The first thing you might notice at Disney’s Blizzard Beach is how easy it is to forget you’re on Disney property.
The second thing is that you don’t miss what’s missing.
While the same yellow-clad parking attendants guide you to your spot, the typically oh-so-structured Disney Syndrome tends to wear off as you near the gates of Disney’s newest water park.
To begin with, a certain someone is noticeably MIA.
Before you take a guess, here’s a clue: He’s the one with the big ears.
The 66-acre, plastic-snow-capped water park is devoid of Mickey Mouse. Unlike at the Magic Kingdom, Epcot ’95 and Disney-MGM Studios, the Big Cheese doesn’t adorn T-shirts, directional signs or even brochures.
Look for yourself. You won’t find him–or any of his playmates–anywhere.
Mickey has been replaced by the larger-than-life cartoonish Ice Gator, who is frozen in time as he flails through the air on snow skis. According to Blizzard Beach lore, the reptile was the first creature to swoosh down Mt. Gushmore (the Blizzard Beach hillside) following a freak Florida snowstorm.
Another un-Disneylike quality you might pick up on is that cast members aren’t as programmed as those at their sister-parks. (You can take this anyway you want. I felt it was kind of refreshing to see that all Disney employees aren’t as automated as the Stepford Wives.)
Take this encounter for example: A temporarily lost guest asks a cast member about the park’s tubing river. The employee replies, “Oh, you mean the Lazy River?” That, of course, is a tubing river, only it is at Wet ‘n Wild on International Drive in Orlando, which would be quite a walk. I think she meant to say Cross Country Creek, which was a mere few steps down the sidewalk.
In any case, it’s easy to understand how one could confuse the two water parks and some of the rides.
Der Stuka, Wet ‘n Wild’s six-story, straight-down water slide, is transformed into Summit Plummet, a 360-foot-long vertical drop designed to look like a ski jump. Wet ‘n Wild’s Surf Lagoon wave pool becomes Blizzard Beach’s Melt-Away-Bay; only Disney’s version adds a couple of waterfalls–and don’t try to douse yourself under them because the lifeguards get a little nervous when folks try to do that. It’s my guess the cascades were placed mostly for aesthetics.
Disney’s Teamboat Springs is a multiple-passenger, family-oriented tube ride (although the three-person minimum might inconvenience some single-parent/only-child families); it is much like Wet ‘n Wild’s Bubba Tub or Surge rides.
Finally, Blizzard Beach’s Runoff Rapids is a cousin to Wet ‘n Wild’s Raging Rapids. Both rides allow you to sit on inner tubes as you careen through snaking flumes.
After that, there is some innovation.
In keeping with its wintry theme, Blizzard Beach offers Toboggan Racer and Snow Stormers.
Toboggan Racer is like a watery toboggan ride. For those who steer clear of temperatures below 60 degrees, a toboggan is like a sled, except it doesn’t have runners attached. On Racer you coast down an eight-lane water slide on your tummy on toboggan-like mats. On the neighboring Snow Stormers, you head down one of three lanes on your rear through swishy twists and turns.
At the end of either ride, you get to experience yet another Disney-defying phenomenon–no ropes. There are absolutely no ropes, or even bars, that show you where to stand to receive a mat for your next ride, thus allowing adults and children to form into one large mass as they elbow each other toward other equally confused mat-toting guests.
The park also offers Tike’s Peak with miniature versions of slides and a play area and a pre-teen area dubbed Blizzard Beach Ski Patrol Training Camp. (The training camp area will feature a slippery walk along “icebergs” and a bumpy slide called Mogul Mania when it opens at an as-yet undetermined date.)
Food and drink at Blizzard Beach are both Disneylike and un-Disneylike.
While a mouse silhouette is on the paper cups (so Mickey is not totally absent after all), the prices are relatively competitive with other area water parks (about $3 for a burger and fries and about $2 for a large drink).
Plus, the portions are more than ample. I ordered a club sandwich and fries for about $6, and half my sandwich went home with me. Beer and wine coolers are available for about $2 each, which also is competitive.
For those who prefer to picnic, coolers are allowed inside the park as long as there are no glass containers or alcoholic beverages .
And as you picnic, you are serenaded by the likes of Jimmy Buffett, reggae act UB40 and even Bob Marley. That’s right, no Disneyfied music piped through the bushes.
Overall, Blizzard Beach takes what Disney does best (creating an atmosphere of fantasy, in this case a Florida ski resort). But the Disney folks also have learned to relax a little. After all, isn’t that what theme parks are for?
