The Half-Price Water Park Pass

Greetings everyone!  If you have read our blog for any length of time you know that one of the highlights of our Texas summer is our local waterpark called the Wet Zone.  Each summer since we have been in Texas we have purchased season passes which give us the freedom to use the park at any time and for any amount of time, even if it is just an hour.  It gives us a great outlet to go cool off for a bit and have some fun without feeling like we have to spend the whole day there to get our money's worth. 

No pass is required for kids under two so the first year we were able to get by with two season passes. Since then we have been fortunate to find deals on passes so we don't have to pay full price for three (last year) or four (this year).

Last fall on Black Friday we scored a deal on our Wet Zone passes.  They were half off! What a deal - especially as we increased our pass count from three to four.  From then until spring we practically counted down the days until the Wet Zone opened.  Word on the street was that there was even a new water feature being installed for this year!

Surprisingly the Wet Zone doesn’t open until late May and it actually closes by the end of August even though the scorching-hot weather extends beyond that window of time.  My guess is that it has more to do with the high-school labor they use to staff the park than the amount of hot weather here in TX.

Well, we watched and waited to see if they would open or stay closed because of COVID.  We diligently watched the Wet Zone social media page for any update that might give us any information on the status of the park this summer.  Finally, they decided to open! As expected, they are open four days a week instead of six and they have shortened their hours from eight hours a day down to five.  On top of that, they are reducing the number of people allowed in the park to 50% of capacity.  It's a good thing we got our passes for half off. 

This past Saturday we took our first trip to the Wet Zone.  It was our first chance to experience it at half capacity.  Let me tell you, it was so nice having so much space to ourselves.  It was well worth the half-price of admission to have so much space to ourselves. 

As I mentioned earlier, they installed a new water feature this year.  Actually, they replaced the giant water feature that was in the middle of the pool. You know, the one with the stairs and the slide and other fun things that spray water.  On this inaugural trip, we got to see and experience the new water feature.  It is half the size of the old one but, it has one of those giant buckets on the top that fills up with water then dumps it out every sixty seconds or so.  It is great fun!  There is even a better slide on it.  The kids are still a little timid when it comes to standing under where the bucket spray lands in the water but they are definitely curious and eventually will love standing under the splash created by the falling water. 

Nicole and Jonah running through the sprinkler in our back yard

In all the kids had a blast, mom got a little sunburned and I was able to take Nicole to new parts of the park because she is taller this year. 

To be honest, we were disappointed when we learned that they were cutting the hours of the park by so much.  We wondered if we would even get our money’s worth this year.  On the surface, it sounds like a bad deal.  We paid half the price yet at the same time there is half the amount of people there, we get access to more pool and the water features are better. 

All in all, I think we actually scored big this year and came out even better than we were anticipating back on that November day when we landed such a good deal on the passes.  God is good like that - He loves to bless His children.