The coolest way to start a trip: a day at the Blizzard Beach water park in Walt Disney World
Blizzard Beach is one of the two water parks at Walt Disney World resort, the other being Typhoon Lagoon.
Water park admission
What’s really cool about 2025 Walt Disney World hotel reservations is that you automatically get admission to a Walt Disney World water park on your day of check-in! I’m not sure if only one water park is ever open at a time, but during our trip, Typhoon Lagoon was closed while Blizzard Beach was open, so to Blizzard Beach we went!
Since the water park admission came complimentary with our booking, we didn’t feel super pressured to “make the most out of the day”, and actually decided to take it easy. We took our time checking in and settling into our room before heading to Blizzard Beach in the afternoon.
In order to get to Blizzard Beach from our hotel, Art of Animation, we had to take the bus to Animal Kingdom, then transfer to Blizzard Beach from there.
Blizzard Beach
Theming
I love that Blizzard Beach has a snow resort type theme to it - it’s so cute and funny in contrast to the Florida heat! I also thought it was cute how they were able to integrate Frozen into the children’s area too with Olaf and the little snowmen!
The slopes and water slides were all snow and winter-themed as well which was really fun!
Lockers
There are lockers available to rent inside the water park - there are different sizes available for different prices. Each locker rental is good for the day with in and out access. Since we had a few people and we all brought our backpacks, we split a large locker for $15 for the day it was big enough for all of us to use.
Towels
They also offer free towel rentals which are near the lockers as well. It’s easy to access, but the line can get long at times.
Leaving our belongings
We found a small area in the shade with some small chairs to stow our towels and shoes for the day. Lots of people all around the left their simple belongings unattended and there didn’t seem to be any issues. Of course, it warrants a reminder that all valuables should be kept with you or safely in a locker and not left out in case someone does happen to grab your things! Since the towels were rented from the park anyway, we didn’t see any issue leaving them out in the open.
Slopes
There are different slopes identified by color throughout the water park to help you navigate and find the water slides / rides you’re looking for. This was really helpful when we were looking for a particular slide!
Cross Country Creek
This is Blizzard Beach’s lazy river. Since it loops around the park and has lots of openings, it’s a fun easy way to get around! I did notice that one particular entrance near the Ski Patrol Training Camp area was backed up and crowded with people waiting for tubes. If you see a long line, I’d recommend going to a different entrance because none of the others were nearly as busy and there’s plenty of empty tubes scattered around the creek!
Chairlift
At the center of the water park is the Chairlift, which basically works exactly like a snow resort chairlift which brings guests to the top of the Green Slope. This is where some of the larger/longer water slides are like the biggest slide, Summit Plummet.
The line for the lift was pretty long throughout the day (wait times ranged from 30-50 minutes), but towards the end of the day there was pretty much no wait. If you don’t want to wait for the lift, there are also stairs you can take to the top of the Green Slopes as well.
Water attractions
Teamboat Springs
This was my favorite water slide! This is the only water slide where you can ride as group in a large raft. It’s really fun and exciting and even more fun because you get to ride with your friends! The slide is huge and when the raft slides up the sides it’s quite terrifying but in a really fun way! We had so much fun with this ride, we had to ride it twice!
Runoff Rapids
The Runoff Rapids was a set of water slides that were also really fun! There are two open water slides and one enclosed one, and you can choose which one to go down once you’re at the top. It’s speedy but not too fast, so young kids and adults can both enjoy it!
Summit Plummet
This is the tallest slide in the water park, and the drop is near-vertical. This slide doesn’t use any sort of raft or tube, so you slide down with just your body. I was personally too scared to ride this one, but my friends did it and they got absolutely SOAKED from this slide. This one’s definitely not for the feint of heart.
Toboggan Racers
For these slides, you slide belly down on a mat. The slides are set up like race track lanes so each person takes a different lane and you basically race to the bottom on your mat! It gets pretty fast at the drops, but also if you don't have enough momentum, you’ll end up stopping short of the finish line (which is what happened to me both times 😂). So you just gotta take the plunge and try to go as fast as you can!
This one’s fun and pretty quick since there are so many lanes, so we were able to ride it twice!
Snow Stormers
This is another fun and easy water slide. This one’s great for smaller kids and anyone who’s a little nervous about going down the faster slides. I love the smaller slides for warming up to the bigger ones!
Ski Patrol Training Camp
This is a section of the park that’s mostly catered towards younger kids, though everyone is able to hang out in it. They have a pool area with monkey bar activities and water floe floaties around that is pretty fun! I didn’t try the monkey bars but I floated around with the floes for a little bit!
They have some small water slides that I did end up trying since I didn’t want to do the Summit Plummet. The slide was surprisingly faster than I expected and I ended up taking a pretty big plunge into the water pool and got super soaked from it too.
There’s also a really fun set of water slides in this area called Cool Runners, which was really fun and also really short. The water pool at the end of the slide is also very shallow since it’s good for small kids, but I liked it since I was certain I could reach the bottom! This is also a really great warm-up slide, but I also liked it so much I rode it a few times!
Food
There are different food options at Blizzard Beach, though we didn’t spend too much time eating here since we got to the park later in the day. There are larger cafeteria-like dining options and also shacks that are good for snack and quick-service foods.
Joffrey’s Mini Donuts
Location: Joffrey’s
Price: $10.99 (dozen)
These mini donuts at Joffrey’s were warm, fluffy, and sweet! We could smell the donut smell from afar which is what drew us to the little shack! We didn’t realize that you could get them cinnamon-flavored so we only got the sugar donuts, but they were still great and hit the spot! Next time, I’m opting for the cinnamon though!
Elote Nachos with Pork
Location: Warming Hut
Price: $12.49
Something about water parks and finger foods really go well together! I really enjoyed these nachos! Not sure if it’s just because I was hungry from playing in the water, but they were quite delicious! The chips were crispy, the cheese and pork was tasty, and the elote flavor was good! I only wish the portion was larger!
Recap
Even though it was a short day at the water park, it was so much fun! We got to lots of the water slides - any of the ones we didn’t get on were ones we weren’t that interested in riding anyway. We rode the slides we enjoyed multiple times, got to chill in the lazy river, hang out in the wave pool for a bit, and get something to eat!
It was busiest in the afternoon, but by the late afternoon a lot of people had cleared out so the last hour or so was really chill. This was when we got to re-ride anything we particularly enjoyed, which was really nice!
The main dining options were mostly busy while we were there, but using mobile order when we could was convenient, as was eating at off-meal times.
The 4-5 hours that we were able to enjoy the park was actually enough for us since we were still able to take the day easy. So while I probably wouldn’t purchase tickets to visit Blizzard Beach, I really liked that this was a perk for resort reservations, and I hope they continue to do something like this in the future!
