Volcano Island Waterpark

Good park for the kids but the lack of shade makes it tough to stay for a long time. People piling up underneath the handful of umbrellas they have is frustrating. Would consider staying longer maybe hanging out for a meal but, not without a place to cool down and not sitting on top of 10 other families.

Place is a lot of fun. Relatively small, but nice facility that is reasonably priced to get into. The lines for the big slides move pretty quickly. The food at the café is not worth it, so I wished I’d packed my own lunch. My two 7 year olds and 9 year old had a blast on a hot day. 3 hours and counting. Their first real water park experience and it was a good one.

I admit I haven’t been here in YEARS… like since before it was called Volcano Island. Compared to other pools/​mini-​water parks, here’s the scoop:
Pros:
Big actual POOL where you can swim and splash and tread water… 4 and 5 feet even in some places. We flipped, and did handstands and acted like kids. Two of the three of us are kids.
It was afternoon, during the week, and late in the season… but there wasn’t much crowd. It was busy with no challenge finding space to sit, splash and play.
They have «medium» size slides for «medium» sized kids. With an 8 yr old who is a little intimidated by the big slides, these were just perfect.
They have great kiddie play areas with the duming buckets and squirty things.
There is a refreshment stand although I didn’t check it out.
I like that they played music, and I could even hear it.
I like that they didn’t get ticked at some kids who were playing with water guns, and they were respectful enough not to hit innocent bystanders.
Cons:
No lazy river.
No wave pool.
No big slides (kind of big, but not «really» big… in other words, like OK for a grown up, perfect for tweens.
Overall: I would not consider it a «water park» but it’s cooler than the pools from when I was a kid, without giving up the things that were cool about pools when I was a kid.

We have been going a few times a summer for the past five or six years. The pool is great for toddlers, preschoolers, and school aged children who are just learning how to swim.
Today’s experience was spoiled by the amount of food trash (bottles, chip bags, even chewed gum) on the pool deck. They really need to have and enforce stricter rules about food on the pool deck, make more trash cans available, or do something so that place doesn’t look like a big trash bin. We will not be returning.

I LOVE THIS PLACE! It’s a hidden treasure. It’s surprising peaceful. It’s not over crowded and it’s very family oriented.
The bathrooms and changing areas were clean and the staff was helpful.
My kids loved it and we will definitely go back.

Lots of fun for the little ones… great spray grounds! We just recently discovered Volcano Island although we’ve lived in the area for years. It is hidden away and seems to be kind of an undiscovered gem. Even on Labor Day weekend, it wasn’t overwhelmingly crowded. We arrived at opening time (11 a.m. — a little surprised it doesn’t open earlier) and there was a fair wait to get in. This is because they only had one person checking everyone in for both the water park and the mini-​golf. If you wait about 30 minutes after opening time, you’ll probably get in right away. You know how everyone waits at the gate on a nice day to get the good seats as soon they open? Well, it kind of backfired since we ended up standing in line for the first 15 – 20 minutes.
We did manage to snag a few seats under one of their huge umbrellas for the shade factor, and off we went. The place isn’t that big, but the prices are a lot cheaper than most other water parks. $ 8 for adults, $ 6.75 for kids and seniors, under 2 is free. There is a very large regular swimming pool, a section with two big slides (one open, one enclosed), a medium slide for older kids, and a small slide for young ones. There are two spray grounds — one is zero depth which is nice for toddlers and babies. Except watch out! Sprays do pop up out of nowhere and might startle some of the real young ones. Several small buckets dump water regularly, and there is another small slide for the toddler crew. The other spray ground has a great big bucket that should dump water every 15 – 20 minutes. I saw it in operation last time I was here and it does give a drenching! On Labor Day weekend, however, the bucket wasn’t dumping out and just kept appearing like it was ready to go. Several folks were standing around in wait for the big drench, but it never happened. I don’t know if it was broken or was just stuck that day or what. Aside from this big bucket of water, there are lots of climbing areas and several more slides with plenty of sprays and fountains all around. This pool is about 2 ft in depth. All the facilities were clean and the pools were very well maintained. There’s a snack bar on the premises that sells hot dogs, pizza, etc. for pretty reasonable prices. They take VISA so you don’t necessarily have to bring cash. There are showers and lockers, too.
The water park is part of the Northern Virginia Regional Park system, so they also sell «bounce» passes to all of their parks/​water parks. It’s also part of the larger Algonkian Park, which is right on the Potomac River. There are picnic areas, trails, and camping/​cabins available. It’s a beautiful park in general. We will definitely be back next summer for the water park, and in the meantime, we plan to check out the trails and picnic grounds on the Potomac in the fall.

Although the lifeguards are all very attentive, my family will not return.
1. Used bandages all over the pool deck
2. Bratty kids who always cut in line on the slides
3. Dozens of camp buses with what felt like thousands of camp kids (isn’t that a fire code violation?!)
4. A dark, nasty shower area with moldy shower curtains and super-​low-​pressure shower heads
5. A shower drain that did anything but. Stood in about 3″ of dirty water the entire time.
Thank goodness I purchased our passes through Living Social and only had to pay $ 4 each.

LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS PLACE!!! GREAT for young kids !!!