The Ice Gator was bored.
There hadn't been any guests since January, which, yeah. That was fine. Blizzard Beach usually went a few months without guests during the maintenance period. The off-season, so to speak.
But it was now September without an opening timeframe in sight.
The Ice Gator was well aware of what happened to River Country - that his own water park's popularity helped lead to the demise of Disney's very first water park.
And even though he could see construction crews and Imagineers working to restore the waterslides back to their former glory, he couldn't help but wonder.
Yes, River Country was Disney's first water park. And it's gone. It was by Fort Wilderness there, but it closed for the season after 9/11 and never reopened. For seventeen years it was left to rot until it finally got demolished in 2019. A hotel was announced for that site, but it got cancelled because of COVID. I dunno. Maybe that site's just cursed. An alligator graveyard or something. Well, that's where the first instance of a kid getting dragged off by an alligator happened. If you remember that kid a few years ago - not the first or only time it's happened. It happened back in the 80s too, at River Country. Heck, maybe that site *is* cursed.
Anyway, Blizzard Beach. Yes. It has been closed for months with no sign of reopening. They're demolishing the waterslides, but putting new pieces in bit by bit to restore them. They're trying to do it all in one go, so it might reopen by next spring, all going well, but who really knows.