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blizzard beach or typhoon lagoon?
Angel177
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
so myself and my girlfriend are heading down to orlando to well...go to disneyworld, but while the magical kingdom is kinda ho-hum for me I LOVE waterparks and it has to be a disney one since we're getting the all inclusive pass.
so from those who have been (espc at the start of nov) which is the best?
thanks all.
so from those who have been (espc at the start of nov) which is the best?
thanks all.
Angel177 on
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Also the water parks close earlier than the other parks if I remember correctly. and all the non-water parks have some sort of show to see at night.
Assuming you have the park hopper option I'd recommend something like:
Waking up early, getting dressed for the water park but with clothes on top (yay for water park lockers).
Head to Magic Kingdom for breakfast. Either "with characters" at the crystal palace (kickass breakfast buffet with costumed character wandering about, when we went it was pooh and the gang) or breakfast at cinderella's castle.
then maybe do one or two things there before heading over to a water park.
The shuttle buses are always coming and going between parks (and hotels if you plan to stay at Disney World).
Spend the day at the water park, then in the late afternoon head back to your room and shower/ change and go back to a park for dinner and a nightime show.
TIPS:
Make reservations weeks in advance for the nicer places to eat
Do your gift shopping in the Disney World Store in Downtown Disney, they have practically everything in that one store. If you're going all out and stay at DW then consider getting a meal plan for each of you. the 1 snack, 1 counter service, 1 table service plan is killer.
Fastpass is nice, especially in MGM where the Tower of Terror and the Aerosmith rollercoaster are right next to each other.
A meal and shopping in Epcot's world showcase is a must, they have awesome shops/food plus tons of street performers that are generally awesome shows.
If bars and clubs are your thing downtown disney has a nightlife scene, also a good size movie theater for those times where you're all tuckered out and want to rest your feet but not waste time in your room.
edit: I got lots more but I bore ya since you only asked about the waterparks.
No waterparks this time, but the Animal Kingdom was pretty cool. Got there at 10, and went on the safari ride right away.
Also, please, for the love of Prime, do not go to Disney Downtown or Universal Walk (whatever it's called) at night. It's like the IGN boards IRL. You stand a good chance of getting rolled.
I'm not sure I understand this? I've been to Downtown Disney and City Walk several times, and on my last vacation was at Downtown Disney from 9PM-1AM. We didn't have any problems whatsoever aside from the fact that the Ghiradelli store was a little too crowded to get any chocolate. Never had a problem there at night before. Of course, I've never been in the clubs if that's what you're talking about.
City Walk I haven't been around TOO late, but I've been there until about 9 and I can say until then that it should be absolutely fine. Some really good restaurants and little things to see/do.
More on topic: I've never been to either, but from what I heard you really can't lose with either park. But like it's been said, you could just add the Park Hopper bonus, I don't think that adds that much money onto the tickets at all. For the sake of the topic, I've heard several times that Blizzard Beach is the better of the two, though.
I definitely recommend doing this. Orlando has a LOT of really nice restaurants, however being that it's pretty packed during the summer, reservations can fill up FAST. A few weeks before we went up to Orlando, I just hopped onto opentable.com and made some reservations for the places we had wanted to go to. Nice, simple, and if you want you can just pop online again and cancel your reservation. (There are also a lot of nice restaurants right in Downtown Disney.)
Just don't sit down at the end of the wave pool. My mom did that and a wave pushed her across the concrete, scraped up her legs a bit.
As for Downtown Disney, I never paid attention to the shopping but some of the clubs were pretty good. They had a comedy club, and the Adventurer's Club was awesome because it had talking shit on the walls and people in character.
Later on, go to Magic Kingdom and go see Phantasmic. Just trust me.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
If you are going in November, the water parks are going to be closing very early, so make sure you keep an eye on the hours when planning things.
I third the reservations thing. It might not be as critical if you're going in November, but since they introduced the dining plan, it's gotten a lot harder to get into some of the sit-down restaurants. This won't necessarily screw you over though, there are still a fair number of really good restaurants you can just walk into (like Morocco
Phantasmic is at MGM in the big auditorium next to the Tower of Terror. Two nightly showings but I'd suggest getting there about an hour and a half beforehand or you'll never get any decent seats.
Magic Kingdom has the Wishes fireworks spectacular with Tinkerbell.. Which is awesome.
As for the thread question is there any reason you can't do both? They have enough ride variance between them to make it worthwhile. Generally ride themeing is better at BB -- compare the awesomeness of the Summit Plummet (with the ski-jump themeing) to the Humunga Cowabunga which is just two slides side by side -- but then Typhoon Lagoon feels more piratey so it works both ways..
Oh, I have only seen it here in California so I assumed it was in the Magic Kingdom there. Either way, go see it. It's the most insane fireworks show I've ever seen.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
Another neat little thing about Typhoon Lagoon is it has a snorkeling pool. Just something to change things up.
once again thank you all
It has stuff like guides to the typical traffic patterns in all of the parks, so you can be queueing for <10 mins when there are people waiting for over an hour in other parts of the park, and suggested routes based on them. (We were skeptical of this, especially my Dad, who kept asking employees to check waiting times on other rides over the radio. It really seems to work, though.)
It also has good run-downs on what's where, what's good, and what's worth skipping.
This is a false statement. Downtown Disney in Orlando absolutely wins, at any time of the day.
Maybe I'm just that curmudgeny, but I thought it was pretty unpleasant at night. A big part was that it's supposed to be Disney, and there were kids smoking/drinking all over the place. I guess it's where all the locals go, since it's the only square foot that doesn't cost $90 to stand on. We went off-season, for what it's worth.
Now that's true, but the thing about Downtown Disney is that it's supposed to be an adult environment. Kids aren't really meant to be there, as there is a House of Blues where people (read: myself) go to listen to loud music and drink. There are no rides or any of that crap there.
And I guess Orlando is kind of expensive, but I grew up in southern California, so Orlando is really freakin cheap to me.
But yeah, no kids in Pleasure Island. That's where the clubs and alcohol is.
Also go to Disney Quest in Downtown Disney. DO IT!
Blizzard beach has too much concreate, making walking a painful task on hot Florida afternoons. The water can be way too cold sometimes, which isn't so nice when one first jumps in. Plus, it's almost shock inducing. Going from hot, to really fucking cold, to hot again. Typhoon Lagoon is much more relaxed as well. They have a wonderful Lazy River that goes most of the way around the park. They have great slides, raft rides, and the awesome wave pool. The wave pool really seals the deal; you might have seen others before but the one at T.L. is the mother of them all. Just make sure to be aware of your surroundings (read: other people) before you go and catch that big wave, I've gotten my face hit many times :P.
EDIT:
What the heck, I'll throw in some general tips about Orlando as well.
1.) Be sure to familiarize yourself with the driving routes you will be taking
2/3 of the people driving in Orlando don't know where the hell they're going or what they're doing. Driving in Orlando can be a very stressful ordeal for those not prepared. Make sure you've read those mapquest directions well, or make sure your GF can read them to you. Missing a merge or turn will probably happen, but try to avoid it as much as you can. It sucks trying to get around in a car so make sure you keep the mistakes to a minimum. Drive with a degree of agressiveness and a greater degree of caution.
2.) DO NOT, DO NOT TRY AND DRIVE DURING NORMAL RUSH-HOUR TIME PERIODS
For the love of god, stay the HELL away from major roads (and most roads in general) during the morning and afternoon rush-hour times (7-10ish AM, and 4-7PM). Traffic on I-4 and most major roads is a literal standstill during those times.
3.) Leave for dinner early
Get to resturants at around 5PM. They fill up quick, especially the good ones. I'll leave it to you to decide where to go, but make sure you get there well before everyone else does. The eats work like the traffic: hit it early for the best results and efficency.
Since we're on the topic of general Orlando advice, I cannot lime this enough. ESPECIALLY if you're trying to make it to dinner, please stick to this advise.
On my most recent trip to Orlando, there wasn't ONE time of the day when the roads weren't packed. I had the unfortunate luck to hit the road (I-Drive) at 4PM one day, and it literally took us half an hour to move the three miles to where our hotel was. Traffic can be a major pain in Orlando.
General water-park advice -- I know it's a water park and full of water and all of that, but while it's on my mind I have to tell you: Remember to bring water bottles. Any time when you're not in the water, you're probably going to be thirsty from all the sun and humidity and any walking around, and you don't really want to shell out $3-4 for each water bottle if you buy them in the park, so maybe bring some and keep them in the lockers there.
Also: If you have any kind of interest in that kind of thing and you end up in Downtown Disney, go to the Lego store there. They have some incredible lego displays set up outside of the store. Absolutely huge and awesome.
Truth. And CityWalk isn't really a bad alternative, either. I usually end up going to one or the other weekly.
Typhoon Lagoon, by the way. But I had a really harrowing experience at Blizzard Beach. The chlorine levels have to be deadly to most life forms. My ex-girlfriend and I were literally blind after a few hours. Had to sit down with some friends at a table (they had been tanning most of the day), and it was close to 90 minutes before our vision returned. Fucking terrible.
I would suggest Wet 'n' Wild over either, though. And it's also in Orlando.
If cash is tight then you can go for one of the budget ones but we stayed 5 nights at one of the moderate restorts (Port Orleans: French Quarter) and while it's just a basic hotel room it was awesome as far as getting to and from the parks and not having to worry about driving at all. There are charter buses that take you to/from the airport and then once at the resort there are shuttle buses that go to all the different parks. The ONLY kink in the system is if you're at a park and want to head to downtown disney you would have to go back to a resort then catch another bus to downtown disney from there. Otherwise it's all pretty interlocking and quick.