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| - Overall: pretty dang good considering the park is not yet complete, but has a few problems that prevent me from rating it higher.
Warning: if you weigh over 180 pounds, you won't be able to single-ride the 3 slides on the tower on the east side of the park - aka the blue, yellow, and pink slides. The single rider tubes have a max weight of 180 pounds. You can ride on the blue and yellow as a double rider if you have someone to ride with, but you won't be able to use the pink slide. It sounds like a high weight limit, but it is a problem for many taller people. Cowabunga Bay should have disclosed this weight limit on their website before selling my 6ft tall, 200 pound male friend a pass.
I'll write this review as I explored the park.
Parking: I really hate that they charge for parking, but it's at least a nicely paved lot with attractive landscaping. Friendly parking attendant.
Tickets: separate section for season passes. Be prepared to take a picture for your season pass. I hid my sunscreened face behind large sunglasses.
Entrance: your bags will be checked for contraband food, but bottled water is OK. Save your bottles so you can refill them from the water fountains in the park.
Lifeguards: roughly eleventy billion. You'd really have to go to some effort to endanger yourself here. They also use extreme caution with the rides and policies for waiting between riders. Wait times will be a deal breaker if the park gets any more crowded.
Grounds: supposedly there are 3 themed areas, but it all looked the same to me, as if it was built with decor bought at a fire sale from a defunct 1950s beach theme casino. The park is really small. I'd say somewhere between the size of Mandalay Beach and the pool complex at Monte Carlo. Cute decor, very bright and colorful. No shade at all. Bring a hat and t-shirt. Wear water shoes or something to protect your feet if you're going on a particularly hot day. Plenty of comfortable deck chairs and chaise lounges.
Tower slides: pink, yellow, and blue. They all share a common entrance. Get in line for the slide of your choice. Decide if you want to ride single or double (if you're over the weight limit, you have to ride double). Pink is probably the most exhilarating, but I liked the enclosed tunnels and flashing lights of the blue and yellow slides. Yellow swishes you around a funnel, sort of like a roulette wheel. The line wasn't long but it was really slow due to their safety policies. Estimate a 1 minute wait for every person in front of you, plus 5-10 minutes once you get the tube. It took me 25 minutes to ride one slide.
Zuma slide: probably as thrilling as it gets for here. It's nothing like the teeth-chattering, headache-inducing, shoot-you-10-feet-at-the-exit slides you see at water parks in Orlando, but good for some screams. You'll have to take off your shoes to ride this slide.
Mat racer slide: fun! People too heavy to ride the tower slides solo will get their revenge here. You need to be heavy enough to make it over the last hill of the slide. Lightweights get stuck and have to exit early. It's a hassle to get the mats and walk back to the tower. I wish they had mats at the tower entrance when crowds are low.
Lazy river: just about perfect except that it's very shallow. Only small people or children will be able to sit in the provided tubes, which means you have to just hang on to the tube and let your feet smack the floor. You can't float in the lazy river so much as just walk in it.
Wave pool: very nice but smaller than I expected. Crowds will be a problem. Water was a comfortable temperature and the pool is also surprisingly shallow. If you like jumping and catching waves, it may be a bit too shallow for you.
Cons: there's not much to do. There isn't a pool where you can just swim and splash around. The wave pool isn't suitable for this, and the lazy river current makes it unsuitable for playing. The park really should be open later than 7pm. Maybe I'm too used to everything being open all the time in Vegas, but it's a shame to waste summer nights and close early.
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