Disney's Typhoon Lagoon is a water theme park located at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida and is one of two operating water parks at the resort. It is the second water park to open at the resort after Disney's River Country, which closed in 2001.The park, which opened on June 1, 1989, is home to one of the world's largest outdoor wave pools.[1] The theme of the park is the "Disney legend" of a typhoon that wreaked havoc upon a formerly pristine tropical paradise. Ships, fishing gear and surfboards are strewn about where the storm flung them. The centerpiece of the park is "Miss Tilly," a shrimp boat impaled upon a mountain named "Mount Mayday" that erupts a 50-foot (15 m) geyser of water every half hour, right before the bells of the watch sound on Miss Tilly. Typhoon Lagoon's mascot is “Lagoona Gator,” and he is related to Blizzard Beach's mascot Ice Gator.[citation needed]In 2014, Typhoon Lagoon admitted approximately 2,185,000 visitors, currently making it the second most visited water park in the world.[2] Typhoon Lagoon is open for nine months from January 4 to October 24. From October 25 to January 3, the park closes for annual refurbishments.[3] During its closure Blizzard Beach remains open.Of the major parks at Disney World, Typhoon Lagoon is the only one that lies within the city limits of Lake Buena Vista. Blizzard Beach and the four theme parks are within the adjacent city of Bay Lake. However, Lake Buena Vista is the mailing address for the entire Walt Disney World Resort.Mount Mayday, located behind the surf pool, features “Miss Tilly” as well as many of the park's waterfalls and slides. It is a man-made mountain which not only provides launching areas for the waterslides, but also conceals the park's pipework. The main engineering works performed in 1988 and 1989 featured studies, design, and tests on water wave generation and propagation. As the Typhoon Lagoon was one of the first wave-makers applied to a theme park, one of its prime objectives was to produce surfable waves. Waves are generated by a 12-cell prestressed concrete tank in the background of the lagoon covered with the ship wreck scene. Computer modeling techniques were used at the time to study fluid-structure interaction, stress concentrations, and fatigue to ensure integrity and safety. Prior to its opening, the Typhoon Lagoon was tested to determine wave shape, surf-board ride duration, and the extent to which the waves give a natural feeling as they propagate and break on the artificial beach downstream
