A Friday Visit With Jim Korkis: Blizzard Beach

By Dave Shute

Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians and author of Jim’s Gems in The easy Guide, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

THE STORY OF BLIZZARD BEACH

By Jim Korkis

After the opening of Typhoon Lagoon in 1989, the water park was so popular that it was routinely filling to capacity and turning away hundreds of guests.

Walt Disney World saw both disappointed guests as well as potential profits going somewhere else.

Walt Disney Imagineering was given the task of developing a concept for another Walt Disney World water park. Several different ideas were proposed but none of them matched the depth and whimsy of Typhoon Lagoon.

Imagineer Eric Jacobson’s office was filled with a collection of little snow domes from his travels. One day, as he was distractedly playing with one of the globes, shaking it up so that the snow swirled around the interior tableau, he mused, “Too bad we can’t make a park out of one of these for guests to beat the Florida heat.”

While his peers considered it a joke, it was so strong a concept that they kept coming back to the idea.

According to Disney legend, Blizzard Beach was created by a meteorological phenomenon:

One balmy day, a freak winter storm developed over the western end of the Walt Disney World Resort and covered the area with a thick blanket of powdery white snow. Before you could say ‘hot cocoa,’ plans were underway for Florida’s first ski resort.

Ski lifts were put up, toboggan runs were laid down and an entire resort area blossomed around the mountain of snow. Yet before the first skier could strap on a pair of boots and stick his poles into the snow, the temperatures returned to their normal Florida levels and the powdery snow quickly turned into slippery slush. The ski resort operators saw their dream melting down the hillside.

The operators were preparing to cut their losses and walk away. However, they were interrupted by an echoing ‘YAHHOOO!!!’ coming from the mountain of melting snow. They looked up to see a blue alligator, wearing a red scarf and gold innertube, careening down the mountain at top speed. The alligator was blue because he was frozen from the cold and just stayed that color when things warmed up.

Ice Gator, who then became the mascot of the area, landed in a pool of melted snow at the base of the mountain with a thunderous splash. The ski resort operators suddenly saw the park’s potential, and the mountain of snow became Blizzard Beach, “the most slushy, slippery, exhilarating water park anywhere!”

(c) Disney

Slalom courses, bobsled and toboggan runs became downhill waterslides. The creek of melted snow that formed at the base of the mountain became a relaxing tube ride. The chairlift carried swimmers instead of skiers. The ski jump on Mt. Gushmore became the tallest and fastest water slide in the world. The whole ski resort became known as Blizzard Beach.

The park opened on April 1, 1995 and in 2014 hosted over two million guests, making it the third most visited water park in the world, right behind Typhoon Lagoon. It is larger than Typhoon Lagoon with over seventeen slides, a wave pool, an area for pre-teens and an area for children.

(c) Disney

Hints of the Ice Gator abound, from the weather vane atop Lottawatta Lodge to his own little cottage along Cross Country Creek. Ice Gator was so popular that at one time he was a walk-around costumed character and was featured on numerous pieces of merchandise.

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Thanks, Jim. There’s more elsewhere on the site from Jim on Typhoon Lagoon and Disney’s first water park, River Country. And come back next Friday for even more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including The Vault of Walt, Who’s Afraid of the Song of the South?, and The Book of Mouse, and his contributions to The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit, all published by Theme Park Press.

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