IMO, getting to the water parks for opening is even more important than getting to the theme parks. If you aren't there in the first hour, you're going to be out of luck for a chair. You need a chair! You're going to want to sit or lie down at some point!
Lines for the slides get very long, so it's best to claim your chairs and go do the slides immediately. After you do the slides (and/or swim with the sharks at Typhoon, whatever that is called), you can do the wave pools, lazy river, have some lunch, do a little more swimming.
Most people who arrive for rope drop have had enough by 1:00 or 2:00. Some stay all day.
Blizzard Beach has much better slides. Lazy river is good at both..I might give the nod to Blizzard there, especially for kids, but it's so close. Typhoon Lagoon has a much bigger wave pool with periodic single, large waves and sometimes the smaller bobbing ones. Blizzard just has the bobbing ones in their smaller wave pool, but they have tubes you can take into the wave pool, which is a great deal of fun.
I think Typhoon is better for younger kids and Blizzard is better for the older ones and teens.
WATER SHOES!! The surfaces of the water slides and wave pools are textured. My first trip down a water slide, I took a chunk out of the side of my foot that took like a month to heal. The fist week was kinda painful. Big chunk just gone. I advise water shoes, especially for kids.
If the kids just love big, bad water slides and can't get enough of them, you might want to head to Wet n Wild.
They're both really good and you can't go wrong either way.
The Unofficial Guide has an EXCELLENT section on the water parks and even includes which slides to start with for kids who aren't really daredevils...and which order you can build up, so the kid can decide when they've had enough.
Have fun!
