Last week my son came home with a really great report card. This has been a great year for him, no issues to mention, no problems, no calls from the Principal, very good year all around. We don't reward for good grades, we reward for good behavior so we decided that we would give him a day all about him.
Friends of ours called and asked if we would like to go to the new indoor waterpark here in town on Saturday. We had already planned on taking our boy to see the new Lego movie that day, so we made it to the movie early and headed off to the park later that afternoon. We decided to make the whole day secret only giving hints until arrivals...so he was surprised by everything. I didn't go to the movies...I thought I'd get some stuff done around the house instead, so my partner took him. He loved the movie, she thought it was kind of dumb. Soon after they returned we left for the waterpark, and here is my opinion of that experience.
We arrived just before 4 pm and waited in a 25 minute line to pay. No, waiting in line wasn't fun, but because it took so long the priced dropped after 4 so we lucked out there. After getting fitted with our wrist bands we proceeded to the ladies change room to dump our winter coats, boots, and everything else we had into a locker and then get out there and enjoy the park. Well, the ladies change room was tiny, very few lockers and none that we could find that were not already full of peoples stuff. We wasted so much time looking for a locker. You would think that when someone left they would leave the locker door open, but I guess that's just too much to ask. The other odd thing about this was that almost no one had a lock on their locker....not a smart idea at all. We couldn't find a locker in the ladies change room so off to the family change room we went. Again, hunting for an empty locker. Finally we found one that would work, but didn't quite fit everything we had, so we had to leave one pair of boots on the floor beside the locker. We then went to the restroom so that we could all go before hitting the water. The restroom was disgusting, hair everywhere, there was food on the floor, dirt in the sink and the toilet seat was up. I was not impressed. This was more than half way through the day, and obviously wasn't cleaned at all that day. No, it was no Disneyland that's for sure. Off to the waterpark we went.
My very first impression of the place is it was a bit confusing. It was unclear as to how to get to different things, and a bit chaotic. We started off in the wave pool, mostly because that was the closest thing. The water was cool in my opinion, however I am a bit more sensitive to cool than most. I got up to my knees and felt rather cold, so I wanted to go and try out the 5 big water slides. We figured out how to get over to where the slides were, and through some intelligent observation figured out how to get a tube in order to ride the slides.
Each ride has a different end point. It is at the end point where you wait in a line until you get your own tube. The Master Blaster has a large blue tube that seats two riders. You can go alone, but if you do you have to sit up front. All three of us were going to go, I was going to go with my son and my partner was going alone. After waiting 20 minutes we got our tubes and off we went to go to the top of the ride.
They claim there is 5 large water slides. The five consist of the Master Blaster, which is a rollercoaster type water slide. The Python, which is a ride for the whole family using one large tube, one that would fit 4-5 people. The Wizard, which is three individual slides all starting at the same place using individual mats. I wouldn't say there were 5, I would say there are two unique rides and one ride that consists of three separate slide area's but I am just weird that way.
There is one large staircase that is 4 stories up. All 5 rides come from this one staircase, so there are people carrying large blue double tubes, large family sized yellow tubes (which are difficult to carry alone, so make sure you are strong and can manage all 4 flights of stairs) and all the other people carrying their blue mats to go to the Wizard which is on the third level of the staircase. It was chaotic to say the least, and I am surprised no one was injured trying to maneuver up those stairs carrying their loads. The other interesting thing about this was that the staircase was solid cement, rather than the slatted footings I have seen at other water parks. The solid cement didn't allow for the water to move off the steps, like the slatted ones do, so you would often walk into puddles and slippery spots. Again, surprised more people haven't slipped on the stairs.
We finally make it to the top, after a great deal of work I might add. At the top we wait our turn. My son is excited, but not at all sure what to expect, I am a little nervous as I also don't know what to expect and I am also not feeling a lot of comfort in the whole thing at this point as it just feels really badly planned out to me. I am hoping upon hope that they have worked out all the kinks on this thing. It's our turn and our tube is placed on the top of the ride. You then get seated and wait for the countdown. The ride itself propels you, so you just sit back and wait. 3. 2. 1. and we are off. You go down a steep drop and are propelled quickly up a grade, where you enter and enclosed tube, slashing from side to side, then you drop again, only not nearly as steep this time and again go into a dark tunnel, twisting around a curb and then down again and back up, entering your last tunnel and down to the end of the ride. We made it, and I have to say it was fun...both of us enjoyed it. We got off the ride and waited at the bottom for my partner to come, waiting and waiting, then we see her exit the last drop and then something happens. I see her at the top of the last upgrade and she is standing?? Then she disappears again and then nothing. I start to get a bit worried as she has not come down. Minutes pass, she is still not at the bottom. At about this point I see a lifeguard remove the mesh rope that is surrounding the final drop and she starts walking up the ride. A few minutes later I see the lifeguard come out of the tunnel followed by my partner, my partner is carrying her tube. I am confused and worried, but grateful that I can finally see her. As she walks down the decline she falls....and then I don't see her again until she is walking down a flight of spiral stairs. We meet up with her and she tells us the tube flipped over and she fell out of the tube. She finally got back onto the tube and then they turned the water off so she couldn't go. She said it seemed to take forever for someone to come and tell her what to do, and then when she was doing what she was told she fell. When the tube flipped over she hurt her wrist and elbow...but luckily there was no blood. I was glad she was back on safe ground.
Now I am going to pause here to say a few things. When the lifeguard first came to her she asked if she was okay, and she said she was but that she hurt her wrist. The lifeguard never escorted her out, never carried the tube, never assisted her in anyway. No one came to us and asked if she was okay, no one came to us to see what had happened, no one offered first aid or any sort of assistance. Like so many public places, the entire place was manned by teenagers, no real authority seemed to be present. Obviously no one was equipped to help someone in a situation like this, it seemed like no one knew what the heck to do. We walked over to the first aid center and no one was there. Finally asking a lifeguard if there was anyone working in the first aid center someone came. When she arrived she asked my partner if she wanted her to put some pressure on her wrist???? What? Aren't first aid people trained in first aid?? Should they be assessing the injury before putting pressure on anything. We realized very quickly that this was not at all going to help so we left. My partner was hurt, our day had taken a turn for the bad and we were all feeling a bit like it was such a waste of time. But this day was supposed to be about my son right, so we couldn't leave yet, we had barely gotten here. We all went into the lazy river and settled down for a bit.
The lazy river was not lazy at all, too many kids racing, running, pushing, splashing, nothing lazy about this river. It was much smaller than I had thought it would be, and very narrow. The temperature was also cool and I couldn't stay in long. The air was also cool so getting out was painful.
While in the lazy river I tried to convince my son to go onto the other ride, the family ride. At first he didn't want anything to do with is, as he had just watched his mom get hurt. I didn't want this to scare him away from waterparks forever so I insisted that we go. My partner stayed in the lazy river and off the two of us went to ride the other "big" ride in the place.
We waited another 20 minutes or so to get our tube, and then started up the 4 flights of stairs. I was carrying this thing alone, and I can tell you it was very heavy and difficult to maneuver through all the people on your own. I actually ended up using my head to lift it high enough as to not drag it over the cement stairs. At the top you put your tube into the water and wait for the green light to board the tube. I sat with my back against the ride and my son sat across from me. The ride was fun, it was a combination of sharp turns splashing us up high on the sides and then a very dark tunnel, where when you least expect it there is a drastic drop, all while being completely dark. It was a bit of a rush. We had fun.
We then went and did a couple of runs down the Wizard, which was fast by not at all scary or anything. We all went down that, but my partner couldn't do more than one run as it hurt her wrist to hold the mat.
I convinced my partner to go down the Python before we left. She was very reluctant, but eventually gave in. I have been with this person for almost 13 yrs and have never seen her afraid of anything that had to do with a ride, but I was fear in her eyes as we boarded our tube. The ride went fine, however it was hindered by the fact that she was scared the thing would turn over the whole time we were on it.
So, would I go back, not anytime soon. I don't feel they have the right people working there and I don't feel they know what they are doing. I think that with anything there is a learning curve. I wish someone of authority would have come to us to get more detail as to what happened on that ride, in order to fix it or at the very least prepare their staff for things like this. It was obvious that no one was prepared, no one knew how to take care of an emergency and no one cared enough to come and make sure we were all okay.
Value for you dollar, well there is plenty to do, but be prepared to stand around and wait a lot. Don't expect to find it clean, at least not after they have been open a few hours. Don't expect to be comfortable, the air and water temperatures need to be raised. Like anything else, it seems like it is not run well, and needs a great deal of improvement. So no, it's not worth the money at this point.
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