Runoff Rapids - Blizzard Beach

[Capang]

i forgot about the bus issue.....most of the resorts no longer have direct buses to either water park? or just BB? just TL?
i can't remember what i read..

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None of the resorts are direct. BB transfers at AK. TL transfers at DS. Total pain in the you know what. Especially if you are trying to avoid spending money on taxis or uber.

 

[Shanti]

Those slides that are closed are a mess. They are totally overgrown. It doesn't look like they will reopen any time soon. If at all. The park definitely needs some freshening up.

I was at both water parks this month. TL had a crowd. BB was looking run down and had very few people. Disney has made it difficult to travel to the waterparks for onsite guests and I would be interested to compare attendance numbers from this year to years past.

Aside from the one set of slides being down, what did you notice there that was "run down"? I didn't observe anything out of order when we were there last summer. Everything was functional, clean and bright. It was also extremely crowded, even more so than Typhoon Lagoon.

 

[disneyholic family]

Between Volcano Bay and resort transportation inconvenience, I bet Disney water parks have a record low attendance this summer.

or TL will have a record high, while BB has a record low..
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[disneyholic family]

None of the resorts are direct. BB transfers at AK. TL transfers at DS. Total pain in the you know what. Especially if you are trying to avoid spending money on taxis or uber.

DD told me about this a couple of months ago (as we started on the serious planning for our 3 week extravaganza this august)...
she was rightfully terribly upset...
here we're spending a rather large fortune for the 8 of us to stay onsite.....
having been encouraged to do so by disney's marketing telling us about all the wonderful onsite perks like bus service...
and then they go and eliminate the direct bus to the waterparks..

now for me, i don't care as i'll hop in the car and take us all there...
but DD and her husband will want to go there on their own and they're not renting a separate car....
how are they going to get there? shlepping via DS? that's ridiculous...
what a complete waste of time....and definitely downgrading any "perk" of staying onsite...
rather irritating to say the least..

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[Capang]

Aside from the one set of slides being down, what did you notice there that was "run down"? I didn't observe anything out of order when we were there last summer. It was also extremely crowded, even more so than Typhoon Lagoon.

Paint was faded and chipping. Queues and railings looked pretty rough, the entire area was very dated. Garbage everywhere. Chairs were tattered. Everything looked dirty. Even the inter tubes looked like they needed to be replaced. I would have loved to have seen it in its heyday.

 

[Capang]

DD told me about this a couple of months ago (as we started on the serious planning for our 3 week extravaganza this august)...
she was rightfully terribly upset...
here we're spending a rather large fortune for the 8 of us to stay onsite.....
having been encouraged to do so by disney's marketing telling us about all the wonderful onsite perks like bus service...
and then they go and eliminate the direct bus to the waterparks..

now for me, i don't care as i'll hop in the car and take us all there...
but DD and her husband will want to go there on their own and they're not renting a separate car....
how are they going to get there? shlepping via DS? that's ridiculous...
what a complete waste of time....and definitely downgrading any "perk" of staying onsite...
rather irritating to say the least..

.

We lucked out on catching the buses to get there but it took forever. Riding to AK with Pandora crowds only to switch buses was no fun.

 

[Shanti]

Paint was faded and chipping. Queues and railings looked pretty rough, the entire area was very dated. Garbage everywhere. Chairs were tattered. Everything looked dirty. Even the inter tubes looked like they needed to be replaced. I would have loved to have seen it in its heyday.

I respectfully disagree and consider this to be exagerration. The park was in great shape last summer, so it seems extremely unlikely to me that it would have fallen into such a state of disrepair in one year. And Disney always keeps their parks clean, so I don't find the description of "garbage everywhere" credible. I'll see for myself in August and am sure the park will still be in prime condition.

 

[Mr. Drauer]

over the past 3 Sundays, we have been to BB, TL, and BB again yesterday. Crowds have been normal in terms of a comparison to the last 4 years (since we have had WP annuals). Yesterday at BB had lines for DDD over 45 minutes at 1:00 (normal) and TS was 15 - 20 minutes at the same time. Couldn't get our kids into the Ski Patrol area as it was jammed, and there were the typical constant battles for tables with Umbrella's at lunch. Lines for CG at TL last week were 20 - 25 minutes at 11:00, a bit longer than normal in my experience. The area of RR at BB has always been overgrown - vines and plants surround the entire set of slides often with several areas where they overhang portions of the slides. If you are looking for something to complain about, go for it, but both parks look as good to us as they have been in the past 4 years. RR is fun, but carrying tubes up 127 steps multiple times is the least favorite activity for my group.

 

[disneyholic family]

obviously the lines are going to be terribly long at BB when they have 3 slides closed...


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[disneyholic family]

We lucked out on catching the buses to get there but it took forever. Riding to AK with Pandora crowds only to switch buses was no fun.

in an effort to reduce crowding, perhaps disney is trying to dissuade people from going to the waterparks by downgrading the transportation for onsite guests...
it will certainly make me think twice next time about staying onsite...

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[Goofygirl17]

I'm glad I saw this thread bc those are my kids favorites slides. We were trying to decide which water park to go to since we don't have water parks included in our tickets. I'm going to see what else is out there.

Any suggestions? We're staying offsite and have a car.

 

[Capang]

in an effort to reduce crowding, perhaps disney is trying to dissuade people from going to the waterparks by downgrading the transportation for onsite guests...
it will certainly make me thing twice next time about staying onsite...

.

I don't know why they'd keep crowds down. Neither park was that crowded. At TL we walked onto their new ride with no wait. It definitely had more people than BB but it wasn't overly crowded at all. It's like they are trying to close them down. They make it difficult to get there and don't maintain they way they should or could.

 

[disneyholic family]

I'm glad I saw this thread bc those are my kids favorites slides. We were trying to decide which water park to go to since we don't have water parks included in our tickets. I'm going to see what else is out there.

Any suggestions? We're staying offsite and have a car.

depends how old your kids are....
i just spent the last two hours watching youtube videos of the various orlando waterparks..
they all have some pros and cons..
it depends on age of kids, your preference for certain kinds of slides, etc...
tim tracker has a nice set of waterpark videos that he just did this past week...(Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Lagoon, Aquatica, Volcano Bay)..

after finding out about the closed slides at BB, we changed our plans..
we're goign to go to Typhoon lagoon for our first waterpark day..
then we'll check out BB one afternoon after a storm to see how it is..
if we still like it, we'll go there one morning...
otherwise, we'll spend that day at TL as well...

we're not interested in VB as the slides appear a bit too intense for us...

.

 

[disneyholic family]

I don't know why they'd keep crowds down. Neither park was that crowded. At TL we walked onto their new ride with no wait. It definitely had more people than BB but it wasn't overly crowded at all. It's like they are trying to close them down. They make it difficult to get there and don't maintain they way they should or could.

i was being sarcastic...

 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

I'm glad I saw this thread bc those are my kids favorites slides. We were trying to decide which water park to go to since we don't have water parks included in our tickets. I'm going to see what else is out there.

Any suggestions? We're staying offsite and have a car.

Aquatica is a great water park. Great variety of slides, and very unique ones at that. Great play areas for little ones, also. I would pick that over the Disney ones, but we're getting military salute tickets, and we get either water parks or hoppers (no base tickets offered), and as we don't like hopping, we're hitting the Disney water parks (also staying onsite without a car is a part of that, and no car seat either for DS5).

 

[disneyholic family]

Aquatica is a great water park. Great variety of slides, and very unique ones at that. Great play areas for little ones, also. I would pick that over the Disney ones, but we're getting military salute tickets, and we get either water parks or hoppers (no base tickets offered), and as we don't like hopping, we're hitting the Disney water parks (also staying onsite without a car is a part of that, and no car seat either for DS5).

the fastpass they have there looked pretty cool as well...you pay an extra $20....not bad..
.

 

[georgina]

None of the resorts are direct. BB transfers at AK. TL transfers at DS. Total pain in the you know what. Especially if you are trying to avoid spending money on taxis or uber.

Coronado Springs used to have a direct bus to BB. Is that no longer active?

Edit - As far as I can tell, it is still there. It is one of the reasons I like to stay there.

 

[Capang]

Coronado Springs used to have a direct bus to BB. Is that no longer active?

Nope.

 

[disneyholic family]

Coronado Springs used to have a direct bus to BB. Is that no longer active?

Edit - As far as I can tell, it is still there. It is one of the reasons I like to stay there.

you are correct - the only resorts to still have direct transportation to BB are the three all stars and coronado springs..
every other resort requires changing buses at animal kingdom

.

 

[Capang]

Coronado Springs used to have a direct bus to BB. Is that no longer active?

Edit - As far as I can tell, it is still there. It is one of the reasons I like to stay there.

you are correct - the only resorts to still have direct transportation to BB are the three all stars and coronado springs..
every other resort requires changing buses at animal kingdom

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https://www.wdwinfo.com/news-stories/new-bus-routes-for-walt-disney-world-water-parks/
I'm pretty sure that has changed. I know Akl had a direct bus not that long ago and that is also gone.