Blizzard Beach reopening any time soon?

[Hohlraum]

Any rumblings as to when BB will reopen? Do you think the closing is more about refurbishment or only wanting to staff a single water park?

 

[BrianL]

It jsut underwent a huge refurbishment, so I do think it's about staffing. I wish it would reopen though because I prever it to Typhoon Lagoon and I have some rare water park time coming up for me on my next trip.

 

[Shelby Schroepfer]

Piggy backing on this, was it ever confirmed that they would alternate being open? I thought I read somewhere that March-September would be Typhoon and September-March would be Blizzard but I don't think I read it FROM Disney. We always do the park hopper plus tickets and I don't think we've ever had the option to visit BOTH parks, but we do usually visit between September and December.

 

[BrianL]

Piggy backing on this, was it ever confirmed that they would alternate being open? I thought I read somewhere that March-September would be Typhoon and September-March would be Blizzard but I don't think I read it FROM Disney. We always do the park hopper plus tickets and I don't think we've ever had the option to visit BOTH parks, but we do usually visit between September and December.

They used to both be open over the summer months with one going down for a refurb over the winter months, alternating with the other at that time. BB was closed for an extended period (since the pandemic I believe) and had only just reopened last year. Why it's actually closed isn't known for sure, but I imagine staffing is the likely curprit.

 

[nw6675]

I wish I'd researched better prior to buying + tickets. Not really a fan of BB and based on this, it looks like TL will be closed in November/December when we'll be there. We won't use the + otherwise

 

[Hohlraum]

We've only ever been to TL. Was really hoping that BB would be open for our next trip 5/27-6/6.

 

[Halle]

We were at Typhoon Lagoon two weeks ago, our attendant (Beachcomber Shack) told us that they are having trouble hiring lifeguards. He said they hope to have both open by summer of 2024. The current Typhoon Lagoon staff had been at BB and moved to TL when the park opened.

 

[Hohlraum]

We've got a BC shack at TL and would just cancel and get one at BB if it reopens in time. My daughter was the big kahuna when we went last time at TL. It was pretty awesome.

 

[wkrainey]

Most of the staff for BB and TL are CP's that they bring in for the season. With the issues of staffing all around, Disney is better off utilizing the CP's to shore up staff in the parks, and keep 1 waterpark down for refurbs vs having short staff everywhere and open up a waterpark. The waterparks have an added safety aspect that the parks don't have and without a minimum level of staffing they would have to shut down anyways. Where at the parks they can still operate rides at reduced capacity to handle the staffing shortages.

 

[rdaky]

They don't have enough lifeguards. They even recently had a lifeguard job fair to try to recruit more.

 

[Shelby Schroepfer]

SDF

 

[bobdacat]

I think Blizzard Beach is being rethemed. I heard something about it being reimagined as a prison breakout type theming. The slides as ways to escape the prison and such.

 

[Hohlraum]

I think Blizzard Beach is being rethemed. I heard something about it being reimagined as a prison breakout type theming. The slides as ways to escape the prison and such.

You play the roll of a teacher on the run from the Florida government for mentioning Rosa Parks during one of your lectures.

 

[ajb_tic_tac]

Does anybody know or have a good idea on why Disney is experiencing staffing problems? Is there now a lot more "better" jobs in the area or is the population in the area decreasing?

 

[Bibbidi_Boo]

I don't care as much if only one is open but alternate which one for the summer season. But we all know why they picked TL for two summers in a row......they can sell the evening parties.

 

[maltdizzy]

Does anybody know or have a good idea on why Disney is experiencing staffing problems? Is there now a lot more "better" jobs in the area or is the population in the area decreasing?

Consecutively compounding issues...

1. Issues started before the pandemic, when a political fight over H-2B seasonal worker visas in 2018 and 2019 caused a massive, nation-wide lifeguard shortage for the Summer pool season. While WDW doesn't rely on H-2B workers, they had to adjust to a more competitive market
2. Then the pandemic and great resignation made a lot of people leave public-facing careers. Faced with a smaller candidate pool for consumer-facing employees, and rising labor costs, everyone made changes
3. Finally, Russia invaded the Ukraine. While this may seem hard to relate to WDW, it goes back to those H-2B workers. Beaches, pools, tourist spots, etc. relied heavily on H-2B workers from Eastern Europe

So it's been a rough 5-6 years to hire and retain for the tourism industry (and many others), and Disney is a publicly-traded corporation with a budget line for "human capital" (I hate that term), and Wall Street tend to reward leadership teams that can squeeze as much out of that budget line as possible.

 

[Anjelica]

They used to both be open over the summer months with one going down for a refurb over the winter months, alternating with the other at that time. BB was closed for an extended period (since the pandemic I believe) and had only just reopened last year. Why it's actually closed isn't known for sure, but I imagine staffing is the likely curprit.

Sad as I loved having the choice of going to either (sometimes we went strictly for the water parks for vacation during the hotter months)

 

[Bibbidi_Boo]

Sad as I loved having the choice of going to either (sometimes we went strictly for the water parks for vacation during the hotter months)

Same!

 

[brockash]

We've decided to forego Disneys water parks this trip and will go to Volcano Bay instead. We've heard it's awesome and it really rubs us the wrong way that they're still charging us the same price to add water parks, but for years now have only had 1 open. We put up with it for 2 years. but our group of 12 have decided we're done.

 

[Bibbidi_Boo]

We've decided to forego Disneys water parks this trip and will go to Volcano Bay instead. We've heard it's awesome and it really rubs us the wrong way that they're still charging us the same price to add water parks, but for years now have only had 1 open. We put up with it for 2 years. but our group of 12 have decided we're done.

Honestly I think the water park add on is still a great deal because they added in mini golf, we have made it more than worth it. Plus a one day water park ticket is so high as is.

We do love Volcano Bay also though, just don't love how slammed packed it gets.