Grand Texas to begin construction on Big Rivers water park

So does this mean that we suspend skepticism? I didn't think the OWA project would happen either, and yet here we are.

I'll go ahead and remain skeptical. Having it ready for the water park season here in Texas (Memorial Day weekend at the latest) gives them just a shade under 10 months. In a city known for rainy winters and springs, I don't give it a chance of being open before 2019. This thing still reeks of a guy with limited funds trolling for investors.

If a 20 acre water park in OBX, NC can start construction in late October and open in June, I'm pretty sure one can be built in the Houston area despite some rain.

Infrastructure requirements aside, water parks are easy-ups. They build them over the rainy, cold, snowy, and icy (pick three) Ohio winters all the time.

I can't predict what the actual motive is here, tho.

Universal put up the remainder of their slides and tested everything less than a week before the grand opening of their water park. I think it's doable.

It will be interesting to see how the park does with Schlitterbahn in the same state though. I know Texas is a huge state, but Schlitterbahn is supposedly world class, and I'm guessing that other big name properties have water parks as well. I am interested to see how this park fares in the future. The improvements to Wildwater at Dorney, as well as the arrival of Camelbeach killed a tiny but charming water park and pool near me. It's still sitting there waiting to be sold. *sniff*

Yeah, and Universal's park opened with almost nothing working as intended, so there is that.

Point taken about quick water park construction, but I still feel pretty comfortable in the "I'll believe it when I see it" camp. Too many false starts with this project for me to think otherwise.

bunky666 said:

It will be interesting to see how the park does with Schlitterbahn in the same state though. I know Texas is a huge state, but Schlitterbahn is supposedly world class, and I'm guessing that other big name properties have water parks as well.

It's hotter than hell in Texas and there are water parks all over the place. Destination parks like the three from Schlitterbahn, the big parks like Six Flags, Hawaiian Falls, Splash Town, and Splash Kingdom, and a large number of municipal pools have slides, lazy rivers, and large kiddie structures. They all do really well when they're priced and managed up to par. When this place gets up and running, Schlitterbahn is the least of their worries and they'll do just fine.

A kind Austin native once told me that when it gets hot all Texans want to do is find water and get in it. That not only includes tubing the rivers but the waterparks as well.

Jeff said:
Yeah, and Universal's park opened with almost nothing working as intended, so there is that.

I read a few reviews that said everything worked but there was downtime off and on for three days. In any case, they technically had everything up and (sometimes) running. I'd bet a 2018 opening for this park is feasible.

Of course, the park doesn't have such huge financial backing as Universal, so maybe everyone else is right.

If it had lots of downtime then id say that's not working as intended...

From pictures it looks like this park is moving along. That they're doing it in phases and doing the waterpark first makes me think they know what they're doing.

Maybe building small and supporting with other amenities like OWA will work, unlike building a large park like Hard Rock and then not promoting or advertising or running the park correctly.

bunky666 said:

Schlitterbahn is supposedly world class...

Bunky, in all sincerity, there is no *supposedly* about it. The ONLY competition in my mind is Splashin' Safari - and I've been to Noah's Ark, Water Country USA, Aquatica, etc.

The whole larger "Grand Texas" from the ground up seemed overly ambitious, and based on our experiences, possibly fraudulent to me as well. Going the waterpark-first route makes it seem MUCH more likely....bring in some easy revenues to help get the dry amusement rides financed. And Houston is large enough to support another waterpark, to be sure.

When we lived in Fort Worth, we spent an average of 2 days a week at Hurricane Harbor during the summer. Water parks were not a trip or a destination, they were one of two or three things we could do on any given day (the library and the mall being the others).