The tropical one
Disney runs two water parks, and the guides split them cleanly: Blizzard Beach is the thrill park, Typhoon Lagoon is the tropical one — lush, shipwreck-themed, and built around the biggest wave pool in North America. If your water park day should feel like a beach vacation inside your beach vacation, this is the pick.
The surf pool runs the show
The wave pool fires off six-foot surf waves on a schedule, and the family vlog on this page — shot on the free water-park day Disney resort guests currently get on check-in day — warns they're no joke: the waves and the body-surfers riding them will knock small kids around. Arrive early, claim your spot on the sand, and treat the pool as the main event it is.
Slides, rated by nerve
- Humunga Kowabunga — the near-vertical speed slide, Typhoon's answer to Summit Plummet
- Miss Adventure Falls — the family raft ride; a conveyor lift hauls the raft uphill past Captain Mary Oceaneer's shipwreck and her animatronic parrot, so nobody carries anything
- Mayday Falls, Keelhaul Falls, and the Storm Slides — the tube-ride middle tier
- The lazy river — the park's built-in recovery lap
Eat the sundae
Disney Food Blog's headline food pick is the Dole Whip Bathtub Sundae at the Snack Shack — an actual bathtub of Dole Whip built for sharing. Surf Doggies covers the hot dogs and giant turkey legs. Their guides also flag the classic pitfalls first-timers hit, from sun management to Florida's pop-up thunderstorms, which can clear the water without warning on any given afternoon.
Who it's for
Families and anyone choosing the relaxed half of Disney's water park pair. Thrill-first groups should read the Blizzard Beach page before deciding — the two parks reward different days.
Sources: the six videos on this page — Disney Food Blog's two water-park guides, a family vlog, a return visit, and two ride features — summarized from their entries in our catalog.