I do believe Raging Waters has more little kid fun than other waterparks like Cowabunga Bay. I just wish it was cleaner, more updated, and had more restrooms. There is one ladies restroom with about 6 stalls and 2 just changing rooms. Seriously there are hundreds of women and children (who go with their mothers to the restroom) at the park. So every hour when Tessa has to go to the bathroom I have to take all 3 kids with me to wait in line to use one of the few restrooms. At least I have them already come in their swimsuits and change into dry clothes in the van on our way home to avoid those extra times waiting for a place to change.
Back to the fun parts. There is a very shallow (less than 1 foot) area with a play structure and slide as well as a few places where the water squirts out. We spend a lot of time here. Just beware that the slide is very slick and the kids go down fast.
Next to this area is the place we spend the most of our time. It's a dinosaur themed kiddie pool consisting of 4 pools. The pool on the west side has a couple of dinosaur statues the kids can climb on. The pool on the east side has a large floating crab thing that's chained down but the kids can all climb on at once. The pool on the north side has an obstacle course the kids can go across and a lifeguard there watching them closely. All of these pools are approximately 2 feet deep and warm. The last pool is actually up stairs between the east and west pools on top of the volcano. The pool here is even more shallow, maybe a foot and a half, and the warmest water in the park. There's even a cave/tunnel the kids can go through. And going down into either the east or west pools are flat slides. The one going to the east pool is very wide so I go down with Clara on my lap and Spencer and Tessa next to me. Tessa loves going down these slides. Spencer is nervous at first but once he goes down he has a blast and keeps going. Clara gets very excited, goes down on my lap once with me making sure she doesn't get her head under the water, and then doesn't want to go again. She loves playing in the water but doesn't care much for the slides.
Then we head over to the lazy river and splash pad. My kids are too scared of all the real waterslides. When it comes to the lazy river I would prefer a tube for the kids. But Seven Peaks/Raging Waters charges extra for the tubes. And since the lazy river and wave pool are the only places my kids go where they would use them it isn't worth my money. So Spencer is fine in the lazy river but Tessa can't reach the bottom. Which means either floating with her life jacket or me holding her. And I have to carry Clara the whole way. So we usually only go around a couple of times.
The splash pad is in the center of the lazy river. My kids love splash pads. They can get wet and have fun in the water without worrying about not being in control. Their feet are always touching. Of course Tessa isn't a big fan of water getting in her face, but loves it falling on top of her head or under her feet. Spencer loves every thing about splash pads. As nervous as he seems around water he fell in love with splash pads back in Boston a few years back when we were visiting my sister. It surprised me how well he did in them and I have worked hard to find and go to them ever since. Clara loves sitting on or putting her foot on the water squirting places as long as she's taller than the water coming out. Overall this is a fun splash pad. Especially since there isn't any rotation--all the water is on all the time.
And of course there is the wave pool. This was my favorite part of Raging Waters as a kid and my kids also love it. Of course when I'm responsible for three young children in a large, crowded pool with waves I can't take pictures while they are in the wave pool. I did take one of them out of the wave pool. If you haven't been it is a large zero entry pool. So if you have little ones you can sit at the entrance of the pool and have them just splash around. If you scoot up just a little the kids can sit with the water going up to their belly and when the waves are going they just move the legs up a little. My kids like to do this. When I was a kid I liked to take my tube to the deepest part and just ride the waves on my tube. One time last year Brodie came with us and we got a tube and Brodie took the two older kids deeper while he was holding onto the tube and I stayed shallow with Clara. But with all three kids I didn't let them go deeper than 3 feet and within arms reach of me the whole time. I held Clara the whole time and made sure Tessa at least had on her life jacket. The waves aren't on all the time so we stayed in for a few rotations of waves/pool and so on. Their favorite was going as deep as I would let them and then jumping with the waves but letting the waves push them back. We would keep letting the waves push us back until we were sitting down and then do it again. My legs got quite a workout doing this over and over again while holding Clara and sometimes Tessa. Maybe I should do water aerobics?
When I bought my Pass of all Passes I got some free food cards so we just ate lunch at the park and got dippin dots on our way out. If I didn't have those passes I would avoid the food. The kids got overpriced, cold, tasteless pizza and I ordered a sandwich that was the most basic, flavorless sandwich imaginable. And because it was "made to order" I had to wait for 15 minutes AFTER ordering before getting it. But it was more convenient than leaving the park, walking back to my car to retrieve lunches, walking back to the park to try to find an unoccupied shady patch of lawn to eat lunch at, returning the cooler to my car, and re-entering the park. This is what I usually do because I'm cheap. Which also means it's a decent walk to my car because Seven Peaks charges $5 to park in their parking lot. I seriously can't believe all the ways they find to charge. Parking, locker rentals, beach chairs, umbrellas, tubes, food (they don't allow outside food and drink), etc. I guess instead of complaining about the lack of restroom facilities I should be thankful they don't charge for them. They probably will next year.
No comments:
Post a Comment