Worth it to go to a water park in July?

[2Pirates2Princesses]

I know this may sound like a silly question because it’s pretty much 90+ degrees everyday at Disney in July; but my concerns are that I’ve heard how busy/crowded the water parks get in the summer, long lines for the popular slides (it would be nice if there was some kind of fast pass for the water parks), and lost park time due to the daily rainstorms in the summer. For those of you that are experienced with summer visits to the water parks (particularly Blizzard Beach), is there a particular strategy that works well for you?

 

[Amelia :)]

Go on monday/Tuesday, and get there for opening. It will be fine.

 

[wdw&sonny]

Yes, go early and you'll wait very little until late morning.
We prefer Typhoon Lagoon. We do the "slides" in the morning. Then, take a break for lunch. Hit the lazy river to let the food settle. Then, play in the giant wave pool...."fwhamp" until we are tired.

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

We won’t have a car and will rely on Disney buses to get around. I wonder if getting to the water park at opening will be an issue now that there aren’t direct buses from the resorts to the water parks?

 

[heidijanesmith]

We love going to a water park in June. The water feels fantastic!

When the kids were younger, we would get there early for a good shaded spot to call "home". We prefer TL as well, our home is by the surf pool. The waterparks do get busy later in the afternoon, but if you hit the big slides early, you will miss the lines.

Now that the kids are older and sometimes it's just DH and I, we like to book a Cabana. It's wonderful to get out of the heat, have a great place to rest and relax. The CM's are fantastic. They will let you in early to get settled in the Cabana and then once the parks opens, you take take off.

We always take a cab to the waterparks. It's not expensive and so much easier than taking the buses. There are not always cabs at TL, so I get the Mears number and just order one when we are done.

 

[oufpat]

Go for opening and use Uber or Lyft for transportation.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Love the water parks, and BB is our favorite (but just by a smidge). I don't think we'd do a trip in July and NOT go to a water park.

As to our strategy... I consider rope drop essential. The first hour is gold and I treat it as such. We have all day to lounge around - but for that first hour we're hustling!

We don't tend to stay all day... by 3ish we're pretty much done and ready to head back, so afternoon thunderstorms aren't 'usually' an issue (but of course can be at any time).

The water park bus/transfer setup is very inefficient, not a fan at all (in my humble opinion). It is possible to still make it to RD in a timely manner, but you have far less control given the transferring so you have to build in a lot more time. If an option for you, I strongly suggest Uber/Lyft/Taxi/Minnie Van.

Have fun!

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I'll reiterate what others have said. Go early and use a cab/uber/lyft. The crowds build throughout the day. We've found if we go right at opening, we can walk on to most everything. We then eat lunch around 1 pm and leave to do something else for the rest of the day.

 

[Cinderella94]

Yup, early is a must. We always finish all the slides we want to do in the first hour or so, by then it's crowded and we do the lazy river and wave pool. And we make the 4th of July our waterpark day, so one of the more crowded Disney weeks and we still get to do everything.

 

[MaddlesMom]

we did both BB and T: last july... BB was "testing" a ride reservation system... there were 3 rides that we got wristbands for and they had separate lines for. It was nice!

 

[Klayfish]

Love the water parks, and BB is our favorite (but just by a smidge). I don't think we'd do a trip in July and NOT go to a water park.

As to our strategy... I consider rope drop essential. The first hour is gold and I treat it as such. We have all day to lounge around - but for that first hour we're hustling!

We don't tend to stay all day... by 3ish we're pretty much done and ready to head back, so afternoon thunderstorms aren't 'usually' an issue (but of course can be at any time).

You and your preference for BB... (inside joke, OP, I've said before that I prefer TL by a smidge...as in 51%/49%, but truly love them both).

Everything GADisneyDad14 said here is dead spot on. For us, multiple trips to the water parks in the summer is a must. And while we never, ever rope drop the 4 main parks, we always rope drop the water parks. In summer, they don't open until 10am anyway, so no getting up at dawn. Just show up at 9:55am and you're golden. The first hour, you can do all the big slides as many times as your legs can carry you back up the steps. Over and over and over. Then the lines do get long. That's the perfect time to hit the wave pool or lazy river. And yeah, if we're there at 10am, by 3pm we're done. If a t-storm comes, so be it. If it's a quick passing one, then stay...some of the crowd leaves.

As for FP+, don't be surprised to see it this summer. They were testing it last year at TL...we got to participate in the test...twice. Every CM we asked said that it was their understanding that if the test went well, it'll be in both parks this summer. We'll see...

 

[DOOM1001]

I rather spend a day at the water parks than the theme parks during the months of June-Sept,it gets nasty hot and sweaty at the theme parks,in the water parks coming in and out of the water it feels so much better and you don't feel the heat,if the lines are long just grab a tube at the lazy river and go around 100 times and by the time you get out the lines have eased off.Getting there early is a good strategy as the rains come in the afternoon.I prefer getting there later as the crowds ease off after 3-4 pm many days with a lot of people doing the get there early plan,if it does rain head over to Disney Springs for a movie and dinner,still a good day!

 

[Shanti]

I know this may sound like a silly question because it’s pretty much 90+ degrees everyday at Disney in July; but my concerns are that I’ve heard how busy/crowded the water parks get in the summer, long lines for the popular slides (it would be nice if there was some kind of fast pass for the water parks), and lost park time due to the daily rainstorms in the summer. For those of you that are experienced with summer visits to the water parks (particularly Blizzard Beach), is there a particular strategy that works well for you?

They are busy in July but worth visiting. Go.

 

[Elle :)]

Definitely worth the trip! My DH and I actually go to the water parks 3 times per trip (2 at BB because it's my favorite). Do not plan for the weekend because it's way to busy.

We usually go on week days and we're always there for rope drop. That first hour is perfect. We get most everything done within the first hour to hour and a half (multiple rides on each slide). After that, we take a break and then go in the wave pool for the rest of the time. Honestly, we're usually out of there by 1pm when the crowds start to get brutal.

On our last trip, we had one morning with no sun and some light rain. It wasn't the most comfortable trip but we went on every slide to our hearts content. Zero lines!

 

[Average Joes]

Sorry to bump in here. We are going in early-mid September. I assume it will not be too busy for the water parks? I tried to do some research on this but help is appreciated for accuracy.

On one of our two AK days we may take a few hour afternoon break for BB and might return to AK or hoop. If using a bus from BB it returns us to AK but nowhere else.

If we are at HS or Epcot and going to TL we should just take non-bus transportation as we would have to transfer at DS. This is the case even if we are at the bus stop before 1:00. In the spring-summer of 2016 the bus took you to TL on the DS bus but that option seemed to have been removed in the fall of 2016.

Thank you very much.

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

Thank you everyone for your feedback. I think we will try to aim for park opening as most suggested. Hopefully the bus transfer situation runs smoothly. We are leaning towards BB but are also interested in TL. Unfortunately we won’t have time for both parks on this trip. We are a family of seven so using a cab or Uber may not work out logistically. I heard the Minnie Van service will be offered at Pop soon (where we are booked to stay at this point); but if those vans only seat up to seven (including the driver) then that service won’t work for us either. Right now my plan is to do the water park from opening until 2:30, then do Disney Springs in the early evening for dinner and to visit a few family favorite shops.