News Walt Disney World Adds Water Park Perk for Resort Guests

[Tom P.]

You know that it’s a lot of hung over college program, right?

Don’t want to spoil the magic for you

Yes, you do. In fact, that seems to be literally the only thing you want to do.

 

[Tom P.]

My solution would be to operate both parks, like Disney did during their golden age.
This company knows how to infuriate me haha.

Disney has pretty much always had only one water park open during the off-season. There is simply not enough demand for two water parks outside of the summer months. There is really no good reason for Disney to have two water parks open in January.

 

[plutofan15]

You know that it’s a lot of hung over college program, right?

Don’t want to spoil the magic for you

Qualified lifeguards, especially for water parks, are not going to be found in the college program in the quantity needed.

 

[Touchdown]

Qualified lifeguards, especially for water parks, are not going to be found in the college program in the quantity needed.

Unless you are willing to pay for their training. Most healthy 20 year olds can learn to swim and become one, it just takes time and money to do so. Something Disney isn’t willing to do.

 

[plutofan15]

Unless you are willing to pay for their training. Most healthy 20 year olds can learn to swim and become one, it just takes time and money to do so. Something Disney isn’t willing to do.

The time it takes to become certified is not worth it to the individual and the company that would be training them unless it was for a year round position. And no, most healthy 20 year olds cannot easily learn to become a certified lifeguard. There is a huge difference between learning to swim and be certified especially for a water park with a wave pool and lazy river.

 

[DisneyFanatic12]

Unless you are willing to pay for their training. Most healthy 20 year olds can learn to swim and become one, it just takes time and money to do so. Something Disney isn’t willing to do.

Disney does pay for lifeguard training/certification, but you do have to pass a swim test before you can be trained. Not all aquatic facilities pay for training, so it’s somewhat unique. Across the board for most lifeguard positions in the US it’s expected that you know how to swim, however.

 

[Touchdown]

The time it takes to become certified is not worth it to the individual and the company that would be training them unless it was for a year round position. And no, most healthy 20 year olds cannot easily learn to become a certified lifeguard. There is a huge difference between learning to swim and be certified especially for a water park with a wave pool and lazy river.

Time and expense we agree on, but I disagree most can’t do it, they can, but don’t want to put in the effort and/or accept the responsibility of being an on duty lifeguard. That doesn’t mean they can’t physically do it. There’s a difference.

 

[plutofan15]

Disney does pay for lifeguard training/certification, but you do have to pass a swim test before you can be trained. Not all aquatic facilities pay for training, so it’s somewhat unique. Across the board for most lifeguard positions in the US it’s expected that you know how to swim, however.

And swim well.

 

[plutofan15]

Time and expense we agree on, but I disagree most can’t do it, they can, but don’t want to put in the effort and/or accept the responsibility of being an on duty lifeguard. That doesn’t mean they can’t physically do it. There’s a difference.

Just stop. A person who has just learned to swim cannot/should not be a lifeguard under any circumstances.

 

[Touchdown]

Just stop. A person who has just learned to swim cannot/should not be a lifeguard under any circumstances.

Most 20 year olds can swim. Novices would take a much longer time to be proficient but there is nothing preventing them from getting there other then cost and time.

 

[rogerrabbitfan9]

Does anyone have any sense on the uptake of this perk?

We’ve been doing only Universal the last few trips, and I’m not sure I’d be willing to plan my flights around making this work? But when we use to drive I could see leaving early enough to make it work.

 

[DisneyFanatic12]

Does anyone have any sense on the uptake of this perk?

We’ve been doing only Universal the last few trips, and I’m not sure I’d be willing to plan my flights around making this work? But when we use to drive I could see leaving early enough to make it work.

Sounds like this year it will only be available when both parks are open. Especially if you have never been, it is a really fun experience. It can get reaaal busy when only one park is open and this perk is active, but it’s not unmanageable when both are open.

If going around the middle of summer (June-July) know that you might not get a great spot if you’re not there at 10am for “rope drop”. However, the park empties out pretty fast once ~3pm hits.

Typhoon Lagoon can be more enjoyable when it’s busy because the wave pool is more of a “people eater”, but it tends to be the more popular of the two, so just choose which one you think you’d enjoy more (Blizzard Beach for slides, Typhoon for tropical atmosphere and more relaxing day).

 

[plutofan15]

Most 20 year olds can swim. Novices would take a much longer time to be proficient but there is nothing preventing them from getting there other then cost and time.

Again, no. Being able to swim and be able to be a certified lifeguard is a huge difference. In my younger days, I was a lifeguard for many summers including at a water park. A person who thinks they are drowning is in a full blown panic mode. It is one of those situations where they are much stronger than they would be normally. I once had to rescue a woman who probably weighed 110 at the most, it took all that I could do to get her the 20 feet to the edge of the pool. For some background, I swam competitively for 14 years and lettered all four years on my Division II college swim team which never finished lower than 5th at national championships. Not bragging, but I was a very good swimmer. So just anybody who can “swim”, cannot be a lifeguard -especially at a water park and resort pools. There is a massive difference between being a lifeguard at Disney and Univesal than at your apartment/condo complex.

 

[Tom P.]

Again, no. Being able to swim and be able to be a certified lifeguard is a huge difference. In my younger days, I was a lifeguard for many summers including at a water park. A person who thinks they are drowning is in a full blown panic mode. It is one of those situations where they are much stronger than they would be normally. I once had to rescue a woman who probably weighed 110 at the most, it took all that I could do to get her the 20 feet to the edge of the pool. For some background, I swam competitively for 14 years and lettered all four years on my Division II college swim team which never finished lower than 5th at national championships. Not bragging, but I was a very good swimmer. So just anybody who can “swim”, cannot be a lifeguard -especially at a water park and resort pools. There is a massive difference between being a lifeguard at Disney and Univesal than at your apartment/condo complex.

Remember, around here, everything must be because Disney is greedy and doesn't care. Everything. The fact that (a) there is no real demand sufficient to support two water parks outside of the summer months and (b) staffing the water parks outside of the summer months is infinitely more difficult cannot be considered as valid.

 

[Disone]

It was more like 5 weeks for each park…routine maintenance was kept to a minimum downtime

5 weeks is too short. Let's pick a random year pre-covid. 2015.

Blizzard was closed from January 4th through March 14th

Typhoon was closed October 4th to January 2nd 2016. It was way more than 5 weeks for each water park.

This was a typical pattern up to and including 2018

 

[Disone]

Correct me if I am wrong, but if I am recalling correctly, that in addition to not as much demand during the colder months for the waterparks, Refurbs and maintainance work would be done at that time as well. Marie

Definitely correct. Less demand and they took advantage of the cooler months to shut down one and refurbish it. And then they would switch to the other one and refurbish that one.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

5 weeks is too short. Let's pick a random year pre-covid. 2015.

Blizzard was closed from January 4th through March 14th

Typhoon was closed October 4th to January 2nd 2016. It was way more than 5 weeks for each water park.

This was a typical pattern up to and including 2018

I’m talking like 1999, junior

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Qualified lifeguards, especially for water parks, are not going to be found in the college program in the quantity needed.

You better tell the recruiters who show up in a room with 500 college kids and have an separate selection process for them

I’m dated…so they may have stopped doing that…but they had many thousands of them over the years

You know it’s minimum wage there, right?
Why wouldn’t they get them from Texas A&M?

 

[plutofan15]

You better tell the recruiters who show up in a room with 500 college kids and have an separate selection process for them

I’m dated…so they may have stopped doing that…but they had many thousands of them over the years

You know it’s minimum wage there, right?
Why wouldn’t they get them from Texas A&M?

Thank you for supporting my point. Yes, it is a separate and special selection process to find those qualified for the job. Simply cannot pick a random person from the college program, teach them to swim and have them work as lifeguards as was suggested.

Not sure what minimum wage has to do with anything. Lifeguards at the water parks typically get paid more than minimum (not a whole lot) especially those who will work the wave pool. They can pull down up to $25/hr.

And to get the best, recruit those from the University of Texas not A&M. A&M has a good program but the Longhorns have one of the top, if not the best, swimming programs in the country. And have for a long time.

 

[peter11435]

You know that it’s a lot of hung over college program, right?

Don’t want to spoil the magic for you

It’s almost like you didn’t bother to finish reading the post you quoted.