The story behind this water park is that a snowstorm hit Orlando and allowed a ski resort to be built. Soon the sun came out and the snow started melting, giving the opportunity for management to find use of the water flowing down the chutes, pipes, and slopes. Long story short, it re-opened as a water park!
Walt Disney World's Blizzard Beach water park is one large iconic artificial mountain containing dozens of heavily themed water slides and rides. Blizzard Beach is, of course, themed to a melting ski resort with snow and snow related scenery found everywhere, including a fully operational chairlift to the top. The park also features different sections of the mountain as "slopes" (Green, Purple, and Red slopes). The water park is hard to miss when you are driving near it since the mountain has an elevation of 90 ft., and one of the world's tallest water slides sits 30 feet higher on top of it.
Summit Plummet is the park's most notorious water slide and can be seen from almost anywhere inside and outside of the water park. Summit Plummet is the United States' tallest freefall body slide, and one of the tallest freefall slides in the world. Riders simply scoot themselves towards the edge until gravity pulls them up to speeds of over 50 mph. The slide experience is like any other freefall slide, but it's height and the theming around this slide helps it stand out above others.
Beside it would be the Slush Gusher speed slide. This water slide isn't as famous as Summit Plummet, but it provides a slightly bigger punch with it's three drops that provide a comfortable amount of airtime. Depending upon how heavy you are and how fast you are moving will depend on if you actually come off of the slide on the third drop.
The Downhill Double Dipper water slide is a double-drop inner-tube slide. This water slide is mostly known because of the speed it picks up on the two drops and the splashes created at the pool area. The slide also uses a system where riders do not have to push themselves towards the edge to go, but instead rest on a stopper that releases that and the other rider at the same time so they can race. This ride is fairly popular and has a slower loading capacity compared to the other slides, so you can find yourself waiting about 30 minutes to ride.
Toboggan Racers and Snow Stormers are the park's two belly mat water slides. Toboggan Racers is an 8-lane mat racer slide with three drops. The drops are pretty large so you pick up good speed, but they are not as steep as other mat racers. Because of the slide's shortness, I wouldn't say that the slide is as exciting as the other slides in the water park. Snow Stormers on the other hand is a little more exciting because of it's slalom-style flume. This mat slide has three lanes that repeatedly go left and right and has a few small drops to help pick up speed. This slide is a little more exciting and usually has a shorter wait than Toboggan Racers.
Runoff Rapids are three normal inner-tube water slides that sit behind Mount Gushmore. Two are open-flume slides and one is an enclosed-flume. The slides are just like any other inner-tube slide, but these slides last longer than average because of it's higher starting area. The open-flume slides can only be used with double tubes and the enclosed-flume can only be used with the single tubes, so you will need a partner if you want to ride the open-flume slides.
Teamboat Springs is a very long family raft slide that also acts as a slalom with it's long left and right S-bend turns into a final U-turn into a small lazy river section. This water slide also starts at the top of Mount Gushmore and works it's way to the bottom. One great fact about this slide is that the rafts are large enough to fit 6 people at a time, and the slide's loading capacity is very fast because of it's continuous conveyor belt moving the rafts at the top.
Blizzard Beach is an amazing water park that is known in many places around the world and attracts people from around the world as well. But with this much popularity, you can expect lines to be pretty long for many slides. I myself had to wait well over an hour to get on Summit plummet and couldn't bother getting in line for Slush Gusher because of the limited time I had in the park. Fortunately, this was the only problem I saw with the park. Everything else about the water park was great, especially the fact that there were sprinklers placed all over the water park to cool the hot ground from scorching people's feet in the hot Florida weather.
Blizzard Beach is one of the many must-dos if you are visiting Walt Disney World for a few days. It is one of the amazing parks to be experienced with your family and friends. The next time I return, I'll be sure to pay a visit to Walt Disney World's other water park, Typhoon Lagoon.
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| Sign pointing to different slopes. |
Downhill Double Dipper (2): 7/10
Runoff Rapids (Enclosed): 7/10
Runoff Rapids (Open)(2): 6/10
Slush Gusher: N/A
Snow Stormers (3): 7/10
Summit Plummet: 9/10
Teamboat Springs: 7/10
Toboggan Racers: 6/10
Ski Patrol Training Camp (Area contains multiple unnamed water slides): N/A
Other Rides/Attractions
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| A cave leading towards Purple and Red slopes. |
Cross Country Creek (Lazy River): 8/10
Melt-Away (Wave Pool): N/A
Tike's Peak: N/A
Overall Water Park Rating: 9/10
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I love the pictures of this Water Park Resort, thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteCan you ride teamboat springs with 2 people or does it have to be 4 or more?
ReplyDeleteI can't fully remember, but I think you can ride it with just two people. But the rafts are jumbo sized and can fit roughly 6-7 people on-board (depending on the riders), so you'd be pretty lucky if you and your riding partner are not paired up with another group in line.
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