Blizzard Beach Expansion

[Biff215]

I believe WDWs water parks will stand on their own merits (or not). VB is more about extending the stay at Universal (or even a Uni only trip) vs taking attendance from TL/BB. They might grab some locals from aquatica- but I don't even think Aquaticas numbers will be that impacted. VB seems as if it is tailor made for on-site guests.

At TL-,Shark reef closing sucked. But at least they've gotten crush n gusher and now miss adventure falls. That's 4 really good slides right there that hit both ends of the demographic spectrum.
Whereas BB is just constantly struggling to keep their slides operational- whether it be their premier drop slides or these basic ones.
BB is going to need to do something, as its reputation is starting to diminish.

Exactly. BB has largely been ignored since it opened 20 years ago. Sure it's tough to add on to the existing mountain, but they've made it work at TL. The problem with Disney's water parks is they mostly serve as a selling point for addons to park tickets, and you can see how that worked out for DQ...

 

[Robbiem]

Blizzard beach needs more variety. When we visited we thought the theming was nice but there were too many slides and not enough other activities- we much preferred typhoon lagoon with its giant wave pool etc. i can understand why Disney made it a different park to typhoon lagoon but rounding out the offerings would make it more likely that I'd return there rather than visit typhoon lagoon.

 

[Mike730]

From Bioreconstruct on twitter. Claims site work is happening but both areas have been cleared for a while according to google maps. The one area does seem a bit larger and has a few parts lined up.

 

[danlb_2000]

View attachment 221064 View attachment 221065
From Bioreconstruct on twitter. Claims site work is happening but both areas have been cleared for a while according to google maps. The one area does seem a bit larger and has a few parts lined up.

Those aren't parts, they are pipes that have been there since the park opened. Probably part of the water system for the park.

 

[Rider]

Yeah that's hardly "clearing for expansion" so much as "clearing for our work vehicles to park/access things".

 

[Mike730]

Yeah that's hardly "clearing for expansion" so much as "clearing for our work vehicles to park/access things".

That's what I thought too.

 

[NeXuS1000]

Still, it begs the question: why is that work happening now? What has changed? And does it have any connection to the closed Runoff Rapids?

 

[Gatorboy]

Exactly. BB has largely been ignored since it opened 20 years ago. Sure it's tough to add on to the existing mountain, but they've made it work at TL. The problem with Disney's water parks is they mostly serve as a selling point for addons to park tickets, and you can see how that worked out for DQ...

Second & third largest water parks in the world! Only a new Chinese park with a zillion locals beat them out. Yes, zillions

 

[sedati]

Bioreconstruct swung by for some aerial confirmation on the slide removal and some pretty extensive work going on all over the park:

 

[monothingie]

Bioreconstruct swung by for some aerial confirmation on the slide removal and some pretty extensive work going on all over the park:

Looks like water pipe replacement that necessitated removal of the south slide. Nice to see it being repaired, and not removed. Looks like 2 36” mains had to be replaced. Not a small job.

 

[sedati]

It does seem as if Miss Adventure Falls was a response in anticipation of Volcano Bay. Does anyone know how Disney views the now (sorta) finished product over at Universal, and if that may lead to some more additions at Typhoon and Blizzard?

 

[Disone]

It does seem as if Miss Adventure Falls was a response in anticipation of Volcano Bay. Does anyone know how Disney views the now (sorta) finished product over at Universal, and if that may lead to some more additions at Typhoon and Blizzard?

Volcano Bay got off to a very rough start. Universal still have some things to figure out. It's coming out of its first summer with a very low 21% excellent on TripAdvisor. Making things worse it has a 37% terrible. For all of its issues with runoff Rapids Blizzard Beach ratings are much much higher than this, 57% excellent and 1% terrible.

With ratings like that Disney will sit back and see how long it takes Universal to figure this out. They clearly have a new type of water park but they haven't got a homerun yet. They've got to be able to convince the public that this new type of water park is what they want. So far that hasn't happened.

Disney should take advantage of this and build some new water park attractions while Universal struggles. However unfortunately for water park fans I think they'll take a sit and wait attitude, and see if they need to build a new attractions before they actually go down that road. They're spending a lot right now so there probably hesitant to spend a little bit more on something that, at least on paper (aka ratings and attendance ) is not broken.

 

[davis_unoxx]

Disney really should open a resort in/next to typhoon lagoon and Blizzard beach if they need to expand room numbers instead of building these huge ugly buildings as expansions to existing hotels.

Would be awesome to have beach hotel connected to Typhoon Lagoon! How about EMH for guests at that resort for the park!