Elitch Gardens Theme & Water Park

This place is extremely overpriced, especially for having rides shut down ALL THE TIME. I would definitely pack a lunch because you will spend more money on the crappy food then parking and a ticket. It might be fun a few times, but I wouldn’t spend the money to go quite often.

**UPDATE**
Thankfully I took a screen shot of Elitch’s policy when we tried to get in to fright fest. None of what the misinformed employee who commented on this review existed then and has been quietly added to their webpage since. Have not renewed seasons passes and recommend no one else does either. Deceitful practices. I have contacted management and sent screen shots to prove my point. Very sad that Elitch Gardens will go further to cover up failures on their part on social media.
Extremely disappointed with the complete lack of professionalism of employees, deviation from posted rules and regulations made known on their website and the very «college kid who just needs money» attitude of customer service associates.
I drove down to attend FrightFest 2015 from Fort Collins with two friends, extremely excited for the event as we were going to stay the night in Denver so we could enjoy the event to the fullest. In the spirit of the event, we all came in full costume including full face paint and prosthetic pieces. The website was clear that while face makeup is permitted, guests would need to wear an armband so the park associates could discern who is a guest. Understandable, no problem.
We were «greeted» by some college girl, smackin’ her chewing gum who told us we could not be allowed in the park unless at least 50% of all face make up was removed to make the face visible. Considering we had just spent the better part of two hours applying prosthetics and make-​up, simply wiping off half of it wasn’t an option. Despite the wrong information portrayed on Elitch’s website we were denied entrance into the park. A huge disappointment for my group who has been planning this trip for months.
An extended review of Elitch’s policy and FrightFest page says that such makeup is indeed PERMITTED as long as the guest wears an identifiable armband. We were not even given that option. The «associate» was less than accommodating, we felt very singled-​out and the entire experience was rude.
This was going to be my first visit to Elitch Gardens and I will not be returning to experience the park. They have lost my business. Very disappointing. So rude.

I used to love Elitches growing up but its going downhill fast. We were there for Frightfest (October 31^st) we paid over $ 100 (for 2 people) to get in and go through the not so scary haunted houses. They had notified us that 3 attractions were closed; the Observation Tower, The Sidewinder and Hollywood and Vine. However, it turned out that only 3 roller coasters were open, 4 if you count the Brain Drain as a roller coaster (a ride thats a constant loop.) The biggest disappointment was the Tower of Doom being closed, mine and many others favorite attraction.
Food was terrible, I didn’t expect a gourmet pizza but at $ 6 a slice you’d think it would have a little flavor. The man behind the pizza counter kept turning away and walking to the back, without saying a word to us. He didn’t tell us where to pay so we looked like idiots standing at the counter with our pizza. I didn’t see one employee with a smile on their face. Doesn’t exactly make you feel welcome or want to enjoy yourself when an employee would rather be on their phone than let you pay for a piece of pizza. I also witnessed a child that was at least 3 inches too short get into the line for The Halfpipe because again, an employee was too busy updating her Facebook status to ensure small children weren’t getting on a ride that was not safe for them. The employees negative attitude actually spread to the whole crowd. I’ve never seen so many people with sad expressions at a theme park.
There were like 2 carnival games open but the employees working them looked like they couldn’t be bothered to take our money and start the game.
I’ve never been so mad about not getting my moneys worth than I was at this place. When you pay over $ 100 for 2 people and only get about 2 and a half hours of fun it really screws up your Halloween plans.
We had plans to purchase season passes next summer but with this experience I doubt we’ll even waste our money.

Meh, half the rides were shut down. I’d skip it.

I’m really pleased every time I come here and find another ride to enjoy. It’s been a few years since my last visit and since then they’ve added the boomerang and the half pipe (I imagine this dates me a bit). Regardless, I’d you’re in Denver, you can’t really beat this for an amusement park. Sadly, this still only gets 4 stars because places like Universal Studios and Cedar Point exist and that HAS to be some contrast between them and Elitch Gardens.
The suggestion I have for coming here is to buy a VIP pass, especially when it’s very hot outside. You’ll be able to take your wait time down to about 5 to 10 minutes per ride and you’ll be in shade for the entire time. Although it’s hard to stomach doubling the cost of your ticket, it’ll keep you from spedning the entire day in line.

Fun. Overpriced. Generally Pleased.
I have celebrated Fourth of July and Halloween at Elitchs’ and have had a good experience both times. The fact that it is the only amusement park in miles plays a big part in my decision to visit. I love amusement parks, and understand the downfalls that exist at all of them, including long lines, overpriced food and merchandise, and unhappy employees. Outside of that, here are my bullet points…
Good:
Fast Passes are efficient
Rides are fun!
Holiday visits are festive!
Local beers are available
Waterpark in summer
Bad:
Three rides have broken down while I was on them, terrifying!

Want corn dogs? Closed
Want chicken? Sold out
Want ice cream? Closed
Want dip-​n-​dots? Closed
Want tacos? Closed
Want an icy? Closed
They did have pizza.
You get a coupon book with season passes but none of the places that take them are open or stocked. A bunch of the rides were closed too.

The place is really dirty, they focus on kids 10 and older, no people to attend the games, three places that sell ice cream was closed but if you want to drink beer and margaritas de open right away. If I go to the park I want my kid to have fun not to drink and get wasted. If I want to get wasted I just will go to a local bar. I left the place after 30 min that I was here and went to boondocks to have a blast!

The park is fine. The beer garden has 6 beers (not sure why that constitutes a beer garden). The food at the beer garden was disgusting. The boneless chicken wings were gross –see picture. The tacos were a joke. I asked for a second batch of wings and they gave me new ones from the same large batch they cooked. don’t eat here is you go to Eliches.

My family only went here because we got free tickets and I wouldn’t go if I had to pay for it. The area is very small, all the rides are right next to each other which is a plus but most of the rides are fair like. the small little rides which are basically the Mad Tea Party at Disneyland and Magic Kingdom. The other rides are big rollercoaster and most only have one ride vehicle which makes the waiting long and you’re going in blind because there is no wait time listed outside the line.
The staff… well its small. Usually there are a few in the stores and restaurants and about 2 at the boarding section of the ride. And a few custodians.
The quality of the rides are lacking. Paint is chipped. One rollercoaster is a wooden so that gives a headache.
The Waterpark on the other side was more enjoyable. All the rides still have long lines. If you think it won’t have much people because the rest of the park is empty, you’re wrong. There a re many people which make it hard to find a seat that is enjoyable. We spent a good 10 minutes looking for a seat in the shade. The water rides are fun most have tubes. There is a booth at the entrance that says you have to pay, but you don’t just find one and steal it.
The people there would be described as «Wal-​Mart people» in my personal opinion. And the theme park is the Walmart of theme parks in my opinion.

Pros
The water park is ok at best. I could see the discounted season pass being an ok deal also.
Cons
The food is disgusting and over priced. Took 25 minutes to order and another 30 to get the food. I guess that is one way to keep people off the rides.
Speaking of rides I counted 6 rides that were out of order. Considering the amount of rides offered I think this is too high of a percentage to charge full price.
$ 12 for a locker is a bit high. They don’t have enough tubes for the lazy river but are more than willing to let you rent one. Pay to play for a lazy river?
I met one, that’s right, one employee that was not obviously unhappy and rude.
We went to the front bathroom on the way in at rope drop. There was trash on the floor and it smelled like old urine. I am scarred to see/​smell it at closing time.
The rest of the park is dirty and run down. Trash everywhere and I never once saw a employee pick anything up.

It’s just okay.
With a season pass which I had last Summer, it was fun to go and tan beside the wave pool, if you can find a chair. It seems many have a pass just for this reason. This ended up being my usual visit, because dealing with the rest of the park became too much of a hassle.
I was a professional in the scuba industry working daily in the ocean. I’m also an EMT. I can say that the water safety team is first rate. I can’t imagine how maddening it must be to adequately supervise 800 screaming people in the wave pool, but they do it well. They constantly drill, have enough people to watch the whole thing, and can ascend the ladder of care quickly, thanks to advanced first responders stationed less than 50 yards away. They change stations constantly, which is crucial because the necessary hyper awareness can only be maintained for a short time without a break.
The rest of the park is understaffed, overworked and underpaid — and it shows. Lines are long even when the park isn’t busy. I don’t blame the kids working the counters, I blame the fact that there’s usually only one or two of them to serve an endless line.
The rides are so-​so. Don’t expect world class or even first rate. This park isn’t in the same universe as places like Six Flags in Los Angeles, or New Jersey to which I’ve been recently. The park is small, but laid out well. However they have their work cut out if they hope to continually modernize and offer ever greater thrills alongside the greats, or even the good.
The entry prices are reasonable, and the season pass is an excellent, amazing deal (if you go more than once or twice). This is even despite the negatives, but a couple dollars more per head might help them upgrade more effectively.

Elitch’s has to be understaffed because every restaurant was 30 mins or longer wait. Been here many times but this one is my last. Granted, it was a Saturday but, it is worse on this visit than any previous ones.
Sent my 14 yo to buy lunch. The cashier stated, «we aren’t giving change». She bought it and came back with a slice of pizza and nachos for my $ 20. Once I requested assistance from mgmt, they quickly provided me my change without any hesitation. This leads me to believe that it occurs often and most don’t speak up.
The problems here are not the employees. The problems at Elitch’s is the managers of Food and Beverage. If you want a bottle of water, you must wait in the line for food because there is only one person operating the stand. It’s sad really. The mgmt team is allowing the teenagers running the stand to take the fall for their ineptness.

Can’t say I’m overly impressed by the park. Lines tend to be long, attendants not very attentive, and patrons impatient and short-​tempered. Food is barely edible and overpriced. $ 15 for parking? Get real.
Having visited many of the great parks — Kings Island, Great America, Disneyland, Six Flags over Texas, and Schlitterbahn — this park is poorly designed and poorly managed. I’ve never been to a park that closed water rides during summer. It’s also disappointing to see several rides not operating at peak times. Slingshot and XLR8R costing extra is ridiculous. The park is already borderline overpriced for the offering.
With a younger child, this park doesn’t offer much. There is a «kids area», but it is organized chaos. I wonder why lines even exist in this section, as they don’t seem to matter.
If you have younger children, I would suggest Heritage Square. If you don’t mind a drive, I highly recommend The North Pole in Cascade, CO.

I will not be going back.
The rollercoaster ‘The Mind Eraser’ got stuck… and after 3 hours the staff didn’t not inform anybody that the ride needed maintenance. THREE people collapsed in line of heat exhaustion while we waited on this ride — they were dragged out, while their friends pored water on their foreheads… and still no employees had the courtesy to tell the guests the ride was not operational.
How can they possibly charge $ 12 for a locker, $ 15+ per meal, and 70+ per admission per person?
Please stay away from this place.

If you don’t have a VIP pass, this place is a WASTE OF MONEY — it takes an average of 2+ hrs to get through a SMALL line because the attendants let EVERYONE with a VIP pass on first. Look, I get it Elitch Gardens, you want to make extra money with the use of this VIP pass, but you’re driving away your market who can’t afford it. I went last weekend and spent a good $ 100+ just between entrance fees, parking, and some drinks and food — so it’s not like we’re skimping on anything, I’m paying good money to be there. But throw in the fact that we spent all that money and hardly got to ride any rides and by the end of the night, nearly everyone who didn’t have a VIP pass was ready to riot because the VIPers were essentially the only ones who were able to ride.
Hey Elitch Gardens — If you insist on having this VIP system, then work it out so it’s more fair for the rest of us who want to ride! Only let 4 or 6 VIP riders MAX on a ride at a time, it’s not like it’s going to delay them very much plus you won’t have a mob of hateful visitors at the end of the night, AND the attendees won’t get yelled at so much. I didn’t do any yelling, but several of us who kept having to wait 2+ hrs to get on a ride were vocal about our disappointment in the system.

Decent little amusement park that could benefit from some updates. We took our 2 and 4 year olds who seemed to have a blast. Beware, though, that most of the rides require the rider to be at least 48″ tall, and most of the kiddie rides require at least 36″. Our 2 year old was right at the 36″ mark, with some operators allowing her in and some not. The kiddie rides also didn’t have physical queues, leading to a good amount of confusion and line cutting. And with the intense Colorado sun, some type of shade would be nice.
We ate at the large food court which was easy to navigate and had lots of seating. But few of the eateries had menus with prices displayed, and several didn’t appear to be staffed. Food prices were equivalent/​slightly higher to other amusement parks (thinking Disney, HersheyPark, Six Flags). Drinks do not come with a lid or straw, and there were no plastic knives (as we wanted to cut the large pizza slices into smaller pieces for our 2 year old).
The water park was fun, but the bathhouses were nowhere near adequate for the number of people trying to change – it was complete chaos. The showers were the only private area to change, without a bench or hook to keep clothes off the wet floor. You have to leave your photo ID to borrow life vests for the kids, which I’ve never had to do at other parks. And it appeared that you had to rent rafts for the slides. Locker rentals were $ 12. The kids loved the pirate ship area, the wave pool and the lazy river.
Overall, staff seemed to be courteous and the park was clean. We might be back in a few years when the kids are tall enough to enjoy more rides.

Well the whole process is complete. Elitch’s made it right for me and once again I am happy. Maybe I shouldn’t have got so upset when this incident first happened but it was quite frustrating at the time to make a 500 mile trip to Denver to be disappointed. I only wish the ticket booth staff had been more sensitive to the situation and could have calmed my worries at the start.
Overall, I raised the rating to average until I will be able to return and review once more. Thank you Ms. Faulk and Elitchs for making it right.

Its a theme park so it comes with some of the theme park headaches– long lines, wait times and the food is over priced.
They offer great deals on season passes that comes with buddy passes, free parking and meal deal options.
They have a great variety rides, a water park and a observation tower– there is something to do for everyone. There are plenty of shady spots to take cover. There are many stores to shop and eat at. There is a variety of games (dont count on winning the big bear).
Plan on spending hours there. You can save money by packing a cooler in the car and have a picnic in the parking lot. This room give you a chance to get rejuvenated.
The best part is the kids are TIRED when you get home#bedtime!

We had a great time here. We bought the private tour guide which includes going to the front of the line and the Sling Shot and the Excelorator (I think that’s the name). For about 4 hours the kids (with the tour guide) were escorted to the front of EVERY line. The kids thought this was the greatest thing ever! I highly recommend getting the VIP private tour. It was well worth the money. It also included a meal and I think some spending money for the gift shops.
Another perk here which I have never seen in an amusement park is they sell beer!!! So while the kids were getting escorted around the park Dad and I sat back and drank a couple cold ones! It was awesome. I have always thought amusement parks should sell beer.
There was a Bridget Mendler free concert and the girls wanted to go. It was general admission and we were so far back that we really couldn’t see her at all. The girls wanted to leave and go back to the rides. Which I can’t blame them. Dad and I wanted to drink another beer anyway!