Aquatica

Several weeks ago, my wife and I had our 2nd opportunity to visit Aquatica for our first time. She bought tickets just weeks after the park's grand opening. However, we somehow never had the opportunity to go.

Aquatica has a wide variety of things to do. There are plenty of exciting thrill rides (which is no surprise), but also there were several less thrilling rides which I initially thought would be a waste of time but ended up enjoying the most (WITHOUT the long lines)!!!

Overall Aquatica is a great water park which features a wide variety of activities for all different types of guest from small children, to thrill seekers, and everyone else in between.

Most Overrated – Dolphin Plunge
The Dolphin Plunge seems to be Aquatica's flagship ride. However is does not live up to the hype. If you have never rode the Dolphin Plunge, let me save you the time of waiting in line. The ride is basically two enclosed slides which are side by side so a pair guests can race each other. The last portion of the ride transitions into a clear tube which submerges through a pool containing several swimming dolphins. Sounds like a great idea, but the problem is that you are going so fast through the slide, that it is almost impossible to even recognize the dolphins that you are whizzing by due to “tunnel” vision. Without the view of dolphins, dolphin plunge is just a mediocre slide with a quick flash of blue light as a finale.

Most Surprising – Roa's Rapids
Roa's Rapids is an amazing river of rapids, currents, and fast turns. For all you expert swimmers out there, you might be embarrassed to ride this ride with a life vest, however you will be missing out. What makes this ride great is when you want to relax or when your arms are exhausted, you can just sit back and let the currents take you. But when you want speed, just keep close to the walls during turns and you will see yourself passing the other guests trying too keep up. We went around several times before getting bored, and found ourselves coming back after a long line at the other rides.