Water Park Crowds in the Off-Season

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Earning My Ears
Joined
Jun 30, 2018
Planning a trip for next year in September. I've been made aware that you don't really get to just walk onto rides anymore, and there's not as much of a difference between September and summer as there used to be. I've made my peace with that, but I'm wondering what the water park situation looks like. I know they have one closed for refurbishment during this time. How packed is the other one? What kind of lines do they have? For both weekdays and weekends.
 
We went to Typhoon Lagoon on our September trip last year. We got there around 10am. It was either a Tuesday or Wednesday. The crowd level was low. We only waited in line for one of the slides, and it was only about 5 minutes. Everything else was essentially a walk up and ride, maybe 3 or 4 people in front of us at a given time. The wave pool had tons of space to swim around. Not sure if we got lucky or not, but we were thrilled with an almost empty water park.
 
I do water parks each trip. I don't think of Sept as off season for them, its still really hot & park attendance is still high.

The principles of water park touring is the same as a regular park. At opening & at close have shortest lines, 1 hour at each is great. Do some homework for what will have long lines & put those at that time. When the park is at its fullest, do things that eat gobs of people like the lazy river & wave pool. Save the busiest times for eating & chair lounging. In Sept expect a significant storm every afternoon that will close attractions. You have 3 choices. 1) arrive at opening & leave park as storm approaches 2) stay in park & shelter in place until storm passes & things reopen 3) watch storms from another location & head into park as storm lifts, things reopen & you finish til close. I've done all 3, depends on plans for day & how large & long lasting the storm is. I use a radar app.
 


Gotta disagree with you there...

Sorry, I think you may have misinterpreted my post. I'll clarify. The first & last hour are great for enjoying shorter lines (same at the major parks). It didn't mean only 1 hour is needed to enjoy the park.
 
Sorry, I think you may have misinterpreted my post. I'll clarify. The first & last hour are great for enjoying shorter lines (same at the major parks). It didn't mean only 1 hour is needed to enjoy the park.
I actually thought you were saying that 1 hour is what you'd consider a great wait time for single slide. I'm much happier now.
 


I actually thought you were saying that 1 hour is what you'd consider a great wait time for single slide. I'm much happier now.


Thanks for your clarification! Its hard trying to communicate all this in text format.
 
Just to add, go during a weekday if possible. It is more crowded on the weekends. School is back in session in FL and
 
I'm going November 16th to 23rd. Is it warm enough that I'm going to want to go to a water park? Honestly asking.
 
I'm going November 16th to 23rd. Is it warm enough that I'm going to want to go to a water park? Honestly asking.

It really all depends on the weather that week. We've had some November trips when the weather was warm enough to swim almost everyday and others when it's been downright COLD! The water is heated when the temps get a bit colder, but it will depend on your tolerance for the temps when you're outside the water.
 
The majority of our trips in past 10 years have been in November and we spend a LOT of time in the water parks. We even did the TL surf lessons in Nov 2017. It was cool-ish and the fog was so thick you couldn’t see across a wide street when we set off for the park. By the time we were in place, and the class was starting to do the dry land exercises, the fog had lifted and the morning sun was warming us up.

OK... absolute truth, our DGSs did the actual surfing but we watched the heck out of them and it was wonderful!

There may be a day here and there that temperatures make you not so inclined to be in the water, however, most days are just perfect.
 
Any word on what weekends are like? Sounds like weekdays are totally fine.
 

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