One Day in Blizzard Beach Waterpark, 2023

Blizzard Beach Waterpark, Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, 2023

We arrived at opening, and by the end of the first hour there were still more Cast Members than visitors in the park. All of the slides had little to no wait the entire day, with only short waits to ride the ski-inspired chair lift up the “mountain” where the tallest slides started. Aside from the two large drop slides, there was plenty to do for my roller-coaster averse 10-year old. The water park isn’t as lushly planted as the theme parks and the resorts, but they do well creating an “alpine forest” in the middle of what was once Florida swampland.
We easily filled the 9am-5pm day and could have stayed longer, but I don’t know how different it would have felt if we had to wait in line for attractions or fight for lounge chairs in a busy season.

Seating is located throughout the waterpark, and at first we chose a sandy beachfront spot at Meltaway Bay. Later we moved further back on the beach to distance ourselves from traffic heading to the wave pool. We could have also easily found another paved spot to avoid the extra mess that comes with the “beach” novelty of toes in the sand. Cabana rentals are available for an additional fee.

Towels are free for resort guests; we just had to tell them where we were staying when we picked them up. The main bathroom facilities are large, with showers and changing areas.

Families with very young children will enjoy Tike’s Peak, and with the Frozen theming it feels like the most “Disney” part of the park.

Aside from one spot that required going through a waterfall, the cross country creek was the absolute laziest river experience I’ve had, and took nearly ½ hour to fully complete.

Ski Patrol Training Camp is a great spot for slightly older kids who might not be ready for the larger slides, but want some autonomy in their water activities.

Dining

Breakfast in the park was our traditional Mickey pretzel. We ate lunch at Lottawatta Lodge and it was similar quality to most other Quick Service options. There were plenty of vegetarian options also.

The final (and by far best) snack of our vacation was the 50^th Anniversary EARidescent Ice Dream Cone.

Waterslides

Slush Gusher and Summit Plummet both require guests to be 48” and were fun, but “one and done” slides for my 44 year-old bones. Our family enjoyed the “competition” on the Downhill Double Dipper and the Tobbogin Racers. Both of these are easy to reach without using the chairlift also. Teamboat Springs, like the tallest drop slides, is most easily reached by the Chairlift, but there are no sharp drops so it is the perfect all-family ride. It’s really long too, so it is worth the trouble of reaching.