Wild Waves 7-25-10

[stephatron]

To those who are unfamiliar with Wild Waves, it is the only theme park close to Seattle and it's surrounding areas (if you don't count the Puyallup Fair, which I do not). It's pretty small with only 3 coasters, one wooden, one steel, and one Wild Maus style. Mostly, it's a water park, but I think it's pretty fun for a small park.

I took my brother last Sunday because 1) I was bored and 2) he wasn't able to go to Disneyland for his graduation/recovery from chemo trip due to my dad being in the hospital a few days before they left. My brother also has autism, so I felt bad that he couldn't go to Disneyland which he had been looking forward to, so to cheer him up, we went to Wild Waves, just the two of us.

We got to park at around 10:15 am and found the parking lot to be a lot less crowded than I thought it would be (it was 90 degrees, so to Seattlites, that's about 110 degrees to them). We decided to go straight to the rides and get those out of the way first. My brother wanted to do a few flat rides before we hit any roller coasters. First we did The Hang Glider. A little boring but still a nice ride. We then hit the Timberhawk, which is the Pacific Northwest's either tallest or fastest wooden roller coaster. We sat in the front seat, of course, and prepared for our ride. I must say that for a little (in my opinion) woodie, it packs quite a punch! I felt us hopping up and down for most of the ride, and the airtime was awesome. Next, we hit the pirate ship, which was closed earlier. It was the same as Viking Fury, but I wish we could have gotten a seat more towards the ends.

My brother wanted to get a hat, as he is still a little bald from his chemo treatments, so we went back to the water section to get him one. Aparently, there is only one gift shop in the entire park. We then hit Wild Thing, which is the steel coaster. It's really short with only one cobra roll and two corkscrews, so the normal procedure is to run the train twice through. It was cool, but I was looking for a bit more excitement. We then went further into the dry section of the park to hit the Disko, which is a ride like Surf Dog (I wasn't very fond of this one) and Kang a Bounce. You sit in a kangaroo seat with an OTSR and the ride goes in circles while the kangaroo that you are on bounces up and down with a variety of speeds. It was a lot of fun! Afterwards, we decided to get food and then hit the waterpark. After a slice of cheese pizza (darn you Weight Watchers!), we got a locker, got into our swim suits, and decided to hit the lazy river first.

This river differs from the one in Boomerang Bay as the riders don't have to get out every time. However, all riders have to have an innertube, so the line is at the mercy of the riders in the river. We waited for about 30 minutes (longest line all day) and discovered that you could rent tubes and go straight in without waiting (we did that later). After a few times around the river, we went into the activity pool. This area has deep water (about 10') but there is a zip line, waterslides that have people shoot out of them high above the water, and ability to do laps around the pool. It was nice to get some exercise during this trip, and this is probably my favorite spot in the park.

Next we hit the wave pool. I like the one at Boomerang Bay a lot better.

After a few boring slides, and a trip down the river, we decided to go back to the dry section of the park and go down the Conga Fall's-like ride. They tell you that you might get wet on this ride, but you get completly DRENCHED! I was silly enough to stand on the walkway where the raft comes down the hill and got splashed hardcore again. Then we did one more lap around Timberhawk before we headed home.

Overall, this is a nice little park, but I really wish they would do a lot more with it. They have an ampitheater which I think could be done away with and have a few rides put there. Most of their rides are spread out and put in really random places, such as the kiddie rides are spread out all over the park. It may not be the greatest park in the world, but it's the best one that I've got, so I'll take what I can get.

I'll be going next Sunday with my partner-in-crime (boyfriend) so I'll post some pictures on here so you can see what my home park looks like, as well as pictures from my trip to Kings Island.

[The Interpreter]

I can't wait to see your pictures. The last time I was there, it was still part of the Six Flags Theme Park family.

I also am very glad you took your brother! Times like these are very important...

Terp, who knows these things...