Geauaga Lake passes, swim lessons, etc.

This was the press release today...

AURORA, Ohio – Geauga Lake’s Wildwater Kingdom waterpark has announced details of their aggressive new Season Pass program that will help people plan their summer getaways while saving money.

A 2008 Season Pass to Wildwater Kingdom is only $44.95. In fact, a Season Pass pays for itself in just two visits and allows passholders to come and go as often as they would like during the season. A Junior Season Pass, for guests ages 3-61, under 48 inches tall, or a Senior Pass, for guests age 62 and older, is only $34.95. Children age 2 and under are free.

Free parking is included with every Season Pass purchase. Passholders who purchase their pass before May 1st will be eligible to receive a free commemorative beach towel (while supplies last).

A 2008 Season Pass to Wildwater Kingdom also features great time-saving benefits. Not only do you get unlimited access to Ohio’s premier waterpark, you also get to beat the crowds by getting into Wildwater Kingdom a full half-hour before the general public. Passholders can experience two of Wildwater Kingdom’s most popular attractions, the 60-foot-tall Liquid Lightning tornado slide and the Splash Landing family activity center, exclusively for 30 minutes prior to the park’s opening each day.

Passholders also receive money-saving coupons good for admission, merchandise and food inside the waterpark. During the week, passholders can save 50 percent off the rental price of a private VIP Cabana.

“A Wildwater Kingdom Season Pass is a great value,” said Colleen Murphy, interim general manager of Wildwater Kingdom. “We wanted to ensure that our passholders received maximum benefits and value for their dollar and we believe that they will really benefit from this new program.”

Season Passholders also have the exclusive opportunity to enroll their children (ages 3-10) in swim lessons where they can learn how to swim from the park’s experienced lifeguard staff. Wildwater Kingdom also offers a Junior Lifeguard program for Season Passholders, ages 11-15. (A nominal fee is required for participation in the swim lessons and the Junior Lifeguard program.)

Wildwater Kingdom will be open for two weekends, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, May 24-26 and Saturday and Sunday, May 31 and June 1 before beginning daily operations. The waterpark will be open daily Saturday, June 7 through Sunday, Aug. 24, and then will reopen for Labor Day weekend, Saturday through Monday, Aug. 30 through Sept. 1.

Season Passes can be purchased online at www.wildwaterfun.com or by calling (330) 562-8303, ext. 7810. For more information, log on to www.wildwaterfun.com.

Nice to see they're giving away a towel instead of more of the VIP Jackets. I'm not sure many people would be going to a water park if they had to wear a jacket anyway.

I keep forgetting the waterpark is still standing. Are people in the area going to think the same way?

I'm guessing they will. A few points: 1) It's really the only major waterpark in the Cleveland area. Pioneer Waterland is here but it pales in comparison to Wildwater Kingdom. The next closest waterpark is...Soak City. 2) The waterpark drew well from all accounts last year. My only firsthand witness was on a hot day in August last year. We drove past the ride side to park on the waterpark side and the ride side lot was PACKED while we parked in the second row on the water side. This seemed to bode well for us and the waterpark...no, notsomuch. Apparently all these people parked on the ride side and walked to the waterpark side, the waterpark was wall to wall people. When we finished waterparking we went to the ride side and the only real wait we had was for the Beaver Land Mine Ride, everything else was virtually a walk-on. This was a Saturday in August.

I just hope the whole locker thing improves. If you are NOT there within the first hour of opening you will NOT get a locker. Even if somebody leaves at noon and you see it, unless you get the code from them the attendants will do nothing for you. They only reset the codes after closing, so that locker is yours all day, even if you are home in bed at closing.

Tom

This release kind of addresses my concern about what I perceive to be their real competition: local recreation centers. The cost is about on par, only GL offers a whole lot more to do. Offering swim lessons I think is brilliant, both as an offering and an opportunity to generate more revenue.

The water park was pretty consistently busy last year as long as it was warm. I suspect that as long as they're getting the word out, this year will be no different.

Great deal, a steal compared to Sandcastle's $59.99.

Just out of curiousity, how is this a great deal? Last year, it was like what $25 for both dry and wet parks and now it's $15 more and no dry park.

$44.95 is for a SEASON pass, not just one day. One day admission is $23.95 so if you go twice you're covered.

Tom

Whoops, next time, I'll learn to read...better. I guess that's a good deal. I'm not sure that I would buy a pass to just a waterpark. I can go to a pool when I want to swim and I have one near me with slides. Granted, no slides like those, but, I just can't see myself buying one.

Even for a one day ticket, it seems like a rip off. You pay virtually the same with no rides. *** Edited 4/3/2008 8:22:18 PM UTC by Bster***

But how much does it cost to buy a pass to the local pool? It's certainly got to be more than $20 for the summer, I would imagine. Is it possible that a season pass to WildWater Kingdom could cost less than a pass to the local pool?

On the other hand, a local pool is not nearly as crowded as I have seen at WWK. I haven't checked on a season pool pass in a long time as my mother's neighbor has an inground that he never uses, so we get to go there. I do know one thing...and some may agree with me on this, that since I live 5+ hours from GL and WWK, there is no way I would drive that far for JUST a waterpark. I can't imagine that they will draw all that much outside of the local population.

I don't think that they're trying to draw outside the Cleveland area.

According to the 2000 Census, 2.25 million people live in Northeast Ohio - they don't need to draw people from any farther than 30-45 minutes away.

Let's hope that this place can survive.

Lifeguards can't teach swim lessons worth a damn. Trust me.

My local pool's season pass is $50 (on the east side of Cleveland)

Junior pass is for age 3-61 under 48"? Is that a typo, or are there a lot of people over the age of 9 who are under 48 inches tall? If they mean age 3 up to 48 inches tall, it's a strange way of wording it.

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SFoGswim said:
Lifeguards can't teach swim lessons worth a damn. Trust me.

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Is that so?

I seem to recall being able to teach swim lessons when I was a lifeguard...

I think there was that whole "training" process that is required or something. :rolleyes:

But, do other water parks, like Schlitterban (sp?), draw outside of the local area? I really have no idea.

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Raven-Phile said:
I think there was that whole "training" process that is required or something.

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If you were trained to be a swim lesson instructor as well as a lifeguard, great! However, I've seen a lot of places just let lifeguards teach because they're lifeguards... which is a terrible idea.

I live in DFW which is 3 hours from the nearest Schlietterbahn and I have a billboard on the way to work advertising all three parks.

Schlitterbahn draws guests all the way from north-central Florida. ;)