Back and Forth in Blizzard Beach | 2-15-18

This is a little different than my usual trip reports, mainly because I didn’t take enough photos to truly tell the tubular day. It was the last day of the Cast Member Holiday Bonuses. One of these bonuses was tickets to a water park, and since Typhoon Lagoon was closed (-_____-), it was decided we should go to Blizzard Beach. Someday I’ll visit Typhoon!
It was just me, Emelia, and my mom. We arrived at about 11:30 and took our printed tickets to the touch points. From there, a CM will scan the printable ticket and transfer it onto a plastic ticket. Unfortunately, one of the tickets wouldn’t scan! Thankfully, the other three we brought along worked. We were in.
Whenever we visit a water park, our parents stake a spot and let us teenagers run wild with meet up times during the day. We headed straight to the Cross Country Creek, the best form of transportation, and a lazy river. We took it over to the recently re-opened Runoff Rapids! We climbed the one million stairs and found no wait. One of the slides isn’t exactly fit, according to Disney, so it was closed off. First we did the enclosed slide, then the open one, and the enclosed again. The enclosed one was quite a ride with lots of mysterious dips and turns, whereas the open one was reaaaaally boring.
We then took the Cross Country Creek to the Skilift that takes guests to the top of Mount Gushmore. After the nice ride up with a 10 year old who eagerly wanted to know why I had a camera, we hit my favorite slide, Teamboat Springs. This is a family raft ride and I am so confused why there is no height requirement! You really have to hold on to stay in the tube! After this, we walked up Mount Gushmore, something I used to be able to do effortlessly, but not anymore. It was so tiring! I need to start working out to do that again! Anyway, neither Emelia nor I are fans of Slush Gusher or Summit Plummet, so we did Teamboat Springs again and we got put with a family whose child cried from the experience. Quite interesting.
We met back with my mom, ate our packed sandwiches, and then went on the Cross Country Creek again. This time we went back to the enclosed Runoff Rapids. I really enjoyed that slide. Then we went back into the Cross Country Creek and did the Snow Stormers twice. Emelia was opposed to sled-slides due to a “traumatizing” experience at SeaWorld’s Manta about five years ago, but she gave them a shot this time and she really liked them! I’m so proud of her. Then it was another float around Cross Country Creek, this time being our first continuous loop without stopping for an attraction.
Then we went back to the Skilift, but it had a HUGE line! So, to save time, we did Single Rider. From there, we would go on Teamboat Springs again. Then another float down Cross Country Creek, home to one of Emelia’s favorite hidden Mickeys (btw, it’s in on of the pictures), as we hit Snow Stormers again. Snow Stormers is basically a flooding of your eyes and mouth with your body flailing around. It was this point that it hurt to walk at points. Ouch. We then did Toboggan Racers, which I could care less for. There was quite a wait though due to some children returning their sleds improperly, causing a jam on the treadmill system used. Then it was Snow Stormers again.
After another trip past the Ice Gator’s house, we met up with our Mom. She took us to Lottawatta Lodge, where Emelia got a Mickey Ice Cream sandwich and I got an Olaf Lemonade strawberry bar. It was okay, but I don’t think I’d ever get again, even if they lowered the price.
It was getting close to 5:00, closing time. We then walked back to Runoff Rapids to do the enclosed one for the last time. After this, we noticed the line for Downhill Double Dipper. The line for this is always long and it’s such a short ride, that we always forget about it since it’s not worth it. But this time, it had no wait! So we hopped in the Cross Country Creek for one stop over and climbed up to the queue. We got our tubes and got to the loading station. Ahead of us was a group of three. If you’re not aware, Downhill Double Dipper shoots down two guests at a time as a race. Since there was three, they did one Single rider since no one else in the queue was a single rider. To do so, the ride operator has to signal this down to the lifeguard at the bottom so the lifeguard can give the all clear for only ONE of the slides. The single rider went and it was time for the next two in the group. But when the ride operator tried to send the racers down, they didn’t go. The lifeguard only gave the all clear for one of the slides. After about ten minutes of watching the ride operator play charades with the lifeguard, it was finally our turn. Emelia beat me by about .08 seconds. Oh well.
We then left for home, where I discovered that my GoPro wrist mount already has rust on the screw that holds the camera in place. And this was my first use of it under water. Live and learn.

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