Cultus Lake Waterpark — Attraction in Area H (Cultus Lake/Columbia Valley)

I Visited for the first time in a few years today and I was extremely disappointed to see the brutal state of the park. I enjoyed this place so much as a kid and it saddens me to see it fall into such disarray. Beyond the increasingly unreasonable price gouging and outrageous policie changes in recent years, the park is falling apart on all other levels. Past just the politics, The physical ride structures and experiences themselves are becoming severely unsettling for number of reasons.

-The metal ride structure scaffoldings are beginning to develop rust rot in a number of locations in the plain view of guests, even on the ‘newer’ slides, which is quite concerning.

-All raft rides have a SEVERE lack of available tubes leading to absolutely outrageous wait times, even if lines appear to be quite short. Furthermore, an alarming number of the rafts were badly deflated once you managed to even finally acquire one.

-The amount of tubes in the lazy river was literally a straight up joke. There was MAYBE 15-20 tubes available. A lazy river of that size should have a minimum of 50-75 for it to even be advertised as any sort of an actual attraction. And again, many of the few tubes in use were badly deflated.

-ALL of the slides severely need to be repainted, which should be simple yearly maintenance. Faded paint is one thing, but we’re talking massive chunks and areas where paint has flaked off for years. Extremely bad staining on the slides and pools giving the appearance of the water a gross dirty tint

-Ride structures are shaking and wobbling to a borderline concerning degree. I’m no engineer, and I know structures are designed to flex to a point, but I observed a number of concerning instances that make me question if the park even does any form of preventative safety maintenance on the structures at all.

-I noticed a large number of the interactive water features on the kids Pirates cove area are completely broken with no sign of maintenance or repair since it was opened 10+ years ago

-Extremely inexperienced and rude staff that’s basically entirely made up of kids aged 16-20 with zero regard for guest experience, concern, or satisfaction.

-The ride operations provided by them is atrocious as well. The majority of them have no regard for the massive lines forming and make no haste to run the rides at a reasonably efficient rate. Example: there’s no reason for 2-4 minute intervals between riders on Radical Rapids when there’s a line of 30+ people at the top of the slide ready to go. I recall riders coming out the bottom of every 15-30 Seconds max only a few years ago.

-the food stand prices have raised exorbitantly as the portions and quality have dropped substantially.I also noticed not a single person in the kitchen was wearing a hair net despite long and shaggy hair on good chunk of the kids preparing and serving the food.

I could go on about a number of other things that have contributed to the steep decline of the guest experience at this park, but what truly bothers me is that this park is pinching quite literally every last penny possible while raking in millions, if not TENS of millions of dollars in net profit a season, yet they can’t even be bothered to do basic maintenance on their attractions. It is really becoming harder to ignore as the years pass. It also really makes me wonder what other concerning issues are being set aside or swept under the rug as well. Sadly, I don’t see any sign of this turning around due to the lack of any serious competition, and thus us guests have to pay the price...

This is a very solid water park. It's very vibey with all the green mountains around. It doesn't reinvent the wheel or bring any crazy innovative new rides to the table, but it does the basics really well and makes for an enjoyable day overall. The entry price is fair. It's no steal, but it's not exorbitant

Pros:

-While not crazy innovative, it does staple slides like the bazooka bowl and the rattler (black hole) really well. You get some crazy speed on them.

-Awesome near vertical drop slide

-The food is fairly priced, especially for waterpark standards. Lots of options for slusy and ice cream. The colossal pizza slice lives up to its name and you can add extra toppings

-No issues with dated floaties/equipment and good maintenance overall

-the staff were all friendly and professional

-It has a lot of options for lounging

-You can rent out lockers for 10$

-no crazy ancient ruins or piratey aesthetic, but it has a really nice cabin resort vibe with a lot of greenery

-Though no unsealed drinks are allowed inside, the park has accessible water fountains and you can bring (empty) refillable hottles

-You can evade most of the lineups with an early full day ticket and really get mileage

Cons:

-There is a bizarre lack of showers in both change room/washroom locations in the park. This is especially bizarre considering these spaces have drainage. If you want a private shower with gender segregation, you are squat out of luck and either have to make do with the outdoor showers with no privacy, or wash your hair in the sink.

-Line ups can get a bit much especially after , the latter half of the day when the people on twilight hours tickets come in. This is to be expected from an amusement park on holiday season, so no genuine fault there. However, while the park cannot control how many people decide to come in, there is potential for improvement in how the crowds are managed (EG: enforcing the split between single and double floaties, reminding groups not to "dilly dally" in the line up for the rapids, people panicking on free fall slide holding up the line and taking too long to be told to step aside, potentially combining smaller groups on canyon & boomerang slides).

-Commuting to the park could be better. There is a seasonal bus route that goes near the park, which is very much appreciated, but where I come from it was standard for parks to have their own private bus service to bring folks from neighboring areas to the park for a more premium fare still far cheaper than rideshare. Also, at least during Labor Day the very first city bus to Cultus Lake departed too late to get there by opening time, and the late departure of the first 66 to Chilliwack doesn't help maters. You can probably probably blame the stat holiday for that and BC Transit is out of the park's control, but it can affect non-driver's ability to get there.

-Could probably extend the open season into September

Overall, a very fun day. Everything it it has makes for an enjoyable waterpark experience. There were some nitpicks here and there but they were out of the park's...

For a family-oriented place, the staff (who are mostly youngins) sure aren’t accommodating to families. It’s no Disney theme park, so expect non-Disney treatment. Unless you’re reading every single word on the website (which parents hardly have time to do?), you’re setting yourself up to deal with very unreasonable staff. Let me save you the trouble.

I got there on a Saturday at 1:30 pm. Keep in mind there was no lineup at this point since the Waterpark closed at 5:00 pm. Because I knew outside food was okay to bring in, I brought $60 worth of fried chicken. HOWEVER, since it was in the restaurant bag, they wouldn’t let me bring it inside. They have a “no outside restaurant food” policy, which you can only find in the FAQs of the website. I asked if I could put it back in my car so it doesn’t get wasted, and they referred to their “no in/out privileges” policy - at this point I was already “inside”. I asked if they could put it aside for me to pickup on my way out, they said no. Since a staff told my friend they could escort her to her car if she forgot something there, I asked if someone could escort me. They said no. I told them I would buy food from their concession and to just let me save the food for dinner for my kids so that it’s a win-win, they said no. We referred to outside snacks, food from Superstore, and homemade food being allowed, and asked if we had put the chicken in our own container if that would be allowed, they said “we can’t tell you how to pack your food”, so the answer would be yes. We stood there for about 15 minutes going back and forth and they said no to every single thing I said. In that time, someone could’ve escorted me to my car, which was parked in the pay parking lot not even a 5-minute walk away. So, I eventually got fed up and left the food with them. They threw it in the trash.

Of course, I couldn’t let the kids go hungry so I spent another $60 on food in there. In this economy, I expected them to have some empathy and be more reasonable and accommodating, but I got none of that. They clearly prioritize their policies over families; they might as well be robots if they can’t use their discretion in these situations.

THEN when I was leaving and paying for parking, I asked the 11-year old looking employee for a receipt and he pulled an entirely different receipt out of his fanny pack and handed it to me. What???

To top it off, I’ve sent them an email, left a comment on their IG post, and DM’ed them on IG asking to speak to someone to make a formal complaint, and I’ve got no response.

It soured the experience so much, even my 6 and 9 year old agree we shouldn’t go back there ever again, which is really too bad because the park itself was fun for them. They’re now also telling all their friends about the wasted food, bad experience, and unreasonableness of the staff. I’ve shared my experience with friends who are also appalled and re-thinking going...