Originally posted by Cindy B
suzy: You got by without a tube? I was wondering how necessary it was.
I was there with my son, daughter, and nephew ages 10,12,and 11- We were there from 10am till 7 pm and found the tube totally UNneccessary. From what I observed people spent more time watching over their kid's unused tubes than enjoying them in the water. My kids never even asked for them. There was so much to do and see there they did not want to waste any time floating in the lazy river, which was the only place the tubes were practical to use. The tidal pool would be too rough of a ride, and any other areas that I can think of had free tubes available, like the kiddie area, the small calm pool in front of the black hole, and the kiddie lazy river had free teeny tubes for the small set. I do not know the park policy as to life preservers for non-swimmers, but I doubt that they would allow you to bring your own rafts since they do rent the tubes. Best advice is call them to know for sure.
The food concessions offered a decent variety of tasty treats at reasonable prices and a refillable drink deal which we took advantage of. There is even (to my dismay) a bar the serves alcoholic beverages.
There are so many attractions that the longest wait we had on any one attraction was about 20 minutes for the tobbagan style fugi-flume (my youngest made me climb this 4 story monster about 5 times). The 2 older kids were on the move all day, and still did not get to every thing the park offered (although they did do some of the favorite rides a few times which is probably what caused them to fall short of the complete tour) I said before that none of the attractions had an extra charge, but thinking back I think there might have been an extra charge for some of the lake attractions such as the knee-ski. I am really not sure on this and again my best advice is to call the venue directly and not rely on the word of mouth you get here when it comes to $$.
I have been to several waterparks, none of them were a Disney property, but I cannot imagine that they could beat this one by much.
About the only complaint I had is that if you get there any time after 10 am on a hot summer day you will find it almost impossible to stake out a "home base"-ie:chairs and/or table in the shade and after 11 you won't even find a spot in the sun.
Being experienced waterpark visitors we did not even need to use the lockers. Other than towels, sunscreen (DO NOT FORGET YOUR SUNSCREEN IN FLORIDA!) and such, I bring only the bare essentials :a bit of cash, ID, and a disposable waterproof camera in a pouch that I can lock onto a table or chair, thereby 'claiming" that chair and keeping our valuables relatively safe. A waterpark is no place for jewelry, expensive cameras, or wallets full of cash, credit cards, etc. unless you want to keep schlepping back and forth to your locker all day.
Hope this helps!
