News Blizzard Beach closing for extended refurbishment this year with enhancements coming

MatheusPG

MatheusPG

Well-Known Member
Well, while the Disney parks aren't receiving any new attractions, Aquatica is adding a new ride every year (2018, 2019 and 2020, with an already announced major ride to be called Riptide Race), Adventure Island received quite a few over the past decade and will open Solar Vortex next year and Universal opened an amazing new Water park... How long until people choose to go to the cheaper and newer Water Parks?
 
Victor Kelly

Victor Kelly

Well-Known Member
Look at River Country. Primary reason to close it was it could not handle high guest counts. It was a beautiful water park but too small. It was not feasible to make it bigger, so they built two new water parks. Maybe BB is falling by the wayside due to numerous other exciting new waterparks. Seems like they are just maintaining it.
 
trainplane3

trainplane3

Well-Known Member
WDW Pro said:
The southern-most of the two locations you have circled. The more northern location is where significant pumping systems and pipes are located that would be a nightmare to try to relocate.
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I was leaning to the southern spot but the north one looked good without zooming in more. Good to know.
 
ryguy

ryguy

Well-Known Member
Why when you own 50 square miles would you not have room for expansion? Also why build two when you could have built one with plenty of room to expand. Now you have two parks that are tight on expansion areas. And two that supposedly have less than stellar attendance numbers.
 
S

seascape

Well-Known Member
ryguy said:
Why when you own 50 square miles would you not have room for expansion? Also why build two when you could have built one with plenty of room to expand. Now you have two parks that are tight on expansion areas. And two that supposedly have less than stellar attendance numbers.
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Are you calling over 2 million a year per water park less than stellar? You should look up attendance numbers before making such a statement.
 
cheezbat

cheezbat

Well-Known Member
seascape said:
Are you calling over 2 million a year per water park less than stellar? You should look up attendance numbers before making such a statement.
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They both do well still, but for ages the Disney waterparks were the top dogs in attendance...but not for the past few years. A few Chinese waterparks have taken their crown, and Volcano Bay isn’t far behind their numbers either.

I know that the penny pinchers are looking at investment in the park as only necessary when things slip, but that’s a terrible way to do business. Disney spending a million or two bucks on a slide is chump change to them. They can go out and ‘beautify’ areas of the property for more money but also see no return on investment with that, but can’t spend on a new slide every 25 years?

I just wish Volcano Bay would hurry up and build a big expansion and (hopefully) take the USA attendance record away from Disney...get them off their butts.
 
Disney Maddux

Disney Maddux

Well-Known Member
Victor Kelly said:
Look at River Country. Primary reason to close it was it could not handle high guest counts. It was a beautiful water park but too small. It was not feasible to make it bigger, so they built two new water parks. Maybe BB is falling by the wayside due to numerous other exciting new waterparks. Seems like they are just maintaining it.
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The Site That Shan't Be Named: Blizzard Beach to become the new River Country! CONFIRMED!
 
Disone

Disone

Well-Known Member
MansionButler84 said:
Apparently they’re just rebuilding Summit Plummet?
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Yeah. Just some maintenance of existing water slide. Again my sources told me the earlier closure was purely a monetary decision. It wasn't pushed the button on any actual expansion or new attractions.

Bummer really. I was hoping they were wrong.
 
Gabe1

Gabe1

Ivory Tower Squabble EST 2011. WINDMILL SURVIVOR
As far as parks and rec pools along with water parks life expectancy go , both have hit their life cycle. Given both were neglected and patched their futures are this, Long down times to attempt to fix major issues. It is not different that local waterparks or pools at Disney. At some point they need to bulldoze and rebuild.
 
esskay

esskay

Well-Known Member
Gabe1 said:
As far as parks and rec pools along with water parks life expectancy go , both have hit their life cycle. Given both were neglected and patched their futures are this, Long down times to attempt to fix major issues. It is not different that local waterparks or pools at Disney. At some point they need to bulldoze and rebuild.
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Think they'd be much better building a new one from scratch as neither BB or TL come close to the newer Aquatica and Volcano Bay, and are frankly a bitter disapointment at this stage. At least that way they could keep the two open whilst building the new one, then close them down.
 
Gabe1

Gabe1

Ivory Tower Squabble EST 2011. WINDMILL SURVIVOR
rmwebs said:
Think they'd be much better building a new one from scratch as neither BB or TL come close to the newer Aquatica and Volcano Bay, and are frankly a bitter disapointment at this stage. At least that way they could keep the two open whilst building the new one, then close them down.
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I agree. They did ultimately close River Country as they opened new waterparks for multiple claimed reasons but it was obsolete. I raised my now adult kids through our annual vacations at WDW and have great memories of both these parks. They are not only stepping into days gone bye but almost impossible to keep up with the known failure of pools and waterparks at age 25-30 years no matter who built them or where they are located. I feel for the upper tier management of these parks trying to make these 'operational' and failing. Just look at the length of seasonal closed for maintenance. It is a loosing battle.

When my kids were small and the water parks operated correctly one park closed in November and came back online in December. The other waterpark closed in January and both were up again in February. Now Disney guest more often than not are opting out and going to Volcano or Aquatica. They are already splitting stays with WDW and Universal so who wouldn't pick Volcano over the 30 year old Disney Waterparks? I feel for those charged with these waterparks, neglected for too long in the same era the other Disney Parks were neglected stateside. Catch-up is hard.
 
Tom P.

Tom P.

Well-Known Member
Gabe1 said:
I agree. They did ultimately close River Country as they opened new waterparks for multiple claimed reasons but it was obsolete. I raised my now adult kids through our annual vacations at WDW and have great memories of both these parks. They are not only stepping into days gone bye but almost impossible to keep up with the known failure of pools and waterparks at age 25-30 years no matter who built them or where they are located. I feel for the upper tier management of these parks trying to make these 'operational' and failing. Just look at the length of seasonal closed for maintenance. It is a loosing battle.

When my kids were small and the water parks operated correctly one park closed in November and came back online in December. The other waterpark closed in January and both were up again in February. Now Disney guest more often than not are opting out and going to Volcano or Aquatica. They are already splitting stays with WDW and Universal so who wouldn't pick Volcano over the 30 year old Disney Waterparks? I feel for those charged with these waterparks, neglected for too long in the same era the other Disney Parks were neglected stateside. Catch-up is hard.
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In 2018, the most recent year for which statistics are currently available, Typhoon Lagoon had 2.27 million visitors and Blizzard Beach had 2 million. On the other hand, Volcano Bay had 1.73 million visitors and Aquatica had 1.56 million.

I'm not sure how you arrive at the conclusion that Disney guests "more often than not" are opting to go to Volcano Bay or Aquatica instead of the Disney water parks, but the numbers do not back that up.
 

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