Splash Lagoon, Erie PA

[crusinmama06]

Every year, we try to surprise our daughter with a birthday trip (instead of school class party at Chuckee Cheese...lol)

Two years ago, it was Great Wolf Lodge in the Poconos (another indoor resort water park). Last year, it was Royal Caribbean Independence of the Seas. This year, we decided to try Splash Lagoon in Erie PA.

The planning....

I started by going to their website www.splashlagoon.com about 3 months ago (yes, I am a planner). Let's just say their reservation website is quirky. I was getting lots of errors. Website is down. Server error. But I was not deterred. I started reading reviews. I knew we wanted to try it.

In January we were ready to book, I called the Splash Lagoon reservation line. That was closed.

Did I mention I don't give up easily? I see there are some hotels that are actually connected (physically linked) to the waterpark -- one being the Holiday Inn. I am a Priority Club member of the Holiday Inn - so I called the National # of the Holiday Inn and I speak to one of their reservation specialists. I ask if I can reserve a room through them and if I can then add tickets to the water park "No problem" - they would connect me to the water park to purchase tickets after I make the non refundable non cancellable room purchase.

So I reserve the room -- then they transfer me to the water park ticket line which I hear "Aloha, thank you for calling - we are currently closed, please try your call again later, goodbye"

So now I have a room and no tickets. I try not to panic. Over the next few weeks I try to call splash lagoon and maneuver through the same "press 1 for hours, press 2...." and can never get ahold of a human being

I am now starting to panic - but how bad can it be, the web site still has rooms available.....

Now its Wednesday morning, 5 days before S Day - Splash Day - I make it my goal in life to get ahold of a person in Erie - I maneuver through the phone system, no I don't want the hours, no I don't want directions, LUCK, someone answers --

"Sorry, we are all sold out of tickets for Sunday"



Excuse me, I think I just passed out for a minute - you couldn't have possibly have just said that you were all sold out for this Sunday

"Yes, we are all sold out."

Can you please transfer me to reservations? Thank you

"This is reservations, how can I help you?"

Um, yes, I was just told that you are all sold all of the tickets for this Sunday. I already have a room at the Holiday Inn that I puchased that I was told by the Holiday Inn that I could just add the tickets to but you were closed when I reserved it last month - can't I just add the tickets to that room, you aren't adding another room, I already have the room?

"No we are at capacity"

This is my daughter's birthday - I would hate to be in a hotel with a waterpark and say 'Hey kids, look, there's a waterpark, but you can't go in there because they are at capacity.' Yeahhh that won't fly. Isn't there anything you can do?

"You can be one of the first 50 in line at 9am on Sunday morning when we make 50 more available"

I am sitting in 40" of snow right now and I am 4 hours away. I can't guarantee that I will be one of the first 50.

"I will transfer you to my manager"

VOICEMAIL! (yeah, who would have guessed) Hi this is {insert name of nameless manager here} please leave a message and I will be sure to get back to you {and do nothing for you when I do} --sorry I added that last part in -- yes I am still bitter about it

So let's just say that it pays to have friends in Erie, I was able to get tickets. And it had nothing to do with Splash Lagoon.

The manager called to give me the line "We are at capacity, nothing I can do." Yeahhhh, thanks. Great customer service you have going on there!

Some things you need to know about the reservations planning part of Splash Lagoon:

--Web Site is very quirky/tough to use. Pick up the phone and call them.

--They display promotions online but when you enter the promotions dates they are often all sold out and haven't remove those promotions yet

--You MUST book through Splash Lagoon reservation line/system in order to guarantee yourself the passes and even THEN you might not have some -- I spoke to a family that booked through the Splash Lagoon Reservation system and arrived with cofirmation in hand but wasn't in the reservation system -- so make sure you bring your printed reservation with you -- without it, they wouldn't have had a room.

--Do NOT arrive before noon -- this is the part that I find very odd/amusing. The "locals" who buy day passes are allowed into the waterpark as soon as it opens - aka 9am on the day we were there. When I was passing through the lobby -- one of the hotel guests was trying to get passes and was told by the hotel front desk attendant that he would have to "wait until noon" to get the passes for the water park - he tried to joke "What, is it 11:59?" - "No sir, it's 11:49 right now, you will have to wait until noon to get your passes, that's when the park releases them to us. But then she went into a back office and produced the passes. So much for the noon magic release time. This is where I think Splash Lagoon needs to tweak their customer service. Let the hotel guests have as much access as the guests in off the street.

--If you can swing it, prices are better on the weekdays and stay away from holidays -- since this was for my daughter's birthday and she was born on Valentine's Day -- we got hit with both Valentine's Day and President's Day Prices.



So on to the Hotel.....

[crusinmama06]

As I said earlier, out of the connected hotels to the waterpark, we chose the Holiday Inn Express - VERY nice - and it came with a free breakfast in the morning - which was a nice touch. They did have kid suites. We just chose the standard hotel room (2 queen beds) and it came with a fridge/microwave and a jacuzzi tub which was nice for warming up after a day at the water park...

[crusinmama06]

The waterpark has a very nice changing facility. The lockers are $13 for small and $15 for large with $10 returned when the key is returned at the end of the day -- which I thought was a very nice touch.

There is a water area for all ages -- from the young ones -- which is monitored to keep it that way (they have baby swings) and an area for under 48"

They have slides for all adventure levels

They have a lazy river where you can just kick back and watch the world float by

And they have an Over 21 hot tub lagoon area (very nice)

I have to say -- once I got past the reservation center nightmare - I began to relax a little -- there were a few hickups that I will mention later but here are some of the pictures from Splash Lagoon....

The thumbs up from the Birthday Girl!

[crusinmama06]

[crusinmama06]

[crusinmama06]

[crusinmama06]

This was the last little hick-up and I hope that the owners of Splash Lagoon (which is actually a Family owned company called Scott Enterprises) do something about this for the sanity of the families who visit the park and the sanity of their own employees....

THIS wonderful little thing is called the BIG SQUIRT. For $10 the older kids in the water park can corner the younger children and torment them by squirting them in the face with freezing cold water -- which they fill up at these filling stations.

The teens know they have the younger children corner at places like the slide lines -- the younger kids can't move up, they can't move down - they are trapped and easy pickins. And they can't be seen by the life guards. They know this.

The life guards know this.

The younger kids are at the mercy of the older kids.

The parents, unknowingly (as I was) are at the bottom of the slides, waiting for their little darlings -- not knowing that they are being tormented by the teenagers at the top of the slides.

Yes, I went to talk to the guards -- who told this mom that they are helpless to control it. These Big Squits are BIG MONEY MAKERS for Scott Enterprises. Even the life guards are helpless against them. The lifeguards get squirted in the face. Get squirted in the back of the head. All day long. They are helpless. There is very little they can do. They can ask the kids not to do it. But the kids laugh and run away.

Big Squirts = Organized Profit Making Bullying

[crusinmama06]

The kids really did have a blast at Splash Lagoon. The 5 year old has already asked that we have her birthday there. So I guess I better get planning THAT one since hers is in April...lol. Are they ready to have me back so soon? Probably not. I am sure my number will be blocked from their call center....lol. The hotel was wonderful. The food was good, right there. The water park owns other restaurants VERY close to the hotels and they all deliver - so that is a big bonus!

So remember, when its freezing outside - and the kids are getting cabin fever...



Grab your swimsuits and head to Erie, PA where its always a balmy 84 degrees....

[Ellanora]

Glad you had a good time despite the questionable customer service. I've seen those Big Squirt things in other parks - I am NOT a fan. They should have a designated area, like a laser tag section only for big squirts or water guns, where they can be obtained and used.

[sharonny]

Just got back from Splash Lagoon in Erie. DS (12) missed his school field trip to Splash Lagoon with his class due to being sick, so a promise from mom to go as soon as school got out cheered him up. My original plans were to hit the park after 4 pm for the reduction in price. No........ both DS's want to be there all day, 5 hours won't be enough, yada yada. So DH takes the day off work and off we go at 8:30 am. We are in the waterpark by 10:30 and..........by 1 pm they were ready to leave????? Not!!! I made them take another whirl or 2 on each slide. DH had headed off to Gander Mountain figuring we would be in the park till closing and had paid the spectator rate for later. Boy was he shocked and none to happy when I called for him to come get us so early.

Other than DS (14) going on his field trip there, we had never been. We have been to Great Wolf & Kalahari and love it. Splash Lagoon is much smaller. I rode each slide (5 of them) 3 times with the kids and the 2 of them added a few more runs. My guess would be that I made at least 20 revolutions around the lazy river (it's really small). Some of the workers were absolutely miserable and one warranted a bit of a tongue lashing from me when he got made at my DS for getting him wet when getting on the "Big Kahuna". Ummmm you work at a water park, expect to get wet! It wasn't crowded at all and we never had to wait more than 10 people, if that, for each slide.

Once was enough for us.