Calaway Park — Attraction in Alberta

OMG didnt want to go to stampede. Thought hey lets go to calaway park. I bet it wont be busy because of stampede. NOPE. WRONG WRONG WRONG. its like everyone in town heard my thoughts and did the same EXACT thing! Took an hour in line just to ride the roller coaster! Im from the States and I was told EVERYONE loves stampede! Guess info i received was wrong. Wonder if its like the locals in las Vegas. We all avoid the strip but tourist come for that very purpose. Anyway i just dont like huge crowds and having to go through hoops to park my car only to have to take a tram to stampede so ive been avoiding it. I do love calaway park. I can respect a place that keeps prices down. The have a lot to do here. You truly get your moneys worth. Food is crazy expensive however its not too much more than what you would pay for fast food anyway. Bathroom ls could have a better keep up tho..... especially when its busy. A certain percentage of people have no regard for the fact that its a PUBLIC area! but they know this..... they're really should be a regular bathroom attendant. Several times there was a nasty toilet, diety toilet seats, dirty bathroom counter.....dont get me started on the bathroom floors. Mens room has to be pretty gross if this is the condition of womens restroom. This alone deserves a 2 star deduction, but I really like the fact that they dont price gauge here. I have a huge respect for that. Gift store is a GIGANTIC disappointment. IDK if its because not too many people bother shopping there and they just gave up on having nice logo merchandise or if the person in charge of logo merchandise doesn't care.....ALL literally ALL the t-shirts have the SAME EXACT logo! ALL sweaters....SAME EXACT logo....SMH its ALL ugly. The ONLY nice thing they have is this very soft fleece like sweater that says "calaway park" on the upper right hand corner. The only other decent item is the mens shorts. Everything elese is cheap junk T-shirt.probably purchased in bulk and a generic calaway park print. Very sad selection. Then the cashier tried to sell us a bag seeing all the merchandise we were buying (not the ugly shirts) anything worth buying doesn't even have the logo! But back to the point....we spent $68 and a huge sign behind the cashier says free gift with $50 purchase. She tells me my total is $68 and im like uh....dont we get the free gift with $50 purchase?! She laughs it off....OMG thank u for reminding me! U actually do get a free bag (the one she tried to sell us for $2.99)!!! Yea she was nice and everything but so....did she spend every shift chargin ppl for a bag when it should've been free???? Normally i would say they were told to do that but i dont believe thats the case here. Otherwise why would a huge sign be up for us to read. And they fact that they really dont price gauge here. But ahe was nice. I really hope she hasnt been charging everyone for a bag they were supposed to get for free.

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So our kids just turned 9 & 7 and we had never gone to Calaway park. We figured it would be better to take them this year instead of Kdays. I would suggest showing up at opening (so we had to leave home before 7am).

There is ample parking. They also have tent or rv camping sites for a reasonable rate $41/night. We had a coupon for 40% off. I was under the assumption it would be 40% off the family admission but it was off indiviual prices so it cost $100.×× for admission. Admission does cover most of the rides so it was a decent price.

There are a decent amount of rides for young children (0-5 w/ a parent) my daughters are of average height and were able to go on many "big kid" rides alone. My 7 year old wasn't able to get on the bumper car ride.

As an adult my husband I only went on 2 rides. The roller coaster and the Timber Falls log ride. Pictures are taken on both of these rides (min $10 each). We enjoyed them both. The wait for both rides was under 30 minutes. My husband is a bigger built guy and fit fine on both rides.

If you plan on playing games don't expect to win big prizes. Buy a booklet of token coupons and save a couple bucks, each booklet comes with 1 free round of mini-putt.

The mini-putt is a little worse for wear, as is the rest of the park's landscaping. Could be the dry hot weather but it looks like most of the destruction is caused by guests & their children. Which is too bad b/c they have lots of greenspaces with native species growing & their huge planters could have looked amazing if their flowers weren't all picked at and broken.

We bought mini doughnuts, cotton candy and snowcones while there, they were good. You are also permitted to bring in food which is great if you want to pack a healthy or cheap lunch. Most the restaurant carry sugary or fried foods. Along with summer go tos like burgers & hotdogs.

Washrooms were easy to find. A few different locations are available and decently clean.

There is a trout pond. $4 will give you the chance to catch a fish. The lady at this attraction will gut & clean it for you to take home or pass it along to someone else who is fishing & taking their fish home. We didn't fish but took a walk along the docks and saw a decent amount of trout.

The gift shop had suprisingly decent prices. You can find medium sized teddy bears for under $15 and small items under $3.

All in all it was a fun day. We have checked it off of our...

We did not want to post a review but unfortunately as parents of a special needs child it’s important that we make this known and aware so they might correct some things and issues that might reflect how children with disabilities are treated.

This is our 2nd visit to Calaway with first time season passes for our family of 4. Our 11 year old son is level 2-3 Autism, we have an Access 2 card we used first time early July, very busy as expected but great experience overall. Our son can only go on a very few rides and with the Guest services they provided us the list/agreement. Our 2nd visit the park was not busy at all due to weather and we were there with our son and his older NT sister 15 yrs old who also is a great aid/support for him. We were turned away from 2 rides due to height or weight? These were rides they had no problems when my husband or daughter could go on with our son earlier in July. Specifically the Bumper Boats we were told our son has to be by himself in the boat and not with anyone because of his height and/or weight? Our 11 year ASD boy is 130lbs 5/1. We were given a specific list of rides that an Aide/parent must be with a special needs child due to safety reasons as there is no seatbelt, the bumper boats was on the list. There is extreme inconsistency here. Our Son has to have an Aide with him at all times especially on rides with no seatbelt and he will only go on mabe a select 2 or 3 rides specially. Why the inconsistency? And why is there a problem for a child that does not understand he can’t go on a ride 1 time without his Dad or his Mom or Sister?

Very disappointing and upsetting for our son and family in general. We travel from Airdrie and these fun events are limited at 2-3 hours max due to our son’s disability. We are grateful to have an access card but we do feel we were somewhat faced with discrimination or just poor judgment on the staff? We did talk to a manager “Erin” she was very supportive and listened to our concerns but we have had no further acknowledgment or response.

It’s unfortunate that it feels like a double edged sword here with a child with a disability. We just want this to be known for any other families who might be in or encounter these issues. It’s probably not feasible to buy another seasons pass at Calaway. Also after the fact they did not offer to reimburse for the disability/aide after...