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| - We visited Wet n' Wild for our first time on July 28 - a Monday. We bought tickets online because they were $10 cheaper. I had contacted the park through their Facebook page asking where discount coupons could be found locally, and they weren't sure - they told me I could try Burger King... That was an odd response especially since they are discounted online, but, whatever.....
The park is a lot nicer than I thought it would be. For the most part, almost everything looks new with some sun fading - but not even a hint as old as Big Surf where you see age issues all over the place. Virtually every slide was working, save some of the slides on the kids mega structure.
Several of the rides broke during the day, but were fixed in about an hour.
What makes this park fun, is that there are many amusement park style thrill rides - not so much just "slides". They do have a pretty big variety. That was great, as we only have Big Surf to compare it to, and they, by comparison, seem to have nothing. My kids really enjoyed the multiple person slides, including the really big ones where we all sat as a family. There wasn't a single slide that we walked away from where we said "thats not fun" - they were all smile enducing.
So, why the three stars? Well, we went on a Monday, and got there at opening time. Rented a locker, and found a shaded spot - that was all insanely easy. We started gong on rides, easy as pie. But then, as the park started filling in, we noticed their "fast pass" rider system, which you have to pay an additional $20-$30 for.
This system, made for incredibly long wait times. In theory, line management systems are supposed to increase throughput, but it didn't seem the case here. When we were in lines that had no "fast pass" riders, we moved right along. But they queue you up at the bottom of the ride, and hold riders back. So even though no one was in line for the fast pass system, we would all just wait - and then, when those people would arrive, they would get first billing.
To put in perspective, some giant rides, like Mammoth Falls, we counted the equivalent of 5 full tubes of riders ahead of us. but the fast pass folks would show up, and that line just would take forever - try 30 minutes..... once they allow you to climb the stairs to the queue at the top, you realize how fast the line goes. So basically, I was examining (I did time trials in my boredom), when riders showed up, our wait actually became twice as long as it would be otherwise, while the fast pass holder waited in line the equivalent of 25% of my time.
It was frustrating because it is implemented so arbitrarily and without concern to the actual throughput of the slides.
The other issue, which compounded that, is that they have a limited amount of tubes per ride - they don't need as many when you are all queued up on the ground (unlike everyone on the stairs needing a tube while they wait) - that's smart, but, when there are three slides on the same tower, and everyone wants to ride one, all the tubes get stuck in a queue line for that one slide (the toilet bowl ride - not sure of real name). This, made the lines go very slowly.
Frustrating, frustrating, frustrating. To top it off, the fast pass system clearly favors season ticket holders - because their daily out of pocket cost is much less, than for me - it was an $80 up charge for my family, on top of the $120 I had already spent on tickets. Thats a huge day, vs a season ticket holder who is just out $80 for the day. The economics favor the season ticket holder.
Did I say frustrating? The water coaster seems to only have maybe 6 tubes in operation and a huge line at the base. so, its really not going to its full capacity. To me it was excruciatingly obvious, so they must realize this, but maybe thats part of the pitch for the fast pass band - ugh, frustrating!
We had lunch at the main cafe to the tune of $60 (two orders chicken fingers, one burger, on chicken sandwich). We had soft pretzels earlier. There is beer at the Shark Cafe place, which I thought was nice, but I didn't partake.
Parking is $8. Its an expensive day for a family of 4.
I think next year we could come back, but obviously we need season ticket passes with the fast pass arm band. If you are not willing or able to get that, even a slow day (like our Monday) will have you waiting needlessly in long lines.
PS, bring flip flops (you hold them on the rides).
Forgot to mention, we didn't have ANY issues with rude staff. We found them fun, entertaining, and pretty nice overall. Keep in mind that if you want them to treat you nice, you have to be nice to them - you can tell they are enforcing rules all day, and they are visibly irritated when people do things wrong that any normal person would find obvious - like jumping over railings, or walking off with inner tubes, etc. Be nice, you get nice in return.
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