Water Park Questions

[CeruleanMoon]

Need to pick the collective Dis Board brain.

1) Is it possible to visit a water park during the day and then another (non water) park in the evening without park-hopper passes? Not sure if water parks count as part of the "one park per day" or if that only refers to the big 4 parks.

2) Best time/place to buy water park tickets? As far as I can tell, no discount retailers offer water park tickets, so I assume Disney is the only place to get them? Should I buy these tickets ahead of time or at the gate?

3) Disney website shows that Typhoon Lagoon is currently closed for refubs. Can I count on it being open by the end of April?

4) If you had a heavier crowd day (say a 7 crowd level), would you rather spend it at a water park or a regular park? Not sure if a heavy day at a water park would be less onerous than the same heavy day at a regular park. Or would the ability to have FP's make the regular park a better bet?

5) Looking at last year's schedule, I see that there is a chance that "grad night" at Typhoon Lagoon could occur on the Friday that we might be there. Does that affect crowds during the day or do the party goers only show up for the special evening event?

I have until late Feb to come up with our final schedule. So much planning!

 

[whiporee]

I can only answer a few, and I might be wrong.

1) I think the waterparks close around five most days. So there really isn't much of an evening option. They don't count as parks, but they are included in the Hopper Plus tickets -- so you get free entry to them if you've purchased the Plus tix.

2) If you're doing Hoppers anyway, I'd just add the Plus part onto them. It wasn't very much more.

3) No idea, but it's a good bet.

4) Water parks are different than the attraction parks because many of the attractions are open-ended -- the wave pool and the lazy rivers are just continuous and no lines. They may be crowded, but there's no "wait" for them. Like anything at WDW, it's best to either be very early or near the end of the day, and because of the nature of the parks -- wet -- they'll get crowded at the hottest times of the day. Last year BB experimented with a virtual queue, so that might help, but my family found the lines less burdensome than our local water park(Water World in Denver, which is also pretty awesome).

5) I don't imagine grad night will have much affect on day traffic.

Like I said, I everything is offered in good faith, but could be wrong.

 

[Klayfish]

1. Yes, the water park is a completely separate "ticket" from the main parks. So if you buy the water park option, it's sort of a stand alone ticket. In other words, if you buy a 5 day ticket w/water park option, you get 5 days of main parks and 5 days of water parks. So if you go to MK in the morning and BB in the afternoon, you use one of each. Then next day do just Epcot and you'll have 3 main parks and 4 water park left, and so on.

2. I don't think it really matters where you buy them. We have always done them ahead of time, to save time at the gate (we have AP now and they were part of our AP package)

3. Yes, it should be open by the end of April. They close one of the two every winter for refurb, I think it reopens in March.

4. First, crowd calendars are a total waste (IMO), so ignore them. Water parks don't draw the same size crowds that the theme parks do, so even on a busy theme park day, the water park will be far less crowded. Best time to visit is the first hour and the last 2 or 3 hours (in summer, they're usually open 10am to 7pm). The one "downside" is that there is no FP+...yet, it's coming soon...so the popular slides will get long lines mid-day. Best strategy is to hit the big slides when the park first opens (no need to show up 30 minutes before opening, 5 minutes is more than enough), then do the less popular slides mid-day. We often do both in one day...water park in the morning and park at night or vice versa.

5. Never dealt with grad night, or was just oblivious to it. We go to the water parks a ton, but only in June/July. We actually went for the first time ever in December just a few weeks ago. DW and I didn't go in anything, but the kids did. It was 80 degrees outside. The park was a ghost town.

 

[Serrina89]

1. Yes. Water parks and more tickets are stand alone. You can go there and then a core four park without a park hopper without using up one of the main park tickets. If you get the water parks and more option added to your ticket( which includes mini golf before four, both water parks, and disneyquest if it hasnt closed for good) you get as many entries to the water parks and more as the days of the main parks you get. Example: 5 day magic park 1 a day tickets plus water parks and more = 5 times going to any water park and more plus 5 days at reg core four parks.

2. For that reason you should buy the ticket at either undercover tourist or disnry itself and get the wp&m (water parks and more option) for like 50 dollar or so add on.

3. It may still be closed. On park hours on the disney website. Change the date to your vacation days to see if it will open by then.

4. 7 is not bad enough to detour me. Maybe go to the regular park in the morning, then spend the middle at the water park. Or if you have way more vacation days than park tickets stategically plan your days based on fp+ availability , park hours, extra magic hours, and crowd size.

5. Not sure.

Hope this helps and happy planning

 

[CeruleanMoon]

Thanks everybody. As far as I can tell, there is no "water parks and more" option on Disney's website any longer. If I want water park tickets bundled into my regular tickets then I'd have to buy park hoppers as well, which we don't want. I tried pricing out what the park hopper plus water park option would cost vs just regular tickets plus one water park day and it's still cheaper to just buy the water park tickets separately.

It looks like the water parks will close at 5pm, so with a regular non-hopper pass, I should be able to go to another park that evening (say HS?) if we wanted to see the Galactic Spectacular? Still trying to decide if we should add one more day to our tickets in order to visit a park for a half day or evening.

It looks like Disney did Grad Night at Typhoon Lagoon during Friday nights in April in 2016 and 2017, so now I'm thinking it's probably a good bet that Typhoon Lagoon will be open by April so they can do that again. They close the park at 5pm and then reopen it for the party at 7 or 8, so I was wondering if all those high school students would be more likely to be at another park during the day, rather than go to TL, leave for dinner, and then come back for the party.

Now I just have to decide what day of the week to go!

 

[Shanti]

Need to pick the collective Dis Board brain.

1) Is it possible to visit a water park during the day and then another (non water) park in the evening without park-hopper passes? Not sure if water parks count as part of the "one park per day" or if that only refers to the big 4 parks.

2) Best time/place to buy water park tickets? As far as I can tell, no discount retailers offer water park tickets, so I assume Disney is the only place to get them? Should I buy these tickets ahead of time or at the gate?

3) Disney website shows that Typhoon Lagoon is currently closed for refubs. Can I count on it being open by the end of April?

4) If you had a heavier crowd day (say a 7 crowd level), would you rather spend it at a water park or a regular park? Not sure if a heavy day at a water park would be less onerous than the same heavy day at a regular park. Or would the ability to have FP's make the regular park a better bet?

5) Looking at last year's schedule, I see that there is a chance that "grad night" at Typhoon Lagoon could occur on the Friday that we might be there. Does that affect crowds during the day or do the party goers only show up for the special evening event?

I have until late Feb to come up with our final schedule. So much planning!

1. Yes.
2. I'd buy them online (Disney website) & link them to our bands ahead of time to save time upon arrival at the water park.
3. Yes, both water parks will be open daily in late April.
4. I don't believe in using crowd calendars, but in late April (not midsummer), the water parks will likely be less crowded than the theme parks.
5. I would avoid TL on that day, personally. I don't have any experience with that particular event, though.

 

[whiporee]

hey close the park at 5pm and then reopen it for the party at 7 or 8, so I was wondering if all those high school students would be more likely to be at another park during the day, rather than go to TL, leave for dinner, and then come back for the party.

While it's been a LOOOOOOONG time since I did it, grad night was much more for Orlando locals that OOT guests. I don't think it will affect crowd sizes anywhere, because kids from Orlando will be going just for the party, not around the rest of the parks.

 

[siskaren]

3. Yes, it should be open by the end of April. They close one of the two every winter for refurb, I think it reopens in March.

Actually, both water parks close in the winter for refurb, just not at the same time. Typically one will close Nov-Dec, and the other will close Jan-Feb.

5. We actually went for the first time ever in December just a few weeks ago. DW and I didn't go in anything, but the kids did. It was 80 degrees outside. The park was a ghost town.

80 must be cold by Floridian standards.

 

[CeruleanMoon]

Thanks everyone! Don't know what I'd do without this board! Takes some of the stress out of planning.