Things You Never Knew About Disney’s 35-Year-Old Tropical Paradise

Take a deep dive into the history and background of one of Disney’s best-themed parks.

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Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon water park is a fantastically themed place to get your feet wet, featuring all your water park necessities like slides, family raft rides, and a wave pool that will send you and your Mickey ears surfing six feet high.

When discussing the project, Typhoon Lagoon lead concept designer Chris Runco said the team visited water parks all around the country, taking notes for inspiration. Runco said he “loved” the job. According to Runco, the Park’s name was created first, with all the other parts to follow.

The centerpiece of the water park is the giant, cartoon-like shrimping boat called “Miss Tilly” stacked on top of “Mount Mayday”, which shoots a 50-foot geyser of water out every 30 minutes. Runco stated that his very first drawing included this boat-on-top-of-a-mountain idea, and everyone loved it, with then-Disney Parks Executive Producer Randy Bright saying “This is it!” after just one look.

The theme of Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon was very important to the designers, and it is arguably one of Disney Imagineering’s finest works.

Thanks to a strong storm and the titular ‘typhoon,’ we see that what used to be a pristine paradise has now become an overgrown and messy island, one reclaimed by Mother Nature. Diving gear, stray surfboards, and all sorts of fishing equipment have been strewn out, creating a chaotic yet beautiful aesthetic.

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Disney’s water parks have quite a long and interesting history. While Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach are the only ones currently featured, Disney’s first water park was actually River Country. This outdoors-themed water park was part of Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort and was located alongside Bay Lake. River Country operated from 1976 through 2001.

When it opened in 1989, Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon was the second water park created by Disney, following Disney’s River Country. Looking back at the park’s development really shows how dedicated Disney is to theme-filled fun.

Perhaps the collect aspect of Typhoon Lagoon was its now-defunct Shark Reef. Guests who signed up for the experience could enjoy a 15-minute snorkel excursion through a manmade lagoon filled with small sharks and other fish. The artificial reef featured a 362,000-gallon dual tank habitat. This experience permanently closed in 2016, leaving a huge hole in Typhoon Lagoon’s list of activities.

Typhoon Lagoon is also the only park at Walt Disney World that lies within the city limits of Lake Buena Vista.

For the last several years, Disney has only kept one water park open at a time, using this downtime to refurbish the closed one. However, this changed in 2025, with Disney confirming both Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach will be open and available to guests simultaneously.

For those seeking water-filled fun at Disney World, Guests can also visit Disney’s Blizzard Beach water park for thrills, chills, and a trip down Summit Plummit, one of the tallest and fastest free-fall slides in the world.

Do you enjoy visiting Disney World’s water parks?