My sons were competitive swimmers from the age of 6 through High School (now in their 30s), and I have been and continue to officiate competitive swimming. The last thing any of us wants to see or use when we go to WDW is a swimming pool.
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The real best thing about a water park is tube chutes and if you know that it means you’ve been to a Schlitterbahn which are the best water parks in the world with new braunfels the best of them. For a non tube chute water park volcano bay is really good. Disney doesn’t even come close to Volcano Bay by a long shot. I have a desire to go back to Volcano Bay but not really any desire to go back to Disneys water park particularly when I’m an hour away from a 100million times better water park in Schlitterbahn. Tube chutes are the best because they combine lazy river with fast river with tube slides in what can be. 20-30+ min experience. And the ones in Schlitterbahn even have theming on some of their chutes and water roller coasters. Like a pirates of the Caribbean style mist with a dragon on it that you go thru in the water rollercoaster of which they have two water rollercoasters unlike both VB and TL. Tube chutes followed by water rollercoasters are the best water attractions cuz they are long and worth a wait unlike a 15 second slide. So I repeat in case people skipped to the end, come to Schlitterbahn New Braunfels for a water park! Lol
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And now I’m looking for availability in a treehouse at Schlitterbahn. See what you did Jeff! lol.
And booked next weekend. My hubby blames you! ;-).
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You forgot to mention the wedgies!
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I’ve always wanted to try this but it is nowhere near where I ever have a reason to travel!
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I could argue that San Antonio and Austin have a lot to offer families and New Braunfels is smack dab in the middle but I would also never argue that you come here in summer when Schlitterbahn is open lol.
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My Other reason: theming. I much prefer the more tropical theming of Typhoon Lagoon to the pastel theming of Blizzard Beach.
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As of last Monday I’ve finally visited all three waterparks.Volcano Bay is still my favorite, with Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon in second and third place, respectively.
Out of the three I’d definitely say that Typhoon Lagoon has the most family friendly selection of rides, with the exception being their wave pool. My husband refers to it as the “death wave.” I loved it, but it definitely seems very out of place in a waterpark that is otherwise pretty tame.
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I think you are probably right, but there are some considerations depending on the heights of kids. My kids are short for their ages so we have had to pay close attention to that – for many families the kids are probably not ready for the rides anyway if they’re too short.
- Volcano Bay: Krakatau AquaCoaster is only 42", same as most of their “family” slides and the Fearless River. The park can still be fun for kids under that height – they have a kids’ play area, but it makes it really difficult to manage for parents to switch off riding rides. So I would recommend waiting until all kids are over 42" before doing VB unless one adult doesn’t like slides. It’s 48" for the drop slides and a few of the others.
- Typhoon Lagoon: The Crush ‘n’ Gusher has a minimum height of 48", which is a bummer compared to Krakatau. Humunga Kowabunga is also 48", but no other slides have a minimum.
- Blizzard Beach: Three slides have a 48" minimum: Summit Plummet and Slush Gusher (the two big body slides) and the Downhill Double Dipper (tube racing slide). The Chairlift also has a minimum of 32".
We chose to go to Blizzard Beach this past trip since we wanted to save Typhoon Lagoon for when DD7 is tall enough to go on Crush ‘n’ Gusher. I think we would have had fun in either park though.
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I’ve also been to River Country and Discovery Cove, which counts sort of? Looking forward to first time at Volcano Bay in October.
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We’ve been to Aquatica a couple of times as our “other”. I found it to be a real good water park.
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We had a great time there in 2014 and a not so great time there this year. BUT it was a Saturday in June and it was somewhat icky.
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Don’t remember exactly when the last time we were there (it was definitely pre-pandemic). It certainly could have gone downhill since then.
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