Water Parks

[Lees75]

I could be imagining it, but it seems like a lot of people on here don't visit the water parks. Why is that? Maybe it is just the age of my kids, 10 and 7, but the water parks are one of the things we are most excited about for our first visit to WDW.

We will have seven days, so I was thinking of spending a day each in all 6 parks, with a second day at MK and some park hopping at night on the waterpark days.

How do other people schedule in the water parks?

Any tips in general for the water parks? Are there long lines like in the other parks? There is no FP, is there?

 

[Robo]

There is no FP, is there?

Nope.

 

[Robo]

I could be imagining it, but it seems like a lot of people on here don't visit the water parks. Why is that?

Water parks require a special "commitment" in that you must dress/re-dress specifically for them.
They ruin hairdo's and makeup.
Some guests don't like to wear swim attire in public.

Water parks are somewhat common across the USA, so when attending WDW,
guests tend to spend their time doing the more unusual and special things at the theme parks.

Also, the Water parks are a added extra expense on top on an already costly WDW ticket.

That said, there are many guests who DO go to the WDW water parks,
but they are not a heavily discussed on the boards as the theme parks.

 

[grwrn]

I am attending a conference 3/7 days I am there and we are doing Typhoon Lagoon one of those days as I get out at noon. We are using that day as a "down day" and I made ADR at our resort that evening.

 

[Hootch]

go at rope drop and stay for a few hours. The lines start getting longer around 11 AM. This is in summer when local schools are out. We leave around lunch time and head to a major park after eating and getting ready.

 

[ohtwinmom]

We are first timers, but my family loves water parks. I know they will enjoy doing one more so than getting worn out at the other parks. So we are planning a day at Typhoon Lagoon. May hit another on our off day. It's costly, but for us worth it.

 

[Jkpark]

Blizzard Beach is my girls' favorite park. We plan on two days and usually do a night resort dinner or head to another park for evening fireworks/parades. We get there when it opens and try to pick a less crowded overall day (since there are no fast passes and no crowd draws other than the rides). We love that BB only has height requirements on a few things for safety reasons. My DD8 is a peanut and has been a solid swimmer since a young age - she could enjoy BB and most attractions at a young age. At local water parks and even hotels with slides - she wouldn't be allowed on at all. And we love Teamboat Springs.

 

[crostorfer]

We love the water parks! We prefer Typhoon Lagoon. That is actually my plan B for our upcoming trip, so I'm hoping against hope that the temperatures hit 75-80 for a few days. If we go to the theme parks the first day and the crowds are too out of control, we're escaping. Who knows, we may end up there every day, LOL.

 

[Port Mom]

What will the crowds be like mid May? We will be in Disney and plan to spend Saturday (5/17) in Typhoon Lagoon and Sunday (5/18) in BB. We have hoppers, and thought we would spend the day in the water park and the evening having dinner in the park. I was hoping that the waterparks would be less crowded than the parks (I believe its Star Wars Wkend). Any advice????

 

[PJBeans]

DH and I go to Typhoon Lagoon every chance we get. Unfortunately, because we are in England, this is only twice a year.

We try to pick the day that is forecast to be hottest, dryest, and sunniest with the least amount of cloud cover possible. It just isn't the same if it's overcast.

We aim to get there as close to opening (or before) as possible. When we arrive we rush straight to the sunbeds and lay our towels out to reserve those beds for the whole day. Then we go back to the locker / changing room area to get changed into swimming attire etc. No-one will remove your towels from the beds so you'll have a base to come back to when you're tired from the wonderful wave pool and the slides etc.

One tip, if you need to cool off and you can handle the odd cocktail or two, is to drag one of the low chairs to one of the side edges of the wave pool and sit sipping your drink with the waves lapping over you. It's pure heaven.

Have a fantastic trip.

 

[mrsmorrow]

We love the water parks!! DD's are 18,16 & 15 and still love going! They love both parks - the theming is very different at each - but I think they lean toward TL more right now. We try to go either somewhat early, or much later in the day because midday waits can get pretty long for some things. Some people rent towels/lockers but we actually just bring a beach bag and our own towels and are good to go as soon as we arrive! We hit the bigger slides first and then relax and do the wave pool (not relaxing at TL!) and the lazy river. I know BB used to do a really cute scavenger hunt around the park for kids so that's something to do as well. As far as "looking good", well I wouldn't say I love walking around in a bathing suit in public but I'm guessing the vast majority feel the same and there are allllllll types of people walking around so no worries
We always have so much fun and I'm sure you will too!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

If you care to wade through it, there is a review of most of the rides within the trip report link in my signature. We REALLY enjoyed the water parks.

For our one trip, the big lines at BB were:
Summit Plumet
Slushin Gusher
Downhill Double Dippers

At TL
The family raft ride, which in retrospect we should have just skipped.
Shark reef can also wad up at times, but it seemed to clear out at times as well.

 

[HJRWoman]

Even though they are ugly, I highly recommend water shoes. I didn't listen to that advice before we went to Blizzard Beach, so DH and kids bought $20 Disney water shoes. I had thought since we had never needed them before, we would be fine. Wrong! The concrete in Florida brings a new meaning to the word Hot! Otherwise we had a great time. If you want to spend extra money I also recommend the private rental chairs that both parks offer. They are in a secluded section and away from the hustle and bustle of the other areas. Very relaxing. Have a great trip!

 

[sapdaddy2]

Every time we go to WDW we have to hit a water park. We alternate one time BB the next is TL. DW's favorite is TL. My DS16 & DS13 still love to go to water parks. I think the real reasons my boys still want to go to water parks is the teenage girls.

 

[PoohsFan1]

We like the water parks at WDW, however we like TL more then BB. With that said we are planning on going to TL twice during our 11 day trip in May. We bought the WP&F option on our ticket therefore we will also be heading to DisneyQuest one day. Since we are going for a longer stay, it was easy for us to add these days into our plans.

 

[Freezing Maine Mama]

Our trips have been late january and it has been cold, but some of our best days were at near empty water parks. Locals don't want to swim in the cold I think, but being from maine. swimming when it is 70 degrees is just fine with us. We have been in hotel pool when there is still steam coming off the water.

 

[Suellen]

We love the water parks in the summer and then again on hot random days throughout the year. They are a wonderful distraction for us in the summer for the kids and they don't care about the big rides (i.e. they like them but don't care to wait in line for them) so it is easy to spend the day just hanging in the pools and lazy river and on the zip line.

That said... when we vacationed here we never once took the kids. We were in the 4 major parks or we enjoyed the resort pools.