Evergreen Wings and Waves

Yesterday Lawrence and I went to Evergreen Wings and Waves waterpark and had a blast.  (Sorry Mike, you had to work!)

Here are my top 10 tips to have fun:

1.  Pony up the $8 (small) $9 (medium) or $10 (large) for a locker.  You get a super cool electronic waterproof key wristband, it's great to not have to worry about your stuff, and it is way politer than hogging up a food table or chairs with your junk.  A medium was good for 2 people.  If you have a diaper bag you want to stash, better go large.

2.  Ride all 4 waterslides:  Mach 1 (fast, no tubes), NoseDive (has a drop as well as some flashing strobe lights), SonicBoom (mostly uncovered) and TailSpin (spirals).  You have to be 42" for the last three, 48" for the Mach 1.  The lines are about 10-20 minutes each during peak hours, but it's worth it to ride each at least once.

3.  Peak hours!  12-4 on a non-school day is pretty busy.  2-4 seemed to be the busiest time at the snackbar.  (impossible to find a table during that time, thanks to all the non-locker renters...)

4.  The snackbar is a little pricey.  We got a chicken strips basket (4 strips and fries) and a cup of macaroni and cheese with a small drink.  It was $10.

5.  Non-slide fun.  We actually spent most of the day NOT on the slides.  By far the best was Splashdown Harbor, a graduated wave tank that is perfectly calm for about 10 minutes. Then a siren goes off and the waves start rockin'.  It is the kind of crazy people/tubes bumping/collisions resulting in heads underwater that makes moms cringe, and kids cheer.  It seems to repeat on a 10-15 minute cycle.  Lawrence NEVER got tired of it. If your kid is under 4 feet tall, I'd be in the water with them even if they are a good swimmer unless they enjoy the rough and tumble play.

6.  More non-slide fun.  The forest / water drop area.  Basically a medium sized play structure, couple of small slides, decorated with trees and fire pipes.   The best part - every few minutes a 300 gallon bucket is tipped from a helicopter floating overhead.  It completely soaks the structure, and any unsuspecting parents who happened to wander on.   Running is dangerous in this area since there is a permanent layer of water on the ground an inch or so deep.  The ground must not be too rough though, I saw several kids go sprawling with no blood or tears.  This area had kids toddler through 12 or so all looking happy.

7.  Hot tub.  There is one!  It was a good size and people piled in.  It wasn't crazy hot, but nice. Plan on taking a break (or getting in line for the NoseDive, by far the longest line) after the tub, since all the other water (which used to seem warm) will now feel freezing.

8.  How to spend your break - downstairs there is an arcade, we bypassed this in favor of the upstairs.  There are a number of stations with hands-on brain teasers as well as a H2O mini-museum.  We love science so it was great for us, not really for toddlers and not dynamic enough to grab kids who would rather be downstairs.

9. Water is free at the snackbar, but you probably need to wait in the line.  The snackbar can also fill your baby bottle with water if needed.  Plus, they have funnel cakes ($3) and churros ($1.75 I think)

10.  Price.  Yes, it is expensive.  Kids under 3 are free, those under 42" are $25 and over 42" (regardless of age) are $30.  They do run some reduced price times during shortened hours as well as events for scouts and homeschoolers.  I was able to get 2 tickets for $39 through SharingSpree.  Evergreen Wings and Waves has a decent Facebook feed that does let you know about upcoming promotions in between gloating about the 85 degree water when there is freezing fog outside.

Anyway, we had a blast!  I definitely recommend it to families with kids 42" or taller who like water.  I'm not sure it's worth the price for smaller folk who I saw getting tired (and cranky) quickly, no way swim diapers are comfortable...  We stayed over 6 hours and definitely got our money's worth.