A Birds' Eye View: Parasailing at Walt Disney World

Parasailing is offered at Sammy Duvall’s Watersports Centre at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, the only parasailing location in Central Florida. You just walk out the back door of the Contemporary Tower, as if you were going to catch a boat to the Wilderness Lodge or Fort Wilderness Campground. On your way to the pier you'll pass between two buildings. Sammy Duvall’s is located in the rear of the building on the right.

Just to give you some background information, I am TERRIFIED of heights! I was talked into parasailing by my sons. My oldest son was going with his friend, and our youngest doesn’t weigh enough to ride alone, so I was elected. (You may ride either alone or tandem. The requirement is that the total weight must be at least 125 pounds and no more than 330 pounds.)

The first thing I did was check out the safety of the equipment. I was assured that Sammy Duvall’s uses the latest in parasailing technology and that their boat exceeds U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) safety regulations. The equipment is checked daily and the captains of the boat are USCG Certified.

Any scheduled flights are cancelled if a storm is approaching or in the event of severe winds. We know this for a fact, as it happened to us. They called us about 45 minutes before our scheduled flight and cancelled. Reservations are held with a credit card (which will be charged if you do not cancel 24 hours prior to your reservation) but you will not be charged if your flight is cancelled due to weather. We were given the option of rebooking and we did, for 3:00 pm the following day.

They say that you will not get wet and that you may wear regular clothes. We chose to wear bathing suits and cover-ups, just in case. You take off and land on the boat itself. We got on the boat, sat down, were given safety instructions, and we were told to remove our shoes/sandals. Then we headed out into Bay Lake.