Cowabunga Bay waterpark

The slide towers are much bigger than I expected.

 

The mountains provide a nice background as well.

OMG Shane. It's It's HUGE. Very Impressive.

OMG Shane. It's It's HUGE. Very Impressive.

Who knew Shane was Such a Size Queen? There goes any possibility of a Job at Cowabunga Bay for me. I do have to say I'm looking forward to the "Dark and Disorienting" Slides he keeps talking about.

 

- Sid

If I ever went to Salt Lake then this place would be a must visit.

 

I really like what I see, this should really be an awesome little place.

A new Construction Update has been posted to the Cowabunga Bay Construction Blog featuring the GIANT 1,200 Gallon Bucket being lifted into place.

 

Check Out the Cowabunga Bay Construction Blog by Clicking HERE.

 

- Sid

Cowabunga Bay Construction Blog

cowabungabay@yahoo.com

I also made sure that the enclosed slides have the thrill factor turned up a bit

 

You can tell on the end of Mondo it looks really fun, whats the angle of the drop?

Shane sent me an early copy of the Admission Prices for Cowabunga Bay that I posted to the Cowabunga Bay Construction Blog. I'm sure he'd love to hear what everyone thinks about the prices.

 

- Sid

Cowabunga Bay Construction Blog

cowabungabay@yahoo.com

Compared to every other water park it seems like this is a deal! How much will parking cost?

Parking will be Free as they are sharing parking with a shopping center/mall.

 

Off Topic: Have you posted your Knott's PTR yet ThemeParkMan25?

 

- Sid

Here is how we are thinking of pricing this park. We want to make sure that crowds are controlled so we have decided to sell tickets for 4 hours of admission. (I really don't think there is much more than 4 hours of entertainment value at this park so it seems fair)

 

Cowabunga Bay Admission Prices -

 

4 Hours of FUN

48" and Above $15.99*

Under 48" $9.99

Seniors (60+) $5.99

Military $12.99

 

All Day Pass

48" and Above $21.99*

Under 48" $15.99*

 

Summer Nights Discount After 4:00pm

48" and Above $12.99*

Under 48" $6.99*

 

Season Pass

48" and Above $99.99*

Under 48" $79.99*

 

These have not gone public yet so I would love to get your thoughts comments or other ideas before we lock into our price structure.

 

Thanks for your help!

 

-Shane

 

PS- in the meantime another slide is going up...

The prices seem pretty fair to me, but how would you enforce the 4 hour tickets?

At the time of purchase you will be given a color wrist band. For example: Yellow wrist bands will be from 10:00 - 2:00, Orange wrist bands will be from 11:00- 3:00 and so on. Once your color expires you may linger around the park if you want but you will not be allowed entrance to any of the attractions.

 

Seems pretty simple huh? well here is where it gets a little tricky and it is something we are still trying to perfect. What happens if you buy your ticket at 10:30???

 

Well we had to set some cut off points. If you buy your ticket anytime between the top of the hour and :30 then you are included in the 10:00 color group. So at the least you will get 3 and a half hours.

 

If you buy after the :30 mark you will be in the next color group but not allowed to enter the park until :45 of the hour (this would be the best time to buy as you could get 4 hours plus a bonus 15 minutes)

 

If you buy after the :45 you will be part of the next color group and allowed entrance into the park immediately.

 

See the chart below

$99.99 for a season pass? Seems a little pricey to me but I may be the only one. I could see why you'd charge that though. People would probalby pay regardless of price just to cool off from the summer heat. Also, it'd probably be more visited during the months than amusement parks for obvious reasons.

I know american parks don't do this that much, but over here in the UK all attractions have family tickets for 2 over 48" and 2 under 48" OR 1 over 48" and 3 under 48" etc. with more combos can be added if wanted , maybe for around $39.99.

 

Also why not charge a spectator rate of around $5 for those that just want to watch the fun/sunbathe.

Sid- I have not posted anything of my spring break trip. As I looked back it is more just a bunch of cool pictures and videos rather than a trip report.

$99.99 is way too steep for a season pass. I did some research and of all the parks that I've seen charge customers over $70.00 for a season pass were...

 

SFGAdv

SFMM

CP

 

All of which are full-sized theme parks with tons of coasters/rides/attractions as well as a water park.

 

Other parks like KD, BGE, and BGT had passes over $100 but those included admission to other parks.

 

Of all he water parks I checked, Schlitterbahn is the only one that charges over $80 for season passes.

This looks incredible!

 

In terms of future slides though, a speed slide is necessary! They're so much fun.

 

Hope this goes well. Good Luck!

Thanks everyone for your input; it is good to get outside opinions. I see that Season Passes may be priced a little steep and we will definitely discuss this before we post our final prices.

 

Because of the size of our park and capacity constraints we do need to make our season passes a little more exclusive. If they are priced too inexpensive then we run into a problem of too many season pass holders in the park and not enough room for those who come for the day.

 

When comparing our season pass to season passes of Cedar Fair or Six Flags it really isn't a fair comparison. They offer a season pass to drive people through the gates, then they can really increase their per caps in food, merchandise , games...etc. We don't have those other income opportunities so to offer season passes at such a discounted rate really doesn't work for our business model of being a small neighborhood waterpark.

I have some questions.

 

Will guests need to pay to get into the park?

-A now defunct water park near where I live used to only require that the guests pay for wristbands if they wanted to ride the slides, but they would let anybody come in without charge. This way the whole family could come and play for cheap while the grandparents or others who didn't want to use the attractions could relax on the chairs and watch the family's stuff.

 

If a guest with a four hour wristband decided they wanted to stay the entire day, will they be able to go somewhere and pay the difference between the four hour and all day pass to upgrade their stay?

 

The Park is looking great by the way.

I understand that Shane, but I would hate your park to become another FMP. The main reason why I compared the prices of the water park to bigger full-sized parks was to point out that the prices seemed a little steep, especially for a small neighborhood waterpark.

 

Is there a way you can adjust the prices for the other passes so that the parks don't become overrun with season passholders if you decide to lower the price of the season passes? Or how about a way to work with the outlet mall and motel to provide discounts to shoppers/guests?

I would at least go lower than Lagoon's season pass prices since they have a waterpark as well. Definitely understand wanting to make it more of an exclusive thing though as the capacity of the park could easily get overwhelmed on a hot Utah day.

Shane, I like the pricing scale you proposed. As for the :30 and :45 purchase times, it makes perfect sense to me. However, concerning that chart that you posted, I can only imagine the countless numbers of GP who might stand there confused as hell as to what it all means. My prayers are with you and customer service on that one.

Or the people that will fight and/or complain that they got in at one time or another, even with the color coded system. Just could be a little bit of a headache.

Just brainstorming a bit here, Shane.

 

Also, will the color coded wristbands be enforced at the entrance to the line? Will that require more employees to be stationed there to enforce it? And will there need to be an excessive amount of clocks located around the park to ensure guests not wearing watches are perfectly aware of their ride time remaining?

 

In theory, I love the idea. Enforcing the policies could prove to be difficult though...at least in my mind (which has been known to malfunction from time to time).

I guess I'm in the minority here. I think the $99 is fine. When I lived in Pa we paid more than that for a pool membership and it was basically just a pool.

 

http://www.linvilla.com/swim_club/memberships.php

 

I also think it will serve to cut down on the "babysitter effect".