Last Call for Water Parks!

Even though we live in Florida and don’t get any snow, Orlando does become quite chilly during the winter months. This time of the year is your last chance to get to the Orlando water parks before it becomes chilly outside. If you’re a fan of Blizzard Beach, you'd better get your discount tickets quick. As of January 10, 2010, Blizzard Beach will be closing for refurbishment until March of 2010. Blizzard Beach is one of the world’s most popular water parks. With its ski resort theme and scary slides Disney guests love to cool off and have fun at this great Disney theme park. If you’re in the mood for a classic, you can always check out Typhoon Lagoon, where you can learn to surf and swim with the sharks.

There’s also Wet ‘n Wild. This Orlando water park was voted the best water park in America by Amusement Business magazine, and when you go you will see why! The water slides at Wet ‘n Wild go from kid-friendly to downright terrifying. On the Bomb Bay, you rocket down a water slide at a near vertical angle from 76 feet up in the air. If you would rather take it easy you can check out the lazy river or try your hand at wake skating or knee skiing over at the Wake Zone.

If you want to check out one of the newest water parks to open up in the Orlando area, look no further than SeaWorld’s Aquatica. This brand new water park opened up last year in March and is decorated with bright colors and tribal imagery modeled after the indigenous cultures of New Zealand and Australia. The park’s most famous slide is the Dolphin Plunge. Here you can slide down a clear tube that dips through a pool of beautiful Commerson’s dolphins. For a little bit of friendly competition you can head to the Taumata Racer. This is a partially-enclosed waterslide that features eight lanes set side by side so you can race other guests of this great water park.

Whichever park you decide to get to make sure you make it there soon, because the chilly weather is right around the corner!

Water Parks a Hit this Summer in Orlando

Orlando water parks are experiencing a great influx of visitors this summer. Many of the parks have been operating at full capacity. So what does this mean for you? Long lines and sold out tickets are a possibility, so we recommend purchasing your water park tickets in advance to make sure you aren’t left out. Orlando has a number of water parks to choose from, so make sure you check out DWTickets.com for the best discount Orlando water park tickets.

Aquatica is the newest water park to open up in the Orlando area. This beautiful park is part of the SeaWorld Orlando family and tries to combine the water park experience with the beautiful marine life of the SeaWorld family. Brightly colored and influenced by the art of the South Pacific, Aquatica features animal mascots from Australia and New Zealand. The attractions are like most water parks but with a Sea World twist. You have your wave pools and lazy rivers, but at Aquatica you’ll also get special rides like the Dolphin Plunge. The slides everyone is talking about, the Dolphin Plunge consists of two side-by-side enclosed tubes that send you through a pool of black and white Commerson dolphins—it’s great for dolphin lovers! If you love water rapids, check out Roa’s Rapids for an inner-tube adventure through rising tides, crashing waves and swirling waters. Surfers will love Cutback Cove and Big Surf Shores, two huge wave pools with various wave strengths. It’s great for kids and adults!

Over in the Walt Disney World Resort, Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon are the Disney water park offerings. Typhoon Lagoon evokes the feelings of childhood summers jumping into lakes off of a tire swing. The original Walt Disney World water park, Typhoon Lagoon offers the usual waterslides and wave pools, but the crowd favorites are Shark Reef and Surf Pool. At Shark Reef you can either snorkel or scuba dive with a variety of tropical fish and sharks. At the Surf Pool, learn how to surf and catch waves up to 6 feet high!

Blizzard Beach mixes ski resort imagery with water park fun. It might feel strange to see “snow” and “ski-lifts” as you jump into the pool under the hot Florida sun, but at Blizzard Beach you can do just that. Skip waves in the 1-acre wave pool or hop onto an inner-tube on the Runoff Rapids for a bobsled-like ride down the slide. For those who aren’t scared of heights, check out the Summit Plummit. This 120 feet high, 360 feet long slide is not for the faint of heart, but a favorite of the fearless.

There’s something for every water park fan in Orlando, but make sure to purchase your tickets early!

A Brighter Aquatica Kicks Off the Spring

There’s only one place in Orlando, Florida, where you can take a plunge with dolphins, bask in the sun on a serene beach, hear the laugh of a kookaburra, and zip down a rapid – all in one day. That’s SeaWorld’s Aquatica, and this wild water park is ready for the season after undergoing a recent refurbishment.

Though Aquatica has only been open for a year, park operators still wanted to maintain things fresh, which is why they closed it for ten days earlier this year to do some spring cleaning and touch things up.

“We did a lot of painting, a lot of refreshing,” said Rick Beddow, vice president of Aquatica. “It's not even a year old, and there we are painting and repainting things because we like bright. We want colors to pop.”

The colors won’t pop as bright for guests who are wearing shades, but the park is hoping those won’t be as necessary now thanks to added shade throughout the park. Guests will find more landscaping now, more small umbrellas, and the park is in the process of adding twelve 25-foot umbrellas as well. Also helping in the staying cool department will be more misters that have been added to the park’s walkways.

Those who like to lounge will be happy to learn Aquatica has added 1,000 new beach chairs. Directional signs to guide guests to their favorite attractions were also added, along with a nifty wristband program that will help children and their parents know what rides are appropriate. Color-coded, the wristbands are distributed by an Aquatica employee who measures the little ones, so that kids need only match the color of their wristband to certain rides.

And guests visiting the park these days might notice some construction underway by the entrance; the park is adding a new ticket booth at the front gate, as well as expanding the walkway and adding in a new one for the bus-drop off – all to allow guests to get in and have fun quicker and easier.

Though no new rides or slides have been added, all the old favorites are there and ready for gleeful guests, including the racing rides, glistening lagoons, and winding rivers, all kept at a comfortable 84 degrees. There’s Cutback Cove and Big Surf Shores, producing crashing waves and gently-rolling surf; Dolphin Plunge, which takes riders down 250 feet of clear tubes through a beautiful dolphin habitat; Walhalla Wave, a family raft experience splashing guests down six stories of twists and turns; the Taumata Racer, an eight-lane racing slide speeding riders down 300 feet in and out of tunnels; and so much more.

Plus, there are all the animal encounters that make Aquatica such a unique water park. Guests can get up close and personal with Commerson’s dolphins, beautiful macaws, giant anteaters, the sulcata tortoise, roseate spoonbill, and of course, the laughing kookaburra.

So don’t wait until the summer arrives and this amazing park fills to capacity – get your discount Aquatica tickets now and experience the bright and fresh Aquatica for yourself. We can’t think of a better way to welcome the warm weather.

Top 5 Ways to Keep Your Orlando Vacation Cool

Taking a summertime Orlando vacation can be hot, and we don’t mean that in a good way. The average summer day in Orlando heats up to around 95 degrees, and the humidity is about as high. Those conditions can make any Orlando vacationer want to find a way to keep cool. Well, we’ve got five:

Orlando Vacation Cool #1 – Splash and slide through a water park.
Orlando is home to four major water parks, and all of them are great places to cool off on your Orlando vacation. Check out one of these Orlando water parks, or be really cool and visit them all!

Walt Disney World is home to two Orlando water parks: Disney’s Blizzard Beach and Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon. Both parks require a Disney ticket for admission. and they can easily be added to any multi-day Disney ticket.

Aquatica by SeaWorld is the newest Orlando water park and it’s a must see for every Orlando vacation this year. You can get your Aquatica tickets today along with your SeaWorld tickets and Busch Gardens tickets too!

Over at the Universal Orlando Resort, the coolest place to hang this summer is Wet ‘n Wild.

Orlando Vacation Cool #2 – Take a refreshing dip in the pool.
Make sure home base on your Orlando vacation has a place to cool down on those hot summer afternoons. Some Orlando hotels are known for their amazing pools, and they can seem like an entire Orlando theme park unto themselves.

Orlando Vacation Cool #3 – Hit the beach.
Ok, we know what you’re thinking: “But there is no beach in Orlando!” Technically that’s true, but there are many, many beaches very close by. Orlando is centrally located just an hour or so from some of the best Florida beaches.

An hour or so to the west brings you to Clearwater and the delights of Florida’s Gulf Coast. And Cocoa Beach is an even shorter drive to the east. So you see, the beach is definitely a possibility for your Orlando vacation.

Orlando Vacation Cool #4 – Stay hydrated.
The best way to stay cool when your cruising the theme parks on your Orlando vacation is to drink a ton of water. It’s refreshing, it keeps you fresh, it’s perfect really.

Orlando Vacation Cool #5 – Don’t forget your sunscreen.
The only thing worse than walking around outside when the temperature is 95 degrees is walking around in those conditions with a sunburn. Protecting your skin is the coolest thing to do on your Orlando vacation.