We had the best day! Being used things at the Disney parks and given the fact we’d never been to Aquatica before, we arrived an hour before the park opened. When we pulled up, they were not allowing cars in the parking lot yet. At first, we thought we had arrived too early but the lines at the parking kiosks quickly filled up behind us. They let us through at 9:30. By the time they officially opened the park at little before 10, we had been through temperature check, bag check, the admission process (scanning tickets from our phone), secured a locker and wristband for charging. We headed straight for the family raft slides, Ray Rush and Walhalla Wave. Of all the slides, Ray Rush was our favorite. We rode it twice first thing with a spin on Walhalla Wave in between. The Taumata Racers we’re beside RR and WW but the kids weren’t interested in the mat slides. From there, we went to Loggerhead Lane and Tassie’s Twisters but they didn’t open until 11 so we went to Dolphin Plunge for my husband and kids (fully enclosed tubes are not my thing). Then, we headed to Whanau Way. On this one, you have to grab a double inner tube and carry it up the steps. Omaka Raka shares a line with Whanau Way but it wasn’t open. After that, DH and DS decided to tackle the drop slides, Ihu’s Breakaway Slides. DS is only 11 so I’m shocked that he did these! It was a hard no from me and DD14. We went back to Loggerhead Lane were we did the lazy river before riding Tassies Twisters. A side note about this...you have to enter the lazy river to get to the entrance to the ride and you must have an inner tube. We had worked up an appetite so we ate lunch at Waterstone Grill. Since we were somewhat dry and had grabbed our masks from the locker (masks are required in shops and restaurants) we looked in a few shops. DS really wanted to catch the 1:00 training show for the Commerson’s Dolphins at the pool above Dolphin’s Plunge. Since we had a few minutes, he did DP again while we waited. The show was cute the dolphins were really active! We watched for about 15 minutes before going to Roa’s Rapids. This is a fast moving “not so lazy” river. We went around twice and then went to the wave pool. One of the things we were excited about was that Aquatica has two wave pools. Unfortunately, the Big Surf wave pool was closed. We tried to ride Kare Kare Kurl but DH exceeded the weight limit and you can’t ride with three. We spent more time in the wave pool. The summer rain showed up just as we were getting out to grab some refreshments. After quick 10 minute rain shower, we found some chairs near Loggerhead Lane and relaxed while the kids enjoyed Dippin’ Dots. To finish out our day, we went back to some favorites like Ray’s Rush, Whanau Way, Roa’s Rapids and the kids explored Walkabout Waters for a bit. We left the park about 4:45 and they were closing at 5. We were all exhausted after such a busy day! We had a blast though. I definitely recommend Aquatica.
