Hello, everyone. I've been lurking on this thread for a while. Pool temperature is very important to me and my family. We vacationed at BCV in January of 2005 for the first time, and liked it so much that we went again in January of 2006. The only pools we went in were those at SAB. My children (DS13 and DD4) had so much fun at the pools that there were times they opted for the pools rather than the parks.
In my opinion, the pools were several degrees cooler in January 2006. I am a lifelong competitive and fitness swimmer, and swim about 5 times a week at one of two different local pools. The water temperature is a very hot topic at our pools, if you'll pardon the pun, so I'm pretty keyed in to it. I would estimate that the temperature of the SAB pools in January 2005 to have been 85F or over, which is comfortable for my family to play in (but not necessarily for fitness swimming). In January of 2006, I estimated the pools to be about 80F, which is chilly for non-fitness swimmers and, so I'm told, can be downright painful for those with arthritis.
Unfortunately, we did not make any complaints at the time since we had to deal with DD4's dual ear infections, followed by DH's emergency appendectomy at Celebration Hospital (where we were cheerfully told, "If you can't have your appendectomy at home, this is the next best place!" Wonderful doctors, nurses, and care there, but that's another thread.)
Since we had to stay longer and used up a bunch of extra points, I have a major case of add-on-itis, but I will not consider adding on until this issue is resolved.
In my not-so-humble opinion, keeping the pools cooler in the name of some supposed "standard" from the Red Cross is bogus. Ask any Seniorcize or Arthritis Aquasize instructor about pool temperatures, and you'll quickly hear that warmer is better. Ask any instructor of children under 5 about pool temperatures, and you'll hear the same thing (it's very hard to get small children to pay attention when they're shivering and have blue lips). Fitness swimmers really like it chilly, but at my local pools, we have the opposite problem as SAB--we can't get the water cold enough!
The issue of energy conservation is much more valid. We wondered both visits why SAB was not covered with floating pool blankets at night, especially since the hours were so restricted. It sure seems silly to not cover a pool of that size and configuration (mostly shallow, which dissipates heat at the air/water interface much more quickly than a deeper pool would) when it's open for what, about 10 hours out of every 24. There are floating pool blankets that are not much more than beefed-up bubble wrap that could be used pretty easily (i.e., put on and taken off in about the same amount of time as the guards now spend answering questions about chilly water). I've seen pools have large rollers to roll them up during the day, which are then wheeled out of view. I would think this would save far more money than turning the thermostat down 5 degrees--after all, during the winter it gets down in the 40s pretty often at night, which means that even if the pool thermostat is set at 75F (shiver, shiver!) there's still a nightly temperature difference of 25 to 35 degrees. It's unfortunate that those 5 to 10 degrees are so crucial to everyone's comfort in the pools, but that's the way it is.
The Disney managment might want to note that there are pools--OUTDOOR pools, mind you--at ski resorts here in Colorado (Keystone, for one) that are in continuous use throughout the winter. They are covered with pool blankets each night, and are heated to a temperature comfortable enough that you can have the very surreal experience of sipping a refreshing beverage in the pool after a long day of skiing, while watching other intrepid souls glide down the slopes under the night lights. The temperatures at night in the winter at Keystone regularly hit the single digits, and temperatures below zero are not uncommon.
So, anyone know the cost of pool blankets?
Just my 2c, 5c, or whatever.
There are unused monorail right-of-ways all over WDW, should we be up in arms that the system was never expanded? Or that a more energy effective replacement may be found in the future.
