One Family's Disney Vacation: Day 3 -- Blizzard Beach

Our third day in exciting Orlando, Florida brought us to the moment that one member of our party was most excited about. I won't tell you who, but I'll give you a hint.  In our family of four, this person is the only one who doesn't wear a two piece bathing suit.  Welcome to Blizzard Beach!

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The park looks like a frosty ski resort—complete with a functioning chair lift. It's an action-packed water wonderland with exciting waterslides and attractions for the whole family.

We arrived at the water park before it opened, and waited with the other water lovers for the rope drop.  Once that happened, we hightailed it over to the wave pool to stake out our primo seats under the shade of the palm trees.  After settling in and lathering up with some sunblock, we headed over to the chair lift to ride to the top of the "mountain" for our first waterslide ride, Teamboat Springs. This is a family raft ride down a winding river. Big kids, teens and adults can all ride together in a large raft that holds 4 to 6 people.  

Even early in the day, the wait for this ride was starting to back up, and it was already pretty hot.  Thank goodness for the misting stations along the cue for the ride!  

The whole family enjoyed this ride, and as a parent it was great to have a slide we could all participate in together.  I loved watching the girls faces as we rode down the slide and splashed down at the bottom.  The girls declared this attraction a hit!

Next, Paul really wanted to go to the Summit Plummet.  This premier waterslide attraction for big kids, teens and adults is not for the faint of heart. At a "chilling" 120 feet high, this sky-scraping ski jump of a thrill ride down the slopes of Mount Gushmore is one of the world's tallest and fastest free-fall body slide.  However, neither of the girls was down for that slide, so while he was off to defy death, the girls and I headed over to Runoff Rapids.

Runoff Rapids are three different inner tube waterslides. Each flume is different; the center slide is fully enclosed and accommodates one rider at a time. The two outer slides can accommodate rafts that hold up to 2 people.  On our first attempt, we grabbed one double tube and one single tube.  The girls rode in the double tube and I got the single.  When we got to the bottom of the slide, the girls wanted to do it again, and knowing that the wait for Paul at Summit Plummet would be long, we headed back up the stairs for a second ride.  This time Ellie took the single tube and Maggie and I doubled up.

We decided to head back to our spot at the wave pool, and on our way there we found Paul, who had just finished his slide. Another big hit!  Ellie wanted to go do Runoff Rapids again, so she and Paul headed there while Maggie and I went to the wave pool.

After playing in the pool for a while, and grabbing a frozen lemonade, Ellie and Paul returned from their slide and we all decided to relax in Cross Country Creek. This is Blizzard Beaches' lazy river attraction where you grab an inner tube raft, put your feet up and chill out in this gently meandering stream that flows around the perimeter of Disney's Blizzard Beach Water Park. Pass through polar caves—large cave-like tunnels—and under gentle, misty waterfalls as your raft drifts aimlessly along. This would have been a very nice experience, if not for the plethora of people who insisted on pushing their way through the people who were just calmly riding in their tubes.  Rudeness abounded on this attraction.

After that, we headed back to the wave pool.  As I am not the biggest fan of water parks I decided to head back to the resort to relax a little before our night out at Disney's Boardwalk and our dinner at Kouzzina by Cat Cora.  Paul and the girls stayed for another couple of hours of waterslide fun!