Island H2O Live! officially opened its doors to guests last week on the first day of summer, bringing an all new water park option to Central Florida visitors just minutes away from Walt Disney World.
Located within walking distance or a short trolley ride from Margaritaville Hotel and Sunset Walk - the resort’s retail, dining, and entertainment district, Island H2O Live! offers 20 different experiences including a lazy river, wave pool, water-coaster, body slides, tube slides, kids slides and a 21+ adults pool.
Alongside the slides and activities, Island H2O Live! aims to bring something new to the water park experience with its integration of social media and app. Upon arrival, you are given an RFID Smart Band which allows you to engage your social networks through the H2O Live! app. Using the app (or in park kiosks) you can customize your rides and select slide lighting color themes & music playlists, earn park perk points, find friends, access lockers and more. The park perks can be earned while riding attractions, and later exchanged for merchandise, snacks and other goodies.
We got the opportunity to tour the park during the grand opening, and we’ve put together some of our thoughts on the water park and why you might want to consider adding it to your Walt Disney World vacation plans.
The obvious question for Disney visitors is how does this park compare to Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach? Island H2O is a much more compact park than either of Disney’s offerings, which means shorter walks between rides, but in a less expansive environment. The ride count and type is similar, although Island H2O Live! is ahead of both of Disney’s parks with the offerings for young children. Island H2O has more than 10 kids slides in two areas, one dedicated to very young children, and a second that is more suited to the under 10’s.
The size of Disney’s water parks means larger lazy rivers and wave pools, and a lot more theming and immersion into the environment. Disney water parks are the most visited in the world, and sometimes they can be extremely busy with long waits for slides. Island H2O has not been open for long, but early crowd levels are very manageable. Typical wait times so far have been around 10 minutes for the most popular slides.
Overall, Island H2O Live! offers something new and different to what else is out there, and it delivers a lot of slides for its size. If you are looking for a lot of variety, in a compact space without too much walking, this may very well be your kind of water park.
Single day tickets are $44.99, or $37.99 for kids under 48” tall, and parking is free. Annual Passes are available at $89.99. Park hours are typically 9am to 7pm daily.
You can find out more about Island H2O Live! and buy tickets online.
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