Summer Waves Family Waterpark

Eh. I just don’t think we are water park people. Scored very discounted tickets through groupon and I think half the state of georgia did too. The park was very crowded, lines long for the slides. We did the lazy river and wave pool. My kids rode 1 slide. We only stayed about 3 hours. My kids ages 10 & 14 didn’t want to fight the lines. The park is very clean, has good life guards and I was surprised how inexpensive the food was.

As someone who can’t swim and doesn’t really enjoy this kind of place, I was wary… but enjoyed it! Lots of slides, lots of fun things for kids. Larry’s Giant Subs is a definitely step up from a lot of «local theme park» style food. Entirely worth the price and more.

Spent a half day here with the family on July 8, 2014. Really nice place! Very clean and a lot of fun for the kids. Didn’t get to experience any of the larger slides though as my kids are 5 and 2. They loved the 2 kids play areas, one with a large bucket that dumped massive amounts of water on those below every couple of minutes or so. The other area featured a couple of smaller kids slides that the kids absolutely loved and would not stop going down, and also features a small pool area. We also checked out the wave pool, which was a lot of fun. And the Lazy River, which was my favorite. The wave pool and lazy river both had an abundance of tubes (free of charge to use), despite being rather crowded. Chairs and seating were certainly plentiful. We ate at Larry’s Subs, which were good price seeing as how there is nowhere else to eat here and they could easily have charged much more. Sandwiches were large and filling. Park staff was pretty much all teenagers and about what you would expect. A few were friendly and talkative to the kids and parents, but the majority of the staff were busy talking with other staff members or just looked plain miserable. All were helpful though when asked for or about anything in the park and seemed to do their jobs well. I like how they switched the staff around every half hour or so, kept them from getting bored I guess. Overall a nice place to visit should you be on or near Jekyll Island.

So my family and I took a little adventure north to Summer Waves Waterpark located on the beautiful island of Jekyll Island, Ga. I had known about this place for awhile just never crossed my mind to go. I came across a deal on
for discount tickets to the water park and decided to take in what the park had to offer. I had a day off and it being summer the kids weren’t in school. So we drove a little over an hour to Jekyll Island. We are so glad we decided to go. The trip was definitely worth it.
We got there just as the park was opening (10am) The place is easy to find using GPS or just remembering. Not too many roads to travel on plus the park is easy to see coming in from the highway. Once you park you make your way to the ticket booth. Like I said earlier we used discounted voucher tickets we found on livingsocial site. The fee at the park is 20 dollars. The voucher was a deal for 12 dollars for adults, which is a great in savings. Our two year old was free b/​c 3 and under are free with an approved swimming diaper. We also paid for usage of a locker. (Sidenote: You get 5 dollar refund when you bring back your locker key with your receipt when you are leaving the park.)
Now, the park is really small and has only 7 rides. Yes I said seven. Now that being said, if you go in with that set in mind you will have a great time. Even with a parking lot full of cars the park still didn’t feel packed nor cramped. The thrill rides still had a decent wait but those lines went with ease. The kids loved their play areas. They had a kiddie pool area and area called the splash zone. If you take a look at the pictures you can get a pretty good idea of what the areas entail. The boys especially loved the kiddie slide. It was cool seeing the kids have their own special slide. There are lifeguards at both ends of the slide. Even my two year old got to use it. The splash zone was nice. Every two minutes a bell goes off signaling the big bucket of water will topple over. It was fun standing under and having gallons upon gallons of water fall on you.
Another good thing was the food. Larry’s Subs is their main supplier of food. They have a good size for menu for adults and kids. They have the usual as most Larry’s restaurant. Sandwiches, chips & drinks. They also have other smaller different eating spots with beverages, nachos, pretzels, and ice cream.
As for the rest of the park. I found it to be clean and on occasion you see them taking out trash and keeping litter off the park grounds. I walked around barefoot for the most part and didn’t step on anything awkward. (Another sidenote: It’s summertime & it’s Florida. The pavement does get hot & there is a lot of pavement so wear some flips flops or some aqua shoes.) There is a lot of seating and beach chairs for you ladies and gentleman to get your tan on while the kids play away. They also have some shade if you want to stay cool and relax.
All in all, the park is great for family. Especially family with small kids. The young teens will like it too. But you know how teens are. Now is the park worth the full price. If we had paid full price it would have been 70 dollars for the 4 of us. But with the deal it moved it down to 50 dollars. 20 dollars does make a difference, and I felt better paying that then paying the full amount. With the boys being at the age they are (4 & 2), it was worth it. They loved every minute of it and I as a parent would pay just about anything to see my boys happy and experiencing something new! So you and your family will have to be the judge. The deal only lasts another 10 days so chose wisely.

We got half of tickets through Groupon for admission and I’m glad we did. Half price this waterpark was worth it but I’m not sure if I would pay full price. I feel like I need to come back here and teach the staff how to become more efficient — the water slide lines did NOT need to be as long as they were. The staff needs to get people out of the water faster so the next person can go.
The highlight for us was the wave pool — it was a lot of fun but I’m not sure how more injuries don’t occur here!

Nice little water park
Nothing to go out iof your way for though
Without a groupon prices are high at 22 for what you get
No place to realty sit absolutely no shade anywhere

Pros
Wasn’t crowded in the late afternoon.
Pricing was better
Not rowdy or filled with snarky, rude, gangsta kids like WhiteWater
Cons
Only 6 things to do, 7 if you count the kiddy park
My teens thought it would be lame. It wasn’t the most exciting thing on the agenda, but everybody agreed it wasn’t lame. The wave pool was pretty fun and the lazy river was relaxing. The slides weren’t mind benders or anything but it was a good break from the beach and was clean and a family friendly atmosphere.