This past week we made what was very likely our last visit to Wild Waves Theme Park ever. In this trip report we’ll share photos, overall impressions, and a play-by-play of how we approached our day. We’ll cover what worked, what didn’t, and some thoughts on what we would do differently. Our goal here is to offer some tips and recommendations for anyone out there still planning one final visit.
“If you expect disappointment, then you can never really get disappointed” – MJ, Spider-Man: No Way Home
If we could sum up our visit in one sentence, that would be it. We approached our day remembering visits from past years, and reading Google reviews from recent park-goers. Those two sources left a lot to be desired. Despite living about 20 minutes from the park entrance, our last visit to Wild Waves was in 2007 – nearly 20 years ago. We weren’t terribly excited to return, but we knew we needed to get one last visit in, even if it wasn’t going to be a perfect day. The park literally has fewer slides and attractions than it did during our last visit, and with 2026 set to be the final year, we knew that there likely wasn’t a lot of money being invested in keeping everything running in pristine condition. So we set our expectations accordingly, hoping to come away feeling like things went as expected at worst, or being pleasantly surprised at best.
For starters, we scored some discount tickets during a flash sale back in June, which were nearly half the price of regular tickets. We’d expect the park may do one more round of these as the season winds down, so if you aren’t a season passholder, keep an eye on social media in case that happens.
Crowds were also a significant concern. Wild Waves isn’t very big, and yet it’s the only theme park in the entire Seattle-Tacoma metro area. That’s a recipe for long lines no matter how you slice things – we learned that lesson the hard way two years ago when visiting Playland in Vancouver, BC. As such, we aimed to visit on a slower day mid-week, while expecting anything but a ghost town.
Our assumption was spot on – we arrived at the parking lot at 10:25am – over half an hour before the park opened – to an already long line outside security, and at least 50 cars already there. This was manageable, but we are glad we didn’t come any later.
Guests were allowed through security and past the turnstiles just after 10:30am. The only area of the park that we could wander was the entryway around the wave pool and the surrounding cabanas and lockers. We could not proceed back towards any attractions, or enter the water. We saw lots of people staking out spots in front of the wave pool for the day, most of which were claimed before official opening time.
The water park opened promptly at 11:00am. Note that the entire dry park, as well as the Raging River slide, doesn’t open until noon. We also noted that two of the four Konga River tube slides were closed until early afternoon. Lastly, as we had read on several reviews online, the entire activity pool area (including the cannonball slides and diving platform) were closed for the day, as it is only open on weekends.
Armed with all of this information, we headed straight for Zooma Falls. Similar to Avalanche Mountain and Ricochet Rapids at Silverwood’s Boulder Beach, these family-style rafting slides are a lot of fun, but extremely low-capacity. Indeed, we waited 15-20 minutes for our ride at the very beginning of the day. The rest of the day, we’d wager the queue was at least an hour long. Zooma Falls is a decent slide, but not worth that long of a wait.
Our next stop was the Konga River slides. Again, the queue was about 15-20 minutes long, and we only did one of the two that was open at the time. After this, we decided to head over to the Raging River Slide, in order to be one of the first ones in line before it opened for the day at noon. This is hands down our favorite attraction in the water park.
Our memories of the Raging River slide include the days when several tubes were allowed to remain in each pool, until such time that someone was “bumped” out to the next one. It made for a really fun experience, and one that you could make last as long as you wanted. We remember times when we spent over 30 minutes on the Raging River Ride. Nowadays, each tube is sent straight down through each pool and immediately pushed down to the next one by lifeguards. As much as we miss the “old version”, this wasn’t as bad as we had expected. It kept the line moving quite fast, and relatively short most of the day.
Unfortunately, the slide closed later that day around 3pm for unknown reasons, and did not reopen. Had it stayed open, we would have gladly gone on it a couple more times due to the quick queue. Let that be even more reason to be sure to ride it as soon as it opens, if it’s on your priority list.
In any case, our next stop was Pacific Plunge tube slides. This is the 3-slide tower that replaced the old green 9-slide building about 10 years ago. Our kids dubbed these the “Fanta/Sprite Slides” due to the bright green, yellow, and orange colors. We found these to be a lot of fun, even more so than the Konga River slides. They are much longer than they look at first glance, and the queue moved relatively fast. We waited about 10 minutes each time we got in line. It’s a shame the park wasn’t ever able to complete its original vision of this being a 9-slide structure, as that would have been fantastic.
At this point it was time to stop for lunch. Having been forewarned about not only the prices, but the terrible quality of the food, we opted to bring our own lunch and eat at our car. Lines looked long and slow at all the food stands. As such, we not only saved money but – more importantly – we likely saved a lot of time too. Given that the park is only open on weekdays for 7 hours, we don’t recommend wasting any of those precious minutes in line for mediocre food. Follow our lead and arrive early, that way you have a parking spot close to the gate. This allows for a quick exit and re-entry after your break.
When we came back we opted for some time in the lazy river while our food settled. The line was short and moved fast – maybe 5 minutes at most. We enjoyed several laps around the mildly-themed Konga River. It’s fun for how fast it gets at times. And you’ll be soaked no matter what, due to the amount of spray features.
After about 4 laps around the river, it was time to try to hit the remaining Konga River tube slides, but this proved to be a fool’s errand. Lines were getting longer and slower at this point in the afternoon – it was the only time we found ourselves having to wait for one of the “free” tubes during the entire day. We did ride one of the slides, but the time was pushing 3pm, and we still hadn’t ridden anything in the dry park. Given that all four of the Konga River slides are very similar, we didn’t want to risk coaster time at the expense of doing more of the same, so we headed for the rides.
Timberhawk was our main priority in the dry park, so headed there first. The queue was out into the switchbacks, and the coaster was on single-train operations. Scarred from our recent experience on ThunderVolt, we were ready for a doozy of a wait, but thankfully it was just over 30 minutes. As for the coaster itself? It was running shockingly well.
Indeed, given the coaster’s age, we had braced ourselves for a rough ride, but Timberhawk was excellent. Far better than we remember, and very exciting and enjoyable from start to finish. Our biggest complaint in the past was the pacing of the ride losing steam towards the end, and that is still the case. But it didn’t take away from the experience on this particular day. Our kids had never ridden it before, and they loved it. Timberhawk was easily the highlight of our day, and if nothing else, we’re very glad we got to take a final spin on the “Ride of Prey” before it closes for good.
We then hit up the kiddie coaster and Klondike Gold Rusher, in order to secure credits for these. And last but not least, we wanted to get a ride in on Wild Thing – even if it would mean bashing our ears on the shoulder restraints for 2 minutes.
And this, folks, is where our day started to go downhill. After waiting in line for about 20 minutes, the coaster experienced a minor breakdown, with only one group remaining ahead of us. We waited it out for a bit, but eventually we could tell it was going to take at least another 15-20 minutes to cycle the ride through and get riders on again. The time was around 5:30pm, and there were other things we wanted to try and hit up before park close at 6pm, including another ride on Timberhawk, so we bailed the line at Wild Thing.
This would prove to be a huge mistake. Unbeknownst to us, although Wild Waves officially closes at 6pm, they cut off lines for attractions earlier, to ensure that all the rides close at or before 6pm as well. As such, we were turned away at Timberhawk to our utter disappointment.
We shrugged it off, and decided to finish off with a few more water slides instead. Surely that would work, right? Nope. The two Konga River slides that we missed out on earlier in the day were also closed – it was back to only operating 2 of the 4 again. And the line for the remaining 2 that were still open had been cut off anyway. Same story with Pacific Plunge. 3 strikes, with just minutes left in the day. So we went to the Hook’s Lagoon kiddie area for our final stop – thankfully that attraction was still allowing guests right up until the 6pm closure time.
We get it – Wild Waves is not Disneyland, Universal, Six Flags, or (insert large theme park brand here). But this was a terrible way to end the day, especially given we had no forewarning. The park’s operating hours are already ridiculously short – a problem further compounded when considering that entire sections of the park are closed for the first hour. Cutting off lines early at the end of the day made this situation even worse. We essentially wasted our final 30+ minutes of the day walking around trying to find something that was still open. Even Silverwood doesn’t do this – most days you can hop in any line right before park close and still get to ride. Planning your day is much easier with this approach.
Alas, Wild Waves does not follow that procedure. If you’re reading this, you can avoid our mistake with a little planning ahead. We’d recommend saving things like the wave pool or Hook’s Lagoon (or anything with no queue) for the final 30-60 minutes of the day. And if you’re in line for something during that final hour – don’t bail. If you jump out of line, you likely won’t be able to get in any others. Had we stayed in line for Wild Thing, we at least would have been able to ride that.
Suffice to say, it was a bummer of a way to end our day, after what was a surprisingly decent final visit for us. Overall, we were glad we got to go, and felt that our day went relatively smoothly. Attractions were running well, and staff were pleasant and friendly. Buildings and facilities were showing their age, but for the most part were in okay condition. We only wish we could have gotten on one or two final rides at the end of the day. And who knows? If there’s another flash sale, maybe we’ll grab some more tickets and go back for Fright Fest so we can do just that.
Despite the park’s challenges and shortcomings, we felt it was worth getting one more visit in. Many of you (like us) have memories of visiting when you were growing up, and these next couple of weeks will be the last chance – for better or worse – to experience Wild Waves one more time. At the end of the day, it’s a major part of our very small collection of theme parks in this part of the world. Our recommendation if you’ve been debating a final visit is to just go. If you arrive early, follow a plan, and set your expectations reasonably, you’ll likely have a mostly positive experience. Our final memories of Wild Waves will be good ones, so we’re glad we gave it one more chance. We think you will be too.
Have you visited Wild Waves yet during its final season? Has your expereience been positive or negative? What will you miss (or not miss) from Washington's only theme park once it closes for good? And finally, what other topics did we forget to cover? Let us know your burning questions and thoughts in the comments below - we love to hear from you!
The official Silverwood Theme Park website can be found at: www.silverwoodthemepark.com. All business-related questions should be directed to this site.
