(My OJ State Vacation .. Part 5 of 8)
Typhoon Lagoon
July 1
July 5/2011
If you had to pick a park to visit, which one would you pick, especially if there are many choices?
Universal has a bunch of parks, Disney has a bunch and Sea World has a bunch. – all in the Orlando area. It was quite the dilemma! But what better way to beat the summer heat than to head to a water park. The question that now remained was - which water park? Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon made the cut or rather the shuffle…
Typhoon Lagoon apparently has the largest artificial wave pool amongst the theme parks, sending out 6 ft waves every half hour or so. The ever vigilant orange-clad life-guards watched from either side as the excited screaming/shrieking crowd welcomed each giant wave. It was kinda cool as you could decide how deep you really wanted to wade in, before you caught the waves. (The advantage of a man-made pool is the depth making on the sides!!). The waves would continue for some 10 mins or so, before pausing for the next sequence. Another easy-to-do thing was the Castaway Creek, a 3 ft deep lazy river – where you could just float on tubes for some 2000 ft or so.
In the Crush n Gusher ride, you got to ride in 2 or 3 person tubes as you whiz past hairpin turns and finally land in a pool of water. There were three paths to choose with cute names like Banana, Coconut and Pineapple. Only thing was that you had to carry those tubes some up steps to some 3 stories high prior to each ride. This ride was a keeper and experienced several times over.
The Gang Plank Falls was a family raft ride with a very long waiting line. I think we spent more time waiting in line than the actual ride itself. The ride really was "Long Time, No See!" Though short, it was however enjoyable.. The Mayday and Keelhaul rides were single person rides, which was a new experience for me. Till the very last minute I did not know if I would be able to hurtle down on a tube by myself. You have to remember to hold on to the tube the entire time and prop yourself just right on the tubes as well. The ride was supposed to have a “rough-rapids feeling” which does not paint a safe picture for someone with anxiety issues. Turned out to be a lot less “rough-rapids” than the mind had imagined – the end result was 2 fun rides.
What was cooler still, was that it started to rain – the drizzle during our Gang Plank wait , turning to a heavy shower by Keehaul Ride. So there we were, standing in line in a warm rain, waiting for the rides. We were gonna get wet in a water ride anyway, so the rain was just a preamble.
Water from below (ride) and water from above (rain) truly make for fantastic water park rides!!
Eventually the heavy shower turned into a thunderstorm and the rides shut down for safety reasons. There was a veritable mass exodus out of the park – Nature follows its own timetables.
Back to Islands of Adventure
A closed Water Park meant time to spare, so we went back to Islands of Adventure Theme Park (my favorite) and popped into The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, plus a chance to drink an additional Butterbeer. To my disappointment, the main Harry ride was just shutting down for an unspecified period due to technical difficulties. It was fortunate that I had gone on this ride several times the previous day. So my disappointment did not quite match those of the hordes of first timers fans who’d been waiting in line.
The Jurassic Park ride was closed too… The thunderstorm must be messing stuff up big time at the Florida Parks! But Spidey (an indoor ride) was still open, so got another chance to see Spiderman land on our car during the ride and get rescued by him.. Again.
Amazingly enough, these rain showers did not dampen our vacation at all. Showers were to be expected this time of the year in Florida, but the rainwater was warm and did not result in chills and colds. Most people just waited out the quick bursts (restaurants do good business during showers) and then moved on as though nothing had happened.
To continue.. More on my OJ Vacation saga....
2. Wizarding World of Harry Potter
4. Universal Studios, City Walk, Downtown Disney
5. Typhoon Lagoon and Back to Islands of Adventure
6. NASA - Kennedy Space Center
7. Everglades - River of Grass
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