are you exhausted by the end of the day? Just trying to figure out if a late night before or any early morning after a water park day is a good idea.

 

[dbavis]

we've used water park days specifically to be relaxation days. they can be as hectic as you want them to be although it'd be hard to ever get to the point of running around like you would at Magic Kingdom. The one thing that we do to make sure that it is a relaxing day is rent a cabana. It's a bit of an extravagance but you can't beat having a decent sized dedicated space for the family and an attendant to boot.

 

[PetePanMan]

we normally return very tired as we do so much for 3-4 hours and then leave but it doesn't have to be that way. You can stake out a nice shady lounge area and do as much as or as little as you want

 

[Alesia]

We find them to to be much more exhausting than the main parks.

 

[TeamSy]

We find them fun and relaxing, especially now with FP+! It's a day where we can just go and really be spontaneous with the rides and what we do/don't do. No cell phones to check MDE, no ADR's at the park... We really enjoy them!

 

[mickeymom22]

We got to Blizzard Beach before it opened. Put our towels on a chair. Did everything twice. Ate lunch and left. We really enjoyed it, but we were ready to go back to the resort to relax. Don't wait too late in your trip to go. Climbing the steps and waiting in line take a lot out of you when you are also spending a lot of time at the parks. I was really impressed how they have water features spraying to keep where you walk cool for your feet. We wore swim shoes. If you aren't into enjoying the water rides...hanging out for a day at your resort will probably being more relaxing than a water park.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

We hit the slides then calm down on the lazy river. Then reward ourselves with tasty ice treats. Very relaxing.

 

[pinklotusflower]

we finding it relaxing, we do some rides then chill on the lazy river and have lunch in the shade and usually leave after lunch

 

[Deanie1]

We use the water parks as a relaxing day between busy park days. We usually do 2-3 days parks followed by a WP day and then repeat. A WP allows us to sleep in a bit and then to have an early bedtime so that we are rested for our next park day. I don't do many slides - mostly the wavw pool and the lazy river. We really enjoy the waterparks.

 

[Hootch]

We are there at rope drop and hit all of the slides and then (Typhoon Lagoon) hit the wave pool. I insist on at least a half hour in Castaway Creek to close out the park.

 

[Gru]

Thanks for all the replies. I think we will get there early, spend the morning on the slides and relax for the afternoon. Hopefully we will be rested enough for a full day at MK the next day!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

We hit water parks HARD. Get there early, stay all day. And we spend most of our time doing rides rather than floating in the lazy River or bobbing in the wave pool.

But, because they're smaller & doing "everything" really isn't much of a challenge, I don't find them as exhausting as MK & EPCOT.

 

[Flight]

After a part of the day at a water park, when we get back to the hotel we all collapse and end up taking very long nap and the day is done- even thought we had made plans for the rest of the day. So for us, it is exhaustion.

 

[chartle]

or exhausted by the end of the day?

This ^

 

[DOOM1001]

It depends on you and what you do at the water parks.If all you do is go for a couple of hours and lay on the sand or on a raft and go continuously around in the lazy river it will be a pretty relaxing day.If you go like I do and spend all day,say from 10-7 going up the stairs to hit the slides by the end of the day the stairs and the sun will wipe you out,much more than even the theme parks.

 

[revdon64]

I'll second the idea of getting a cabana. We got one the last time we went (Typhoon Lagoon). It overlooked the wave pool, had shade all day, cold bottled water, towels... it was perfect. I can't imagine doing a water park without one now.

 

[NavyDad]

It can go either way...

If you run, run, run to all the slides and stuff and never sit down you will be exhausted. We usually just plan a dinner for the evening and rest in between.

However, on a previous trip we had a really relaxing day at BB. We got there first thing and claimed some chairs in a nice shaded area. Did the family raft ride and then the lazy river. Our kids are older so we let them run and play together while DW and I took a nap in the shade. It was a super relaxing day!

 

[aVASTGrl]

It depends on what you like to do at a water park. If you plan on going on all of the slides, it's not relaxing...fun, but tiring! I suppose if you spent the whole day going around the lazy river it would be relaxing, but IMO you might as well just float around in your hotel pool and you'd be just as relaxed with less of a hassle! We like to take lazy river breaks in-between the slides, that helps slow us down.

 

[Rosebud123]

We find them very relaxing! It's great not having to get to a park until 9:45 (when they open at 10). We usually stay from 10 - 3ish, then back to hotel to shower/change, and head to DTD for a few hours, or a short (2-3 hours) night at a theme park.

We do 1 water park day after every 2 theme park days. We consider them "break" days.

 

[china mom]

it depends a lot on your parent to child ratio and the age of your kids. When mine were younger and I had to helicopter over them all day, I was exhausted. When I was outnumbered 2:1 and they were different sizes -so different slides, I was exhausted.

If you don't have to be on top of your kids, it can be very relaxing.