Disney's Blizzard Beach is a water theme park located at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida near Orlando. All water areas are heated (at approximately 80 °F or 27 °C), with the exception of the melting snow in the ice cave of Cross Country Creek. The park opened on April 1, 1995 and was the third Walt Disney World water park. In 2016, the park hosted approximately 2,091,000 guests, ranking it the third-most visited water park in the world, behind its sister park, Typhoon Lagoon. Blizzard Beach is open year-round with an annual maintenance closure in the winter. During the closure, its sister park, Typhoon Lagoon, will remain open. The majority of the major attractions at the park are hosted atop of Mount Gushmore, an artificial hill with an elevation of 90 feet (27.4 m). Mount Gushmore is split into three colored slopes to aid guests navigating around the park: Green, Red, and Purple. The park's whimsical and imaginative concept was conceived by designer-Imagineer Marshall Monroe, who, at the time, was a Creative Executive and Principle Technical Staff at the Walt Disney Company. Innovative elements of the park include a beach chair-themed chair lift, complete with beach umbrellas, and pretend snow skis. The setting and atmosphere of the park are marked by a unique blending of tropical landscaping with simulated melting snow throughout. The mountain is a unique engineering structure constructed in a challenging setting - a high water table Florida woodland. And the architecture is a playful intersection of alpine lodges with Caribbean colors and accents. The water park, along with all the other Walt Disney World parks, closed in March 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Blizzard Beach, along with Typhoon Lagoon, remained closed whilst the four theme parks reopened July 11–15, 2020. Disney's Blizzard Beach reopened at Walt Disney World Resort on March 7, 2021, after being closed nearly a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
