waterpark folks...please help...

[tsantillo]

My family and I (DH, myself, DD17) will be waterparking it the week of July 21 for 4 days. We've "done" Disney plenty, but the waterparks only once. So I have a couple of questions to ask of frequent visitors.

What sort of shoes are allowed on the rides? DH and I will be wearing watershoes, so I don't anticipate any problems there. My DD is thinking to wear crocs with the back strap or a pair of cheap sandals she has. The sandals are made like flip flops, but with a back strap. There are no buckles. Do you guys know if these would be allowed on the rides? We are trying to avoid having to hold our shoes.

Also, we are thinking to purchase a waterproof pouch for DD's cell phone, in case we need to split up and also to take pictures. Do you have any recommendations? We've been looking online, but her phone is not one of the current popular ones, so it's hard to tell if her phone would fit comfortably with the protective case on. We may go shopping this weekend to look around. Does anyone know what stores carry a good variety to choose from?

One more thing - When I used to go to various waterparks with friends, we would just leave our bags on or under a chair to have a place to regroup. I wouldn't leave any valuables, of course, but has anyone had trouble with belongings coming up missing? We really don't want to bother with a locker.

Thanks in advance for any advice. I don't post much on here, but I love, love, love all of the helpful advice and crazy, funny trip reports!

[BrerGnat]

Any shoes other than water shoes have to be removed and held on the slides. Your DD should get a pair as well to make things easier.

I can't help on the phone case but I wouldn't personally trust one of those to really keep my phone safe, plus it will be a pain tp carry it when you want to swim. Make a plan for becoming separated that involves meeting spots at various places around the park.

We always just bring a bag with hotel towels, and leave our clothes in there with sunscreen. We don't bring anything else. We put a credit card in a pocket of our swim shorts for purchases.

[tsantillo]

Thank you so much. I'm glad to have a definite answer on the water shoes. She does have some, they're just not cute enough, I guess. I'll leave it up to her.

Hopefully someone else will chime in about the cell phone pouch. Most of the ones I've seen are on a lanyard she can wear around her neck. I'm just not sure how annoying that might become after a while. Also, I didn't think to ask before if anyone has had trouble wearing one on the slides.

We'll probably bring beach towels from home and just tuck them out of sight. Our Magic Bands will take care of the rest! Well, not the sunscreen, but you know what I mean.

[joonyer]

We left our beach bag with hats, towels, sunscreen on our chairs at Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon on many occasions, and no one has ever bothered them. I would think thefts would be very rare, but that is no guarantee of course. If you couldn't live without it, put it in a locker.

[LVT]

We also leave coolers, towels etc in 1 central location. A chair may be gone when you return, but the stuff has always been OK. I love the idea of the wristbands. No cards to lose.

[hauntedmansiongirl]

We have left stuff many times before, but never anything really valuable. I always fold a towel over in a certain way so that I know if anyone has touched our stuff and it has never once been touched.

I can vouch for the watershoes only on the slides as well. Walmart has decent ones for really cheap right now ($5-$8 a pair).

We never brought our phone, but we did buy a Fuji underwater camera that we carted around. We wore it on a string around our neck and nobody ever said anything to us about it. It was a bit of a pain holding the string going down the slides so that it didn't choke me though!

[tsantillo]

Thanks, everyone!

DD is a little disappointed about the shoes. But I'll let her decide.

We've decided not to take her cell phone after all. Turns out the camera doesn't work and since she won't be bringing a friend, I doubt we will split up. So we'll do it old school like when I was a kid and no one carried a cell phone.

[tsantillo]

Update after trip -

After all my diligence in getting answers from you wonderful folks, I forgot to pack the water shoes! Yep, duh, I know. It worked out okay, though. The flops weren't as much of a bother as I thought they would be. Some lifeguards didn't even tell us to take them off.

We decided not to get a waterproof pouch for the phone. We just left them in the room. I did see someone trying the one for sale at the gift shop. He opted not to purchase, though, at $40. Apparently that was the only option available, so definitely bring one with you if you must have it!

Thanks again everyone for you help!