I haven’t been to the Disney water parks in years, since the mid 90′s, in fact, which is when these buttons and brochures are from.
The first button is from my favorite of the 2 parks, Typhoon Lagoon.
Opened in 1989, it is the home of the
World’s largest outdoor wave pool, which is just awesome. The lazy river
is also wonderful.
Another thing I love about Typhoon Lagoon
is the back story. I feel that the stories that Imagineering came up
with for it’s attractions in the late 80′s and early 90′s were very
strong. This, of course, may just be nostalgia, as it coincides with my
earliest visits.
As the story goes, the park was created by
a typhoon that wreaked havoc upon a formerly pristine tropical
paradise. Ships, fishing gear and surfboards are strewn about where the
storm flung them. The centerpiece of the park is “Miss Tilly,” a
shrimp boat impaled upon a mountain named “Mount Mayday” that erupts a
50 foot geyser of water every half hour.
I’ve actually been lucky enough to be directly under this when it went off, a thrilling experience.
There are also many slides, which aren’t really my thing.
I only went to Blizzard Beach once. It
wasn’t a bad park, but it was more of a water slide park. So given the
choice between the 2, Typhoon wins hands down.
Opened in 1995, Blizzard Beach also has a fun, although, in my opinion, a bit forced, back story.
It seems a freak snowstorm hit the area,
leading to the construction of Florida’s first ski resort. Naturally,
the snow didn’t last long, leaving behind a collection of waterlogged
but snow-less ski jumps and chair lifts. The failed resort was in the
process of closing for good when an alligator was seen sliding down a
flume and splashing into a pool of water, screaming “Yahoo!” Thus the
“ski resort” was reborn as a water park, with the alligator, named Ice
Gator (maybe they could have come up with something a little more
original than that?) as the mascot.
Doing this post has really made me want to get back to Typhoon Lagoon, and I will hopefully get there on one of my future trips!
