What experiences have you all had in the water parks — the two Disney ones, and Volcano Bay?
I’m not sure how excited I am about visiting any of them. It feels like they can be a lot of hassle — you have to take swimwear (and a towel?) and you need somewhere to keep your stuff safe. Do they get insanely crowded, are they a great opportunity for sunburn, would I look ridiculous wearing a t-shirt in the water, . . .
Or are they lots of fun? I looked at a map and the lazy rivers at Disney look really long and that might be quite fun and relaxing. And maybe the slides will be fun?
I don’t have a slot reserved in my schedule, but I’m open to the idea. But I’m just not a rope-dropping type of guy. I’d want to show up at like two in the afternoon. Is that madness? I won’t really want to be sitting around. I’ll do some water stuff and then leave. I can’t imagine being there for longer than a couple of hours.
I have never been to a Disney water park but here is my Volcano Bay report: Volcano Bay October 21, 2017
If you go to Volcano Bay I would at least rent a preferred seat ( covered). A lot of people wear t-shirts at Volcano Bay.
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Even at my age i still enjoy going to the Disney Water Parks. Last year i was at Typhoon Lagoon. To answer some of your questions.
Many wear a swim shirt to protect from sunburn
Lockers are available when you get there for a change of cloths or whatever you may need
You can rent towels
We usually go for a half day. Early is much less crowded. Then we will chill back at the resort then go to a park in the afternoon.
We like Typhoon cause for us it is more relaxing, Blizzard Beach has more intense water slides
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We only took sun cream and pool towels, which we left there. We had our cossies on under our clothes, and our magic bands for charging, so we didn’t need a safe place. On previous off site visits, we’ve rented a locker for wallets etc and it’s not been a hassle.
They do get very crowded, yes they are a good opportunity to get sunburnt - BB is worst for that, with all the white - and no you wouldn’t look ridiculous at all, lots of people wear T shirts in the water.
They are a lot of fun, but not very relaxing. The lazy rivers are good but always packed when we’ve been.
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Hmm. It doesn’t sound like a stress-free experience.
And I do have a pool at the house. And a jacuzzi 
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We’ve been to both parks several times. We like TL better than BB because only one of our kids enjoys the thrill slides at BB and we like the theming better at TL. We usually reserve beach chairs with an umbrella in advance (it’s worth it) and try to request a location near the wave pool. One tip: if you have WP privileges with your tickets, and your schedule is flexible, a great time to go is right after an early afternoon thunderstorm. The WPs really clear out when it storms. We’ve remained there during brief storms and had a great experience afterward with very short lines! (Although, there are those times when the storms just linger through closing.)
If water park admission is part of your package, you may like to venture into Typhoon Lagoon and try out the wave pool (the best I’ve ever seen), and relax in the lazy river. The lines for the popular slides would likely be long if you didn’t go early-ish in the morning. We had quite a bit of fun on some of the newer water slides, but that was before it got busy. I would say it depends on if it will cost you extra money and if you want to try a new park just to see what it’s like. As another poster said, you can rent towels and lockers, and a half day is plenty.
Yes, I have access to the Disney water parks. I’d have to pay for Volcano Bay — but the TripAdvisor reviews for that are shocking and I don’t really want to spend extra money on admission and cabanas.
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I see that you can book lounge chairs and towels in advance, so that might make the whole thing less stressful. It doesn’t seem too expensive to do that.
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we last went 5 years ago but one of our favourite activities, such that one afternoon kids and husbands chose to go back to TL while mums and eldest daughter went to Epcot. The days we went early we got loungers and brolly wiht no problem and we specifically bought a long bike lock that we put around the umbrella stand and through our rucksack to secure it. We are really looking forward to spending at least 1/2 day at all 3 water parks this year.
