This past week, my sister, Phoebe, and I accompanied our mother to her college graduation, which was held at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The ceremony was pleasant, and it was held in an ornate ballroom at the Coronado Springs Resort. Around noon, the commencement finished and my mother decided she wanted to rest for a while back at Animal Kingdom Lodge, where we were staying for the weekend. My sister and I had a different idea. Despite the fact that it was pouring rain, we decided on Blizzard Beach, Disney World’s only year-round water park. Blizzard Beach is an odd place on first glance — who’d think of a water park with a snow theme? After stepping inside, we soon began to appreciate its charming atmosphere. A ski lift took us to the top of “Mount Gushmore” — the home to Summit Plummet, the third-tallest waterslide in the world. When we arrived at Blizzard Beach around 1:30, there were probably less than one hundred people. By 3:00, Phoebe and I were the only ones left in the park. For some reason, the rain managed to scare away every last person but my sister and I. The weather, which most thought to be foul, did not bother us at all — the rain was warm, the water was heated, and there was no lightning in sight. We were in paradise. Perhaps most interesting of all were the employees during this storm. They were every bit as cheery and ready to serve the two of us as if it were a sunny day in July with 100,000 people in the park. Although there were just the two of us, Blizzard Beach remained open until its normal closing time. I suppose this just goes to show that the best time to visit a waterpark is February in a rainstorm. — Daphne Gould, intern