Philip and I are a bit insane. We’re the types that tend to either forget our anniversary or do something completely insane for it. There’s no real in between. This year, we decided on the insane. We had some DVC points to kill and decided to head to the Cabins at Fort Wilderness (review of those incoming!). But we noticed that Typhoon Lagoon’s after hours party, H2O Glow After Hours had an event on the day of our anniversary. It was fate! We would already be in town and neither of us had been to Typhoon Lagoon in about 30 years.
Aside: The last time I went to Typhoon Lagoon, Disney Dollars and fanny packs were a thing. The first time around. So we’re talking somewhere around 1990, maybe. I have absolutely no memories of that visit with one exception. My mother, who HATED swimming, forced to ride on the lazy river aka Castaway Creek. But in her panic about swimming (which was crazy, she absolutely knew how to swim), she fell off her inner tube. And her fanny pack got soaked causing us to spend the rest of the evening blow drying our Disney Dollars in our hotel room. Anyways, I should’ve known that if my only memory of this park was that of my water-phobic mother living her worst nightmare that this trip might have some hiccups.
Our hiccups were all connected – and related to the weather. We went to speak with the golf cart rental cast members because ours wasn’t charging, and as we crossed the parking lot to get to the bus stop, lightning struck. As in, very very close to us in the ACTUAL parking lot. As in, car alarms started going off. Now, another aside: this isn’t the first time that’s happened to us. In 2019, we came down to run the Star Wars Half Marathon Weekend. And at the 5K, the race start was delayed due to storms. When we decided to bail after about two hours of waiting because we needed to get to Magic Kingdom by 9AM. As we’re crossing the EPCOT parking lot, we were maybe 10 feet away from where a bolt struck. My ears were ringing for about 30 minutes after. Knowing the storm mostly passed, we headed to the monorail. It still wasn’t running, but Josh D’Amaro (No joke, he was there to check in on Guardians!) took pity on us, made some phone calls, offered us his private car (which we turned down after telling him that was too much), and bought us coffee and donuts (which we gladly accepted) while we waited for the monorail. Unfortunately, we were so overwhelmed and singularly focused on getting to Magic Kingdom, we neglected to take a photo. So, Josh, if you’re reading this…seven years ago, you made our morning. Long story short, if I had a nickel for every time I almost got struck by lightning in a Walt Disney World parking lot, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t much, but it’s weird that it’s happened twice.
So back to the situation at hand. We get to Disney Springs for our transfer and it’s still thunderstorming like crazy. But we know Disney well enough that they’ll keep the event running unless they absolutely HAVE to cancel. We’d rather be there eating snacks and drinking drinks so that when the water features opened, we’d be ready. But the idea of leaving the shelter of our covered entryway at Disney Springs was too much and we opted to stay put for a bit to let the storm pass some. Spoilers: it didn’t. In fact, half of Disney Springs ended up losing power and having to shut down.
We soldiered on, with a few friends we made along the way who were thinking as we did. Better be at Typhoon Lagoon than not. Once we got there around 7PM (the event started at 8PM) and checked in, we made more friends – a cast member from Hudson, MA – and moseyed into the park. We opted to wander for shelter while tracking the lightning, grabbing a beer en route. Fortunately, we rarely travel without a deck of cards or our emotional support Kindles, so we were happy to wait for the event to begin.
The best laid plans…around 7:55PM we noted that none of the food stands were switching to the specialty foods. And all of the lifeguards were in a staff meeting. Yikes. And yep. As it was foretold, at about 8:05PM, they made the decision to cancel the event and close the park. Heartbreaking, but, for the record, the absolute right choice.
We were ushered out of the park (and a few not-so-smart people who’d been splashing in the water…in the thunderstorm…were ushered out of the water) and encouraged to take ice cream and water or soda on our way out. They offered either a chance to go to an alternate night of H2O Glow or a single day water park ticket good for a year. For us, neither was a great choice, so we were told to chat with Guest Services.
All in all…it was an interesting anniversary. But aren’t interesting experiences what marriage is about? I think so!
H2O Glow After Hours is a private 3-hour nighttime event consisting of free snacks (popcorn, Mickey ice cream sandwiches, Mickey ice cream bars, a fruit ice alternate), drinks (soda and water), a DJ-dance party, characters, and specialty for-purchase food and drinks. Oh, and a chance to ride the waterslides lit up for nighttime!
Alex’s required items for a crazy summer Florida storm OR for H2O Glow After Hours:
- Dry Bag (I prefer a backpack style)
- Waterproof Phone Case
- Flip flops (Oofos are my go to every day. I’m literally wearing their slippers right now!)
- Water shoes
- Swimwear without metal
- Towels (I LOVE Turkish cotton towels for anything beach related)
- Waterproof deck of cards
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