On this episode, we are back with our Disney Prep series and today are discussing Disney World's Water Parks, Typhoon Lagoon, and Blizzard Beach. Today's July 12th, 2024, this episode 684 of the Main Street Magic Podcasts. Hello and welcome to another episode of Main Street Magic. I'm your host, Jeremy Stein, and as always, I'm joined by my lovely wife, Rhonda. Hey guys, make sure you check us out on the web at MainStemagic.com, as well as follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, Main ST Magic, and on TikTok at MSN Podcast. If you want to be part of the community, and join the conversation in addition to live streams from the parks and our weekly live show, head to Facebook and search for the Main Street Magic Community and ask to join. And don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you can get brand new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Planning a trip to Disneyland or Walt Disney World can be overwhelming and at times just downright frustrating. But don't worry because mouse dining removes the frustration of booking Disney dining reservations, alerting you when they spot availability for your desired restaurant, date, meal, and time. Visit MSMFriends.com to use this free service. So on today's episode, we are going to try to keep cool in this heat and talk about our Disney prep series with the water parks, Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach. Yes, so we'll go over a little bit about each of the water parks, and then we'll give you kind of our tips for going to the water parks, so tips and tricks for going to the water parks. Of course, right now, Typhoon Lagoon is open. Blizzard Beach is closed. We have not seen both water parks open since coming out of the shutdown pandemic COVID and all of that. They have bounced back and forth. Will we ever see water parks both open again? I don't know. And we'll talk about that probably in a little bit here. We'll kind of give some thoughts on that. But we'll start with Typhoon Lagoon, which is the one that is currently open in this open back in 1989. So it is 35 years old. Wow, doesn't look a day over 10. It looks great. Yeah, I'd agree with that. Yeah, they keep the water and this is a thing with the water parks. I will say, you know, not now because I think it's absurd that they're both closed. But, you know, I always I always say to people in in Ronda to like, you know, somebody or myself, even I say it to myself all the time. I talk to myself a lot. You do. Do you answer yourself? I do. Yeah. That's supposedly the bad part. Usually not out loud, but sometimes out loud because it just it's easier. But what was I talking about? No, what was so what was great? No, I was saying why they do things. All right, why they do things is because somebody is counting numbers. Of course. That's why anything does anything. Correct. Except for Costco. Wait, what? Costco does it because Costco. Okay. Costco has things that we love and then they're gone and then they never come back. So maybe is it the fact that they took so long to sell? And I don't think that's it because we can go one week. We can go on a Thursday. That's usually our Costco day and they will have some snack that we love in a lot of it. One week later, it's gone never to be found again. So that's telling me that they sold all of them in one week. Why would you not restock them? I don't I think Costco should do better about their numbers, but everything else like Disney does it all for a reason. There is a reason, be it attendance, be it whatever it is that both water parks have not reopened at the same time. Now what's always been great and we joke about going, Oh, you don't look a day over 10 and the park is 35 years old, is that every other year, these water parks, one of the water parks shut down during the off season. Right. You know, to do refurbs to touch up paint and understandable, but do that in the off season. It is not an off season right now. No, that's what I'm saying. It is hot. That's what I'm saying is they used to. They used to. Both parks were open at the same time during the off season every year they rotated. So one year Blizzard beach was closed during the off season. White typhoon remained open. Then they both opened back up through the busy season. Then the following year typhoon would be closed. Yeah, that's so they could touch up paint. They could replace chair. They could keep these parks looking beautiful and they really, really do a couple of fun facts about typhoon lagoon is it is home to one of the world's largest outdoor wave bowls. Yeah, two and a half acres in size with three million gallons of water, 80,000 of those gallons are used for every single wave. Wow. Are the waves? They're pretty good. They're dangerous, in my opinion. Yeah, it depends on if you're not deep enough, that wave will take you out and you can come up with a scratched face, chin knees. So I would definitely say, definitely be careful with this wave. It is, it is a great wave. You can surf on this wave. Yeah. So in the mornings before it opens, I believe. Yeah, you can actually learn to surf on these waves. Yeah, it's amazing. So they do a, they do an open surf every morning, runs 245 to 310 dollars. This is for like more like you can surf, you know, and so you're going to go in, you're going to get some lessons, but there's going to be multiple people surfing the waves. Or did you know that you can actually basically do private surf runs? So this is the only by the way though, if I ever surfed, if I ever wanted to and wanted to do it, this is where I would do it, because there's no fish, there's no sharks, nothing's going to eat me. I just would hope I wouldn't drown. Well, we're we're actually two of two of the girls friends who share the same name, both surf, Lacey and Kayla and each have a friend that surf. And, and Lacey's friend was telling us that her mom, she was doing surf camp and all she said, her mom's not letting her surf right now because the sharks are there. It's literally shark week, like, like, and Florida TV show, I mean, but it is literally out in the town was down in Vellano Beach, just not too far from us. We were in Crescent Beach and they caught four or so short. I think they ended up with like seven that they caught sharks just shore fishing and brought them in little, little guys, you know, I think some of them were up to probably two feet. Those things can still bite you. They can in New Smyrna, which is an hour south of us is the shark bite capital of the world. Did you know that? Nope. There's the most sharks. Like, I think that probably, I think the shark title for most sharks, technically, I think is Australia or something. But, yeah, New Smyrna Beach, which is just about an hour south of us or so is the shark bite capital of the world. And then Texas had that four in one day and the lady that had the calf that was bit off. Yeah. So my client the other day sells medical stuff and he's his surgeons that are here in the Florida area. Yeah. It was sending him shark bite pictures and showed me and I was like, Oh, God, don't let me look. I was like, I have to watch crazy anatomy like this. I don't want to see that. That's crap's real. I was fascinated with sharks as a kid. Like anytime there was a report or a study, we should watch. I did it on sharks and I remember in a lot of those books, because I didn't have the internet, I had to go to the library and get books. There were a lot of those shark bites and we should watch it. And you know, John Cena does it. Oh, I know. We can watch it. We can stream it. Yeah. Well, we have it on discovery. Yeah, because we pay for discovery. So maybe watch some shark week after this, but we don't really go much in the ocean. So anyway, no, but you can you can literally do a private surf events. And these last three hours and they all before it opens. Correct. They also do evening for both of us. You can also do after the park closes. Okay. But the private surf in the morning runs up to $1,300 and it's actually it comes with, I think it comes with like 50 waves and then you can pay for additional stuff. Stop it. Not crazy. Why? What happens about genius monetize? Yeah. But what happens to the water? Like, why do you pay for more waves? Is it take? What does it take to make a wave? My guess is it's more of a time constraint thing. Like it's allowing more time. Maybe maybe they're maybe they feel it's easier instead of saying you can pay for an extra hour and they can't technically guarantee how many waves you're going to be able to surf in that hour. They guarantee waves. So if they say you can get an extra however many waves, they can guarantee getting you all those waves, but they don't have to put it within a set time limit. I don't know. I just my guess. I have no idea. We need it. But I think this would be so cool. Like if we just were pooping money and we had a bunch of spare, I would I would pay for someone else to do this so I could watch them because I want to go see it. Yeah, I just think it's we can pay for Rita. Oh, would she do it? Oh, yeah, she serves all the time. That's true. She's got that. But yeah, we're going back to the wave pool and then we'll have a couple more fun facts. Don't wear hats in the wave pool. I mean, you can just hold on to it. Just hold on to it. How many did we see four on one wave? And that was just in our general area that floating around. It's Willie. Glasses glasses be very careful about this is a good time to get those straps that will go on your glasses that most everyone wears here in Northeast Florida. I guess like, I don't understand why you're wearing them to Publix. I think some people just leave them on and they don't take them off. I would have to I would have to take it off. I couldn't now it's understandable that you walk into Publix and you you know, you take your glasses off because it also will hang around your neck. But it just it makes me laugh like you'll you will see somebody like they're just walking into Publix and they're like, wow, what are you expecting here? I don't think a wave is going to hit you. But another fun fact, this in 2022, reclaim the title of the most popular water park in the world, admitting Wow, 0.92 million. Yes, that sounds a lot. I'm also going back to the wave pool. And this is going off the top of my head and I didn't look at it. I believe this is the the same technology slightly updated that they used to use for the Polynesian. You know, in the Polynesian, first open, they had in the lake, they had a way. Yes, you told me that surf. Yes, I do remember that. Yep. The Polynesian and the problem was it was causing the water or the beaches to a road. Very quick pace. So they just shut it down. Yeah, it's still under there. Right. Yeah, which is is crazy that it's it's still in there. So there is a defunct shark reef. There are us used to be able up until 2016, you could actually go and snorkel and swim with sharks and all other kinds of animals. Now you just go to the beaches in Florida to do that. But yeah, they closed this down. A lot of people believe it was just based on cost, you know, because operating this and animal care and all of that just cost too much. So they basically filled it in. And there was also there used to be I think it was like an over it looked like an overturned tanker that you could actually view. I think it was inside of it actually view. That'd be a fun fun one to go back and look up videos on YouTube or something of it. Alright, let's go over the same stuff with Blizzard Beach. Blizzard Beach opened in 95. So 29 years ago. Oh, okay, summit plummet is a 120 foot tall water slide with a near vertical drop. Guests accelerate up to 65 miles per hour, making it one of the fastest attractions at Walt Disney World. Oh my goodness. No, I have not summit plonit. What do you do? What do you mean? Well, you've done you've done the one at typhoon, right? The drop one at typhoon. Yeah, I believe those are the storm slots. Yeah, I did that one, but I have not done volcano bay. And I did not do Blizzard Beach. The only other drop thing that I've ever done was on the magic. Oh yeah. And that was the little freaky, but it was super fun. Yeah, that one's cool. I can do that one. But these like the thing with volcano bay and typhoon, if you're going up these slides, you just have to try not to pass out on the way up. You mean you're going up these stairs stairs? Yeah, when you're going up to these slides on the stairs, but what's really cool about Blizzard Beach is they have a chairlift that will take you up there. Oh, yeah. So you don't have to climb all those steps. And this chairlift that takes you to the top of Mount Gushmore was the first of its kind in the state of Florida. Oh, that's cool. So I don't know where other ones currently exist right now, because we obviously don't have skiing Colorado, right? But I'm saying Florida. Yeah. At 3000 feet cross country Creek, which is their lazy river is one of the longest in the country. Really take you 25 to 30 minutes to make a full lap around their lazy river at Blizzard Beach. And also includes one of the world's longest family white water raft rides, Teamboat Springs at Blizzard Beach. All right. I want that to open back up so we can go back. I know. We haven't been to Blizzard in a long time, because during the small window that they opened last year, or we might even I think it was actually this year 2024 now. I don't think we ducked in there. We ducked in or after they added frozen whole theming to the kids area. Yeah. Remember? That was cute. And we didn't even think we went in and closed. Yeah, we went in and closed. We didn't put it in freezing water. It was February for me. So yeah, for this Florida girl. Oh, yeah. All right. Let's talk tickets. Rhonda, what are your base ticket prices or general ticket prices? Because they're the same year round. One day water park ticket is $74 for, of course, 10 and older ages three to nine is 68. You can get a ticket that has block out dates for $64. And then for three to nine, of course, is $58. But I would not suggest that. Yeah, I've been the extra $10. Yeah. Well, look at your, well, just look at your trip. Yeah. You know, if your trip falls within block out dates, then you don't have a choice. You know what I mean? Like, but you have to get the upper ticket. But, but otherwise, you know, if you don't care about what the block out dates are, then go ahead and save that 10 bucks a ticket, you know, a family of four, 40 bucks. That's some of your snacks. Yeah. So now, if you are a pass holder, what can you do as a pass holder? And we take advantage of this a lot. Now we do have the water park add on. So Ron and I, water parks are included with the water park and sports add on. But if you're a pass holder with that, or you're a pass holder without that, you can take advantage of this. Right. So you can, so you can get a one day water park ticket for just $49 plus tax. So you can get it for yourself if you don't have the adder ones, or you can get them for anybody else like Jeremy and I did for the girls. We, they don't like each other right now as I keep telling everybody. So we took them separately. We took Caitlyn and her boyfriend, and it was only a hundred, a little over a hundred bucks for both of them to go. And then we took Lacey and Kendall. And because Jeremy and I have the water park add ons and we can go like air quote unquote anytime. And we do take advantage most of the time when it is really hot out like it is right now. We always put some water park time. Absolutely. So we always tell the people that we're with like, Hey, take, have fun. When you feel like you've gotten your $50 worth or $50 worth. When you children feel like you've gotten our $50 worth, we'll go. We'll go. But it works out. It is. It's you. Yeah. It usually works where, and what's fantastic is it not only works where it's that long, it works right around two, three o'clock where that's about when thunderstorms start to roll in anyways. So yeah, and this is for you and up to three guests of any type. So, you know, they don't have to be pass holders or anything, obviously. So, you know, I look at right now, if we went with our good friends, Rob and Tina, who have two kids, the eight of us could go. And we could purchase between Rhonda and I because I can get an extra three tickets. I've already got one. Rhonda can get an extra three. She already has one. So we can actually go with up to six other people that can take advantage of this deal. Other great part is you can buy them online. Yeah. You do not have to go to the ticket window or anything. Now, if you if they don't have a card, you know, or a magic band already, whoever you're buying these for, you might want to get one. Otherwise, you can just scan in with your phone. But yeah, it's you go online, you make sure you're signed in as a pass holder, and it will offer you these $49 tickets. You assign them to the person in my Disney experience when you're basically paying and it's super easy. It's such a good deal. If if if $74 per person for a one day waterpark ticket or 49 for a pass holder sounds like too much, just you know what? Go for free. Mm hmm. Go for free in 2025. Yeah, because Disney Resort Hotel guests arriving in 2025 can enjoy admission to one of the water parks, whichever one is open on their check in day. And it is completely free for everybody on your resort reservation on your check in day only. So that for anybody that is just a couple of dry hour driving away. Yeah, this is perfect for y'all, you know, get up, get your bathing suits on, be there. I'm assuming just like kind of universal does you have to check into your hotel room first? We don't know yet. Okay. Yeah, we don't know completely, but I would almost I think no, because remember, universal is relying on key cards. So, so, you know, same with like Express Pass, you know, if you get one of the legacy deluxe resorts at universal, you can't just go straight to the park. You have to go get your key card for your room. So key card is also your Express Pass. I'm guessing with Disney, that won't be an issue. You can go straight to the water park, because everything's going to be within my Disney experience. And you're going to be able to scan right there and verify, we'll be my guests. All right. I, or another thing that sound well, another thing that that Disney could end up doing, I don't think they will because it will cost them money is, you know, people get these packages. Now, if you're, if you're, if you're local, not as much, but people that are like flying and all and have booked these packages, you're going to get that mailing of your added benefits, which includes some things like, you know, mini golf and whatever, you're going to get luggage tags. If you're coming from a distance and it's possible, they could then include, you know, hard tickets for these maybe, but I doubt it, because again, it's an extra cost for them. But I have a feeling you'll be able to go right in and scan it. Well, there you go. Because think about things like early entry, they early entry, they scan your magic band or your ticket that you already have, your room key that you already have. I'm sorry, yeah, your ticket to verify that you're staying at a Disney resort to get in. So there would be no need for them to do it here. I think this is an incredible perk. Oh, absolutely. Anybody can say whatever they want, this cost you nothing and it affects you in zero, if you can't make it in time to enjoy the water park on check in day. Okay. What did you lose? Nothing. Yep. Now you might want to decide to adjust your plans a little bit. And if you're flying, and you know, usually you know, you can't check into like three or four and you're like, well, we're going to fly out at this time, you know, just change it a little bit. So you can be here a lot sooner. Just, you know, of course, factor in, you know, travel time as far as in getting like from the airport, which usually takes about an hour to get to Disney. Yep. So, you know, just, yeah, I mean, yeah, factor all that. Yeah. But, but even I look at it as, you know, this might be a way to adjust your plans. You come a night early and you stay off property, you know, you got Marriott points, burn in a hole in your pocket, go stay off property, pack one little extra bag, you know, because let's just say you end up paying 150 bucks. Or again, it's free with Marriott, but let's just say it'd be 150 bucks for something over in Flamingo crossing for a family of four, you save 300 on waterpark tickets. So, or I think of like Chuck and Amy, you know, they live about eight hours. A lot of times they'll split that drive and they'll drive four hours because they'll get out of work. They'll drive four hours, they'll stay the night somewhere. And then they get up, they drive another four. And most of the time they're at Disney before lunch. Yep. So, you know, they'd be able to take advantage of that. Another thing to think about is, you know, let's just say you're a passholder with waterpark add on like we are. Okay. I could go, Oh, what do we get? You know what we get? Let's just say we take the girls. All right. Next summer, we want to do the same thing. Right. We take Kaitlyn, we take Talon, we stay on Disney property. Both of their names are on the resort. Boom. Both of them are free that day that we go down. You know, another, another great thing I think you could do. And same thing, if you don't have our waterpark add on just as a passholder in general, you know, you're still saving that money. Right. Another thing that I mentioned in the past, if you were coming down and you're doing a week long stay, I don't know, maybe you consider a split stay. You would get to then you could go to a park on your day of arrival. And if you can't make that one, when you do that split day and you use it maybe midweek is like a rest day, you're checking into another hotel, there's going to be time for them to transfer your luggage. So you throw on a bathing suit and you guys go here and it's still a check in day and you enjoy however many free tickets. So I think it's an incredible park. Yep. And I love that they're doing that. All right. Let's get into some of our top tips and these will be good for both blizzard beach and typhoon lagoon. Yes. What is number one, Rhonda that we do every time we thought we think is one of the best. And this goes for the theme parks for a lot of people. But yeah, but this one is especially because you're trying to get a chair and excuse me, in our case, umbrella. When I say rope drop, I mean, be 30 minutes early to rope drop. So that's what we usually do. We're usually leaving our house about 730. It is getting us literally about 930. And we're there if not a little sooner than 930 walking in at 930 in line. And then it does not open until 10. So and then we're they kind of, you know, let's see, I think it's 945. 945 around then 94945. They'll open the turnstiles and stuff corralling you in right to then funneling you to one of two areas, basically. Correct. And then you can kind of go one across the bridge or two down to your right and through other areas. But the cross the bridge is a typhoon. Yes, sorry. And then the cross the bridge one, I like it's because it's near the wave pool. And yeah, you just stand there until 10 o'clock and they'll blow some whistles and they'll and then they'll kind of, you know, tell you to please walk and then you can go. And that's just super great because every single time, Jeremy is just the type and kind of me too now where I need an umbrella. Like I like to hide from the sun every once in a while. And it's fantastic. So and they have plenty around. They also sell some little Mickey one. Yeah, and those are the only ones you can use. You can't bring your own umbrella just so you know, it has to be one of the purchased ones that they have. If those things don't sound like something you want to do, you can actually rent umbrellas. Oh, and we've done this before. Yeah, so you can rent umbrellas is one of the options. This is a large, much larger umbrella. Yes. And these run $49 to $99 plus tax. And of course, that's dependent on the season. We're height of summer. They're 99 right now. 100%. But this gives you a large beach umbrella. It's a dedicated area. It's a large beach umbrella, two reserved lounge chairs, two beach chairs, a drink table, and then towels for your party. So we love these and they are well worth the cost. Yes, we think. But we've been very successful by also doing rope drop. Yes. And you know, for us to saving the $100. Yeah. Right. And saving the $100. So that is certainly an option. If you really want to chill and have some space, you got a little bit of a larger party, they do have some cabanas, shacks they have. So a standard cabana is going to run you 225 to 375 total plus tax. That will accommodate up to 10 people has cushioned seating for six guests. So 10 people are allowed to be in there. But only six are going to be able to sit down. So the four people you'd like the least can just stand the whole time. This will come with towels. There's a locker right in there. This comes with cold water. There's a cooler as well, which will be filled with cold waters all day long. And then each person in your party gets a souvenir refillable mug. You know, those are running $13 each. So a party of 10. That's $130 savings, kind of right there. You also get a dedicated attendant. So you do not have to deal with going and using mobile order or going to stand in line, you can order directly through them. And there's also going to be some additional options, like family style, nacho platter. I believe they do a family chicken and fries or something like that. But there's some additional family pretzels to family pretzels. Yep, you get a whole batch of pretzels for everybody. Now they also have a deluxe cabanas. Now these run 300 to 450 plus plus tax. This will accommodate up to 12 guests and give cushion seating for eight. Also towels, locker, cold water, souvenir refillable mugs, and your dedicated attendant. We have done this. Yes. And it is awesome. Yes, it is. You know, this is another one though that I think of like, okay, you're thinking to go into the water park on your trip anyway, right? You're budgeting $300 for your family of four. Now in your arrival day, it's free. So instead, you decide you're going to spend the whole, you're getting in early, you're going to spend the whole day at the water park chilling. And instead, you're going to spend that 300 that you budgeted on a cabana for your family. That'd be awesome. Which would mean I like, I would love to do this with just like four of us. A few people. You know, we did it and we split it amongst a couple families and we filled the thing out and everybody just paid kind of their own way. And it's a really good way to do it. Oh, absolutely. You know, you think about if this is going to run you 300 and it accommodates 10 people, that's what $30 a person, you know, so family of four, pay your way in $120, you get the cabana, you're already saving. Now at this point, $48 unrefillable mugs, you're saving, you know, money on water. You know, if you don't have towels, then you can go ahead and, you know, get those included. All right. We, you know, we say all the time, bring sunscreen, bring sun protection. You're going to really, really need it here. You know, you're getting out of water. Make sure you reapply. Yeah, I think a lot of people forget that. Yes. But this is also the time, you know what, by that big goofy hat, like I wear a goofy hat or goofy hat, but by that big brimmed, you know, sun hat, the big straw ones, they actually sell them there. We have a typhoon and a blizzard one. I wear it when I'm going to be out in the sun. You've actually worn it like we need another one. I know. I know the typhoon ones wearing out because they didn't make them to get wet. I actually wish they would have made it of like faux strap. I know, but I wish they would have made it of like faux straw the way that they make some outdoor furniture would have been really good. But sunglasses, you know, swim shirts are really, really good here. Long sleeve swim shirts can be even better. Like, And if you forget any of this, they sell it all. Trust me, they sell it all. And we purchased a lot of it. Yeah, we didn't even need it. For towel rental, how does, how does that, how does towels work in general? We'll just say that. Well, you have to bring your own. You can. Yeah, you can bring your own towel. Right. From either your house or if you bring if you're staying at the resort, no, do not do that, please. Oh, my bad. I did it. Way to set it up so I could tell them not to because I would have forgotten. That was a great setup. Okay. Very good setup. But you can rent towels for $2 each. But if you're a Disney resort guest, you get them for free. Yes, you get them there. That's why you don't need to bring them from the resort. Yeah, that's. You can walk in and they will give them. Why? Yes. It's exactly the direction you were headed. But yeah, like we bring our own, you know, we put again, we're not traveling from afar. If you are flying and you think of, well, I got to pack four extra beach towels, where those fitting, then if you're staying on property, they're included. If not, they're only two bucks each, right? You can also rent lockers. So if you are worried about your valuables, which is perfectly understandable, I will say we have never had an issue. Thank God. Well, I won't go any further. People start targeting us. Hey, the Steins are heading to the water park today. And I know for a fact, they leave solid gold bars in their bag. Right. Because that's what we have. Unattended by anyone. Right. But, um, but yeah, you can't actually rent lockers. The standard is going to run a 10 per day, a large is going to be 15 per day. So if again, if you're concerned and you want to, when you're going out to the wave pool, you're going out to do all the amazing slides, you're getting lunch, whatever, uh, you can put your valuables in that locker. Um, but also honestly would be really smart. If your plan is to use the facilities that you're, while you're there to shower and change, because of whatever reason, you know, you can't just go back to your resort or something do it, but you want to change. It's a good place to keep those clothes to keep them dry and sand free. That's true. You know, so I think it's well worth otherwise you're going to, you know, you're going to go shower, you're going to wash everything off, and then you're going to put on these clothes that somebody kicked sand on in your beach, but you know, in your bag while it was sitting there. So, um, you got to think about that some. All right. What about, what about phones? We have, we have done some, we've done some testing in the past with, with phones and water. Well, what do you mean? Like the one iPhone cases and stuff? Oh, yeah, like the life proof cases where you can take them in the water and stuff. Yes. Um, also when iPhone was like, Oh, it's water resistant. And I was like, all right. And I said up to so many. Yes. Yep. That was not true. Um, because my phone broke. Anyway, it's, um, but they do have those cool, like, and I, I think I want to do this one of the next times. Um, there's plastic clear where you can put your phone in and it keeps it from getting water in and you can still take pictures. You can still do all the things. Um, and I would just strap around your nap. Yep. I would highly suggest those and get them on Amazon. They can sell them there. Um, and the main reason I will is because we were sitting there and this, um, poor lady came up and said, can I borrow a phone? We saw us sitting under our umbrella and she said that, um, they went to ride a ride and the person that was there is gone and he's nowhere to be found. So she called a couple of numbers on my phone and he didn't answer. So I hope she found her person. Yeah. But, um, that's collect calls. So we got to pay all that off. She was calling, um, Uruguay. Okay. Um, and here's one thing I will say if you're going to do that, buy a good one. Yeah. You go to Amazon and find them for $4.99 to skip right on past that one. Go for a good name brand one. Honestly, read the reviews. Yes. Because these aren't guaranteed and you buy that one for cheap on Amazon. Uh, nobody's going to give, uh, you know what, if it leaks water into there and ruins your phone. Yeah. You know, and then you're really screwed. So, uh, pay the money for a good one. Uh, what's next that I think is an absolute game changer that you can do here. You can bring a cooler and no loose ice, but plenty of alcoholic beverages, no glass. Right. But plenty of like ice packs. You can even do loose ice in a ziplock bag. If you're like, I'm going to put some ice in my drink or stuff like that. Yeah. Pack in your, in your carry on or your suitcase, um, a bunch of ziplock bags, you know, and, and that goes well for here, but also if you're taking coolers into the park because you've got ice for free at the resorts at the ice machines, but if you have nothing to put them in, then that's not going to help you. So pack ziplock bags. Yeah. And then you can fill those up and put them in there. But what can you, what can you bring in your cooler if you can't bring alcohol or glass? Well, you definitely don't bring alcohol in glass. Uh, you can bring anything you want any drinks, Jeremy drinks, caffeine free drinks, you know, so bring any of those, bring your caffeine, bring your red bowls, bring your, whatever your favorite drink is and, um, food, bring your pub subs, bring, um, yeah, whatever. I mean, that's great. And, and you can have a rolling cooler. You can have, it doesn't matter. It just means it means no loose ice, like, and no glass of no alcohol. They will ask to look in your cooler. But it's not, it's not a very thorough, um, search. No, it's not. So take that for whatever you want. But, um, yeah, I think this, and, and here's the thing, the food at Thai food and blizzard is, is nothing that's going to wally up. There's a couple items there. You can't get other places, but it's nothing that's just going to blow your socks off. Like, for example, volcano bay kills it at their dining. Yeah. You know, vol, I would say if you're going to volcano bay, go ahead and budget to buy some food there because they got some great stuff. They have really good stuff that is well-themed to volcano bay. I really think Disney just phones it in when it comes to quick service dining at blizzard and Thai food. Yeah. You know, it's, it's burgers, it's chicken tenders. Um, you can get, we got a hot dog last time. Yeah, we got the footlong hot dog, which was good. It was really good. Had a nice snap to it. Yeah. It was actually delicious. It was. And you got the jalapeno cheddar, um, pretzel stuffed pretzel. That was really good. We eat last time and we had lazy and of course you got chicken tenders. But what I would say, bring your pub subs, bring whatever, like, like you can make peanut butter and jelly, make stuff to have in your cooler to eat and save that money and go get a sand bucket ice cream. And fucking ice cream. Holy moly. I think so easily feeds four. Oh, easily. Um, but that's it. I wouldn't try to, like the family of four that was us is a man, you, me, and then the two 14-year-old girls. Yeah. And we cleaned that bucket. Um, so if somebody else was with us, I would want to be getting, they would have been out of luck. They would have gotten any ice cream. I would have wanted to get to, but it's really good because there's cake in there. There's chocolate and vanilla ice cream and Oreos and fudge. I think caramel and what cream. Oh my God. So good. It in the alt. Oh, and waffle pieces. Oh my gosh. And all of it together is fantastic. It is so delicious. So that is what I would suggest. Yeah. Yeah, because it's, it's, it is a huge savings. And again, there's nothing, there's no reason to spend money here. Yeah, on, on a lunch. They're just really, really isn't. Um, or, or the drinks, you know, we, we talked last time, a couple episodes ago when we went to typhoon about the refillable mugs, you know, they're specific to typhoon lagoon. They're not the ones getting at the resort. Right. So $13, they're refillable all day. You can bring them back and refill them or get them reactivated for 850. But you have to think about is that worth the price if you can bring stuff in now. Correct. Some people can't, you know, for us, anybody local, it's real easy to say, I'm going to stop by Publix on the way. I'm going to get a couple pub subs. I'm going to throw them in a cooler. I'm going to grab some ice teas, whatever, add some bags of chips and we're good to go. That's easy. Right. If you are coming down and you're staying DVC and you have a kitchen and you've already done your vacation, vacation grocery delivery order, you know, work this in there. So you have it. Now, if you're coming down for three or four nights, you have no intention of having snacks or food in your room. You could still have vacation, grocery delivery, bring you pub subs and stuff like that. So they could specific for this day or this might be one where you go ahead and just say, we're going to purchase lunch there. You know, it might not be of value to you, but we just want to cover all of those options. Photo Pass is available at the water parks. Not only will you have some character meet and greets like Stitch is often out at Typhoon Lagoon and they do have Photo Pass. Sometimes they will have Photo Pass photographers at the rides and they they will hand you a wristlet, like the ones we love for Epcot festivals, a wristlet with the Photo Pass code on it that you can then go enter in my Disney experience and retrieve your photos. So it's really, really cool. Like take advantage of that. You know, or if you have memory maker, of course, for your trip, use it here as well. Absolutely. What's something people could do that we don't do? But I talk about every time we do. You should do. Yeah, I need, I need to. I'm fine. Yeah. But, um, water shoes. Yeah. Um, you know, you can't wear, like if you've got crocs and stuff or flip flops, I don't know if you're considering those water shoes, I understand that yes, they can get wet and it's not like they're heavy in stopping wet, but they do make specific water shoes that you can wear on the rides and stuff. Yeah, and in the wave pool and all those. Yes. And one, they're, they're just, they're just good for that. But two, while Disney does a good job of trying to keep walkways sprayed down, not all of them are, neither is the sound and I'm not kidding. You can burn and blister your feet on these sidewalks or in the sand. Yeah. So water shoes are great for that. Um, and another thing I will say when Ron is talking about your crocs or your flip flops, you know, obviously you can't take those on rides. Um, and you can't take them in the wave pool and all, but what you could do is when you, uh, go to get your meals or you go to refill your, you know, your beverage or you go whatever, put them on. Oh, yeah. Before you go walking anywhere, you know, don't think, well, I'm barefoot for the rest of the day. Um, something to think about. Um, like anything with the heat, stay hydrated. Yeah. And take breaks. Yes. You know, um, here a good break is in the water. Mm-hmm. You know, it's the lazy river. Yep. Really. Yep. Uh, these lazy rivers can get very packed. Mm-hmm. And we're, we're not going to talk about like all the, we're not going to run all the rides, right? All the attractions. But what we will say is what you want to do is if you're arriving at rope drop, you want to, you do want to have a plan for typhoon lagoon for us. It is immediately head to misadventure for us and ride that. Yep. Then go to crush and gusher. Mm-hmm. And then basically counterclockwise around the park. Yeah. We're not touching the wave pool. We're not touching the lazy river at that point. Midday is a good time to start to look at one of those, the lazy river or the wave pool. Um, usually I feel like the, the lazy river is better to wait a little bit more in the afternoon when the sun is really beating down. Yeah. Between like two and four really is when it's going to be the hottest and the sun is the worst if there isn't a storm. Right. Um, so that might be the time that you say for lazy river, but the lazy river will get packed. If you truly want it to be lazy, then go first thing. Yeah. When nobody's in it, but it will get to a point where you're tube to tube. Yeah. I mean, you know, and it's true. And it really can. Yeah. Um, so if you really want that rewind or that relax and, you know, whatever, unwind and relax, then you want to go there like first, but, um, but have somewhat of a plan, you know, attacked the family raft rides first at both parks. Mm-hmm. You know, work your way to the kind of water coasters. Um, and then the rest. Yeah. Um, you can walk right past May Day falls. Nobody needs to go out to May Day fall. Is that the bumpy one? Yes. Oh, Lord. I don't, I, I, I would love to know if there were speed bumps in it prior. I don't think it was part of the original design. I think it was originally built and then they added speed bumps because too many people fell out and too fast. It has to be. I mean, it's crazy. Because design, if they designed it the way that it is, they should have their design card revoked. You're no longer allowed to work in water parks. Yeah. Because it, it, it's uncovered. It's not fun. No. So I would say you could, you could skip that. Um, especially during the summer now, they're open till 8 p.m. Nice. Come in the evenings. Yeah. And you know, we're talking about this free day on your check-in day in 2025. It doesn't mean you need to be there at 10 a.m. when they open. True, true, true. If you get in at noon, chances are you didn't buy a park ticket for that day, right? Yeah. Now, maybe you did get an after hours or you're doing the Christmas party or something that night, whatever, but chances are you're going to hang around the resort anyway. Why not head over here during the summer next year or when they're open till 8 or even 6? Get over here at 4 p.m. 6 p.m. and enjoy two hours instead of going to the pool at your resort, which you're going to have an opportunity to enjoy the whole trip that you're there. Correct. Go here. It's nothing. It costs you nothing if you come over here using Disney transportation and stay for two hours. Yeah. It only costs if you get a sand pelt. Exactly. Yeah, which you should do. So, it costs you $17.99 for four people. Any more than that. So, we will hopefully finally be doing a full review on H2O glow after hours at Disney's Typhoon Lagoon. We're giving it our third attempt on the 26th. Hopefully third time's a charm. I hope so. But you can splash into the magic and enjoy lower wait times for popular attractions at this three hour nighttime event. This runs from May 25th to August 31st on select nights and it runs from 8 to 11 p.m. These tickets are $75 on the Tuesdays that they have left $85 on Fridays and Saturdays. And as an AP, you get a $15 discount. That's right. So, for Ron and I, this was 60 bucks a ticket. Yep. Which was great. You can still get these on in July on the 13th, 16th, 20th, 26th, and 30th. We were planning to go on the 26th. And then you can get these a remainder of August or all of August the 2nd, 10th, 17th, 24th, and 31st. I just needed to stop raining and storming. I know. I know. So, yeah, they illuminated up at night. I'm excited to see this. Did you know this part? You get complimentary ice cream novelties popcorn and select beverages. So, like Mickey bars. Yeah. How many Mickey bars are you going to eat? I'm going to eat one Mickey bar and one ice cream sandwich. And then let's at least do a bucket of popcorn. And we'll see. Can we take our own bucket beverage? I don't know. And they just, I know they're going to hand you the thing anyway. Oh, we can just hand to and we'll just pour it into it. And we'll just pour it into it. That sounds good. You can enjoy your rides again with lower wait times and you can move and groove to hot beats during a DJ dance party. Well, then obviously we need to be over there for that and get a little stages. I would like to be near there. Yeah. And then you also get to see some beloved Disney characters. So, I believe I've seen Phineas and Ferb are typically there. So that would be cool. Yeah. So again, we don't want to break down like every ride. We've done episodes in the past on that, but you can go, I would say do your research and look at the rides. Both, you know, it used to be which one was better for kids, right? But now it doesn't matter if only one is open. Right. And I was just going to go into that. But if it does feel free, though, to break down the two kids areas. Well, and I was just going to say, if it does come down to back to both of them opening, I think Blizzard Beach is much more young kid friendly. Yeah. Suitable. Yes. It's better for the younger kids. But typhoon is a hole is much better for teenagers and up. Yes. It is great, though. They've got really cute little water park or blast park areas for that. Both of them for both kids. But yeah. Yeah. The one at Blizzard. I was just thinking because in typhoon, you know, like you'd be careful if you take a baby in the wave pool. But I saw a guy and I lost track of sight. He was heading up there with a baby. I like a tiny baby and going up. And I just was thinking what the wave had said a bunch of hats floating by. They're just babies left and right. Just floating right through the water. You're picking them up, handing them to a lifeguard. Somebody lost this. Yeah. I don't know whose baby this is. That would be scary. That would be don't take don't do that with a baby. Yeah. But there are life jackets, by the way, speaking of that jackets for all ages sizes, even Jeremy's size. Yes. Um, Lacey actually. Like they even have giant ones. Um, Lacey actually got one because I think she wanted to float or something out in the lazy river because there was so many tubes. Yeah, but also, I think she was attributing it in the way that you put on the life jackets. You're required over at the crazy river. We call it right volcano, but she just, I think there was the tubes in that situation. So she put that on, um, which was super funny, but yeah. So, so if you do have young children, don't worry, um, that they can still enjoy the wave pool, um, with a life jacket. Yes, they can. And we, and we, and we, I mean, we're joking, but just, just be careful. There's obviously lifeguards everywhere. Yeah. But keep your eyes on your little ones when you're in that wave pool. Even if, you know, we said this before, you know, people will sit. There's like, um, retaining stone walls with kind of built in, you know, concrete seating and the waves can still smack up against those. Oh, yeah, it does. When you're sitting in, you know, um, knee deep water or two to three inches of water, it can still drag you when those waves come in. Yeah, it does. Like seriously, I mean, it's, yeah, it's humiliating. That's what it is. Grow man to flip flopping. Meanwhile, I'm trying to catch babies. So none get loose, but that will cover our Disney prep water park series, I guess, with a typhoon and blizzard. Um, we've got, uh, fun episodes coming up, couple of great trips. Um, we are in the thralls of, of, of planning all the holidays. Um, you know, Mickey's, yeah, Mickey's not so scary. Jolly Wood Knights. Mickey's very Merry Christmas party, which is super exciting for all of that. We'll be bringing all that type of stuff to you. And then, uh, yeah, hit the subscribe button. You get brand new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. And of course, while you're out there, we would be very thankful if you could please leave us a rating and review because it helps our show grow. That's all we've got. We'll see you real soon. Jeremy and Ronda are more than a little pond of Disney World. So they made this podcast to share it all with you. Reports and resorts, top 10 lists of all sorts, Main Street Magic's bringing it home for you. [BLANK_AUDIO]
Jeremy and Rhonda are back with their Disney Prep series where they get you ready for your trip and this time talk about Disney's two water park offerings, Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach, to talk history, fun facts, costs, and tips and tricks to make the most of your day.
