A History of Typhoon Lagoon: Disney's (Other) First Water Park 

Was so much fun to be in this video George, thanks for having me!! 🏄‍♂

What I love about this park is the lazy river. Each entrance/exit corresponds with an attraction. And there are signs telling you what attraction you're at. So it's like a highway of sorts.

As someone who works at Typhoon and Blizzard currently, I couldn't agree more with what you said at the end. The water parks deserve more love and attention

I worked at Typhoon Lagoon for a year back in 2019. I absolutely loved it. The theming is classic Disney, you felt like you were in the 90s Disney prime. The set up of the park is way better than blizzard beach. I wish Disney would give a little bit more love to this waterpark. Thank you for making this video.

Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach are both incredibly nostalgic for me. on family trips we very quickly stopped going to the main parks because of how crowded they can be and the expectation that you're going to *do stuff* while you're there, but we kept going to the water parks since you get more chance to just laze about. It's a shame it doesn't get updated all that often, but I go infrequently enough that it doesn't really feel that repetitive to do the same slides again

I grew up in Orlando and all of these water parks were a HUGE part of my childhood (including River Country) - great memories

My partner who works at typhoon as food and beverage, she can vouch and say it is way more chill working there compared to any other park. No one is shouting, no one is mad because something is sold out, everyone just wants to drink and relax.

Most underrated channel all time

I’m scuba certified and love scuba and snorkeling. The reef was my first exposure to snorkeling ever. I was scared of the sharks at first, but got hooked not long after, and the experience played a key role in my love of marine life to this day. By the time I was in my teen years, scuba certified, and had done volunteer time at my state aquarium, the reef became the main reason to go. I used to lie there for 15-20 min per ride, going super slowly just to watch everything, usually the group behind mine would pass me. I saw the signs that it was going to close as the required safety measures increased (e.g. mandatory life jackets for all ages - not a problem at all but it signaled it was becoming more complicated to run an already complicated attraction), but the closing still felt so sudden and unexpected. And what did they replaced that massive area with? A new slide? A traditional fish tank to replace the snorkeling bay? An extra pool? No. They replaced it with sand and additional seating. Out of the way and tucked back from the main paths and slides, in a park that already doesn’t usually get super packed. It’s so disappointing to see that submarine, that you used to be able to walk into and see the tank underwater, that was the centerpiece of a premier and unique attraction that had a significant impact on my interests and hobbies, covered in sand, sealed off, and made into an overflow seating area that barely gets used. Oh well, at least I’ll always have the memories and experiences growing up (/pos). DiveQuest at EPCOT is still phenomenal, and all things have to go eventually. The fact that the attraction was around for as long as it was is still incredible and respectable. I’ll miss you Shark Reef.

I’ve always had such great memories from this park, along with blizzard beach. Poseidon entertainment made a great video showcasing how these parks are the pinnacle of disney imagineering. Love the videos as always!

omg i full on excitedly pointed when mikefromtheaparty showed up on screen! such an underrated channel, thanks for having him on!

Thank you for making this. I’ve always felt like Typhoon Lagoon was the best water park Disney did. I’ve always preferred this water park to Blizzard Beach.

im so to glad i found thio schannel, i love smaller channels an ddisney!

Amazing as always. If I may suggest other topics maybe Disney Cruise Lines or maybe Tokyo Disney Resort? Love your stuff!

I have a request: Please talk about the two disney golf courses! They are barely ever talked about!

awesome video, brings back so many memories.

When I saw that Boat in Dreamlight Valley, I had a feeling it was familiar. Now I know

Please guys this guy truly deserves all the attention I love your videos man Keep it up!

Our family used to visit Typhoon Lagoon every time we had a trip to Disney World in the early to mid 90s. Disney had a ticket package where you could buy. I think it was four or five day theme park tickets and an extended ticket for the water park that expired seven days after the first day that you used it. We would plan our week to 10 days there by visiting a theme park one day then the next day at Typhoon Lagoon as a relaxing day, and what we would intersperse our days at the theme parks with a rest day at Typhoon Lagoon. It was the best!

I'm going to be visiting a WDW water park for the first time this year, I originally was hoping Blizzard Beach would be open when I go, but after this video I'm hyped to see Typhoon Lagoon! Great video, very informative.

I loved going to Typhoon Lagoon back in ‘99. My memories are vague, having been a little kid, but I remember the wave pool seeming massive. I loved just watching people swim over the shark reef. The “destroyed” state of the park made it seem wild and like an adventure. I hope to go back someday!

I love this park. The lazy river is so relaxing!

Brilliant video, TL is so underrated and I love that it still has non-IP-based theming (for now), its a great example of Eisner management at its peak.

i remember the shark reef, i got to do it in 2012 or 2013. the ends of the pool had ledges that gave you a few moments to acclimate to the water, which was kept in the 60s (°F), before starting your swim. you were given a mask, a snorkel, and a vest, and you could only really move forward, but it was still a fun experience. it was big enough that you kinda lost track of where you were until the ledge on the other end crept into view. i went back most recently in summer of 2023 with my fiancé and my sister and her bf, i was so surprised to see the shark reef completely gone and filled with sand and extra seating. i wish i could’ve experienced it again.

Loved the video! Only been to Typhoon Lagoon once, but it was a memorable one. My family was getting a photo pass picture taken in the wave pool, and they snapped a picture right as a larger wave hit us! The faces in that picture make it still one of my favorites to this day!

The shark pool is what got me into scuba diving almost 15 years ago

Always happy to see another video from you

Typhoon Lagoon was the 2nd Themed Water Park I do remember going here a lot!

Another banger, and seeing Mike appear was a nice suprise!

Excellent video. Thanks for doing all the research and putting this together. I love water parks.

love to see an appearance from mike from the party!! good vid 👍

I was heartbroken when the reef got removed... I LITERALLY had just found out about it the year prior and then it was gone :(

My new favourite channel. Just binged every theme park video. Great stuff

I went to camp at Animal Kingdom when I was a kid, and one of our excursions outside of AK was to the reef at Typhoon Lagoon, where they closed off one side for campers to swim in for 30 minutes. We were not required to swim straight through, most of us were treading water looking at sharks beneath us.

i know it's not typhoon lagoon, but when i went to blizzard beach with my family, a cast member (i think he was a college student doing an internship?) began to recognize us and would yell "there's my favorite family!" whenever we hit the front of the line, which isn't something people at the other parks can really do because they're so busy. i love that it's so relaxed and chill because not a lot of people go.

So happy to see a video about Typhoon Lagoon!! Went to Florida in 2008 when I was 11 and some of my most vivid memories are from there. I was truly obsessed with it - I remember writing a story inspired by its backstory 😂

i absolutely LOVED typhoon lagoon growing up! the amount of memories i’ve had there from when i was still a small kid is actually bizarre. My older brother still has a scar on his back from it hitting the ground at the wave pool haha. Great well explained video and i hope to be able to revisit soon when the weather is looking up

I needed a new video bro thank you!! Always happy to see a new upload

An excellent video, would love to see one done on Blizzard Beach.

This brings back so much nostalgia. I miss going there

I've been subbed since you had 70 subscribers. It's wonderful to see your channel growing and getting the attention it deserves. Well done George!

This is a very great history video. Fantastic job

Brilliant video, very well edited. I would really love a video on Blizzard Beach!!😊

Great vid! Super interesting. I went to blizzard beach once back in the day

This channel is one of the best

Love the videos, just had to chime in about wait times. I'm a resident of Central Florida and I can tell you that wait times do regularly get up into the 45-60 range and in peak summer over an hour, very frequently. Keep up the videos!

I adored going to Typhoon Lagoon as a kid. It was always the best day ever. My little brother got lost there one time lol. I did the snorkeling one time and I hated it, the water was so cold and I kept getting water in my snorkel

Good video reminded of the time where I would go to the water parks of Disney every spring break because I live in the Orlando area ❤

One of the really common complaints I hear from Disney Park fans is that theming has been really scaled back for a while despite that being one of Disney's strongest skills. Funny how being so insignificant has kinda shielded the waterparks from that

Great Video

I love your channel so much, you deserve 10 million subscribers

In 2011 I scuba dived at at typhoon lagoon! Core memory.

I was also under the impression that river country had issues with a Florida law in that water parks had to be a closed chlorinated system instead of a fresh water system due to the issue of the brain eating amoebas that are present in a lot of Florida's stagnant ponds

Omggg the wave pool was literally my favorite thing in the whole world as a 10 year old competitive swimmer . I could ride the wave a good 20 meters +++ and it was sooo awesome

i love the tropical music

So I’ve been watching your channel for literal hours now and it’s only just now occurring to me that you somehow have… ONLY 29k??? GET THIS MAN TO 100k GET THIS MAN TO 1MIL GET THIS MAN TO 7BILLION

Great video!

One thing that a bunch of water parks are adding to their attraction line ups are Action Rivers, like at Volcano Bay. For those of us who don't care for water slides but want something more interesting to do, Action Rivers are an awesome addition, and I wonder if maybe one day Typhoon Lagoon or Blizzard Beach will consider adding one 🤩 many people, like my entire family, were hanging out in the Volcano Bay one for more than an hour and we would return to it throughout the day. Once you try one, it's kind of a big selling point imo

I wish they would bring back the gator mascots they had, they have so much lore and add so much personality and story to the park.

Will be waiting on that Blizzard Beach video and one of the old 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea attraction at Magic Kingdom 😁

Love Typhoon Lagoon! In August 1994, the park stayed open till after dark. Been there a few times, last time was August 2017, right after it reopened following a storm. The place was empty!!! Got to ride everything, including Humunga Kowabumga, where a teen complimented me for “having the balls”to ride it” as he passed me climbing the stairs!!

It's so interesting to me, as a brazilian person, to watch the POV of americans on water parks; i had no idea it didn't make that much money! If you watch closely at 18:15, you'll see two of the most visited water parks in the world are from Brazil, and that's because of two points: 1. we live in a tropical land, therefore the weather is good for most of the year and only smaller parks close for winter 2. water parks are so much cheaper to built compered to a theme park. We have just a few theme parks in brazil 'cause they're very expensive to build in here! Just one ride can coust up to the budget of a whole water park, so there's water parks EVERYWHERE lol And we love them! Brazilians love water parks, so wouldn't be a surprise to find out water parks make more money here than the theme parks themselves... That being said, Brazil has the biggest theme park in latin-america: Beto Carrero World! We may not have Disney, but we have our mighty now passed-away fake cowboy from São Paulo! Yeehaw!

14:28 The ‘up and down section’ of the tube ride is probably uncommon cause of the reputation it has thanks to Schlitterbahn’s Beheading Incident. Really infamous in the US back in the 2016s.

finally, another good disney waterpark video. glad my obscure intrest is getting some more attention! will there be a blizzard beach video too?

My boyfriend has always had an under-appreciation for waterparks because he's a coasters kinda guy. I have been slowly changing that as I am....horribly afraid of roller coasters due to past trauma I will not get into here. He has been to Disney World many times and took me for my 1st time the end of last year, however this was his 1st time going to 1 of the waterparks as his family always avoided them, seeing them as generally a waste of time. We scheduled our trip so our very late event night happened and the next day was Typhoon Lagoon and Disney Springs. I would have loved the waterpark regardless, mind you, but getting to just lay around in water while being quite sore from several days of park already (end of trip problems) was actually an incredible move. Perked us both back up to kill the last few days.

i got to go, opening week. during that first week, you could get a "surf mat". it was essentially a thick, flexible foam mat. the surf mats were amazing...and really, really dangerous to little kids up by the shore. you could bend the leading edge down to ride the top of the waves, and get a gigantic head of steam going.

Thanks George. As always, I really enjoyed your video. I like the concept of both blizzard beach and typhoon lagoon. If I has to choose a favourite it would be the latter just because the theming is just better suited to a water park in a hot climate. One thing I have to disagree with you on are the lines though. I was there late august (so after the summer rush has slowed down) and the lines post 10:30, especially at Blizzard Beach, were just awful. Tom Bricker makes that point in his dianeytouristblog too, and tends to advise just using these parks to enjoy the wave pools and lazy rivers once the first hour or two of the day has passed due to the large lines for slides.

That typhoon lagoon wave pool scraped up my legs and almost drowned me (mind you I was 10 at the time but also a decent swimmer, I was on swim team). It’s really strong man 😅😢

Love this park

The Epcot of water parks lol

I remember the shark reef, it traumatized me. My mom made me do it. And I never forgave her for that. I wouldn’t go back to typhoon lagoon until 2023 because I was so traumatized by the shark reef. I also preferred blizzard beach anyways but it wasn’t open when we were there.

I remember enjoying the water parks as a kid. I visited Disney World in 2022, but didn't make it to Typhoon Lagoon because it was just... hard to get to. If you start your day at one of the main parks, you have to get a bus to a hotel, then another bus to Disney Springs, and finally a third bus to the water park. By the time I reached Disney Springs, a storm was rolling in and I ended up going to Epcot instead.

Request: Disney's Upcoming Theme Parks

The extensive bushes and plant work always scared me - how do they keep out snakes and other reptiles

I know this is a Disney channel primarily but it'd be awesome if you could cover Volcano Bay someday

I wish they hadn't added all the extra speed bumps and obstacles to slow you down on the individual tube slides, Mayday and Keelhaul Falls. They were much more fun before those changes.

Nobody ever knows about Typhoon Lagoon’s Kids Activities test program from the early 00’s. 😂

Lifelong Floridian , never been to the water parks, only water parks I’ve been to are Six Flags Georgia, and Aquatica twice

Last time I went here about 2 years ago we had to leave due to this storm that made it so you could barely see

I’ve never been. I didn’t really hear much about it until I was a teenager. But also when I was 15 I lost about 35% of my hearing and have hearing aids and those cannot get wet so water parks haven’t been a possibility for me for about 11 years now

I also was thinking maybe Blizzard Beach or Disney’s California Adventure next? 😀

If typhoon lagoon was made today it would be chock full of unneeded IP’s

Can you do this but for Blizzard Beach ?

Love Typhoon. Such a shame it gets neglected so much. Waterslides are so much cheaper than dark rides….they could easily expand almost every season and only spend a million or so on something new.

I’ve travelled to Disney multiple times over 10 years and I’ve never been to the water parks

I always wanted to go to the water parks, but because they cost extra, I never got to go. 😔

In my opinion, until Volcano Bay opened, Typhoon lagoon was easily the best themed and most enjoyable waterpark in Orlando.

I still don’t understand why they removed Shark Reef

can you talk about more waterparks around the U.S?

Lord we get it river country existed 😫😫😫

You should talk about blizzard beach! It’s way better than typhoon lagoon

never been there, but besides adding or taking away slides, not much you can do to water park. like you said, its fast and ppl are more concentrated on staying safe, not the aesthetics . So besides putting new shiny things to look at, not much you can do.. so just keeping that story of the S E A alive in the parks, this is a starting part maybe? or maybe not?

i got to swim with the sharks as a kid, and swam in river country before the brain worms :D

Typhoon Lagoon is fine. But Blizzard Beach is elite.

Hong Kong’s mystic manor* Phantom manor is at Paris Disney

15:47 This joke is killing me

Hong Kong has Mystic Manor.

Wet n wild slayed typhoon lagoon

I mean, on the subject of water parks,,, Disney did make the Percy Jackson series soo... 👀 Potential new rides/theming things to add?

I love water parks, but i get bad "look how skinny everyone is syndrome"