Walt Disney World has announced that Typhoon Lagoon will open in time for Summer 2025 and Blizzard Beach will reopen after its annual refurbishment this spring, meaning both water parks will operate simultaneously for the first time in years. This post covers dates & details about what to expect from anniversary celebration, what caused the change, return of H2O Glow After Hours, and more.
Let’s start with the official news: Cool Kid Summer at Walt Disney World is about to get even cooler! In honor of the 30th anniversary of Blizzard Beach, Walt Disney World is seas-ing the day and announcing that Blizzard Beach water park will also be open for guests this summer in addition to Typhoon Lagoon. And this is no April Fools’ Day joke!
For the first time since 2019, Walt Disney World will have all 6 parks—all 4 theme parks and 2 water parks—open at the same time. From May 21 through September 7, 2025, Walt Disney World guests can enjoy the tropical shipwreck oasis of Typhoon Lagoon and the frosty fun of Blizzard Beach water park.
Before the summer fun can begin, Blizzard Beach will need a little melt away time and will temporarily close between May 1 and May 20, 2025. Blizzard Beach will reopen on May 21, 2025.
As previously announced, Typhoon Lagoon will reopen on May 1, 2025. This is over a full month later than it opened last year, after the end of Spring Break season, during the midst of shoulder season and right before summer.
Starting today (April 1, 2025), Walt Disney World is celebrating three decades of Blizzard Beach history of creating relaxing days and cool thrills for Walt Disney World guests. The celebration will feature a high-energy DJ on the deck near the Polar Pub. There’s snowman bowling and character-themed tubes for floating down Cross Country Creek. Plus, fun interactions with Mickey and Minnie decked out in their winter attire.
Blizzard Beach’s 30th Anniversary celebration will continue throughout April 2025 with dance parties, special anniversary food & beverage items and more. There will also be some family-friendly games with cool prizes such as snowflake tattoos, wintery-themed rubber ducks and snowy bubbles.
No word yet on whether the anniversary offerings will resume once Blizzard Beach reopens on May 21, 2025. We hope so, as summer is peak season for water parks (but on the other hand, maybe it won’t be quite as busy as the next month with crowds diluted between two water parks.)
Just last week, Walt Disney World also announced the return of H2O Glow After Hours. On select nights between May 23 and September 13, 2025, Typhoon Lagoon turns into an illuminated dance party full of splashy fun, complimentary snacks, and beloved Toy Story pals. Nighttime fun also means you can beat the heat and enjoy shorter wait times compared to daylight hours.
See our Guide to H2O Glow After Hours at Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon: 2025 Dates, Details, Tips & Review for relevant details from last year–expect ~90% of them to be accurate for 2025. For those unfamiliar with it, H2O Glow After Hours allows families to spend time at Typhoon Lagoon for several hours after it closes, with short waits at popular attractions throughout the illuminated park. This special event also features an electric DJ dance party, complimentary ice cream treats, popcorn and select beverages, a ‘glow’-rious atmosphere and beyond.
The biggest selling point of H2O Glow in 2025 is, quite literally, pricing. There are special deals for young families, including kids tickets for only $42.50, which is half the price of the $85 adult ticket this year! Annual Passholders and Disney Vacation Club members can also save on adult tickets, but that’s nothing new.
Turning to commentary, this is what we expected to happen back over a year ago when Walt Disney World first announced the free water park arrival day perk. While we knew it was primarily motivated by other factors, our hope and expectation was that it was also about establishing enough demand to justify operating both Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach.
When the initial announcement was made that Blizzard Beach would close on May 1, it made us wonder whether both Walt Disney World water parks would ever operate simultaneously during summers. If pent-up demand wasn’t enough and now this free water park day isn’t enough…will anything will ever be enough? It seems like Walt Disney World’s trajectory is lower attendance, especially during peak water park season.
Staffing both parks is expensive and Walt Disney World did well-enough with only one water park even during the period of pent-up demand and high heat during the last couple of summers. It’s possible that Volcano Bay at Universal Orlando plus an assortment of hotels with bona fide mini water parks have cut into Walt Disney World’s water park business, and they no longer need both. Another possibility is that the cost of lifeguards and other labor has increased to the point that it doesn’t make sense to run both. Maybe the water park perk didn’t move the needle as much as expected, and needs to be tweaked for 2026. It could be a mix of the above considerations.
We were skeptical of all of that. Our view was (and is) that both Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon could be viable, especially with a full assortment of Annual Passes and special ticket promotions for Florida residents. That the big issue was an internal appetite to open both among leadership, especially given the higher operating expenses incurred with two parks as opposed to one. Walt Disney World likely deemed Typhoon Lagoon “good enough” for the summer and saw nothing in early demand for the water parks perk to change that perspective.
My money was on that. In the previous commentary, I took that a step further and predicted both water parks probably would not open until there’s new high-level leadership at Walt Disney World that’s more motivated. Finding a way to operate both water parks from April through September would be the smart move, especially after how brutally hot the last few summers have been. Walt Disney World having the capacity to push more people towards the water parks would be a welcome reprieve from the high heat and humidity–and probably help with guest satisfaction.
Between the free water park perk and debut of Disney Starlight Night Parade, we had hoped that Walt Disney World finally had a winning recipe for both Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon operating simultaneously. The initial announcement was disappointing, and it was unfortunate Walt Disney World wasn’t going bigger for Summer 2025.
Well well well…how the turntables. To be very clear, this is an about-face from Walt Disney World. The plan all along most definitely was not to announce Blizzard Beach was closing on May 1, but then reopening on May 21, 2025. The second tidbit would’ve been included in the announcement that happened one month ago. This is a new development.
There are a couple of possible explanations here. The first and more obvious one is that Walt Disney World made the decision to close Blizzard Beach for summer prematurely. That announcement came at the end of February, after two months of Florida’s coldest winter in as long as I can remember. (Keep in mind, it snowed in Florida earlier this year!)
There was a stretch during which Blizzard Beach was closed more often than it was open this winter. Even during many of the days when it was open, it wasn’t exactly desirable to visit because the temperatures were borderline. On top of that, the water park keeps much shorter hours during the winter (again, due to demand), so the opportunity to use that arrival day water park perk was lower.
By the time most guests arrived at Walt Disney World from the airport, it was already too late to have any meaningful time at the water park. So it shouldn’t be the least bit surprising that a high percentage of guests were forgoing use of the perk.
The last month has been warmer (although still quite pleasant), and has seen the arrival of spring break crowds. It’s likely that Walt Disney World has suddenly seen an uptick in uptake on the free water park arrival day perk, which should come as surprise to absolutely no one.
Walt Disney World hopefully would’ve projected as much, with no one internally being caught flat-footed by the not-so-breaking news that water parks are more popular when the weather is warmer. That’s the whole reason for these longstanding seasonal refurbishments in the first place–demand dips from October through March!
A more charitable explanation for this change is that something has lit a fire under Disney.
The lazy analysis would be Epic Universe at Universal Orlando, and maybe that’s the correct one. But what has changed with that new park in the last month? Word of mouth from previews has been mostly positive, but that’s to be expected since they’re employee previews. Nothing we’ve seen suggests Universal’s summer bookings are strong or are hurting Disney. It’s our understanding that both are below expectations.
Nevertheless, Disney’s Parks & Resorts division has seemed hungrier and is moving with a greater sense of urgency in the last month-plus for some reason. We’ve seen this in the announcements for Disneyland, with the slates for both Star Wars Season of the Force and Disneyland’s 70th Anniversary getting progressively better and more robust. (Epic Universe would have absolutely nothing to do with that.)
It’s also happening at Walt Disney World with “Cool Kid Summer” and its associated activities, entertainment, and special offers. Some of the specifics are still unknown or hazy, which suggests to me that this campaign recently got greenlit and Walt Disney World is still scrambling to flesh out the details. It’ll be interesting to see whether all of the character experiences end up being ambitious, or if even more is announced.
On both coasts, we’re also seeing an increased emphasis on young families, which appears to be a top-down initiative aimed at combating concerns about pricing out middle class families. (Seriously, search recent press releases for the phrase young families–it’s in a lot of them.) I have no evidence to support this, but my gut is that the same internal concerns that gave rise to that bombshell WSJ report also resulted in the urgent push for this young families campaign, and with a healthy budget.
Regardless of the reasons, I’m really pleased that both Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach will be open from May 21 through September 7, 2025. This has been one of the last big vestiges of the post-reopening era, and crossing this off “the list” will be incredibly satisfying. And as always, we highly recommend a visit to one–or both–of Walt Disney World’s water parks. Even if you are “not a water parks person,” these are exemplars of themed design that anyone can enjoy.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Are you excited that both Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach will be open at the same time this summer, from May 21 through September 7, 2025? Looking forward to Blizzard Beach’s 30th Anniversary celebration in April 2025? Eager to return to Typhoon Lagoon, or are you not a water park person? Will you be doing H2O Glow After Hours at Typhoon Lagoon? Do you agree or disagree with our commentary? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!