Wild Waves Theme and Water Park is about to open for the 2026 season, and as you likely already know, this will be their final year of operations. In this post, we’ll share details of the announcement, some park history, and our commentary about the future of the land, rides, and more.
If you had told us in November that the sale of Silverwood Theme Park to Herschend Family Entertainment wouldn’t be the only major news this off-season for the Pacific Northwest, we would never have believed it. And yet, here we are. Not even a full month after the Silverwood news, Wild Waves announced that 2026 will be their last. Here’s an excerpt from the press release (you can read the full announcement here):
“Wild Waves Theme Park in Federal Way, Washington, announced that the 2026 operating season will be its final year of operation. The park will open as planned on May 23, 2026, and close to the public on November 1, 2026.
‘We are thankful for our guests, team members, and the community of Federal Way for supporting Wild Waves and creating so many thrills and great memories with families and friends,’ said Kieran Burke, President and Owner of Premier Parks. ‘Unfortunately, the rising cost of ongoing operations since reopening after the COVID shutdown has generated millions in losses, which forces us to discontinue operations at the end of our 2026 season.'”
The dates listed for the 2026 season indicate that the park will not only be open for the normal summer season, but that they will host their annual Halloween event “Fright Nights” in October. As such, fans will get to experience both seasons of the park one final time.
This closure means that we’re losing a major piece of the theme park industry in this sector of the world. For those unfamiliar, the PNW is tragically theme park starved. Outside of Silverwood, Wild Waves is the second largest park in all of Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and even B.C. Aside from those two parks, there’s a smattering of smaller parks, a couple of which have some decent rides, but none of which are full-day (or in most cases, even half-day) parks.
Wild Waves opened in 1977 as Enchanted Village, and the park has served the greater Puget Sound region for over 50 years. That’s quite a feat, and interesting to note that Silverwood isn’t much younger, having first opened its gates in 1988. Wild Waves has changed owners multiple times over the years, including a seven year period of time between 2000 and 2007 where it was owned by Six Flags. That saw arguably the biggest expansion of rides, with two new roller coasters, and a shoot-the-chutes water ride, among others.
Adding the forthcoming closure of Wild Waves to the Seattle Center’s Fun Forest closure back in 2011, this leaves essentially the entire Puget Sound area with zero theme parks. The annual Washington State Fair in Puyallup will be about the closest thing left.
We’d like to say we’re surprised by this news, but to be completely frank, we’re not. For one, the Seattle area is infamous for not being the friendliest place for a business of this sort. Over the past several decades, many have tried to inject life into the amusement industry, with proposals to open new parks. Even Disney was rumored to have pitched a proposal back in the 90’s. But each time, these ideas are met with stark rejection from locals and leaders alike. Heck, even the giant ferris wheel on the waterfront in downtown Seattle took years to get approved, and that was just one ride. Love it or hate it, Western Washington simply is not interested in theme parks.
The other reason we’re not surprised is that Wild Waves simply has not done much to encourage repeat visits or create the type of park that garners the level of interest it needs to survive. Our last visit to the park was nearly 20 years ago in 2007 (hence the poor quality of the photos in this post, and why we look 12 years old!) Since that time, there has been a net-loss in the attraction count.
We were optimistic when the park announced a few years ago that they would tear down the ridiculously old green slide structure with the promise of a brand new 9-slide tower to replace it. The green structure, while somewhat iconic, had become painful in many ways – it was an eyesore, the slides were worn down back-scrapers, and you felt like you needed a chemical shower every time you walked through the building. Getting rid of it was a good step forward, and we were excited to see some new life injected. Sadly, the park later announced that the new structure was delayed a full year, would only open with 3 new slides, and the remaining 6 would be forthcoming in future seasons. Fast forward to today, and the 3 new slides is still all there is.
We’ve heard numerous reports that other slides and attractions often don’t operate regularly, or have fallen into disrepair and can no longer operate at all. Things like this don’t sit well with visitors, especially with rising ticket prices year over year. That said, we recognize that this problem is often a “chicken and egg” situation – the park will make money if they add new attractions; but for new attractions to be built, the park needs to be making money. That hasn’t been happening for several years now – they clearly stated as much in their closure announcement.
Contrast all this with Silverwood, which we return to every summer, in spite of a 5+ hour drive. They’ve done a great job at regularly adding new rides, slides, and attractions to keep things feeling fresh and exciting. And we return to the Washington State Fair and Oregon’s Enchanted Forest every year as well. While those parks also haven’t added anything new, they do provide great customer service and a family friendly environment that draws us back time and time again.
Yet summer after summer has gone by and we have had little-to-no interest in returning to Wild Waves, despite living 20 minutes from the gate. That should say more than any 5,000-word blog post could convey.
In any case, this leaves us with the big question of what will happen to the 70 acres of land once the park shutters its doors this fall? Clearly, no one is interested in buying the park to try and continue the operations – that’s happened a few times already. And there’s no sense in dreaming of a “clean sheet” brand new theme park replacing it – that would be prohibitively costly even if we were discussing this in an area that was theme park friendly. Puget Sound is not one of those. So that leaves the most likely option: selling the land to developers for housing, industrial, or other commercial use. Real estate is simply too lucrative in this region for any other option to make sense.
What might happen to the remaining rides and slides? Most likely nothing. The few flat rides that are movable might find new homes in other parts of the world, but don’t expect to see any of the big rides go anywhere but the scrap yard. They’re too old (Wild Thing) or nearly impossible to relocate (Timberhawk) for that to be worthwhile for any other parks. And it’s not like either one of those rides is cracking any top 10 lists anyways. Speaking of which, that’s another reason that has discouraged repeat visits: there’s no “must do” rides that compel guests to return. Most are one-and-done, even for us as theme park enthusiasts.
Suffice to say, while this is a massive blow to the region for theme parks, it’s just not all that surprising given all we’ve covered here. Having said all that, we’ll definitely be returning this summer to say our farewells. Our original plan was to visit once all our kids were tall enough to ride everything, but alas, that day will not come. Barring a major growth spurt in the next few months, our youngest might have to sit out on one or two rides, but that will have to do for now. We’ll be sure to report back on how it goes.
In the meantime, we’d encourage you all to consider doing the same – despite the park’s challenges and shortcomings, it’s worth going out of your way to get one more visit in. Many of you (like us) have memories of visiting when you were growing up, and this will be your last chance – for better or worse – to experience Wild Waves one more time. At the end of the day, they’re a major part of our very small collection of theme parks in this part of the world. If nothing else but for that reason alone, they deserve a decent send-off.
What was your reaction to the Wild Waves closure announcement? Were you surprised, or did you see this coming a long ways off? Are you planning to attend for the final season? Let us know what your favorite memories are from Wild Waves / Enchanged Village. We love to hear your comments!
The official Silverwood Theme Park website can be found at: www.silverwoodthemepark.com. All business-related questions should be directed to this site.
