Aquatica Revisited: An Honest Review

Over the years, I have had the pleasure of visiting several different water parks, both indoors and out. I have visited the largest outdoor water park, Noah's Ark in Wisconsin Dells, which is an amazing water park. The largest indoor water park, The Kalahari in Sandusky, Ohio; it may have size but that's about it. A few mom and pop water parks that had two slides at the most and are no longer in business, and some major park chain water parks. I have also visited all of  the water parks Disney World has had, River Country  included. It pretty safe to say, I like water parks and enjoy going to them and on my last trip to Orlando, I revisited Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach. I also recently visited the AquaVenture at Atlantis in Nassau.  The visits to those water parks made me really appreciate Aquatica.

Aquatica.... you have arrived

Aquatica is a water park that is part of the SeaWorld Orlando park complex that includes SeaWorld and Discovery Cove. Aquatica opened in 2008 billed as a whimsical, one-of-a-kind waterpark unlike any you've ever experienced, immersing you  in the playfulness of the sea. This park heavily relies on the uniqueness of water park attractions with animal interactions.

The star attraction of this park is  Dolphin plunge, a water slide that send you through the home of  black-and-white Commerson's Dolphins. When I heard about this attraction, I was sold and dead set on getting to this water park. I went into this park with high expectations and was really looking forward to the animal interactions like those of the Dolphin Plunge would have to offer.

Hello little guy, is there someone in that slide?

Look you have a friend also!

As always when heading to a water park, I plan on getting there at gate opening, crowds are generally smaller, lockers and chairs are easier to find, plus you can usually get a decent amount of slide time in before the afternoon showers interrupt the day and gates are closed because the parks are at capacity. My expectation grew as we entered the park with all the lush foliage and theming that is present around the Dolphin Plunge slide and the Commerson's Dolphins.  The kids excitement grew as well; we just had to get on that slide. So we got a locker that just happened to come with a "free" souvenir towel then headed straight for the Dolphins Plunge.

 Our  excitement turned to frustration because as soon as we got to the top of the slide, my daughter, who wears a shirt over her swimsuit to help from getting badly sun burnt, was told she couldn't ride with the shirt on and had to exit the slide and put it in the locker. This after walking past several park employees that monitored the line for the slide and no signage indicating shirts were not allowed. So, instead of walking all the way back to the locker, I had my daughter take the shirt off and I went and waited for her to ride, then gave her her shirt back after her journey through Dolphin Plunge(this was the only slide the unposted rule was enforced on). At the end of her ride, her reaction to the slide was rather lackluster.  So it was my turn to ride and I will have to say, I too was disappointed. The problems with this slide is the tube that goes  through the tank with the dolphins was cloudy and hard to see out of, plus you actually go through that portion of the slide so fast, it is hard to see the dolphins. The dolphins would have to be literally right next to the tube to actually see them.  Needless to say, out of the 4 of us that rode it, none of  us saw the dolphins while on the slide, and none of us liked the slide. The dolphins are best viewed from the underwater viewing area near the entrance of the park. Now the themeing and foliage that are around Dolphin Plunge is very detailed and also has some nice bridge overlooks for those long waits to use the slide.It is a decent experience with a lackluster slide, if you are more interested in just seeing the dolphins, skip the slide and head over to the underwater viewing area. Sporadically throughout the day there were trainers in the underwater viewing area to educate about the Commerson's Dolphins. Now to be fair over down at Atlantis's AquaVenture they had the infamous Leap of Faith Water slide through a tank of sharks. It has the same lackluster type slide that speeds your through the tank so you can't see the Sharks. The other tube slide that went through the tank was slower and more unique experience!

The best view for the Commerson's dolphins
is the underwater observation area off the slide

After spending our time at the Dolphin Plunge we headed over to the newest addition to the park at that time, Omaka Rocka. Since our visit Ihu's Breakways Falls has opened and I eagerly want to experience those new slides!
Omaka Rocka is a tube slide with sections that are half-pipes.  My family loves the half pipe/funnel slides and this one had several sections that fed into smaller versions of  half pipe slides, so it was bound to be a hit. It ended up being pretty boring. The reason this was boring, the half pipe sections of the slides became mini-splash down pools and did not allow the experience that larger half pipe slides offer.(google a youtube video of Michigan Adventure's Funnel of Fear for a good idea of what large half pipe slides are like)  So the first two slides of the day were not home runs.  So we decided to hit Roa's Rapids.

Roa's Rapids is a fast moving river with water falls, rapids and lush foliage all around. Roa's Rapids far exceeded our expectations and was by far the star of the park for my family and myself. We spent hours floating this river. My wife and I had to drag the kids out of it.We loved that it was a free of  inner tubes and you could opt in to wearing a FREE personal flotation devices. While there were no animal interactions on this river, unlike the lazy river Loggerhead Lane, giggles and cheers filled this area of the park. A special note about Loggerhead Lane, while it is the a lazy river, one can easily miss the fish tank on this river because of the split in the river and placement of the tank. Also be forewarned, to access some of the water slides(just a couple), you have to walk through Loggerhead Lane to get to them. This can be very confusing if you don't follow the signs.

The rest of the water park  had standard water park slides, kid's slide& splash complex, and a well themed, but tame wave pool with a sandy beach.  The animal interactions were just ok.  We loved Roa's Rapids, and it was interesting to see Commerson's Dolphins in a water park(just not the water slide affixed to them). Aquatica is a nice small water park and is well worth a visit. If you can, definitely look for a deal where you can get a day at SeaWorld or Discovery Cove that includes admission to Aquatica(currently those deals are available but could change at anytime). Aquatica has it picturesque areas but still has room to improve.Roa's Rapids made up for the shortcomings of Dolphin's Plunge. This is still a young park and a new concept for SeaWorld, I hold hope out that this park can be expanded and improved upon. Aquatica is probably one of the better Water Park in Central Florida. It's hard to live in the shadows of Wet n Wild, Typhoon Lagoon, and Blizzard Beach, but  Aquatica has stepped out from the shadows and become a force in Central Florida.We will come back to the park over the years because over all, it is a really is a nice park.

Aquatica is neatly placed behind Seaworld, as you can see it behind
Journey to Atlantis here.