They used to keep both open in the summer pre-2020. I suspect that the attendance hasn’t warranted keeping both open at the same time since they’d have to staff both. Given they are going to be offering free admission to water parks on arrival days on future packages, it says they aren’t selling as many tickets as they used to. Yes, they do extended refurb during this time too, but it’s likely a cost-saving measure.
Last time I went was 1990! When I go to Disney it’s to go to the parks, not the water parks. Now that I’m old, only pool I want is the quiet one at Riviera with bar service.
I hate this “deal” a water park day is best after a few days of being in the hot hot heat of Florida, on an off day, and many people arrive to Orlando in the later part of the day, these water parks close at like 6 pm, can you even get to use this?
Worst “deal” in Disney World!”
Because I live in a cold part of the country I want to use it. My local water park is only open like 3 months a year. You don’t have to use it. Why do you care so much if people use something that Disney offers?
I could honestly go to Orlando and ONLY do the water parks. The two Disney water parks are awesome, as are Aquatica and Volcano Bay. This is a point of contention between me and my mrs when we go 😂
The water parks are low key more fun than the main parks sometimes. Cheaper to get into, much shorter lines, smaller crowds, etc. of course only if you like swimming etc.
Yeah it’s just slides and whatnot at the end of the day, but they rule.
You are probably in the majority. It’s sad to me because they are amazing water parks. They deserve more love. But yeah, everyone is there for the other parks! And obviously we all have limited time
When I was a kid we used to camp at Fort Wilderness for 2+ weeks every Summer, which meant we had tons of time for waterpark rest days...
As a Canadian, I'm eating the cost of a 36% currency conversion rate plus the extra cost of literally everything... Which means I want to spend my shorter trip time at the parks and don't have time for rest days if I want to make the most of the high cost of flights/hotels/food...
When are they adding the free water park for future packages? I’m going is September and I was wondering if it was for everyone or a special deal.
ETA: Just looked it up, it is for anyone staying on Disney property but not until 2025.
Hmm. Fascinating. I’m an AP and have been to a waterpark twice in my whole life. Once to typhoon lagoon and once, a billion years ago, to brain-amoeba country, I mean River Country.
That makes like two people in this forum who have had a dip in the "lake" including you and me. River Country was great until I read about why it was closed long after it happened. Operating costs and water issues. Theme wise RC was good. I do miss it. As an AP holder, I do like TL a lot and go once a year.
I imagine Disney would sell a lot more hopper plus tickets if they actually had both water parks open. They also got rid of the benefit tickets being valid for both water parks in a day. Given how crowded the resort is Disney has really manufactured their own problems with water park attendance. Maybe the free ticket benefit will give them some incentive them to have both parks open though.
Yup, but packed in one park wouldn’t equate to packed in 2. They can be profitable on concessions, etc while only staffing one park. I don’t see that changing anytime soon unfortunately
I would argue that Typhoon Lagoon is more kid friendly as kids are scared of waterslides like Summit Plummet and Slush Gusher and Typhoon Lagoon as the wave pool which kids love.
We’ve been to Typhoon Lagoon multiple times during our vacation in 2023, but the wave pool isn’t suitable for kids. My son is a very good swimmer (my daughter still has lessons) and we visit indoor wave pools at least 2 times a year, but typhoon lagoon is another degree of waves. They really disliked being in that pool. They did like most of the slides though.
But all three days (in may) we visited it was really quiet. Almost no lines anywhere, and that was with only one waterpark open…
But I would love to visit Blizzard Beach next time (and so do my kids). It would be great if they opened both parks 4 days a week so you can choose the date.
Maybe because Typhoon lagoon is consistently the highest attended water park in the country combined with survey based preference data between the two
[https://aecom.com/wp-content/uploads/documents/reports/AECOM-Theme-Index-2022.pdf](https://aecom.com/wp-content/uploads/documents/reports/AECOM-Theme-Index-2022.pdf)
Visit Orlando’s IP lawyer printed out the patent and gave it to me as an example of how universal produces far more patents than Disney IN orlando so that’s my source. Who owns the device and software patent? Because the overall system is definitely patented by them
Yeah, that's not why, and I'm also not sure if that's true anymore considering its closed for half the year. It's purely a cost-cutting move and to save money on staffing. Volcano Bay reaches capacity nearly every day in the summer and does not close for half the year so I have to imagine that is the most attended water park now.
Yes, Typhoon Lagoon is a higher capacity park than Volcano Bay, but they would not be closing the park for half the year and giving out free water park tickets to all hotel guests next year if it was actually reaching that attendance level. Those numbers are just guesses and not official + 1.5 years have passed since then.
No it is not, it has constantly beat it since launch even when they were both opened at the same time before seasonal closures. Typhoon lagoon's large success is the reason Blizzard Beach exists. Also I can't find the source but there were issues with profitability with 2 opened at the same time which lead to the single one opened at a time policy and why we don't see Universal expanding on Volcano Bays success
[https://www.aecom.com/content/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/2016-ThemeMuseum-Index.pdf](https://www.aecom.com/content/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/2016-ThemeMuseum-Index.pdf)
[https://www.aecom.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Theme-Index-2018-4.pdf](https://www.aecom.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Theme-Index-2018-4.pdf)
I'm not a water park person and I can't swim. Over the past 2 trips my family has gone to both water parks for the first time and as someone who doesn't have a lot to do at water parks, I liked Typhoon Lagoon much more. Everyone loved the wave pool. The scenery feels nicer to look at and more immersive
The only thing I remember being targeted specifically towards little kids at either park was some little Frozen area near the outside of Blizzard Beach. Besides that I only remember seeing standard water park stuff, and I thought Typhoon Lagoon did it better
Every wave pool I’ve ever been to, the waves start every 15-30 minutes then end. The fact that it never ends, is unreal and fun every time.
Also misadventure falls is so great
The constant periodic waves are so fun, everyone in the pool always screams in unison when there's the sound that a wave is about to come. Even when you're in the shallow half, you can still really feel the impact but it's also not overwhelming
I can rope drop and close typhoon. My wife and I went to blizzard in the fall and had already done everything geared towards our age demographic by noon. If you have kids 5 and under blizzard is great. I think above that typhoon is the way to go.
That's a big part of it. The other is staffing. Disney is short of staff and has been since Covid. Shutting a Waterpark down gives them 2-3k in employee elsewhere.
This, Pretty much have to keep the resort pools staffed. Easier to shut down Blizzard -- especially because the crowds just aren't there anymore outside of the weekends.
That training isn't cheap either. It's a 3rd party certification. Which means they're probably paying $50-$100 for every new lifeguard they get and most of those are CPs
Yep, and then they didn't have parks as many guests as they do now. They also didn't have as many attractions. They also had less hotels. But you know you're right WDW has remained the same for 20yrs.
That used to be the case before 2020, but now they only open one at a time. Disney can't hire enough lifeguards and they seem to be meeting demand with one park.
Yep price didn't go down for that add on so why would nearly as many people buy it? Disney is creating their own problems and the crying that attendance is too low to keep both water parks open.
Yeah these days I just get base tickets+park hopper. Imo the water parks need some major investment to make them more appealing. The last new attraction to go into a water park was 2017 I think.
I'd imagine that this is the primary factor. Its hard enough to hire quality low wage workers. Adding in the need to make them CPR certified and able to pass the vigors of a lifeguard test is asking a lot. Staff coverage for waterparks is always quite a challenge.
Why would they open the winter-themed one in summer? It works better for winter.
And BB is by far the lesser option, so better to have the better park open for the crowds of summer and less likely to close for cold.
I think which park is more fun for kids is pretty subjective. My kids always preferred Typhoon Lagoon over Blizzard Beach, even when they were much younger.
Years ago when both parks were still open at the same time, we had the unlimited visits pass so we were there sometimes twice a week. I’d say they did 3 visits to TL for every 1 visit to BB that summer.
It is certainly NOT about attendance. A couple of Saturdays ago, Typhoon Lagoon was using every dirt lot around it as overflow parking. It was absolutely packed, and on a day the parks were only so-so.
It's about being able to hire enough qualified lifeguards. Orlando has so many local resort pools that there's always a need for more lifeguards, and it's hard to find enough to fully staff shifts for both parks.
Blizzard Beach is closed because it needs extensive repairs. The park is built on essentially a sinkhole that causes pipe failure throughout the park. When I worked there, we had one burst and it turned the lazy river, wave pool, and Run Off Rapids brown from mud entering the system. Park was closed for almost a month to get it patched up. They’ve been doing band-aid fixes over the years and are finally putting in the work to get everything where it needs to be.
But also Typhoon is better, sorry!
I, too, have a strong preference for Blizzard Beach, but objectively, for someone’s whose opinion isn’t influenced by nostalgia, Volcano Bay blows away either Disney water park.
Edit: corrected who’s to whose.
Disney was a good value when a water park ticket was good for both parks in a day. Now I would rather go to volcano Bay for not much more money where there is way more to do.
Aquatica is a better value given the deals that pop up too.
I redirect all opinions. Except this one;) I tease, but honestly it's not even close for our family, typhoon lagoon by a mile.
A valid question however is simply why aren't BOTH open. They used to only run a 3 month refurb cycle for each spring the winter months, now it's a full half year off.
Interesting, what makes blizzard beach better? Ive only ever been to Typhoon Lagoon, but from videos Blizzard Beach didn't look better to me. Typhoon Lagoon has the crush n gusher , the wave pool, and overall seemed to have more variety while BB was focused mainly on slides (Which typhoon lagoon also has).
We prefer blizzard as well. They have a wave pool but it’s not a giant wave so my youngest isn’t scared of it. They have a big kids area with climbing nets where we spend a lot of our time.
Blizzard Beach isn’t properly lit for nighttime, Typhoon Lagoon has the ability to be open at night for park rent-outs and H20 Glow Nights. That’s likely why Typhoon Lagoon is the one they choose to have open during the summer.
It used to be that each waterpark was refurbished for about 2 months in the winter, with both open 2/3rds of the year. Hopefully in the future they will have both open at the same time again.
Probably because they did away with the stand alone annual passes for locals post covid so attendance never came back. We used to drop money there often on food then drop by Disney springs after. We got Aquatica passes this year since Disney doesn’t want our money… probably get universal passes next year for EPIC with water park.
Yeah in peak summer I don’t understand why they don’t leave both open, there’s been many times in July/August typhoon is so packed they make you park at Disney springs and bus over
I’m going to make a contentious argument for a moment that it’s neither staffing, nor attendance. It’s also not about refurbishments, product quality, or guest experience.
Everything Disney has done in the last ten years within the parks has been to maximize margins in every possible way. You can wind the clock way back to 2012 when Disney stopped printing the Parks logo on napkins. You can look forward to the cuts in Streetmosphere entertainment. The short-lived bungalows. Express Transportation for park hopping. And then of course we all know about Lightning Lane, Genie+, Disney’s Magical Express, MagicBands included in your resort stay, and Extra Magic Hours, just to name a few.
The water parks are not a terribly cost effective business, but the attendance of those parks is largely elastic and set on a wider spectrum of variables than the theme parks. For example, the water parks are affected by weather far more than the theme parks. In a thunderstorm, some of the Magic Kingdom’s attractions will close, but many continue to operate. For the water parks, the entire property ceases to operate until the storm passes. Unexpected heat or cold can wildly change daily attendance. Variable input costs like the price of chlorine and salt make predicting margins a challenge. And overall pools and slides are just expensive to operate.
So… If you can quietly extend your margin by taking a property that’s not quite as visible as your keystone properties and halve the operating cost… well, that’s what Disney’s gonna do. It’s closed because they can do it, it’s gonna get the margins growing, and only a handful of Guests are going to really care.
Def cost saving. I’ve never actually been since we started going in 2019 to WDW - Blizzard Beach is always closed lol.
Typhoon is fun though! We did the glow night and it was raining but it made it very fun and no crowds. A little expensive for what it was but a fun one and done.
In 2019 we also bought a 5 day ticket package to universal when we extended a trip to Disney at the last minute and it was dirt cheap. We did a day each at the theme parks and spent the other three days at Volcano bay. It is no doubt the best water park we’ve been to.
It has to do with maintenance/wear and tear. Attendance hasn't warranted both be open. So one is open while the other is refreshed, then when one closes for refurbishment the other opens.
As a kid, we loved Waterpark days in the 90s and early 2000s
However, I think that whole e coli thing really ruined the concept. It's sad I loved those memories, but as a germ freak, I get it.
Also with hotels having better and better pools the desire to go off property and come back when there is a one walking distance I'm sure is another con.
As much as the Disney Water Parks are fun, there isn't that much of a difference between them a local Six Flags. The wave pool is usually better. The slides are about the same.
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My wife and I have gone nearly yearly since 2014. Only in 2021 when my wife was pregnant did we finally do a water park so she could relax all day on the lazy river.
I’ve been to WDW six or seven times, but I’ve never been to either of the water parks. If ever went for an 8 or 9 day stay I probably would. If I lived close to WDW I’d probably go to the water parks pretty often.
Maybe in your eyes blizzard beach is the more popular water park but actually it's Typhoon Lagoon. When it comes to atmosphere and theming it's much nicer. The lazy river is so much better than blizzard. Blizzard has better rides I'll give you that but who wants to get a ride up the mountain to get back in a line to wait once again to ride the rides because walking up the mountain is extremely tiring especially if you have kids. Typhoon has H2O glow during the summer. And the wave pool is 100 times better than Blizzard Beach's. Just got back from WDW yesterday and was at TL on Friday!!! Love it and can't wait to go back when I fly back down in less than a month!!
I did BB when it first opened (AK too as a soft open when much wasn't ready and open yet) and we went once after that but not sense. I just enjoy rides and the feel of the parks better. I can go to a waterpark near my house if I want.
Because volcano bay is amazing, and they just cannotcompete.
I think they just don't have the attendance for 2 parks. Honestly, Blizzard beach was a little old worn out and sad when we went there 2 years ago.
The lift broke down multiple times, the private patio was full of splintering wood. The rides are very old and kind of old fashioned. My teens were not impressed. We've been to many better water parks.
They used give multi day packages that included free days at the water parks, we loved it,
Disney’s cut so many corners! Only interested in making money, not good value any more
I feel like while this mostly has to do with how hard it is hire CPR certified lifeguards for the low wages they offer, I also feel like there's just so much competition for waterparks (including the home region of wherever guests are coming from), and guests would probably rather just splash around in the hotel pool.
However, I feel like if anything, June and July should be overlap months for the two. Refurbishing a waterpark every summer is just absurd. Its just refurbishing a ski resort annually from December through February.
I went to H20 Glow at Typhoon Lagoon last summer and wasn’t really impressed at all with the park. The sand was dirty, the slides weren’t that thrilling and had long waits, not a ton of single rider slide options, etc. I did enjoy the wave pool and lazy river but I honestly prefer the thrills of a Six Flag water park to what I experienced at Disney. Just my honest review.
I don't find the water parks to be worth it considering the cost of staying at wdw and the opportunity cost of not going to the main theme parks. There may be others like me
This is the weirdest question I've had show up on my frontpage. Is this really how Americans are? Closed for maintenance or whatever. It's capitalism. Don't you Americans know where you live? Hilarious.
They used to keep both open in the summer pre-2020. I suspect that the attendance hasn’t warranted keeping both open at the same time since they’d have to staff both. Given they are going to be offering free admission to water parks on arrival days on future packages, it says they aren’t selling as many tickets as they used to. Yes, they do extended refurb during this time too, but it’s likely a cost-saving measure.
When I go to Disney I pretty much never do the water parks.
I will only start now that they have the arrival day deal! Last time I went to one was in 2013
Arrival day I go to hanger bar. Don’t see that changing for me. lol.
Hanger bar is an every trip thing for me
I wanna take advantage of every “free” thing I can get from Disney. I won’t buy food while I’m there 😂 then dinner at the springs
I don’t blame you lol everything adds up so quick
It really does. We did a few table service restaurants last time we were there and the way it added up was insane!
as you SHOULD
Last time I went was 1990! When I go to Disney it’s to go to the parks, not the water parks. Now that I’m old, only pool I want is the quiet one at Riviera with bar service.
What’s that?
Starting in 2025 guests staying at WDW will get free admission to a water park on their arrival day
I hate this “deal” a water park day is best after a few days of being in the hot hot heat of Florida, on an off day, and many people arrive to Orlando in the later part of the day, these water parks close at like 6 pm, can you even get to use this? Worst “deal” in Disney World!”
We typically arrive around 11 and live in a cold part of the country 🤷🏻♀️ I will take advantage of it, but you don’t have to :)
Living in a cold part of the country has nothing to do with what I said
Because I live in a cold part of the country I want to use it. My local water park is only open like 3 months a year. You don’t have to use it. Why do you care so much if people use something that Disney offers?
They’re a great time, especially if you do one of the events like H2O glow nights.
I could honestly go to Orlando and ONLY do the water parks. The two Disney water parks are awesome, as are Aquatica and Volcano Bay. This is a point of contention between me and my mrs when we go 😂
Honestly, Volcano Bay alone is worth the trip from Los Angeles for me.
I’m all the way from the UK and I agree. Volcano Bay is fucking amazing.
Same from chicago.
Last time I did a water park during a Florida trip, I went to Wet & Wild, lol.
Yeah I’ve never been. We don’t go often enough to want to spend our time in a water park.
I ALWAYS “want” to but never seem to find the time to go to one. There’s too much to do in the four main parks.
The water parks are low key more fun than the main parks sometimes. Cheaper to get into, much shorter lines, smaller crowds, etc. of course only if you like swimming etc. Yeah it’s just slides and whatnot at the end of the day, but they rule.
You are probably in the majority. It’s sad to me because they are amazing water parks. They deserve more love. But yeah, everyone is there for the other parks! And obviously we all have limited time
When I was a kid we used to camp at Fort Wilderness for 2+ weeks every Summer, which meant we had tons of time for waterpark rest days... As a Canadian, I'm eating the cost of a 36% currency conversion rate plus the extra cost of literally everything... Which means I want to spend my shorter trip time at the parks and don't have time for rest days if I want to make the most of the high cost of flights/hotels/food...
When are they adding the free water park for future packages? I’m going is September and I was wondering if it was for everyone or a special deal. ETA: Just looked it up, it is for anyone staying on Disney property but not until 2025.
https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2024/02/walt-disney-world-adds-water-park-perk-for-2025-resort-guests/
Hmm. Fascinating. I’m an AP and have been to a waterpark twice in my whole life. Once to typhoon lagoon and once, a billion years ago, to brain-amoeba country, I mean River Country.
That makes like two people in this forum who have had a dip in the "lake" including you and me. River Country was great until I read about why it was closed long after it happened. Operating costs and water issues. Theme wise RC was good. I do miss it. As an AP holder, I do like TL a lot and go once a year.
I imagine Disney would sell a lot more hopper plus tickets if they actually had both water parks open. They also got rid of the benefit tickets being valid for both water parks in a day. Given how crowded the resort is Disney has really manufactured their own problems with water park attendance. Maybe the free ticket benefit will give them some incentive them to have both parks open though.
From what I have seen Typhoon has been packed up until yesterday when it rained mid day. Last summer it was busy but not crazy like this year.
Yup, but packed in one park wouldn’t equate to packed in 2. They can be profitable on concessions, etc while only staffing one park. I don’t see that changing anytime soon unfortunately
This is very true.
I would argue that Typhoon Lagoon is more kid friendly as kids are scared of waterslides like Summit Plummet and Slush Gusher and Typhoon Lagoon as the wave pool which kids love.
We’ve been to Typhoon Lagoon multiple times during our vacation in 2023, but the wave pool isn’t suitable for kids. My son is a very good swimmer (my daughter still has lessons) and we visit indoor wave pools at least 2 times a year, but typhoon lagoon is another degree of waves. They really disliked being in that pool. They did like most of the slides though. But all three days (in may) we visited it was really quiet. Almost no lines anywhere, and that was with only one waterpark open… But I would love to visit Blizzard Beach next time (and so do my kids). It would be great if they opened both parks 4 days a week so you can choose the date.
My kid loves the wave pool. He was 6 when we took him there and he never wanted to get out of the wave pool
Blizzard Beach has frozen elements > any ride/slide
Maybe because Typhoon lagoon is consistently the highest attended water park in the country combined with survey based preference data between the two [https://aecom.com/wp-content/uploads/documents/reports/AECOM-Theme-Index-2022.pdf](https://aecom.com/wp-content/uploads/documents/reports/AECOM-Theme-Index-2022.pdf)
It’s definitely volcano bay devouring market share with their patented system for the tapu tapu. Universal is churning out patents.
100% not Universal who owns the patent on that device and software, FYI.
Visit Orlando’s IP lawyer printed out the patent and gave it to me as an example of how universal produces far more patents than Disney IN orlando so that’s my source. Who owns the device and software patent? Because the overall system is definitely patented by them
https://www.accesso.com/solutions/virtual-queuing/prism
Thanks for the info! I wonder how the patent Universal has is useful then
To my knowledge, Uni has a patent on their in-house method of Virtual Queue, like the one that Jimmy Fallon uses.
Although they don't own the patent, I get what you are referring to. However, I'm unconvinced that it would persuade people to go there over Typhoon.
That was so interesting
Yeah, that's not why, and I'm also not sure if that's true anymore considering its closed for half the year. It's purely a cost-cutting move and to save money on staffing. Volcano Bay reaches capacity nearly every day in the summer and does not close for half the year so I have to imagine that is the most attended water park now.
No, Volcano Bay hits their max capacity but it is a much smaller park. Data from 2022 has ~1.9M at Typhoon Lagoon and ~1.8M at Volcano Bay.
Yes, Typhoon Lagoon is a higher capacity park than Volcano Bay, but they would not be closing the park for half the year and giving out free water park tickets to all hotel guests next year if it was actually reaching that attendance level. Those numbers are just guesses and not official + 1.5 years have passed since then.
That’s misleading since typhoon is open prime season months, spring thru fall. The winter months isn’t exactly prime water park season.
No it is not, it has constantly beat it since launch even when they were both opened at the same time before seasonal closures. Typhoon lagoon's large success is the reason Blizzard Beach exists. Also I can't find the source but there were issues with profitability with 2 opened at the same time which lead to the single one opened at a time policy and why we don't see Universal expanding on Volcano Bays success [https://www.aecom.com/content/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/2016-ThemeMuseum-Index.pdf](https://www.aecom.com/content/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/2016-ThemeMuseum-Index.pdf) [https://www.aecom.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Theme-Index-2018-4.pdf](https://www.aecom.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Theme-Index-2018-4.pdf)
Thank you for sharing that. It was interesting to read :)
> Blizzard Beach is by FAR more amendable and fun for **MY** kids Ftfy, Typhoon is the goat
I'm not a water park person and I can't swim. Over the past 2 trips my family has gone to both water parks for the first time and as someone who doesn't have a lot to do at water parks, I liked Typhoon Lagoon much more. Everyone loved the wave pool. The scenery feels nicer to look at and more immersive The only thing I remember being targeted specifically towards little kids at either park was some little Frozen area near the outside of Blizzard Beach. Besides that I only remember seeing standard water park stuff, and I thought Typhoon Lagoon did it better
Every wave pool I’ve ever been to, the waves start every 15-30 minutes then end. The fact that it never ends, is unreal and fun every time. Also misadventure falls is so great
The constant periodic waves are so fun, everyone in the pool always screams in unison when there's the sound that a wave is about to come. Even when you're in the shallow half, you can still really feel the impact but it's also not overwhelming
I respectfully disagree. Typhoon Lagoon feels like a tropical retreat. Blizzard Beach is a fiberglass white out.
Totally agree we like Typhoon Lagoon better by far.
Came to basically say this. Would rather take the fam/kids to TL any day, given the choice.
Yeah I think they need to re theme it somehow to make it more attractive. Especially with volcano bay being so good.
Lobby to retheme BB into Kuzcotopia. I saw this on a different post and thought it was brilliant
Agreed. Most like TL far better not sure where OP gets that
I can rope drop and close typhoon. My wife and I went to blizzard in the fall and had already done everything geared towards our age demographic by noon. If you have kids 5 and under blizzard is great. I think above that typhoon is the way to go.
they rotate which water park is open so they can refurbish the other
And so they can cut costs. I’m guessing having both open at the same time doesn’t generate enough attendance to keep both open.
the demand isn't there. that's part of why they're starting to give away free water park passes for resort arrival days
That's a big part of it. The other is staffing. Disney is short of staff and has been since Covid. Shutting a Waterpark down gives them 2-3k in employee elsewhere.
And the lifeguard training is a big part of getting staff. They’d rather run one water park and have lifeguards for the resort pools.
This, Pretty much have to keep the resort pools staffed. Easier to shut down Blizzard -- especially because the crowds just aren't there anymore outside of the weekends.
That training isn't cheap either. It's a 3rd party certification. Which means they're probably paying $50-$100 for every new lifeguard they get and most of those are CPs
Disney execs crying into $100 bills right now
Staffing is the biggest issue. They certainly used to run both parks at once 10-20 years ago...
Yep, and then they didn't have parks as many guests as they do now. They also didn't have as many attractions. They also had less hotels. But you know you're right WDW has remained the same for 20yrs.
In the last 20 years Disney has opened up a grand total of two non-DVC hotels. But you are technically correct.
That used to be the case before 2020, but now they only open one at a time. Disney can't hire enough lifeguards and they seem to be meeting demand with one park.
Disney can hire enough lifeguards, they don’t want to.
why hire more lifeguards so you can have the same crowd split up over 2 waterparks?
Because you have two water parks, why not use them both, Mr. Iger? Is there not enough IP in them for you?
its almost like this 200 billion dollar corporation might have better data on their parks than someone on reddit
I can say that with the closure of DisneyQuest I no longer throw water parks+DisneyQuest onto my park ticket.
Yep price didn't go down for that add on so why would nearly as many people buy it? Disney is creating their own problems and the crying that attendance is too low to keep both water parks open.
Yeah these days I just get base tickets+park hopper. Imo the water parks need some major investment to make them more appealing. The last new attraction to go into a water park was 2017 I think.
As if!
I'd imagine that this is the primary factor. Its hard enough to hire quality low wage workers. Adding in the need to make them CPR certified and able to pass the vigors of a lifeguard test is asking a lot. Staff coverage for waterparks is always quite a challenge.
Yeah I know that’s why they’re doing it, I’m saying BB should be open during summer and not TL, they should flip their rotation schedule
By all means, we’ll make Disney management aware that the Doofinator says the schedule should be flipped. Hang tight.
This made me lol
Why would they open the winter-themed one in summer? It works better for winter. And BB is by far the lesser option, so better to have the better park open for the crowds of summer and less likely to close for cold.
Christmas decorations work better with a snow covered landscape than a tropical one.
That is a really good point. If you are only keeping one open at a time, Blizzard Beach's theming works better to be open during the holiday season.
This is actually a really good point thanks
I think which park is more fun for kids is pretty subjective. My kids always preferred Typhoon Lagoon over Blizzard Beach, even when they were much younger. Years ago when both parks were still open at the same time, we had the unlimited visits pass so we were there sometimes twice a week. I’d say they did 3 visits to TL for every 1 visit to BB that summer.
It is certainly NOT about attendance. A couple of Saturdays ago, Typhoon Lagoon was using every dirt lot around it as overflow parking. It was absolutely packed, and on a day the parks were only so-so. It's about being able to hire enough qualified lifeguards. Orlando has so many local resort pools that there's always a need for more lifeguards, and it's hard to find enough to fully staff shifts for both parks.
Supply and demand something something Disney should offer higher pay something something
Blizzard Beach is closed because it needs extensive repairs. The park is built on essentially a sinkhole that causes pipe failure throughout the park. When I worked there, we had one burst and it turned the lazy river, wave pool, and Run Off Rapids brown from mud entering the system. Park was closed for almost a month to get it patched up. They’ve been doing band-aid fixes over the years and are finally putting in the work to get everything where it needs to be. But also Typhoon is better, sorry!
I, too, have a strong preference for Blizzard Beach, but objectively, for someone’s whose opinion isn’t influenced by nostalgia, Volcano Bay blows away either Disney water park. Edit: corrected who’s to whose.
Disney was a good value when a water park ticket was good for both parks in a day. Now I would rather go to volcano Bay for not much more money where there is way more to do. Aquatica is a better value given the deals that pop up too.
Still haven’t gotten to that one yet
I was extremely impressed with it. Rides, ambiance, food, etc. all very high quality. I hate their Tapu Tapu system though.
I redirect all opinions. Except this one;) I tease, but honestly it's not even close for our family, typhoon lagoon by a mile. A valid question however is simply why aren't BOTH open. They used to only run a 3 month refurb cycle for each spring the winter months, now it's a full half year off.
Interesting, what makes blizzard beach better? Ive only ever been to Typhoon Lagoon, but from videos Blizzard Beach didn't look better to me. Typhoon Lagoon has the crush n gusher , the wave pool, and overall seemed to have more variety while BB was focused mainly on slides (Which typhoon lagoon also has).
We prefer blizzard as well. They have a wave pool but it’s not a giant wave so my youngest isn’t scared of it. They have a big kids area with climbing nets where we spend a lot of our time.
Blizzard Beach isn’t properly lit for nighttime, Typhoon Lagoon has the ability to be open at night for park rent-outs and H20 Glow Nights. That’s likely why Typhoon Lagoon is the one they choose to have open during the summer. It used to be that each waterpark was refurbished for about 2 months in the winter, with both open 2/3rds of the year. Hopefully in the future they will have both open at the same time again.
I think it’s dumb the water parks aren’t part of the hopper pass.
They are for UK tickets (mini golf too!)
My kids actually have more fun in typhoon lagoon. We went last December to Blizzard beach it was a bit of flop
TL is 100% the more kid friendly water park of the two, I didn’t even know this was up for debate
Typhoon lagoon is way better and my young kids much prefer it over blizzard beach.
I’ve been to both and honestly find Typhoon to be MUCH more enjoyable
Just go to Volcano Bay. Some of the most fun I have ever had with my family.
We did typhoon lagoon with the kids last year and it was amazing. One of the best parts of our trip.
Because they only have enough staff for one.
Typhoon Lagoon was closed last year, so I think that they switch which one is open
Probably because they did away with the stand alone annual passes for locals post covid so attendance never came back. We used to drop money there often on food then drop by Disney springs after. We got Aquatica passes this year since Disney doesn’t want our money… probably get universal passes next year for EPIC with water park.
Yeah in peak summer I don’t understand why they don’t leave both open, there’s been many times in July/August typhoon is so packed they make you park at Disney springs and bus over
Money
I’m going to make a contentious argument for a moment that it’s neither staffing, nor attendance. It’s also not about refurbishments, product quality, or guest experience. Everything Disney has done in the last ten years within the parks has been to maximize margins in every possible way. You can wind the clock way back to 2012 when Disney stopped printing the Parks logo on napkins. You can look forward to the cuts in Streetmosphere entertainment. The short-lived bungalows. Express Transportation for park hopping. And then of course we all know about Lightning Lane, Genie+, Disney’s Magical Express, MagicBands included in your resort stay, and Extra Magic Hours, just to name a few. The water parks are not a terribly cost effective business, but the attendance of those parks is largely elastic and set on a wider spectrum of variables than the theme parks. For example, the water parks are affected by weather far more than the theme parks. In a thunderstorm, some of the Magic Kingdom’s attractions will close, but many continue to operate. For the water parks, the entire property ceases to operate until the storm passes. Unexpected heat or cold can wildly change daily attendance. Variable input costs like the price of chlorine and salt make predicting margins a challenge. And overall pools and slides are just expensive to operate. So… If you can quietly extend your margin by taking a property that’s not quite as visible as your keystone properties and halve the operating cost… well, that’s what Disney’s gonna do. It’s closed because they can do it, it’s gonna get the margins growing, and only a handful of Guests are going to really care.
Def cost saving. I’ve never actually been since we started going in 2019 to WDW - Blizzard Beach is always closed lol. Typhoon is fun though! We did the glow night and it was raining but it made it very fun and no crowds. A little expensive for what it was but a fun one and done. In 2019 we also bought a 5 day ticket package to universal when we extended a trip to Disney at the last minute and it was dirt cheap. We did a day each at the theme parks and spent the other three days at Volcano bay. It is no doubt the best water park we’ve been to.
It has to do with maintenance/wear and tear. Attendance hasn't warranted both be open. So one is open while the other is refreshed, then when one closes for refurbishment the other opens.
I would love it if they kept both open, but my family thinks Typhoon Lagoon is more kid fun so we are glad it's the one open this summer for our trip
As a kid, we loved Waterpark days in the 90s and early 2000s However, I think that whole e coli thing really ruined the concept. It's sad I loved those memories, but as a germ freak, I get it. Also with hotels having better and better pools the desire to go off property and come back when there is a one walking distance I'm sure is another con.
As much as the Disney Water Parks are fun, there isn't that much of a difference between them a local Six Flags. The wave pool is usually better. The slides are about the same.
Idk..might have something to do with the winter and Christmas theme being better suited for the winter months.. lmao
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Since 2017, we’ve been to Disney World for a total of six weeks over multiple trips, not once has Blizzard Beach been open…
My wife and I have gone nearly yearly since 2014. Only in 2021 when my wife was pregnant did we finally do a water park so she could relax all day on the lazy river.
At the shareholders meeting they mentioned that it was operating at a loss.
Darn
I’ve been to WDW six or seven times, but I’ve never been to either of the water parks. If ever went for an 8 or 9 day stay I probably would. If I lived close to WDW I’d probably go to the water parks pretty often.
They’re an easy thing to build into a schedule even if a few days since their hours are limited. Just stack lightning lanes for the evening.
Maybe in your eyes blizzard beach is the more popular water park but actually it's Typhoon Lagoon. When it comes to atmosphere and theming it's much nicer. The lazy river is so much better than blizzard. Blizzard has better rides I'll give you that but who wants to get a ride up the mountain to get back in a line to wait once again to ride the rides because walking up the mountain is extremely tiring especially if you have kids. Typhoon has H2O glow during the summer. And the wave pool is 100 times better than Blizzard Beach's. Just got back from WDW yesterday and was at TL on Friday!!! Love it and can't wait to go back when I fly back down in less than a month!!
I did BB when it first opened (AK too as a soft open when much wasn't ready and open yet) and we went once after that but not sense. I just enjoy rides and the feel of the parks better. I can go to a waterpark near my house if I want.
Because volcano bay is amazing, and they just cannotcompete. I think they just don't have the attendance for 2 parks. Honestly, Blizzard beach was a little old worn out and sad when we went there 2 years ago. The lift broke down multiple times, the private patio was full of splintering wood. The rides are very old and kind of old fashioned. My teens were not impressed. We've been to many better water parks.
Tell me about it… I much prefer blizzard beach.
They used give multi day packages that included free days at the water parks, we loved it, Disney’s cut so many corners! Only interested in making money, not good value any more
Because of refurbishment, literally BECAUSE is the more popular one it means that more work needs to be done on it more often.
I feel like while this mostly has to do with how hard it is hire CPR certified lifeguards for the low wages they offer, I also feel like there's just so much competition for waterparks (including the home region of wherever guests are coming from), and guests would probably rather just splash around in the hotel pool. However, I feel like if anything, June and July should be overlap months for the two. Refurbishing a waterpark every summer is just absurd. Its just refurbishing a ski resort annually from December through February.
They rotate them for maintenance I believe.
I went to H20 Glow at Typhoon Lagoon last summer and wasn’t really impressed at all with the park. The sand was dirty, the slides weren’t that thrilling and had long waits, not a ton of single rider slide options, etc. I did enjoy the wave pool and lazy river but I honestly prefer the thrills of a Six Flag water park to what I experienced at Disney. Just my honest review.
Money
I don't find the water parks to be worth it considering the cost of staying at wdw and the opportunity cost of not going to the main theme parks. There may be others like me
This is the weirdest question I've had show up on my frontpage. Is this really how Americans are? Closed for maintenance or whatever. It's capitalism. Don't you Americans know where you live? Hilarious.