Blizzard Beach
Blizzard Beach is one of Walt Disney World's two water parks, themed as a ski resort caught in a thaw: a snow-capped mountain with slides down its slopes, a chairlift to the top and snow melting into the Florida sun. For families with young children the draw sits at the bottom of the mountain, in the shallow water, with a Frozen-themed play area built for little ones, a shallow-edged wave pool and a lazy river that circles the whole park.
On this page
Is it worth it?
A ski-resort-themed water park where the draw for little ones is the shallow end, with a play area of their own, a shallow wave pool and a lazy river.
Blizzard Beach is the more compact and, for young children, the more manageable of Walt Disney World's two water parks. The whole park is built around one central mountain, Mount Gushmore, with the big slides dropping from the summit and everything shallow and slower gathered at the base. For a family with little ones the useful part is all down there: a wave pool a baby can paddle at the edge of, the Frozen-themed Tike's Peak and a lazy river. The three headline slides all need a child to be 122 cm (48 in), so young children can't ride them, but there's plenty of water they can be in.
Whether it's worth the money depends on how you'll use it. If both of you spend the whole day in the under-48-inch zone, you're paying Disney water-park prices for what is really a very well-themed paddling pool, and your hotel pool is free and may keep a toddler just as happy. Blizzard Beach makes most sense on a longer trip with a mix of ages, so someone rides the big slides. It's an easier call on a day when a resort check-in perk covers the admission.
Best for
Little ones who love water play. Tike's Peak, the wave pool and the lazy river are all shallow and none has a height limit.
Best ages
Babies and toddlers at the shallow end, older children for the big slides. A mix of ages gets the most from a day here.
What stands out
Tike's Peak, a Frozen-themed area you can only enter with a child under 48 inches, with small slides, fountains and a sandcastle beach.
The big slides
Summit Plummet, Slush Gusher and Downhill Double Dipper, the fast body and tube slides down the front of the mountain, all for older children and adults.
Worth weighing
If you'll spend the whole day in the toddler area, weigh the cost against your hotel pool. Best on a longer trip or with mixed ages.
Where is it?
In the southwest corner of Walt Disney World near Orlando, by Animal Kingdom. Free parking right by the gate, and it's open seasonally, not all year.
Quick facts for UK families
How the park is laid out
One snow-capped mountain with slides down its slopes, ringed by a lazy river, with the shallow water at the base.
Blizzard Beach was the third Disney water park to open, back in 1995, and one joke runs all the way through it: a Florida ski resort that started to melt. The slopes are covered in what looks like snow, a chairlift carries people to the top, the slides are named like ski runs and a half-timbered chalet sits at the summit. It all centres on one artificial mountain, Mount Gushmore. The fast slides drop from its summit, a chairlift and a set of stairs run up to them, and the runs are colour-coded green, purple and red by difficulty in the way a real ski resort grades its pistes. A lazy river, Cross Country Creek, loops right around the outside of the park.
Everything a family with young children needs sits at the bottom of the mountain, close together. Melt-Away Bay, the wave pool, is at the foot of the slopes with a beach-style shallow edge. Tike's Peak, the area built for the youngest children, is off to one side, and Ski Patrol Training Camp, for older children, to another. The main buildings, the big quick-service restaurant, the lockers, the shops and first aid, are grouped near the entrance in an area called Alpine Village. The park is small and easy to walk with a pram, which is part of why it suits little ones better than the sprawl of the main theme parks.
The park's mascot is Ice Gator, a blue cartoon alligator in a ski hat and red scarf, and half the fun for children is spotting him around the place: a "Danger: low-flying gator" road sign with his skiing silhouette, and the crash-shaped hole he left in the wall of the Beach Haus shop after one run too many. A snow sculpture of him used to stand in the children's area, but the 2022 refit put Frozen there instead, so these days he mostly turns up on signs and in the theming rather than as a costumed character.
The slides, and which ones little ones can go on
The big slides are for older children and adults, but the family raft has no limit and the smallest can ride the chairlift with you.
The slides that give the park its reputation come down the front of Mount Gushmore. Summit Plummet is the famous one, a near-vertical drop that's among the tallest and fastest slides anywhere. Slush Gusher runs alongside it, and Downhill Double Dipper is a pair of racing tubes. They're for older children and adults.
Two rides have no height limit at all but aren't toddler rides either. Toboggan Racers and Snow Stormers are mat slides you ride head-first or face-forward down an open slope, and they suit an older, confident child rather than a little one. The ride that does work for young children is Teamboat Springs, a long family raft that carries four to six people together through dips and spinning drops, lively but not frightening. A toddler who can sit up and hold both handles can go on it with you, and children under seven ride with someone aged fourteen or older. It's the ride most worth reaching early, before the queue builds.
Runoff Rapids is a set of three tube flumes on the far side of the mountain. The enclosed middle one is a single-rider slide in the dark, but a child of 81 cm (32 in) or taller can ride one of the two open outer flumes on a double tube with an adult, and riding solo needs 122 cm (48 in). The height board posted at the ride is the rule on the day, so check it there before a small child queues. The chairlift is the only one at any Disney water park, a scenic three-minute ride to the summit, open to children from 81 cm (32 in) with an adult alongside, and smaller children can still get to the top by the stairs that run up beside it.
Heights and who can rideEvery slide and its height limit
| Slide | Min height | Little ones? | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Summit Plummet | 122 cm (48 in) | No | The headline slide, a near-vertical body slide about 120 feet (37 m) down the front of the mountain. It's among the tallest and fastest anywhere, and it's over in seconds, ridden flat on your back. |
| Slush Gusher | 122 cm (48 in) | No | A fast body slide alongside Summit Plummet, with two big hills that lift you off the slide for a moment. Less steep than Summit Plummet, without the near-vertical drop, but still an intense ride. |
| Downhill Double Dipper | 122 cm (48 in) | No | A pair of side-by-side enclosed tubes that race each other down the slope. Popular with older children and adults. |
| Teamboat Springs | None | Yes, if they can sit up and hold both handles | A long family raft carrying four to six people together through dips and spinning drops, lively but not frightening. Children under seven ride with someone aged fourteen or older, and a party of fewer than four may be sat with other guests to fill the raft. The raft rides back to the top on a conveyor, so there's no hauling it up the stairs. It's the one ride here most young children can go on with you. |
| Toboggan Racers | None | Older, confident children | An eight-lane mat race where you lie face-down and slide head-first down an open slope. No height floor, but a thrill ride rather than a toddler one. |
| Snow Stormers | None | Older, confident children | Three mat slides down a slalom course with dips. Like Toboggan Racers, no minimum height but too much for most young children. |
| Runoff Rapids | See notes | Yes, on an outer flume with an adult | Three tube flumes on the far side of the mountain, the enclosed middle one for single riders in the dark and two open outer ones. A child of 81 cm (32 in) or taller can ride an outer flume on a double tube with an adult, and a solo rider needs to be 122 cm (48 in), so check the height board at the ride on the day. |
| Chair Lift | 81 cm (32 in) | Yes, with an adult | A scenic three-minute lift to the summit. Children 48 inches and under ride with an adult; smaller children reach the top by the stairs alongside instead. |
Tike's Peak and the children's areas
A Frozen-themed play area for the youngest children, with shallow water, small slides and a sandy beach, plus a separate area for older ones.
Tike's Peak is the reason most families with young children come to Blizzard Beach. It's a fenced area you can only enter with a child who is 48 inches (122 cm) or shorter, which keeps the bigger children out and makes it calm. Since a 2022 refit it's themed to Frozen, with Anna, Elsa, Olaf and the little snowgies around it and the music to match. Inside there's a wading pool with soft jets and a padded floor in places for unsteady walkers, an igloo with pop-up fountains, a set of small snow-banked slides that end in ankle-deep water and a patch of soft sand for building sandcastles. The water runs from ankle-deep to about waist-deep on a small child, lifeguards are posted around it and there's one way in and out, so it's easy to keep track of a toddler. Child-sized life jackets are kept in the area too.
Next to it, Ski Patrol Training Camp is aimed at older children, roughly the seven-to-fourteens. It has a rope-and-float balance course, body and tube slides and a T-bar that drops you into deep water, so it isn't a toddler area, but it's useful to know about if you have an older child alongside a little one.
Characters turn up here too, which is rare for a water park. Families report a Kristoff meet from Frozen, often with little or no queue, and Disney's summer programme has added a second walk-up meet, Goofy in beach dress in 2026. Which characters appear and when they meet changes from year to year, so check My Disney Experience when you arrive if seeing one matters to your child.
The wave pool and the lazy river
The wave pool and the lazy river are where most families with little ones spend the day, and neither has a height limit.
Melt-Away Bay is the wave pool at the foot of the mountain. It's smaller and calmer than the one at Typhoon Lagoon, with a slow, continuous bobbing motion rather than big crashing waves. It's zero-entry, shelving in gradually from a beach-style edge like a real beach, so a baby can paddle at the shallowest point while it deepens further out. A bar, Polar Pub, looks over it, so one of you can fetch a drink while the other stays in the water.
Cross Country Creek is the lazy river, about a twenty to thirty minute float at a relaxed pace, with seven points to get on and off. The water is heated and a steady 2 feet 6 inches (76 cm) deep the whole way, which is chest-height on a standing toddler and too deep for a baby to stand, so hold a baby or put a small child in a life jacket in a tube with you. Rubber tubes are free but limited, so grab one when you see it. One stretch passes through a dark ice cave with cold water misting down, which can startle a nervous child, so it's worth a word of warning first. Another passes Ice Gator's cabin, which lets out a sudden sneeze of icy spray over the tubes going by, a smaller surprise but the same story with a jumpy child. Both Disney water parks treat the water with bromine rather than chlorine, which a parent whose child reacts to chlorine may find gentler on skin and eyes.
The wave pool and the lazy river are the easiest places to lose sight of a small child in a crowd, so it helps to agree a meeting spot when you arrive, put a wristband with your phone number on your child and take a photo of them at the start of the day so you can describe exactly what they're wearing. If you're separated, any lifeguard or cast member will start looking, and a child old enough to understand can be told to find a cast member, who all wear name tags.
What to bring, and sorting shade
Life jackets are free, lockers and shade cost extra, and swim nappies need buying before you arrive.
Life jackets are free to borrow, against a refundable deposit of a card or driving licence you get back when you return the jacket, and they come in sizes from infants up. You collect them at Frostbite Freddy's near the entrance, and there are child-sized ones inside Tike's Peak as well. The infant and child sizes go first on a busy day, so it's worth making it the first thing you do when you arrive.
You can bring your own life jacket instead as long as it's US Coast Guard-approved. A Puddle Jumper, the armband-and-chest float most UK families pack, is allowed on that condition, so check the label carries a Type II or Type III mark before you count on it, since one without it will be turned away. A swimsuit with built-in flotation is fine on the same rule. The float seats sold under names like Mambobaby aren't Coast Guard-approved, so they won't be let in, and nor will any inflatable, meaning armbands, water wings, rubber rings, tubes and swim noodles. If you'd rather not weigh it up, the free Disney jackets are certain to be accepted.
Water shoes are worth packing for everyone, little feet included. The walkways bake in the Florida sun and can get hot enough to burn bare skin in about a minute, and one visitor reported patches of worn concrete rough enough to cut, so shoes you can both walk and paddle in save a lot of hopping between shaded spots.
Lockers rent by the day at Beach Haus near the entrance and at Snowless Joe's, with a PIN so you can get in and out through the day. You can bring your own towels, and the park has them to collect too.
There's little natural shade here, so it's worth either reserving some or claiming a shaded perimeter spot when the gates open. The cheapest reserved option is a Lodge Umbrella, a couple of loungers under a parasol, and above that are the Polar Patios, a proper cabana with seating, towels and a cool box, in a standard and a covered premium version. All of them are booked through the My Disney Experience app or at Beach Haus on arrival, and they're priced by demand, so they cost more on the busiest summer days. Put rash guards on small children and reapply high-factor waterproof sunscreen through the day, since the Florida sun is strong even when it's cloudy.
Bring swim nappies from home. Any child who isn't toilet-trained has to wear a proper swim nappy in the water, not a normal nappy or a pull-up, and one is enough, since there's no double-nappy rule like some UK pools have. They're sold at the Beach Haus shop in the park but at a theme-park markup, so a pack from a supermarket like Walmart, Target or Publix before you arrive works out much cheaper.
Where to eat
One big air-conditioned restaurant, a scatter of snack stops, and you can bring your own food in a cool bag.
Every place to eat here is counter-service, so you order at a window and carry it to a table, and there's no sit-down restaurant to book, which means nothing needs reserving ahead. The main one is Lottawatta Lodge near the entrance, a large quick-service spot with burgers, chicken, flatbreads, salads and children's meals. It has air-conditioned indoor seating, the most comfortable place in the park to cool down, feed a baby or wait out the midday heat with lunch. Mobile Order in the My Disney Experience app lets you order and pay ahead and collect at a window with no queue, and it works here and at two of the smaller stands, Avalunch and the Warming Hut, which saves waiting with a hungry child. The kitchens are well set up for food allergies, so if anyone has one, order in person and ask for a Special Diets-trained cast member rather than using the app.
The rest are snack and drink stops dotted around the park. Dole Whip, the pineapple soft-serve, turns up at the Warming Hut and elsewhere, along with ice-cream sundaes, mini donuts, churros and a shareable Sand Pail that goes down well with children. A couple of bars serve the grown-ups, including Polar Pub by the wave pool. You're allowed to bring your own food and soft drinks in a soft-sided cool bag, up to about 24 by 15 by 18 inches, with no glass and no alcohol; hard-sided coolers aren't allowed and every bag is checked on the way in. Any ice needs to be in sealed bags rather than loose. Baby formula and breast milk are let in whatever the size of the bag, so feeding a baby is never a sticking point. There's no refill-mug scheme any more, but any counter will give you a cup of water for free. For a cheap keepsake, the shop and the machines dotted about press a souvenir penny or stamp out a collectible medallion, which keeps a lot of children happy for far less than a soft toy.
Babies, changing and the heat
Where to change and feed a baby, what to do about a pram, and planning around the heat.
The changing rooms and showers are near the lockers at the entrance end. They're split by gender, each with curtained cubicles inside, so a parent changing a toddler of the other gender uses a cubicle in whichever room matches the adult. Baby-changing tables are in the restrooms. There's no separate baby-care centre like the ones at the main theme parks, so for feeding a baby the calmest spot is the air-conditioned seating inside Lottawatta Lodge or a quiet corner of the changing rooms. If you're warming a bottle, the counter at Lottawatta Lodge has a microwave you can ask to use, and they'll bring a high chair to your table on request. First aid, with a nurse on duty, is in Alpine Village near the entrance if anyone overheats or picks up a scrape.
Disney doesn't hire prams at the water parks the way it does at the theme parks, so bring your own if you want one, keeping it under the size limit of 31 inches wide by 52 inches long, which covers most single and double prams. The wagon-style pushchairs some families now travel with (Veer-type cruisers and wagon-pram hybrids) aren't allowed at the water parks at all, so it needs to be a conventional pram. It stays out of the water areas and off the slides, parked in the pram areas by the entrance and at the foot of the mountain. A pram is still worth having for getting to and from the car and for a nap. Beyond that, plan around the heat. Pack rash guards, a hat, plenty of sunscreen and water shoes for the hot ground, take the middle of the day gently, and use the wave pool and the lazy river, which keep everyone cooler than standing about in the sun.
Wheelchairs, scooters and access
Disney doesn't hire out mobility kit at the water parks, so it's worth knowing what's here and what to arrange before you come.
Disney doesn't run paid wheelchair or scooter hire at its water parks the way it does at the theme parks. A small number of standard manual wheelchairs are kept free at Guest Relations near the entrance, left against a photo ID and first-come, so a family who needs a guaranteed chair for the day is better bringing their own or hiring one from a third-party company that delivers to the park. For the water itself, Guest Relations usually has a few water-rated wheelchairs that can go into the wave pool and the lazy river, again free with an ID deposit, though they're limited and not promised, so it's worth asking on arrival.
One thing to know if you use it at the theme parks: Disability Access Service doesn't apply at the water parks, it's a theme-park service only. Service animals are welcome around the park but not in the water or on the slides, and there are relief areas for them.
Getting there
Easiest by car, with free parking at the gate, and open seasonally rather than all year.
The simplest way to get to Blizzard Beach with young children is to drive. Parking is free and right by the entrance, and a car gives you the freedom to leave when a toddler has had enough or to turn back if the weather closes the park. Your ticket lets you leave and come back the same day as often as you like, scanned in each time, so a parent who drove can take a napping toddler out to the car for a proper sleep and return later. If you're staying at a Disney hotel the buses are free, but only some resorts run a direct service to the water park in summer, and from the rest you change buses at Animal Kingdom, which adds a fair bit of time.
Out of peak season the buses run less often and a taxi or rideshare is often quicker. A standard Uber or Lyft doesn't carry car seats, though, so for the youngest children there's Disney's own Minnie Van service, a chauffeured car booked through the Lyft app while you're on Disney property that serves Blizzard Beach and comes with two car seats the driver fits for you. It costs more than a normal rideshare and the service has been paused before now, so check it's running, but for a UK family flying in without seats it's the one on-property option that solves the car-seat problem. There's no monorail, Skyliner or boat to the water parks.
WeatherHot summers, mild winters and daily afternoon storms
Blizzard Beach is open-air, so the Orlando weather matters more here than at an indoor attraction. Winter is the mildest and driest time, with December-to-February highs around 21 to 23°C (70 to 73°F), though a cold morning can dip below the point where the park won't open, so it's the season most likely to catch you out. Spring and autumn are warm, comfortable and drier. Summer, roughly June to August, is hot and humid with highs around 33°C (91°F), and it's the wettest part of the year, when short heavy thunderstorms build most afternoons. Lightning clears the water until it passes, and the rain often thins the crowds for a while afterwards. The UV is intense all year, and stronger off the open water and the pale concrete that reflect it back, so a small child can burn faster here than a UK forecast suggests, even under cloud.
When to goWhen to go
Blizzard Beach doesn't open all year. Disney runs its two water parks in turn, closing one for refurbishment while the other stays open, and opens both together through the summer, so there are stretches, usually in the cooler months, when Blizzard Beach is shut. Check it's open on your dates in the app before you commit to it. When it is open, summer days start around 10am and run into the early evening, and off-season days are shorter, but the times move, so check My Disney Experience for your date. Two other things can close it at short notice: a cold Florida winter morning, since it won't open if the air is too cold, and lightning, which clears the water until it passes. Look at the app the evening before and again on the morning. You don't need to book a slot to get in, and the first hour after opening is the coolest, quietest part of the day for a toddler.
Some days are much quieter than others. Tuesday and Wednesday are consistently the calmest, with Thursday close behind, and the weekday stretch in late August, once US schools go back but both parks are still open, is about as quiet as it gets. Saturday is the busiest, Sunday next, and Monday catches families out because a water park is a popular second day of a trip. On the busiest days the park can reach capacity and stop letting new guests in for a while, mostly a risk on holiday weekends or when only one water park is open; arriving at opening avoids it, and if you're turned away the gates usually reopen to new arrivals from around mid-afternoon.
If you're travelling any time from June to November, keep a Blizzard Beach day flexible, because that's Atlantic hurricane season and the open-air water parks are the first thing Disney closes when a storm is on the way. Hurricane Milton took the whole resort offline for a full day in October 2024. A washed-out day rarely comes with a cash refund, so travel insurance bought with the holiday is the cleaner protection, and it's worth watching the forecast and gov.uk in the days before.
Visit in the festive season and the park takes on a tropical-Christmas look at no extra cost: a Santa in shorts, long socks and a sun hat, wreath-patterned tubes on the lazy river, a snowfall effect in places and festive treats at the food stands. The exact dates and menu shift each year, so check what's on before building a day around it.
Loves and gripes
Families praise Tike's Peak and the calm water, and grumble about shade, stairs and the busiest-day crowds.
Tike's Peak comes up most, a proper area of their own with shallow water, small slides and sand, and children who know the films recognise Anna, Elsa and Olaf around it. The free life jackets in infant sizes take a lot of the worry out of the water. The chairlift ride to the summit is a hit with curious toddlers, one of the few things here they can do that the big children do too. Families also mention the walk-up Frozen character meet, which usually has little or no queue. The wave pool's shallow edge and the slow lazy river suit babies and toddlers, and a small child in a tube on the river often nods off.
Shade draws the most complaints. The open ski-slope layout leaves more of the park in direct sun than the tree-shaded Typhoon Lagoon, and the free shaded spots go early on a hot day. It's a vertical, stair-heavy park built up the sides of a mountain, so reaching the top slides means a real climb that the chairlift only partly saves, which is more of an issue for whoever's carrying a tired toddler than for the little ones themselves. There's no baby-care centre like the four big theme parks have, so feeding a baby means the air-conditioned restaurant or the changing rooms. On the busiest summer weekends the headline slides can queue well over an hour for an older sibling, and the park occasionally reaches capacity and stops admitting new guests, mostly when only one of the two water parks is open.
Questions parents ask
The questions that come up most before a first visit, with the official links at the foot.
Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon with little ones?
Often the choice is made for you, since Disney usually has only one of the two open at a time and both together only in summer. Where you can pick, Blizzard Beach is the more compact park, which can suit a toddler you're keeping close, while Typhoon Lagoon has its own dedicated children's area and a bigger surf pool. Our Typhoon Lagoon guide goes through that side.
How long should we plan to stay?
With a toddler, plan for a morning rather than a full day. Most young families have had enough by early afternoon, before the heat and the crowds peak, and four or five hours is enough for Tike's Peak, the wave pool and a float round the lazy river.
Can we take turns on the big slides?
Yes, though there's no formal Rider Switch at the water parks like the theme parks run. You rotate it informally: one of you rides Summit Plummet or Slush Gusher while the other stays with the little one at the wave pool, then you swap over. Agree a meeting spot first, because the app doesn't show water-park queue times, so you're judging the wait by eye on the day.
Do we have to bring swim nappies?
Yes, if they're not yet out of nappies. Either kind counts: a disposable one like Huggies Little Swimmers or Pampers Splashers, or a reusable neoprene one. Pack a few spares, since a day of getting in and out of the water goes through more than one.
Is there anywhere shaded to sit?
Not much that's free. For a morning visit you can skip paying and arrive at opening, while some free shade is still going. Only reserve shade in advance if you're staying into the hot early afternoon, when the free spots are gone and the choice is a paid umbrella or a cabana or none at all.
Blizzard Beach photos
Mount Gushmore, the slides and the Frozen-themed Tike's Peak, all in one place.
Open the Blizzard Beach photo gallery →
Useful links
- Blizzard Beach: the official park page for attractions, dining, opening dates and live hours.
- Typhoon Lagoon: our guide to the resort's other water park.
- Tickets and passes: how UK tickets and the water park add-on work.
- Walt Disney World with little ones: our guide to the resort, its parks, hotels and getting there from the UK.
Last updated 9 July 2026.
