August Day Four: Blizzard Beach
After the late night that bled into an early morning, my body decided that 6:50am was a good time to get moving: ugh! I hoped that it would be a while before the girls got up, so I grabbed a refillable mug and went down to get some coffee. Rather than going back to the room, I went through the Yacht Club lobby out towards Crescent Lake and made myself comfortable on a rocking chair. I had a while to relax, screw around on my phone, and enjoyed watching the resort wake up. Since I can never just shut it off at Disney, I took the time to update my notes from the night before and look ahead to our plan for the day. This was originally our check out day, but with the new plan it was our resort switch day instead. We were sending nearly all of our things to the Contemporary courtesy of bell services and spending the day at Blizzard Beach.
I got the text that the first of the munchkins was up at 8:20am and by 8:40am it was the whole family. Once I got back to the room, Hubby and I hunkered down to pack up the room and get everyone ready for the day. It took us about an hour and it was, honestly, pretty stressful. The way we booked the room initially and then added a day later had largely forced us into a split stay. Under normal circumstances, I’m not sure I’d want to do one, and certainly
not on such a short trip. We were slow movers given our exhaustion from the night before and simultaneously under pressure to get to the water park without missing too much of the morning. If we did a split stay again, I would want to make sure that both the evening before and the morning of left me enough time to pack and organize the way I like to. I felt like I was just throwing things into bags to get them moving; I knew it was only going to bite me in the bottom that evening when I had to repack for the flight home.
We called bell services just before 10 while we had our breakfast. I had heard that it can take a while for them to come up, but not that morning. We were still eating when we heard the knock on the door and the CM quickly and efficiently loaded up the cart. We weren’t even moving that quickly and didn’t finally get out of the room ourselves until 10:27. Our friends had just arrived at the park, so we weren’t too far behind. The Blizzard Beach bus was listed with a 10:38 ETA, so we weren’t in a rush down to the bus stop. Of course, I realized at 10:33 that it was check out day and that I needed to a) pay off my balance with a gift card and b) make sure any additional charges that day would hit the new reservation. I sprinted back to the lobby and the front desk CM took care of everything for me. I made it back by the skin of my teeth and we hopped on the bus to Blizzard Beach. Despite being excited to check out a new water park, the girls weren’t fully awake just yet.
After a brief snooze on the bus, we arrived at the park at 11:00am, just in time to get a text from our friends that everything was shut down due to lightning in the area. We headed in and found our friends’ chairs all the way at the back of Tike’s Peak. Their kids are NOT into water slides, so they were going to stay there for most of the day while the adults took turns riding the bigger slides. Our whole crew was planning a much more active day, so we parked our bags in a more centralized location near the Ski Patrol. At 11:25 am, while we were deciding between pin trading, penny pressing, or snacking as ways to kill time, we heard the announcement that lifeguards needed to return to their stations. I knew that the ski lift could get a long line at times, so we headed there to beat the crowds on the way up the mountain.
We were standing with a few other hopeful groups waiting for the official reopening when A said, “Umm, shouldn’t we go to the bathroom first?” You guys, I was so stinking proud! I have spent years trying to train my kids to better schedule their restroom visits, especially at water parks. I have had
far too many I-have-to-pee-now trips near the front of water ride lines, and that’s with me pretty much always mandating a stop when we’re passing the ladies’ room. (I know that probably sounds like too much to the childless among you, but every single wet kid could, at any moment, be seconds away from having to go
right now! With three kids, I never like my odds.) We had finally reached the point where they were the ones reminding me: it was a milestone I didn’t know I was waiting for!
We heard the official park opening announcement while we were washing up, but the ski lift wasn’t opening with the rest of the park. Instead, of walking up to the family raft ride, we headed around to the purple slopes, which had two attractions my girls were tall enough for. We were in line for the Toboggan Racers at 11:45 and racing ten minutes later. Then, we got in line for the Snow Stormers at 12 and had a fifteen-minute wait to slide. The girls had never ridden mat slides before, and they enjoyed both thoroughly. Since we were already towards the back of the park, we continued around to the Runoff Rapids, which are set the furthest back with nothing else nearby. We picked up our tubes at 12:22 and started up the steps.
I need to take a moment here to complain about rides where you have to carry your own tube for a long-ish distance. Again, for the childless among you, this may seem a bit ridiculous. However, anyone reading who has made a trek with children that are about the same height as the tubes they will be riding knows what I’m talking about. Now, this was not my first tube-carrying rodeo. I have been the parent carrying four unwieldy tubes that are simply too big for my children. I have been the parent walking painfully slowly behind three kids insisting they can handle it even as they bump into railings at every turn. On this day, I took two, Hubby took two, and the kids worked together to carry the fifth tube along, with much bumping and jostling for position. Any time they can alleviate that silliness with a tube lift, I’m all for it!
We were happy to find another short wait at the top of the slide and were zooming down that mountain at 12:30pm. From there, rather than walking to the front, we decided to take the Cross Country Creek back to our stuff.
We were all having a nice float until we realized just how hungry we were. None of us were feeling it when we were hopping between slides, but the river gave us enough down time to realize we really needed to eat. I left everyone at the chairs drying off and went to the lodge to use a couple of meal credits. We all opted to share a chicken tender meal and a burger, which were fine but nothing to write home about. The Pina Colava and Frozen Jack and Coke, on the other hand, were just what the adults needed. Our friends came over to tell us that they were heading out for the day. I was bummed we hadn’t spent more time together, but unsurprised given our very different priorities. If the park had opened on time, we probably would have gotten some time together in the wading pool, but it wasn’t meant to be.
After lunch (and another mandatory restroom break), the kids wanted to try out the Ski Patrol Training Camp. We had shown them some videos of the water parks when we were deciding between Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon, and the activity area is what sold them on Blizzard Beach.
They were having a blast trying to cross the pool on the ice floats, but the ropes were just a little too far overhead. No one made it past the first landing, but they were all laughing as they were falling. Finally, at about 2pm, the sun came out in full force and the overcast day turned gorgeous.
Next up was the kids’ most anticipated ride at the park: the zipline. The girls were downright giddy about this one. They really wanted to try it out, but they were also super nervous for the big drop. They hopped in line but, after a couple minutes, C came running over to tell me she needed to go to the bathroom. Thankfully, I was able to get her over and back before her sisters went, so she didn’t lose her spot. Everyone LOVED it and they were incredibly proud of themselves for their bravery. They were less than thrilled that my phone had overheated so I didn’t have photographic evidence of their triumph. We couldn’t deal with that right away, though, because A realized it was her turn for an emergency bathroom stop.
I took A to the ladies while Hubby stayed with B and C sliding on some of the body slides in the Ski Patrol area. When we got back, they went to wait for another turn on the zipline but, you guess it, B needed the bathroom! (That’s three emergency trips in under 20 minutes despite everyone having gone less than an hour prior. The things they don’t tell you about having kids…) Thank goodness there’s a restroom right at the Ski Patrol entrance; I was once again able to bring her over and back before their zipline turn.
The girls may have happily stayed in the Ski Patrol area all day, but the park was closing in two and a half hours and we hadn’t thoroughly explored. The Ski Lift was finally running, so we decided to take it up to the family raft ride. At 2:30pm we only had a ten-minute wait.
From the top, there are three rides, but the kids were too short for the tallest body slides. They’re usually the most popular slides in the park, but we could see from the Teamboat Springs line that Summit Plummet and Slush Gusher had virtually no wait at all. The family ride, on the other hand, was a fifteen minute wait before we were riding at 3:00pm.
After yet another bathroom trip, we decided it was time for the family to split up. Hubby wanted to take advantage of the short lines for the Summit Plummet, while the girls wanted to see the wave pool. We separated at 3:10 with an agreement that Hubby would come find us at the wave pool. Of course, on our way, though, the girls realized they were hungry, so we detoured over to grab a Mickey pretzel to split. As we were trying to find seats to eat near the pool, I spotted Hubby somewhat anxiously searching for us. While our snack detour took fifteen minutes (short legs are sloooow), his slide had only taken five, meaning he had been scouring the pool for us while worrying that he had the plan wrong. He sent me off for my turn on the drop slide while the girls finished their snack and we again agreed to meet there. There continued to be no wait to ride, so I flew down the mountain, only to find a PP photographer at the bottom giving me a code to add to my
MDE. Guys, do you want to know the least flattering PP location in all of Disney? It’s at the bottom of a 60 mph water slide!
At 3:30, I started back to the wave pool and spotted the girls bouncing on floats in the shallows. Hubby was miming waves and shooing hands at me, which I chose to interpret as permission to do Slush Gusher. I turned right back around and enjoyed the other “big kid” water slide, again with no wait to speak of. This time, when I went back to the wave pool, I found everyone exiting because, you guessed it, they needed a bathroom break. We decided to split up again because Hubby wanted to check out Slush Gusher and ride the tube slide again, while the girls were opting for the Toboggan Racers. While we were walking over to the purple slopes, we heard the 4pm announcement that the park was closing in an hour.
The girls and I had a short wait for a fun toboggan race, but their tiredness was starting to show. Rather than following directions and quickly getting off the slide, the started goofing and pretending they were struggling with their mats. This meant, not only were they ignoring me, but the next group couldn’t go until they cleared out. In the process of trying to get them off of the ride to turn in their mats, I pulled on one while B was standing on it and she fell backwards. Only her pride was really hurt, but she started crying and I felt like the jerk mom who hurt her kid. We all took a seat on some stairs to calm down and talk. Once B settled, I reminded everyone that I needed them to follow directions when we’re one-on-three, especially in a busy theme park. It’s something they’re normally great at, but I don’t typically keep them out until 1am the night before…
We decided to find Hubby and regroup, and, luckily, we saw him right then coming towards us from the red slopes. Despite starting to lag, the girls were firm that they didn’t want to leave, so we headed for another family ride on Teamboat Springs. This time, there was absolutely no one waiting and we loaded right on. We were off at 4:30pm and decided to split up once more so that the kids could pick the end to the day: A and I went to the wave pool, while Hubby, B, and C went to Ski Patrol. A and I had a lovely time swimming and floating, while B and C kept going through the kids’ body slides over and over. Everyone stuck it out straight to the end. When they announced the park was officially closed, A and I got out of the pool, met the family at the chairs, and everyone used the changing rooms.
My original idea had been to go back to the room and shower there before dinner, but I hadn’t expected the kids to close out the park. Thankfully, I had our evening clothes with us, since I didn’t want it to be subject to a delay in bag transfer. It was abundantly clear to me that the girls needed to get changed and get fed ASAP, and the whiney walk back to the buses at 5:30pm only reinforced that opinion. Buses were waiting for us, so we quickly got off our feet and headed out.
Although our room was at the Contemporary, I had some very specific dinner plans at Poly. We arrived at 5:57pm and the girls immediately spotted the Moana themed penny press. I’m not thrilled about the “expensive” presses where it’s $1 a penny or $5 for the set, but five bucks is not the hill to die on with tired, hungry children! Penny set acquired, we were on our way upstairs to Tambu Lounge.
We haven’t been able to squeeze ‘Ohana into our trips yet because something else always wins out. We have excellent Brazillian steak houses here that are free for kids seven and under, and the girls love “meat on a stick”. Since we can already do that in Philly, I ended up nixing this ADR for a meal with characters that you can truly only get in Disney. That said, when I heard you could get the famed pot stickers and bread pudding at the lounge, I knew we were making at trip! As you can see, I couldn’t even get a picture of the pot stickers before the vultures descended. The bread pudding also met its end quickly, and there was some concerted scraping of spoons to get every last drop of it.
The bummer about the lounge for our group was that the largest table only seated four, so B had to sit with me. Normally, that would be fine, but we had bad luck and she bumped her shoulder right into my glasses, knocking a lens out of the frame. While we paid, I asked our CM where we could find a glasses repair case and she suggested the lower-level gift shop. When we got there, however, we didn’t see any sundries typical of a hotel gift shop. After a short search, I asked a shop CM who said those types of items were all in the smaller, upper-level shop. Back upstairs, I did find the section with antacids and sunscreen, but still no eyeglass repair kit. After querying my third CM, she pulled a kit out from behind the counter and all was well. All the back and forth was a minor annoyance for me, but the girls were seriously dragging. They were running on fumes and the extra trip up and downstairs didn’t help a darn thing. We did have to make one more stop on our Poly food tour, though.
The pulled pork nachos were everything I wanted and more. There is nothing quite like a junky, delicious nacho, doubly so after a long, tiring day. Hubby and the kids split a fried rice, as everyone was only moderately hungry after our appetizer-dessert lounge treat. The girls had a few bites and then ran off to play with a little girl who was running off some Disney energy of her own nearby. That left Hubby and me a couple of minutes to actually sit, relax, and enjoy the meal, but not too much. We still needed to catch a monorail, find our room, shower and bathe the kids, and pack for an early MK morning ending in a flight home. Just typing it back out is making me tired! Food done, we wrangled the kids, caught a monorail, and got stopped at Magic Kingdom. We sat for a few minutes hoping things would get moving, but instead we were informed the monorail was down and we should proceed to the buses. I don’t know where the girls found the energy, but we all walked down the ramp, across the entrance, and loaded onto a bus at 7:41pm.
When we got to the Contemporary, we were happy to see that our room request had been met. The garden wing doesn’t have balconies on the upper levels, but the first floor has patios, so that’s what we asked for. We got to the room at 8pm, called for our bags, and got the girls ready for showers. Thankfully, Bell Services got us our bags lickety-split and the girls were showered, dressed in the next day’s outfits, and in bed by 8:30pm.
Hubby set off to explore and find a good view of the fireworks, while I dragged all of our bags into the bathroom to pack. I had to wait, though, because the frosted bathroom doors were allowing too much light seepage for the girls. At home they sleep with blackout curtains, so they can only fall asleep in true dark, a fact that makes shared hotel rooms difficult. I sat on the bathroom floor for a few minutes questioning the life choices that led me to that moment. Perhaps the single night split stay with a family of five where we didn’t get to the room until 8pm and would be checking out at 6am the next morning wasn’t the greatest idea… (Although, let’s be honest, I’d do it all over in a heartbeat to have this trip again). Once the kids were soundly asleep, I turned on my phone flashlight and got to work sorting out what had to be checked, what we needed for our park day, and what should go in whose carry-on. This should have been easier for our return trip: we got one free checked bag going home and I had packed an empty duffel accordingly. However, we had a zipper break during Yacht Club packing, so the extra bag became a necessity rather than a luxury. While I was shoving dirty clothes into packing cubes, Hubby was doing this.
The bags were packed soon enough and I was able to sit out on the back patio with a drink and watch the floats from the Electrical Water Pagent before Hubby got back and we called it a night. That was actually the only drink I had from my case of Mike’s ordered with the groceries. Despite my best intentions, our days were so long that this was the only evening I chilled on the patio the entire trip. I left the rest with a note for Mousekeeping, so hopefully they enjoyed it.
Despite the exhaustion from the night before and the false start with the lightning, our family had an absolutely wonderful day at Blizzard Beach. The crowds were extremely light and they loved every slide. While I understand that Typhoon Lagoon has the better wave pool, I cannot recommend the Ski Patrol area any more highly for elementary-aged to pre-teen kids. We’ve started discussing what the girls want to do for a potential trip next year, and that zip-line was their number one request!
I will say, though, that switching resorts for only one night in a whirlwind trip wasn’t the best call. When we added the day, we looked at making the trip either all Yacht/Beach or all Contemporary, but neither was available for our dates with the room discount we had grabbed. Plus, we wanted both the day at Stormalong Bay and to walk into MK from the Contemporary for 7am EEMH, which necessitated two resorts. I also tried to make the
MNSSHP our switch day, so that we could check into our room before brunch at Chef Mickey, but I couldn’t get the rooms for the dates without losing the promotion. You might have been able to convince the version of me sitting on the bathroom floor in the dark waiting to pack to just spend a couple hundred dollars more. But, I think even she would say that it would be a waste of money on what was supposed to be a “budget” trip. In the same way that we traded a rough evening with six kids for a glorious in-park date night, we were also trading a junky evening for the morning to come.
I was amused, but very grateful. 
Then I went to first aid to get a replacement bag of ice, and they also gave me ibuprofen or Tylenol, which really helped. I ended up with a nice bruise as well as a dent in that fingernail that that remained until it grew out past the fingertip.
