The Wilderness at the Smokies, Indoor Water Park Review: I decided to break up this review into more than one blog post. I noticed that it was getting lengthy, so I decided to make it into two. One talking about the room we stayed in (previous post) and the other about the indoor water park (one you are reading right now).
The Wilderness at the Smokies, Indoor Water Park Review
In the last blog post, The Wilderness at the Smokies, Room Review, I talked about the room we stayed in at the Wilderness. In this blog post, I will talk about the Indoor Water Park, as that was the only one open during my review due to the season.
The best part if you stay at the Wilderness, you also get admission to the water park. You can’t beat that. That admission to the water park includes the day you check in and the day you check out. So that is not bad 2 days of water park fun!
This is my second water park that I have ever been too! My first indoor water park.
If you are a water bug and wished you could enjoy a water park all year long, now you can … The Wilderness at the Smokies has an Indoor Water Park that you can enjoy all year long. They do have a time period that closes the Indoor Water Park for cleaning, check your dates before you arrive!
We got to go during November and got to play in the indoor water park of The Wilderness at the Smokies.
Wild WaterDome
The Wild WaterDome is what I got to review, I do not know what the outdoor areas are like, since it is closed for the cold season. But, I did get to review the indoor water park. This is what this review will be on.
The Wilderness at the Smokies do have outdoor water fun, as well as, indoor. The indoor is great when the weather is cold out side. They say they keep it around 84° inside the Wild WaterDome. You will also want to wear sun screen inside the dome, as it is designed also for those who want to sun bathe as well.
The indoor attraction has many choices to choose from even for the littlest of kids too. They have little kids area to play in as well.
Then for the big kids they have much more they can do, then for the biggest kids, yes you dad or even mom. I know you all can be a big kid too!
Parents please stay with your children and make sure they don’t run! I watched a little girl about 3-4 years old run and slide and fall.
Also please note there are height requirements on most of the rides. Please know these are for the safety reasons.
Make sure you check the dates you go during the winter and cold months that they are not closed down for cleaning. The indoor park does have a time period of closure for cleaning.
The Great Wave
This is one of the attractions my 16 year old daughter likes, she likes the wave pool. You can float on a special tube or just wade inside as the waves splash at you or splash you around. I didn’t get in this one. So come get in the Great Wave at The Wilderness at the Smokies.
Smokies Surf Rider
The Great Wave look liked it was fun, I didn’t get to to this, but this is body surfing, you lay on a board and you have water rushing up to you to make it like you are surfing. I saw littler kids in this line, I didn’t see many big kids or adults. I wanted to do this, but I decided to let the little kids do it and I may do it the next time I go.
Washout Mountain
This is one of the kiddie areas. Even have a huge bucket that fills up and then it dumps water on you. I didn’t go on this one either.
Runaway Canyon & Storm Chasers
These ones require two to five passengers, depending on which one you go through. These are huge slide tubes. They even have a conveyor belt that brings the big rafts up to the very top. I wanted to try this ride, however, I didn’t have another person with me in my party to do this. My daughter didn’t want to go on this or any slides. She says she will only do the open face slides. She doesn’t know what she is missing I think. But this one lights up at night.
Trail Twisters Tube Slides
Now I did these a lot. My daughter wouldn’t do them. I did both the purple and the yellow slides. Going up the stairs is a work out. I had to catch my breath and then go down the slides. The purple one you can see as you go down, until it gets dark. At dark it is darker in the tube, but you can see the lights from the Runaway Canyon or Storm Chaser beside. The yellow tube is darker inside with a few led lights inside as you go down the tube.
It seemed as the day went onto night the tubes got faster and more waves coming down. I liked the purple one a bit better than the yellow one, but both are totally fun to go down. Like I said in another blog post on another water park, keep your bottom from touching the tube and keep it up and you will go faster!
One boy about 6-7 years old yelled out, “That was awesome!” after he went down with his dad on the yellow tube slide. These Trail Twisters you can do single or double. Even if you are single going down, you can use the double raft too. I only used the round single tube. I bet it would affect it going down single on a double tube or even going down double.
Magnolia Grove Hot Tub
I got to enjoy the hot tub some and so did my daughter. You do not want to stay in it for extended periods of time. It says to limit the time to 15 minutes and then take a break and come back.
Warm Towels
With your hotel stay at The Wilderness at the Smokies, you also get a warm towel card that you can hand to the person at the desk inside of the Wild WaterDome and get a hot towel to dry off on. Make sure you keep a towel or the card on you at the time of check out or you will be charged a fee.
Action Bracelets
Don’t want to miss your reaction to the thrill of the ride? For an extra cost you can add an Action Bracelet. You scan it and it knows to take your photo. That photo will be sent to you via text message. You can get an unlimited photo pass. I didn’t add this, but I saw the signs for it.
Medical
Most of these rides require good physical strength to hold on and keep up right or down. Those with seizures, high or low blood pressures, pregnant or other medical conditions are to use them with caution or not use them at all.
The hot tub and the pool, both have a handicap lift to help place you in or out of the hot tub or pool.
Staff
I go to talk to a few of the staff during my visit at the Wilderness at the Smokies. Pat at the front desk who was very friendly. I even got to talk to 3 of the life guards. I didn’t get the names of two of them. But the first one I talked to, his dream job is to be a worship leader at church. He is active in helping with his youth at his church. The other lifeguard, was Robert. He said he is actively helping with the youth at his church too. The other life guard I got to talk to, I saw she had an I am Second bracelet on her Lifeguard fanny pack. So I talked to her and encouraged her to watch the videos, she hasn’t seen any of them. Makes me wonder if she really knows what the I am Second is about. I hope that she will check them out.
The lifeguard staff and security also have an infant training simulator. They have a mannequin that will show up in random spots and the staff is to tend to it and give demonstration of Vigilance Awareness Training (V.A.T.). Don’t panic if you see, Timmy in one of their pools. I didn’t get to see this performed, but I did see them put up Timmy on one of my trips going up the stairs to the Trail Twisters Tube Slides.
Life Jackets
Life jackets are also available based on a limited supply at the Wilderness at the Smokies.
Downfall
I will say the downfall to the Wilderness is that they serve alcoholic beverages such as mixed drinks and beer inside the Wild WaterDome. I would say this is the only thing that I did not like about this. So this is a warning to you parents that this product is here. I do have faith that if someone becomes drunk and disorderly security will escort them off the property. I do wish they didn’t sell that product at a family friendly place, but they do. Just a warning to you all.
Permits & Inspections
I saw some permits on display, they said they expired March 31, 2013. I went in November of 2014. These permits are expired, I am not sure what type of permits they are. I think they were the business permits.
They also had posted their water park health inspection scores. Most of all the ones that were at front were 98’s with one 94. These may have been their highest scores, as I do not know what they scored on the ones behind them.
I did see they scored a high score, I believe it was a 100, on their food area of the Wild WaterDome area.
Eye Glasses
If you are like me you wear eye glasses. I often wear contacts, but I am out. So I kept my eye glasses off while I did the activities. I didn’t want to lose or break them. This is what I recommend, but I did see people still coming off the Trail Twisters with them on and still on their face. I asked one guy about it, he said surprising his stayed on. He even rode the big Storm Chaser and Runaway Canyon with them not coming off. But nevertheless yours still could come off. They recommend that you have ones with floatable devices or ones that strap on like goggles do.
Back again
I enjoyed my stay so much that I hope to be able to go back again. Make sure you check out my previous review of the hotel room. I split them up because I knew they would be long blog post.
I’d like to hear from you, please feel free to share your comments below about your Wilderness Water Park stay. Comments are welcome!
For more information visit: wildernessatthesmokies.com or call toll-free 877-325-WILD (9453) and make sure to tell them, you heard about them from CourageousChristianFather.com
I asked if I could do a review, I was given one night stay and admission to the indoor water park, after their peek season. I give a non-bias, Christian review.
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