Typoon park

[Allensfan]

Hello everyone

I am planning my trip in Sept for a 7 year old and me and DH. I am thrilled to be going to MK and Epcot (maybe two times each), we are also doing Sea World one of the days. I am not at all interested in MGM or Animal Kingdom (we will be staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge so I did not see a ton at that park that my son would love)...so I thought about maybe doing a water park. Typoon looked so interesting with the big lazy river, and shark reef. I also like the sound of the wave pool. With the weather being so hot, I thought it may be a good experience for my son to get to go to a big water park. What are your thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[cgbsilver@hotmail.co]

It is Typhoon lagoon and it is lots of fun you should do it. I would also do MGM your 7 year old will love it.

 

[CathrynRose]

I would not only include MGM, but AK as well...

BUT if youre insistant upon not going.... I love Typhoon Lagoon, but ADORE Blizzard Beach. The "kids" play area is nicer at Blizzard beach, IMO.

Either way - Disney water parks are my favorite part of my trips. We're going 3 times this year.

 

[magicaldisney]

Agreed, I wouldn't be so quick to rule out MGM, we love that park!!

As for the water parks...Blizzard Beach has a nicer "kids" play area, but Typhoon Lagoon has a great wave pool. We prefer Typhoon Lagoon...I think...oh I don't know...it's hard to decide....maybe you should just go to both of them!!

 

[PA Princess]

We love the water parks and find them a relaxing part of the vacation when we are in Disney. Typhoon Lagoon is great and has a great atmosphere. However, we probably preferred the kids play area, the family raft ride, and the milder wave pool of BB. But both are great!

 

[Allensfan]

I was thinking a water park was a 'maybe' option for us and it sounds like it is a must do!

What is the shark reef like at Typoon?

My son does not like big rides and he is not going to go near a big water slide. He would enjoy swimming and playing, he loves lazy rivers and he is interested in sea animals. Which is best for us?

The reson I shy away from MGM, is that I heard that the best things to do there are roller coasters and more thrill type rides, so I figured he would not enjoy it. Set me straight if you have to and remember we have never been to any of this and have no visual idea of what is in store for us.

 

[Donnainnj]

Allensfan,
MGM does have thrill rides, but also has great shows. Muppets4D, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid (one of my favorites), The Stunt Spectacular, and don't forget Fantasmic. I don't know if you have looked at it yet, but allearsnet.com has descriptions of all the rides and show, it will give you a better idea of what is right for you and yours. I think all the parks have something to offer every personality. Enjoy your trip.
Donna
Ps. We also love the waterparks and based on your posts it does seem Typhoon Lagoon will fit your family best. (That site also has pictures and descriptions of the water parks.)

 

[cgbsilver@hotmail.co]

I was thinking a water park was a 'maybe' option for us and it sounds like it is a must do!

What is the shark reef like at Typoon?

My son does not like big rides and he is not going to go near a big water slide. He would enjoy swimming and playing, he loves lazy rivers and he is interested in sea animals. Which is best for us?

The reson I shy away from MGM, is that I heard that the best things to do there are roller coasters and more thrill type rides, so I figured he would not enjoy it. Set me straight if you have to and remember we have never been to any of this and have no visual idea of what is in store for us.

I would go to Typhoon Lagoon. Regarding MGM well here we go Playhouse Disney, The Little mermaid, Muppets 3d, Lights Motor Action, Indiana Joes, Star Tours, The Great Movie ride, Beauty and th Beast.

And three words.

FANTASMIC, FANTASMIC and did I mention FANTASMIC.

 

[Twende]

We just returned and did TL. We have never done BB so it is hard to compare for us. But we loved TL.

If your son can swim he would enjoy the Shark Reef. We found the water refreshing and not at all cold like we had been warned about. You can not swim with kicking you feet and you basically float on the surface and use your hand motions to steer you around while you have you face in the water with a mask and snorkle. We are scuba certified so it was easy for us but many people had trouble with floating.

While we were there the instructors had to pull a number of people up from the floor of the tank as they could not swim and simpy sunk to the bottom.


We found the slides all fun but not super thrilling. Which is exactly what we wanted. I avoided the one that just went straight down but DH did it. Crusher Gusher was really fun with three choices of slides done in a two or three man tube. We were advised to keep our bums up by a very helpful English couple and this was great advise.

The lazy river was relaxing and a great way to build up steam to climb more steps so we could ride more slides!

The wave pool was fun but it is rough when you are near the shore. We found the waves were more fun when we swam out to shoulder depth water and greeted each wave there!

You might want to rethink not doing Animal Kingdom. Staying at the lodge is great and better if you spend a day there doing all the activites offered but AK is well worth the time. It is one of our favorite parks.

 

[helenm29]

Typhoon Lagoon is really fun! they have lots of things for kids your size and the Lazy river is nice too. As has been said before the Wave Pool is great but it's really rough around the shore line...there is this ledge that goes around the rock area that can be a real scarry thing, lots of hard wave action because that is where the wave breaks.
Animal Kingdom would be a great thing to do for you all. They have lots of neat things like the Lion King show, the Kilamangaro Safari (sp) the Wildlife trail where you can see some really awesome things up close. My kids love it and they've been going since they were 5. If you can do it, you might want to give it a try.

 

[mill4023]

oops, double post

 

[mill4023]

The reson I shy away from MGM, is that I heard that the best things to do there are roller coasters and more thrill type rides, so I figured he would not enjoy it. Set me straight if you have to and remember we have never been to any of this and have no visual idea of what is in store for us.

MGM only has one coaster(Rock n Roller) and one other big thrill ride(Tower of Terror). It's really all about the shows. Your 7 yr old would definitely enjoy Lights, Motors, Action and the Indiana Jones stunt show. He would also probably enjoy Star Tours, Muppets 3D, Beauty and the Beast, and the Little Mermaid. And IMO, Fantasmic is one of the best nighttime shows.
Personally, I just love the themeing of MGM. It's a lot of fun just walking around and seeing everything.

All of our kids (2,5,8,11) enjoyed Animal Kingdom a lot also. Festival of the Lion King by itself is worth a visit to AK.

Since you've never been before, if possible, I'd try to spend at least a day at each of the parks. You never know which one's you will like the best and a 7 yr old is old enough to enjoy all of them. Or you could get park hoppers and spend a half day at MGM and AK so you at least get a chance to see the parks and some of the highlights.

Oh, as far as the water parks, we haven't been to Blizzard Beach yet, but we had a great time at Typhoon Lagoon when we went. But on our last trip, we didn't go to any water parks because we decided we'd rather spend more time at the 4 main parks.

 

[stm61]

my dd's were 6 our last trip and they informed me that the kid's area at Typhoon was "for babies". There really isn't alot for bigger kids, it's more geared to toddlers. They hated the wave pool because they're to short to go out far enough to not get knocked over constantly by the rough waves. They heard the word shark and refused to get in the pool with them, tho ds12 loved it. They did like the family raft ride but I got very tired of dragging that raft up the steps.

They absolutely loved Blizzard Beach! The water isn't very deep, my smaller dd was just 44" and she could stand in all the different areas in Ski Patrol without the water being over her head. Look at the site, I think they have pics of the different slides and rides for the kids. I remember several slides, a zip line ride (this one does drop them in deeper water), and "ice berg's" that they walked across the pool on while holding on to an overhead net. The family raft ride was longer and I didn't have to carry a raft! They also have a wave pool that's tamer and a lazy river. I was able to grab a chair at the side and watch while they had fun on the kid's stuff.

 

[CathrynRose]

I wish they'd install Typhoon's wave pool at Blizzard Beach - then Blizzard would be the most spectacular, perfect, amazing water park EVER!

I lovvvvve the wave pool at Typhoon - but love everything else, at Blizzard.