Aquatica San Antonio



Water Park:Aquatica San Antonio (since 2012)
Address:10500 Sea World Dr.
78251 San Antonio
https://aquatica.com/san-antonio
Operated by:Sea World Parks & Entertainment

Aquatica San Antonio in San Antonio, Texas is one of the newest large scale water parks in America. It was built as a second gate park to the adjacent theme and marine animal park SeaWorld San Antonio in 2012 and replaced the old Lost Lagoon water park.

 
 
 

Highlights of the Water Park

 




 

Ihu’s Breakaway Falls

The turbo slide tower

 


 

Stingray Falls

With the slide through the ray pool

 


 

Walhalla Wave

Great fun on the wave

 


Ihu’s Breakaway Adventure

Aquatica San Antonio

Since I was relatively quickly done with the main park SeaWorld San Antonio, I went to the neighboring water park Aquatica San Antonio in the afternoon to bridge the time until the One Ocean show. Luckily, the combined entrance ticket was a bit cheaper than the regular entrance ticket for SeaWorld alone and the park was one of the few water parks in Texas that was actually open at Easter.

As early as in the entrance area of the park, opened in 2012, one notices that the atmosphere here is completely different from that of the park next door. Everything is colourful, beautifully designed and much more immersive. Right in front of one, the whole skyline spreads out and one straight gets the desire to climb one or the other slide tower and slide down one of the numerous slides.

Stingray Falls

Passing a big pool where numerous stingrays swim around, we immediately get to the first highlight of the park: Stingray Falls. The family raft slide offers a rather long slide over numerous curves and several smaller jumps, but is otherwise quite mild. After the obligatory passage through a flush of water and a water curtain, one then finds oneself in a small cave that is partly covered with acrylic glass. Here you have about 30s time to watch the rays above you before you reach the end of the slide. Thanks to this feature, Stingray Falls is a unique attraction and therefore you should definitely slide it once, although in my opinion the tunnel should be much longer.

Ihu’s Breakaway Falls

Just behind Stingray Falls are the three turbo slides of Ihu’s Breakaway Falls. While the blue and orange tubes have a drop start, the green tube offers a classic entrance followed by a very steep descent before it turns into a curve dominated slide, as with the other tubes. As always with very high water slides, the tension increases with every vertical meter. Here in the Aquatica San Antonio even the use of swimming trunks that are too tight is prohibited, you would probably be too fast. At some point you reach the top and are spoilt for choice between the three lanes.

While both drop start lanes immediately change into a left turn and can show a longer straight after a short right bend, the green slide starts unbelievably fast into the action with a quite high drop. This is followed by a powerful downward helix, which changes into another high drop at the final. Meanwhile, the other two lanes also start their final spurt and after another pressure-packed left turn elegantly leads you into the exit.

The three lanes of Ihu’s Breakaway Falls are all really good slides, with the green lane definitely being the wildest of the three. If you like turbo slides, you’ll get your money’s worth here, because Texas highest water slide is really nothing for wimps and/or water park newbies and therefore a real test of courage!

Loggerhead Lane

After so much adrenaline it is worth taking a look at the Lazy River Loggerhead Lane. On the beautifully arranged Lazy River with its numerous water effects one can drift wonderfully before suddenly finding oneself in an aviary and watching numerous tropical birds. What a wonderful fun!

Kiwi Curl and Woohoo Falls

Close by is the entrance to the Kiwi Curl and Woohoo Falls slides, with the two tire slides of Woohoo Falls being replaced by the blackhole body slides Tonga Twister in 2020. Kiwi Curl are two classic bodyslides with multiple turns and drops, while Woohoo Falls has a very wide open tube slide and a black hole. Both slides are quite easy to ride.

Big Surf Shores, Tassie’s Twisters and Hooroo Run

Past the wave pool Big Surf Shores we go to the double tube slides Tassie’s Twisters and Hooroo Run. While Tassie’s Twisters are two classic bowl slides, at the ends of which you can do a few laps in a funnel before continuing on to the final pool, Hooroo Run is characterized by its descents and dark passages. Here the red track is only serpentine, while the purple track features additional helices.

Walkabout Waters and Taumata Racer

Once across the game structure Walkabout Waters, where we refresh ourselves a little with the water from the huge overturning bucket, we go to the mat slide Taumata Racer. This six-lane slide not only has a huge capacity, but also offers a good opportunity to race against family and friends. The Taumata Racer is by no means a classic mat slide, because before the big shot starts, you first increase your speed in a powerful helix. Splendid!

Walhalla Wave

Now let’s get to the last big slide in the park and my personal highlight: Walhalla Wave. As I was travelling alone and a group of three happened to need another person to slide, I was quickly able to take a seat in one of the boats that hold up to four people.  After a small slide in airy heights, a tight helix is added immediately before the big drop into the Tornado Wave is initiated. In this wave, one rushes rapidly upwards before drifting sideways and racing down. After two fast swings along the walls of the slide, you are slowed down slowly before you dive into a tunnel and are led leisurely to the end of the slide.

The Walhalla Wave is an absolutely magnificent slide, which for me also serves as a symbol for Aquatica San Antonio.

Pictures

Conclusion

I was quite happy to have bought the combi-ticket, otherwise I would probably have been rather disappointed when leaving San Antonio. So the water park Aquatica San Antonio was my highlight of the day and one of the best water parks I have visited so far. There are some really good slides available and also the design of the park is very sublime, so I highly recommend a visit. Combining it with the main park right next door is also a good idea, as this way one can experience a lot of things throughout the day.


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Sandcastles in the Sand

Sandcastle Waterpark

Water Park:Sandcastle Waterpark Blackpool
(since 1986)
Address:Promenade
FY4 1BB Blackpool
https://www.sandcastle-waterpark.co.uk/
Operated by:Blackpool Council

Sandcastle Waterpark BlackpoolSandcastle Waterpark Blackpool is the largest water park in the United Kingdom. The waterpark is located directly at the Irish Sea and offers great water fun even on rainy days. The water park has a large number of breathtaking water slides, which are also among the best of their kind due to their sometimes quite creative course design. In addition, the bath offers a large wellness offer.

The basic entry fee for the indoor water park Sandcastle Waterpark includes access to the bathing area with the adventure pools and some smaller slides. The four larger slides, Master Blaster, Sidewinder, Montazooma and Aztec Falls, which are grouped under the name Hyperzone, are subject to a surcharge.

Master Blaster

We started the day on the Master Blaster of the same name. As far as I could see, it is a copy of the “original manufacturer” NBGS, which has an impressive length of 250 meters. We had to wait here for about a quarter of an hour before we were allowed to take a seat in the starting tub of this machine, which was obviously only used with single tires. While Tobias was sent off more or less immediately after the minimum distance, I received a particularly long instruction before the start – for whatever reason – of which I didn’t understand much in the general noise of the hall anyway, and which did not contain anything that could not be deduced from common sense or the signs. Tobias asked me at my final arrival in the exit area, where I had stayed so long.

The ride itself: wonderfully long, rocking and with considerable power on the uphill sections. Similar to the Dragon Blaster in Schlitterbahn New Braunfels, you experience the upward shots through the sliding tyres a little more forcefully than sitting in dinghies. Even the translucent blue tube part, which runs outside the building, is great fun. In addition, the surprisingly steep double down to the final is not to be underestimated – you gain so much momentum that you have to work hard during the subsequent braking process to avoid being thrown out of the tyre. This could be observed a few times. Definitely a very nice layout, but I’ve been spoiled too much by these LIM-rockets from Proslide – so the water jet version, even if it has a lot of power, as here at Sandcastle Waterpark, just looks a bit tired.

Sidewinder

Next up: the halfpipe slide Sidewinder. We waited about a quarter of an hour. Like at the Stingray in Noah’s Ark, the lifeguard was roped up here and balanced barefoot in the start area – hats off!  The slide itself is as usual super funny! Due to the low wetting of the surface, you can rush up to the edges of the construction without much effort – simply great fun!

Dueling Dragons

According to the theming we are on an adventure island – it is obvious from the coasterfreak’s point of view that there are two Dueling Dragons here, too. In Blackpool, these are two parallel steep-helix turbo tubes, through which you’ll just get smashed. The red one (which, seen from above, starts on the right, but comes out on the left at the bottom) is noticeably more extreme, since the decisive “death swing” is simply much more abrupt than with the neighbour – Tobias also had to realize this with a laugh during a second comparison slide. In the green track the joints are also a bit worse finished – a rather unpleasant experience for your back. The red tube is without question the true winner.

Thunder Falls

The Thunder Falls are the oldest slides in Sandcastle Waterpark and consist of a yellow and a blue bodyslide. The yellow one is certainly the more interesting one, as it has some incredibly tight S-curves, which make you swing around, but also make you very slow – it seems that the slide suffers a bit from the Alpa-Run-Syndrome of Alpamare Bad Tölz. The blue side offers the rounder sliding experience with its wider curves and punctual speed ramps, but slides a bit more bumpy due to the more pronounced segment joints.

Aztek Falls

Aztek Falls is a funnel slide for double tubes and one of two slides that start from the highest point in the bath from a separate slide tower and come along in an Aztec theme. Here, the waiting time was a good half hour, but I would also say that it was fully worth it. In my opinion, this was the absolute highlight of the Sandcastle Waterpark. Judging purely from the shape of the bowl, this is definitely the best tube funnel I’ve ever slid – the starting pipe definitely provides the necessary momentum and with Tobias’ and my combined fighting weight we had four laps together in no time. By a courageous push-off manoeuvre from the one funnel middle wall I even managed a fifth, before we went down the corkscrew exit and the extremely crisp final chute back to the discharge basin. An amazing ride!

Montazooma

The second slide in the tower complex is a narrow turbotube called Montazooma, which is slid headfirst with mats. You can almost imagine a proslide mat racer, which never turns into a wave track – it’s absolutely crazy how you are partly pressed on your stomach and thrown up into the curves. Definitely another favourite at the Sandcastle Waterpark! And furthermore an insider tip: even on this full Sunday there were phases where mats were still available, while at the neighbouring Aztec Falls you always had to wait at the run-out for your tube. The queue situation in the uppermost part of the tower is a bit unfortunate in Aquatica terms (on the right you queue for the funnel, on the left for the mat slide), but in the queue-tested Great Britain with its somewhat more intelligent and also more communicative public, this was really not an issue.

Conclusion Sandcastle Waterpark

Besides the big slides we also tried the smaller Treetop Water Chutes (flat triple family racers) and the stream canal, after that it was time to move on and start the journey home. The Sandcastle Waterpark as a whole has not really excited me, but this is probably due to the Sunday crowds and the very loud and hectic atmosphere in the big hall. The Caribbean-tropical design is very inspiring, the slides are actually all good for something and with a little less crowd and therefore possible repeat rides I would have had a great time for sure. But because of the high entrance fee (especially compared to the neighbouring Pleasure Beach) and the limited the time of the visit, I will keep this pool in my mind with mixed feelings. But as Blackpool is scheduled for 2018 anyway, it will be almost self-evident that a return visit is possible in the near future if the the park is less crowded.

 

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