I got this weekend off, so I’m cramming into two days all the stuff I imagined I’d be doing when I first heard I was going to be spending a month at Disney World.
Even though I’ve been to Disney World more times than a normal person would admit to, I still see something new every trip. This time (as a guest, anyway), it’s been the water parks. Today I started at Typhoon Lagoon and found my new hands-down favorite thing to do in the entire resort. It’s called Castaway Creek, and it’s a river that runs around the entire park with various places you can get in or out. You get on one of the inner tubes and let the current take you gradually around the entire length of the river, under bridges, past waterfalls, through caves, and into a misty rain forest area.
It’s awesome. From now on, whenever anyone asks what I’d rather be doing, my answer is “lying and floating.” I intentionally left my watch and cell phone back at the hotel, but I estimate that an entire circuit around the river takes thirty minutes, and I must’ve gone around two and a half times at least.
I also rode the new “Crush’n Gusher” water coaster they’ve installed, and it was fun enough but no big deal. I would’ve hit the other slides and then taken another couple of hours in the river, but they closed the park on account of approaching thunderstorms.
The thunderstorms finally hit once I was on Big Thunder Mountain at the Magic Kingdom. (I’d stopped by Epcot and rode Mission: Space, and it was every bit as headache-inducing and uncomfortable and anti-climactic as I’d remembered). The rain washed out any hope of riding anything else, since it drove all the people into the ride queues and I didn’t feel like waiting, but it cleared up long enough for the fireworks. All totaled it was a pretty good day. Still not as fun as going to the parks with other people, but there’s something to be said for doing whatever you feel like doing on your own schedule without having to wait (or make them wait for you to finish smoking).
Tomorrow I’m planning on riding Expedition Everest again, then heading to the other water park Blizzard Beach. At the moment, I’ve got the kind of tired that comes only after a day filled with age-inappropriate activities, so I’m going to dream about fireworks and inner tubes and Gary Sinise spinning me at 4Gs.
Comments
I’ve come to think that a trip to a water park is required every fourth day at WDW, at least. It’s the only way to get rid of that sort of mildewy feeling I get in Florida. What did you think of Blizzard Beach?
I just shared “You’re a Lifetime Journey” with a Canadian friend of mine (it’s been in heavy rotation here since we got home), and she directed me to this, which I thought you might enjoy. You may be burnt out on all things Canada for a while, but on the other hand, it might displace some of the background music that must be lodged in your noggin pretty fierce by now:
Log Driver’s Waltz
You can kind of image it as what the Canada pavilion would look like if they installed a lazy river…
I really didn’t like Blizzard Beach. It was way too crowded, too much hot pavement, the lines were too long, and the slides weren’t all that fun. Worst of all, their version of the lazy river sucks — not only was it too crowded and the water filled with crap, but you can’t relax on it. Every few dozen feet, they start dumping ice-cold water on you. I like the theme okay, I guess, but Typhoon Lagoon is much better.
I wish they’d build a third water park (or more likely, rebuild and reopen River Country) to siphon off the crowds.