Rapids Water Park in South Florida
Jul 13th, 2010We recently spent the entire day at the Rapids Water Park in West Palm Beach and had the best time! The park opened at 10 and we arrived just after 11am. To say we had fun was an understatement, especially when nobody wanted to leave at the 7pm closing time. I was most impressed at the selection of activities and slides, this truly is a larger park than I expected. Cleanliness was apparent as was the visibility of plenty of staff and life guards. Since it was our first time and we were clueless on where to start, we decided that the lazy river was our best choice as it would give us a “tour” of the park and what it had to offer. Tubes were easy to locate and we were on our way. The hot South Florida sun made the water so refreshing! We then found some chairs near the toddler/children’s pools. My kids are 11, 10 and 5 – so we needed to be central to keep everybody happy. There are two sides to the park, separated by a pedestrian bridge with about 20 steps. I loved that there was a place for small children on either side …. that kept our family “together” in between our sliding adventures. There were slides for every age and thrill level! As it turns out, hubby decided to stay with our youngest while I kept up with the other two for most of the day. I felt like a kid myself as we raced from slide to slide, testing my fear limits for sure! We quickly located a park map and decided to start with the “easy slides” and work our way up to the “wild” ones. I loved that there were so many options …. slides you could ride by yourself were fun, but we had the most fun in the slides you could ride with up to 4 people – everything was more fun together! Our favorite had to be the Big Thunder … toted as the largest water ride in Florida! Speed reaches over 20 miles per hour down the slide before being propelled high up on the walls of the Big Thunder funnel. Super scary, but super addicting! All in all, we were able to ride all of the rides we wanted … most of them several times. The lines moved swiftly and wait time was not an issue. We did take a small break to head out to the car for lunch. My kids are die-hard amusement park fans, and we would have loved it if the park was open longer, but we will just have to make another visit! If you are going - Parking is an additional $10 at nearby lots. You can pay $20 for the preferred parking if you choose, but it wasn't a bad walk from the $10 lot. Families with little ones should bring a stroller, it's a big place! At the very least, bring flip flops, or water shoes would be even better! My youngest is 5, but we still benefited from having the umbrella stroller as the ground got pretty hot and we did a lot of walking keeping up with the older two. Don’t bring your own floatation devices … as many are not approved by the Coast Guard, but the park does offer the free use of approved life jackets. My daughter was not too excited with the life jacket as it was a little bulky, but it kept her safe when she wasn't in the shallow child areas. I did see a few children with their own life vests, but arm floaties were a definate no no. Families on a budget might consider packing your own lunch -- and bring to the park. The park allows in/out privileges which makes it nice. There is a designated area just before the park entrance in which you can leave your cooler and snacks. It is fenced off from the park and the street with plenty of picnic tables. We didn't know this and actually left our items in the car ... it wasn't fun to take away from the park to go all the way back to the car, but there were plenty of covered picnic table areas here too. We were able to pop the hatch on the minivan and listen to some music while we enjoyed our lunch, so it wasn't bad at all. I would highly recommend this water park to both locals and vacationing families, it was the highlight of our trip -- the kids actually enjoyed it more than the beach I think! Make sure you tell them that US Family Guide sent you!! |
