If your kids aren't strong swimmers, I would go to BB. They have 2 kiddie areas (one for the really young 4ft & under and little bit older) and other slides. The wave pool is also a tame, bobbing type. There is also a really great family raft ride. I'm not sure about life jackets. The big draw for TL is the wave pool, but it is a very strong wave pool that can be overwhelming for weak swimmers.
.....agree with Suzanne. BB is best choice ! Just wanted to add that my kids are very strong swimmers (Atlantic Ocean swimmers from Long Island) especially in waves and the problem for us with the TL wave pool is the OTHER swimmers that are essentially floundering in the water completely out of control !! I thought that my shoulder was dislocated this past summer when a 250lb. woman landed on me and my daughter just about needed sutures from a grown man landing on her and scraping her against the cement bottom of the pool!! It was not their intention to hurt us but unfortunately a lot of people do not realize just how out of control they are !! They stay out there anyway even though they can't handle themselves.
Is there only one family ride at Blizzard Beach? Any at TL?
We've been at other water parks where they've made our kids take off their life jackets to use certain slides, which wasn't too good. Just wondered about Disney's policy with this.
I've never actually been in Wet N Wild or Water Mania, but they are very close to the main road so everyone in their cars or on buses etc can see you in your swimsuit and there isn't a theme like there is at disney.
Otherwise they would appear to have lots of slides, sun loungers etc just like Disney.
one of my dd's7 is very small for her age and neither is a strong swimmer. The only time they needed vests was the pool where you swim with the fish at TL, sorry I can't remember the name. They were afraid of the waves at TL but had no other problems. They preferred the Ski Patrol area at BB to TL. The water level there is very low so the vests weren't an issue. My smaller dd is about 44 inches.
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