Williamsburg - Water Country questions

[mickeyfanz]

We will be trying to spend a day at Water Country USA while in Williamsburg. I don't want to purchase tickets in advance in case it rains on the one day that we can go.

Has anyone seen any discounts for Water Country only (not a combo with Busch Gardens)? I do belong to AAA so I think I get a $3 discount with that but wanted to see if there were coupons (or other deals) floating around with better discounts for purchasing at the gate?

Also, if anyone has been there this season, can you recommend a shaded area to sit? We have an infant that we want to keep in the shade. We also have a 6 and 3 year old that will want to be close to some action.

How is the food there?

Thanks for any recommendations!

[Big Matt]

Going to WC in the rain isn't a bad thing at all (except for maybe your baby).

Lots of shady areas since it is very wooded in many areas. You will probably gravitate toward the kids activities area.

Food is good for a water park.

[Robnsunny]

Originally Posted by Big Matt

Food is good for a water park.

This is our first year going to WC after several years of having passes to Busch Gardens. We were extremely disappointed by the food. Busch Gardens has very good food at a reasonable price. WC does not. Think of $3.50 for for a pretzel and scale it for the hot dogs, mini pizzas and hamburgers (none of which looked appetizing, we didn't buy).

I recommend going early, leaving at lunch time, let the baby take a nap and go back in the late afternoon. Most of the resorts are within a 10-15 minute drive.

There are several areas designed for small children. There are shaded areas and most of the tables have umbrellas. It's a great park (except for the food) and you'll have a wonderful time.

[laxmom]

We were just there in June - technically pre-season because school was still in session there. We didn't have any discount tickets but they discounted our fees because they didn't have the staff to open a couple of slides. We didn't even notice because there was so much to do. We found the food to be ok. We are used to paying alot more at the Paramount amusement park here at home and actually found it to be decent by amusement park standards. I would strongly recommend you wear flip flops or beach shoes. The bottom of the wave pool is really textured until you get a little deeper. That plus walking on hot concrete would really take its toll. Every slide has those little compartments like they have at the McDonalds playland to put your shoes in. Ours were always there when we finished. We ended up staying about 5 hours. We were on the move so much that I don't even remember shade except in the little kids area.

One side note. Our 15 yr old took a friend on this trip as our olded just got married. His friend went in the wave pool with his wallet in his pocket. Yea, you guessed it....gone. It had $135 in it; his money for the whole trip. We searched high and low. We went to the office and filed a report never expecting to see it again. At 6:30 that night we got a call at our resort that a lifeguard had found it and all of the money was there. We went to pick it up and he tried to give the lifeguard some reward for his honesty and company policy would not allow him to accept. We ended up writing a letter of recommendation for recognition. Amazing stuff in this day and age.

Oh, and don't miss the lazy river - Hubba Bubba Highway. We thought the teenagers would be bored. They went on it just to amuse us and we ended up floating for well over an hour. One warning, the current is pretty strong for really little ones but you wear life jackets - not innnertubes.

You will have an awesome time! We did! The kids actually thought it was the highlight of our trip and we live within 3 miles of 2 waterparks.

PS We did see people tailgaiting at their cars for lunch. They packed coolers.

[dmensing]

With a 6 and 3 year old, and looking for shade, I would recommend the H2O UFO kids area. You can keep your infant in the shade and still keep an eye on the other two as they play in the water. It has large umbrellas with a lot of lounge chairs. It doesn't feel as crowded/closed in as the Kritter Korral or Cow-A-Bunga areas.

For lunch, we always pack a cooler of our own food. There is a pavilion with picnic tables to the left of the entrance (standing outside the park facing the entrance). The walk out to the car isn't bad (the parking lot isn't nearly as big as the Busch Gardens lots). Typically, we go a little early to avoid any crowds for the tables. If they are all taken, there are tables throughout the parking lot on the grass median strips, but many of them aren't shaded.

HTH,
Dan.

[Sunny4me]

For the ages of your kids, I second H20 UFO, there is a slide on one side that they will want to go down hundreds of times (with you, of course!) and this slide is never too busy, even on hot, crowded days.
Have fun--it's a lovely, clean park!

Edit to add: get there about 15 minutes before it opens for best choice of seats!