Aquatica San Diego, Sea World’s Waterpark

We only live a few miles from the new Aquatica San Diego Waterpark owned by Sea World, but we could never find any time to go this busy summer! I had figured they were already closed for the season, but saw last week on Facebook that they were open for a few more days through 10/20, so I thought we could take advantage of our Sea World Member discount and surprise the kids with a visit finally! Our son is almost 6 and this was his first “real” waterslide experience, he was so excited when we pulled into the parking lot and he realized where we were going! It was nice that the park was nearly empty, someone told us they had less than 200 people in attendance that day (Saturday 10/19). There were virtually no lines, we got to run up and get right on most of the rides which was awesome! The water was a bit cold as it’s been chilly at night around here, but being that it was 85 degrees outside, we survived. Here is our son on his second run of the day, right after breaking himself in:

We were pleasantly surprised with the food and drink choices at the park. Everything is centrally located in one food court area and the choices ranged from tacos to pizza to fried chicken and funnel cake. We grabbed a few hot dogs early on since we weren’t too hungry and capped off the day with a funnel cake (yum!) My husband was giddy over the fact that the park served local microbrews from Karl Strauss including their IPA and Endless Summer. There were also ample places to sit and eat as well as lounge chairs for catching some rays or taking a break. I also noticed they had water bottle refill stations on all of the water fountains which was a nice touch!

We spent the day bouncing back and forth between water slides and the kid’s play areas as we also had our 15-month old daughter in tow. Both kids loved playing in these shallow pools and waiting for the big bucket of water to drop! Here is a shot of our son in front of the older kid’s area (there’s also a smaller toddler area with a few baby water slides):

We all felt the park was a bit small, although it did make it convenient for a family like us toting a baby in a stroller. I’ve heard that an expansion is under way and I think it’s definitely needed! I could never see paying full price ($36 for adults, $30 for children) for a park this small, but luckily we got our tickets at half price as we’re Sea World members. For the price we paid, I felt it was well worth it. The other area for improvement we found was that some of the slides were rough on the back and skin, you could feel the seams in the slide and a gritty feeling and it hurt a bit at times. They could perhaps use some sort of resurfacing, but it wasn’t anything that stopped us from going on rides over and over.

All in all, it was a fun day for the whole family! It’s too late to check out Aquatica San Diego this year, but if you can get a good discount, I’d recommend you add it to next summer’s agenda!