We received a free waterpark ticket with our booking (a mother-son (13 years old) trip) and we’re trying to decide if we should use them. We have never been to either TL or BB as we aren’t big water slide fans. However, we were reading about the snorkeling at Shark Reef and it sounds intriguing, but I couldn’t find a ton of information about it. So, was hoping someone would share their thoughts on it and offer advice on our plans. What we were discussing was heading over TL later in the afternoon, after we’ve hit a park at RD. The description says that the Reef opens 2 hours after the park, but is there a sign-up (like the way you need to sign up for JTA) that happens when the park first opens or is a late arrival realistic? How long is the experience? And is it worth the trip over if this is the only thing that we will there? Any information would be greatly appreciated.
My DD and DH went to the shark reef. Here’s what I can tell you. The sign up was just a waiver, if I recall correctly. It’s organized slightly into small groups, maybe 10 or so people. There’s a brief instruction given and then you get into the pool.
It’s cold water. It’s quite deep… probably deeper than 10 feet. I cannot swim so this is not for me! DD was 8 or 9 when they did it and she just needed to take a few breaks along the way from one end of the pool to the other. I believe they request that you not stop swimming unless you have to. It was also the first time DD had snorkeled but she did great. I told her she was my hero!
It’s a pretty cool and fairly unique thing.
Definitely. We love doing it. We have annual passes and we go fairly often, and when we do this is a must! The water is fairly cold, and can be a little shocking. You appreciate it though in that hot FL sun. You just have to sign a waiver, nothing really serious. Lines aren’t typically bad at all. No sign up. Normally very little wait. If its over 20 mins or so I would come back and try again. If your kid can swim with a snorkel then he should be good to go. We usually end up spending almost all day there, and we typically don’t ride the slides much. They’re fun, but we just stick to the lazy river and the wave pool. He’ll love it!
Highly recommend TL. We did both water parks last year but TL was by far the favorite. We did the Shark Reef thing and did not like it. My son had a bad reaction to the chemical they use to clean the gear and his face burned for an hour. My husband and I did it, but we didn’t see any fish at all on the swim across the little bay. We did it to do it, but wouldn’t do it again. The lazy river was amazing and the best way to spend an afternoon.
Like @BreaSC, I had a reaction to the cleaning chemical on the masks. However, there is a shower to rinse off before you go into the water, so if you take the opportunity to rinse it down before you put the mask on, it should be fine. It was pretty cool, we saw quite a few fishies! I’d do it again for sure. The water is cold, but once you’re in it for a couple minutes you get used to it.
I loved trying the shark reef. It was something unique that seemed worth a try once. You need to be able to swim the length of a pool to make this feasible. It took a bunch of tries to get the hang of snorkeling, but I enjoyed the experience and was glad that I did it. Our original plan was to go in the afternoon after a park at RD, but it was thundering (summer) at the time, so we had to revise our plan. We ended up going first thing in the morning before an afternoon at AK, and did Shark Reef first thing without a line. at that time (7 years ago) the shark reef opened at the same time as the rest. sounds like they must have changed that since. You just went and got in line. There was no sign-up. I can’t remember how long it was, but it wasn’t quick. Between getting your gear, learning how to use it, giving it a try, and finally succeeding to make it across the pool, it took awhile. I just can’t quantify that anymore. If you’re going all that way, you might want to do something else too. The lazy river is nice. or maybe a smaller waterslide.
Wow your experience was much better than ours. They rushed us across the little bay area, said to get in and swim straight across (took us about a minute) and that was that. I would have enjoyed it so much better if we’d had more time. It was very rushed so we weren’t able to enjoy it much and see fish like we’d hoped.
I remember them trying to rush people a little, but I really couldn’t get the hang of it for a bit, so it was a moot point for me 