Water Park Etiquette

[zad's mom]

This will be our first visit to BB and TL. It will be myself, DH and DS (5 years old). I just looked at the maps for both water parks and they look huge. So my questions are:

1) Is it ok for us to leave (and hold) our chairs by leaving our stuff on it while we check out the other rides? Or, if we want to enjoy the ride together, are we supposed to lug our stuff from one attraction to another and, thus, look for chairs all over again? Or, does one of us have to stay behind and hold the chairs?

2) Since we're going in August and it will be pretty darn hot, are we allowed to bring a small cooler filled with water and juice? That way we don't have to run to a concession stand whenever we're thirsty.

Thank you!

 

[shafke]

1. yes you can leave you stuff on your chairs.

2. I believe you are allowed to bring in a small cooler. Just try not to bring any glass containers.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

The only restrictions are nothing in glass containers and no alcoholic beverages. I have seen people come through the gate hauling wheeled coolers about 4' x 3' x 2½'. Note that the cooler can be on wheels or carried, but the way the rules are written you can not have it in a wagon.

Some things people don't think about (which tend to be in glass) are pickles, salsa, Mayonaisse, Starbucks drinks, Snapple drinks, Tabasco.

If you show up at the gate with prohibited items we will give you three choices:
(1) Take prohibited items back to your car or resort.
(2) Put prohibited items in the nearby trash can.
(3) (Only for other than alcoholic beverages) We can give you some 16oz paper cups (or if you have plastic bags) you can dump the items out of the glass containers and throw away the container.

As far as leaving items on your chair, more than likely the stuff will not be disturbed, but I would not recommend leaving anything that you would really regret losing (such as a wallet or video camera).

 

[zad's mom]

Thank you both for your responses!

 

[disney6family]

Also, not a direct answer to your questions, but you said the maps make the parks look huge and while they are both laid out somewhat around their pools, they both have lazy rivers with multiple stops, so when we don't feel like walking we get in the lazy river and get off at the stop nearest what we are trying to ride. Just make sure to note which stop is nearest the chairs you get or you may be riding around in circles all day long (not that this is a bad thing)

 

[disnut8]

I'm sure you would do this but it is polite when saving chairs to only save the ones that you absolutely need. When my husband and I go, we'll save just one chair for the two of us. While one sits in the chair, the other sits on a towel on the sand next to the chair. We don't take three chairs and just put our stuff on one of them.

 

[AJKMOM]

All good advice.

Especially: make note of where you park your stuff. If you are early enough, pick a landmark in the shade. There will be hundreds of towels on hundreds of lounges, and (speaking from experience) it can get very confusing if you forget where your stuff is.

 

[zad's mom]

These are all great advice. Thank you!

 

[MACfamily4]

OP - great questions - wondering that myself.

We'll be visiting BB for the first time in July. Any advice as to where the "best" place to park our towels and stuff might be? Our kids are 11 and 8, so we don't need to be by the kiddie area. We'll be arriving before opening. What do you think?

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Mac. There is no one area that is best at BB simply because of it's layout. We tend to lay our stuff by the wave pool closer to the path to the big slides simply because we want to get in, and hit them first. It's also closer to the kiddie areas and the path to the lunch spot. But the best spot for the other slides in the park is over near the other end of the wave pool. Try to get a Cabana because it's nice to be out of the sun when you're sitting. By the way, Blizzard Beach has a bigger kids area with Zip lines and such. An 8 year old would love it.

 

[G8RFAN]

Mac, the wave pool area also has areas with sand and without depending on your preference. There are also limited shaded areas near the wave pool and the chair lift. You can also find little alcoves with chairs and chaises thorughout. The key is getting there earling and finding your spot. If you are staying on property, the EMH gives you a great advantage.

 

[Sandi]

We always park our stuff in a locker and never sit down except for lunch. I would always be worried about whether our stuff was undisturbed, so I prefer to lock it up and move on.

 

[SINYMom]

We are going down at the end of August and this will be our first time at BB, so thank you to OP for this thread as I was looking for information on BB.

I guess I should ask if BB is better, the same, not as good as TL? We are a family of 5, me, DH, DS13, twin DS10. For the most part my boys think they are dare devils but, the slides look high and fast (okay, I'm the chicken, but I'm also the Mom so this is okay). Is Summit Plummet too high/fast? Does anyone wear life jackets on these slides? If not, then where do they wear them?

How are the towels that you can rent? I really don't want to carry towels from home so I'm hoping these are decent.

How crowded are the food places?

Any tips would be appreciated. We are staying on-site so we can and will go early.

Thank you.

 

[disnut8]

You can rent towels and they are the usual Disney pool towels. We've never rented them as our beach towels just get slid into an outside pocket or are used to wrap things like laundry soap or containers that just might come open during the trip.

To find our things a bit easier, you can take the advice given on how to find your strollers in the sea of strollers outside an attraction. Take something cheap (I use a very bright bandana from the dollar store) to tie around the back of your chair or be more creative than that. It needs to be something that you don't mind losing. Although that ugly scarf survived our first trip with a five year old and is still on the stroller of her toddler brother.