Leaning Palms at Typhoon Lagoon

I visited Typhoon Lagoon at Disney recently. In terms of Orlando water parks, Typhoon Lagoon is the park that I've been to the least. I believe this was the second time I've been there and it has been years since my last visit. Being that it was so long, I was surprisingly pleased with the quality of the oldest water park in Orlando.

While there, I had dinner at a restaurant called Leaning Palms. The menu was typical water park food, mostly consisting of burgers, hot dogs, etc. I ordered the one thing which seemed unique.

The Mojo Chicken was shredded chicken, served with rice, black beans, and plantains. The chicken appeared plain, but was really flavorful. The black beans had sausage mixed in, and the rice and plantains were as expected. I was pleased with my meal.

Food inside of Disney theme parks has been disappointing to me on my more recent visits to the parks. I'm glad this Mojo Chicken changed the trend!

Waterstone Grill at Aquatica

On the second day of Winter, I decided to celebrate the seasons changing with a trip to Aquatica. Don't know why I thought going to a water park in winter was a good idea (even a Florida winter), but it actually wasn't that bad. Beside the chilled temperatures out of the water, the park turned out to be completely deserted except for British tourists for some reason. The first thing we did after arriving at the park was get some food at a restaurant called Waterstone Grill. After the meal, we did every slide and lazy river at Aquatica in less than an hour. Winter means no lines at water parks...

Since this was Sea World, I figured I had to get Waterstone's Fish Sandwich. The sandwich consisted of fried fish, lettuce, and tomato on a slightly sweet roll. French fries were served on the side. The sandwich tasted good, although the fries were cold. Only real quirk was with the size of the fish. When you enter the restaurant, they have all of their menu offerings on display. The fish sandwich behind the glass had a piece of fish about double the size of the fish I received. Regardless, my sandwich was still plenty to eat.

Another brave swimmer that came along to Aquatica ordered a Southwestern Chicken Wrap. I took a picture...

Banana Beach Cookout in Aquatica

I recently visited Aquatica at Sea World. For a water park, they had lots of food choices with three different restaurants, and I ate at the one that seemed to be the best value for the money. The Banana Beach Cook-Out is an all-you-can-eat buffet where you can pay for one meal, or get a wrist band and return all day long. I choose the single meal option...

The food here consisted of hamburgers, hot dogs, pulled pork, chicken, salads, and various sides. First I tried a pulled pork sandwich, caesar salad, and potato salad.

Next, I had chicken, cranberry salad, corn, macaroni & cheese, and potatoes au gratin. Out of the meats, the chicken was my favorite, and out of the sides, the potatoes were the tastiest!

At this point I was full, but decided to get one more plate of food. I picked a little more chicken and macaroni, as well as chocolate pudding, brownie, and fruit salad for dessert.

Overall, I thought Banana Beach Cook-Out was pretty good for food from a water park. Since I noticed that a personal sized pizza was almost $9 at one of Aquatica's other restaurants, $13 for what I ate really wasn't bad!

I wonder though, how many people wait a half hour before they swim after stuffing their faces?

Lottawatta Lodge at Blizzard Beach

I don't like water parks all that much. For the most part, they consist of waiting far too long on narrow, shadeless staircases, all leading up to a ride experience that provides an adrenaline rush lasting only a few seconds. And in regards to the content of this blog, I've found that water parks also have horrible food in most cases.

With that said, I ended up going along to Blizzard Beach at Walt Disney World for someone's birthday. Once at the park, we went around the park’s lazy river a few times and rode several of the slides on Blizzard Beach’s purple and red slopes. All of the slides I went on were fun and most had a pretty short wait. Soon, everyone started getting hungry so we ate at the biggest restaurant in Blizzard Beach called the Lottawatta Lodge.

I had a Chicken wrap with French fries. Disney food is generally good, and I liked this wrap. It wasn't the greatest thing in the world, but when compared to the much worse foods that I’ve had at water parks in the past, it wasn't that bad. It was filled with grilled chicken, cheese, lettuce, and tomato. The fries were good, but I made them even better by doing the British thing and poured several packages of malt vinegar all over them.

 Burgers and fruit salads were also purchased here, none of which I tried.

I still don’t like water parks all that much. I’d much rather spend money on other types of theme park experiences rather than water slides, but I did have a good time at Blizzard Beach. As far as water parks go, you can’t beat Blizzard Beach with it’s whole ski resort theme. And the whole day, not one person understood my joke that you have to be careful at these water parks so you don’t get sick from ingesting dihydrogen monoxide. Figures…