We showed up at Typhoon Lagoon bright and early but it was closed - a CM directed us to Blizzard Beach. The parking lot and entrance road at TL were full of lots of blown down branches and stuff from the hurricane 2 days before, but passable.
It was our first time at BB but we liked it a lot. I had been led to believe (or I had convinced myself) that because of the snow theme it was a lot brighter and hotter than TL, but I found there was plenty of shade, except for the queues near the top of the highest slides, which were pretty uncomfortable. A few more umbrellas or pine trees and the queuing experience would be a lot more pleasant. The lower regions of walkways, pools and "beach" areas I found to be just as comfortable and charming as TL. As at TL, I am simply blown away by the quality of the landscaping and the great variety and excellent condition of plants. What a tour de force, combining the look and feel of a mountain resort in some areas, blended with entirely tropical(esque) plants and landscaping in other areas. We noticed a lot more sawn-off branches and a couple of tree stumps left over from the hurricane, but other than that everything was immaculate. Bravo you Disney gardeners and landscapers! When and if I get a swimming pool at home, it is my fervent desire to try to emulate at least a tiny bit of the lush and beautiful effects that you achieve in these waterparks.
I couldn't stomach the extra-long lineup or the extra 1 second of terror required to do the Summit Plummit, but the Slusher Gusher was *almost* worth the heat and boredom of the queue, a couple of times. I rode down with my disposable waterproof camera the second time - I can't wait to see if the picture I took just before the final "bump" captures any of the feeling of speed (or if it looks like anything at all other than a white explosion of water).
The family raft ride is very, very cool and worth at least a moderate wait (up to 30 minutes is my threshold).
The raft rides where you choose one of three slides, then hand off your tube to the waiting throngs, annoyed me because of two individuals - in different parties - who were making supreme nuisances of themselves by cutting into the line to get tubes, pushing their way past people as they raced to the top of the stairs, and hanging on to their tube and walking straight past the place where you are supposed to hand off your tube at the bottom. All the time, making stupid excuses to the people whom they are obnoxiously bypassing, e.g., "I just have to catch up with my family." One of these people slammed me with their tube as they passed me, and knocked my sunglasses flying - without any apology. What pathetic individuals. They weren't kids either. I'll bet that the most unpopular job in all of BB is to be the lifeguard at the bottom who is supposed to encourage people to play nice and wait like a good boy or girl for their turn to get a tube. All they can do is look the other way, curse silently, and try to figure out how many minutes until they get swapped out to a different work station.
Disappointingly, but typically for the time of year, a storm brewed up around 3pm and it thundered and rained buckets for the rest of the afternoon - no more swimming. The biggest aw-shucks was that I was *just* about to leave the family for an hour and go around taking pictures of all the fantastic plants and landscaping so I could get ideas and inspiration. DOH!!!
The next day we started the drive home, via breakfast at Boma (nice pool! nice landscaping! nice architecture! nice everything!) Merritt Island (nice gators!), Canaveral Natl Seashore (nice manatees! nice vampires ERR , mosquitoes!) and Washington DC (nice pandas! nice bamboo! nice jewels! bad traffic!)
We had a lot of fun this year, despite the hurricane, as I knew we would ...
THE END
It was our first time at BB but we liked it a lot. I had been led to believe (or I had convinced myself) that because of the snow theme it was a lot brighter and hotter than TL, but I found there was plenty of shade, except for the queues near the top of the highest slides, which were pretty uncomfortable. A few more umbrellas or pine trees and the queuing experience would be a lot more pleasant. The lower regions of walkways, pools and "beach" areas I found to be just as comfortable and charming as TL. As at TL, I am simply blown away by the quality of the landscaping and the great variety and excellent condition of plants. What a tour de force, combining the look and feel of a mountain resort in some areas, blended with entirely tropical(esque) plants and landscaping in other areas. We noticed a lot more sawn-off branches and a couple of tree stumps left over from the hurricane, but other than that everything was immaculate. Bravo you Disney gardeners and landscapers! When and if I get a swimming pool at home, it is my fervent desire to try to emulate at least a tiny bit of the lush and beautiful effects that you achieve in these waterparks.
I couldn't stomach the extra-long lineup or the extra 1 second of terror required to do the Summit Plummit, but the Slusher Gusher was *almost* worth the heat and boredom of the queue, a couple of times. I rode down with my disposable waterproof camera the second time - I can't wait to see if the picture I took just before the final "bump" captures any of the feeling of speed (or if it looks like anything at all other than a white explosion of water).
The family raft ride is very, very cool and worth at least a moderate wait (up to 30 minutes is my threshold).
The raft rides where you choose one of three slides, then hand off your tube to the waiting throngs, annoyed me because of two individuals - in different parties - who were making supreme nuisances of themselves by cutting into the line to get tubes, pushing their way past people as they raced to the top of the stairs, and hanging on to their tube and walking straight past the place where you are supposed to hand off your tube at the bottom. All the time, making stupid excuses to the people whom they are obnoxiously bypassing, e.g., "I just have to catch up with my family." One of these people slammed me with their tube as they passed me, and knocked my sunglasses flying - without any apology. What pathetic individuals. They weren't kids either. I'll bet that the most unpopular job in all of BB is to be the lifeguard at the bottom who is supposed to encourage people to play nice and wait like a good boy or girl for their turn to get a tube. All they can do is look the other way, curse silently, and try to figure out how many minutes until they get swapped out to a different work station.
Disappointingly, but typically for the time of year, a storm brewed up around 3pm and it thundered and rained buckets for the rest of the afternoon - no more swimming. The biggest aw-shucks was that I was *just* about to leave the family for an hour and go around taking pictures of all the fantastic plants and landscaping so I could get ideas and inspiration. DOH!!!
The next day we started the drive home, via breakfast at Boma (nice pool! nice landscaping! nice architecture! nice everything!) Merritt Island (nice gators!), Canaveral Natl Seashore (nice manatees! nice vampires ERR , mosquitoes!) and Washington DC (nice pandas! nice bamboo! nice jewels! bad traffic!)
We had a lot of fun this year, despite the hurricane, as I knew we would ...
THE END