Disney Trip: Blizzard Beach

I know that one day I'll be so glad I meticulously recorded every detail of our Disney trip, but these posts are wearing me out! Hopefully I can finish soon.

Typhoon Lagoon, one of the two Disney waterparks, opened in 1989. The commercials on the Disney Channel looked so cool and I desperately wanted to go there. My family finally made the Disney pilgrimage when we were in junior high, but Typhoon Lagoon was not on the agenda. Bummer. When we decided to do this trip I made Curt promise that we would go there. That's when we found out Blizzard Beach was supposedly better for little kids. So I surrendered my lifelong dream for the sake of my three-year-old and we went there instead.

Blizzard Beach was one of my favorite days of our trip. I will speak for myself and say that by this time I really needed a break from the stroller and from the heat. (When we do it again one day, we will put the water park day right in the middle of the trip instead of toward the end.) Cozy was so generous to stay back at the hotel with Annabeth. It felt amazing to be footloose and fancy free without the stroller and without - I'm sorry to say this - my big ole camera. I hate not having pictures of that fun day, but it would have been too much trouble to deal with that at a water park. Without Annabeth and without my picture-taking responsibilities, I was able to completely focus on having fun with Jackson.

Blizzard Beach is like a water park built into a ski resort. It was immaculately clean, not very crowded, and creatively planned. There are some rides situated at the top of a "mountain" and you can get on a ski lift to take you up there. We used that a couple of times until we got tired of waiting in line for it.

We arrived early and got a couple of chairs (that we never used) under the shade in the kids section. The first thing we did was get on the ski lift. That took us to a ride called Teamboat Springs. There was no height limit on it, as it was designed for families to do together. You sit in this big round raft and go down lots of turns and small dips. It was a really great ride and our first time to see how Jackson would handle the slides. I honestly wasn't sure what his reaction would be, but he loved it and wanted to do it again and again.

After that we tried out the Snow Stormers waterslides in the preteen section. Jackson had to go down by himself on a tube and he did great. Then we played in Tike's Peak, which is the area for little kids. There were some fun slides that Jackson liked. It was weird that he was too old to enjoy some of the things he would've liked last summer.

We decided to venture into other parts of the park that we hadn't seen yet. It was hard to tell what everything was and which things Jackson could do. Surprisingly, it seemed like there were a lot of rides he was tall enough for, even without his rigged up tennis shoes. Curt or I would try something first and then we would determine if Jackson could do it. We did the Runoff Rapids with him in a double tube. We also did some kind of toboggan ride that he went on by himself. He came out with a huge smile. The wave pool was also really fun and the lazy river was nice for being lazy.

For lunch I finally broke down and had a salad. Then to balance out my universe we had to get a bag of donuts from a vendor in the park. They were possibly some of the best things I have ever eaten. They were small, cakey, hot out of the fryer, and sprinkled with sugar. The donuts were actually our strategy for getting me, I mean Jackson, out of the park without tears. Very good move, I believe.

The last thing we did before getting donuts was ride Teamboat Springs one more time. That was when we climbed all the steps to the top of the mountain. By the afternoon, the pavement was so stinking hot that our feet were on fire. There were a bunch of people trying to climb the stairs at once and everyone was shouting and squealing from the pain. Only a few spots on the ground were wet or in the shade, so we'd go as fast as we could from one six-inch oasis to another, shouting about how much it hurt along the way. We'd stop at each wet patch for a couple seconds, take a deep breath, and run to the next one. I didn't think my feet would ever be the same. We enjoyed our last ride, though. Curtis even slipped out of the float and flopped into the water when he was trying to get out. In front of people. Laughing, pointing people. Just kidding, babe. I was the only one laughing and pointing.

In summary, Blizzard Beach was awesome and I hope we can do it again someday. Has anyone been to both water parks? What did you think?

That evening we had dinner reservations at Whispering Canyon Cafe. I had a bad feeling about that place from the start. Curt had been so excited for us to go there because, he said, "That's where the waiters are real mean to you." Um, Curtis, do you even know your wife? I like nice people. He said it would all be in good fun.

So we waited 30 minutes to be seated even though we had a reservation. It was now 8:30 and Jackson was turning into a pumpkin, as we like to say. It became clear after sitting down for one minute that he needed a little spanking, so Curt took him to the bathroom. Meanwhile our waitress came over to get things started. She asked where they had gone and I told her they were in the bathroom dealing with a discipline issue. (My bad. I did not need to have told her that.) They returned while she was still there, and as I was instructing Jackson to sit on his bottom in the chair, the waitress stepped in and said, "Oh, let me handle this." Then she proceeded to be all kinds of rude to my child - who was already feeling sensitive from his spanking - and tell him how to behave. Jackson looked at me like he was about to cry. Anyone with a bit of sense could have seen the tears coming. (It's so tragic when a little boy tries to be so big and not cry. They learn that so young!) I said, "Baby, it's okay, she's just teasing you." And she kept it up. By the time I could get him in my arms he was crying. My child was crying. At a restaurant in Disney World. Because of the waitress. What is wrong with this picture? What is wrong with me that I did not tear her head off? I was not amused. That lady was just a butt. It's so unfortunate because the waiter at the table next to us was hilarious and silly and his people were having a great time.

Another memorable thing about that night was that I broke my rule about not having Mexican food since it could only ever disappoint. But I was just desperate for some spice! The restaurant actually served BBQ, but that did not sound good to me at all. I ordered a vegetarian enchilada. And apparently at Disney World they like to flavor enchiladas with BBQ sauce. That's all I'm saying.

The tableside misadventure was an unfortunate end to a great day, but no big deal. Before going to sleep, we watched the Magic Kingdom fireworks from the little balcony of our room. We were just thrilled to be there and so blessed.

Annabeth on her day with Nana. She's loves her Nana!


Cozy, Jackson and Curtis played in the arcade while I got ready for dinner. It takes me a while, you know.




Something was very interesting, although I know not what.


Priceless.


I love this picture because he looks so little in it.




At dinner. Now in this picture he looks older than he is.




I was trying to take a picture of the line Jackson drew on his forehead in the midst of his crayon frenzy. You can't really see it though.














Having looked at these pictures again, maybe we did have a great time at dinner.