Great Waves Waterpark — Attraction in Alexandria

The good part is that theres enough outdoor space to not feel cramped next to any other families or camp groups. We were there on a Friday during prime time pool hours: 12 to 4pm. Also loved the availability of the first aid station. There are several pool and splash areas with different attractions such as a beach house with sand, water hose, slides, etc. BUT BUT BUT....for a place that prohibits outside food they MUST do something about the poor food service. There is ONE station for pizza and icecream and ONE place for funnel cake nuggets hotdogs and burgers. There are literally TWO registers to service HUNDREDS of people. There are teenagers running these concession stands and are poorly trained in food service let alone customer service. My food was incorrectly prepared. There was confusion about how many nuggets I should receive and my simple order was repeated to me incorrectly (smaller portion) when served after I already paid for a larger portion and the cashier keeps the receipt so you cannot even prove what you paid for. It took over an hour to get through the line and order. There is no clear cut line nor anyone monitoring the line so you see people skip the line. Or one person standing in line only to find out they have 6more people with them and no body says anything. You loose playtime/pool time standing in line to get less than mediocre service and have your food fumbled. Literally my nuggets were dropped on the food-smeared trash-filled counter and the young man picked them up and attempted to put them back in the too small paper boat container before I asked for a replacement batch. I'm glad the kids had fun but it's no place to go if you plan to work up an appetite or havent already eaten prior to arrival. And I'm sure the baby pool was never checked for chlorine levels the entire time we were there and the water went from blue to a dirty brownish...

Great Waves is a great place to host birthday parties. We recently had an amazing 10th birthday party for my daughter there.

There are plenty of attractions to keep kids having fun for hours. Guests arrived at 1 PM and many didn’t leave until 5 PM. There is a wave pool, a splash down zone with small slides for younger kids, and two sets of larger slides for older kids and adults. Great Waves makes great use of the park space by packing a lot of attractions into a space that’s very easy to navigate and keep track of large groups of kids in. My daughter and all of her friends had an amazing time.

The staff at Great Waves made sure that we also had a great time as hosts. Our party coordinator Tiffany was awesome. She showed me to the party location, went over how the party would flow, and told me about the water park’s layout, and features. Tiffany had everything set up when we got there including a tent for shade so adults who didn’t want to get wet could stay cool.

I was also very pleased with the process of making the party reservation and communicating with the park to ask questions and finalize party details. I had to ask questions and finalize details during the period between Memorial Day and early June when the park is only open on the weekends. So I was very impressed with the quick and detailed responses I received from staff to all of my questions during the week when the park was closed.

Great party, great staff, great venue, an A+ 10 out of 10 experience all around! I would go for the day or book another party there in...

Kids love this place, I mean, it’s a water park- but as a parent looking for value, safety and peace of mind, here are the things I hated:

-the cabana. For $50 you get a cabana in the corner with two chaise loungers and a table with 4 chairs. It was so dirty and out of the way in the smashed oreos and miscellaneous food were still on the ground under our cabana. And honestly the other community chairs were much more inviting than these nasty brown ones. Also, you only get two reserved red tubes for the wave pool, no matter the size of your party.

-apparently you can bring food, drinks, and treats in coolers, despite what their website says... and do take your own food... the pizza we had was rock hard & I didn’t dare order the chicken. Also they were out of ice cream.

-glass in the wave pool. Several people complained about getting cut yesterday when we were there... no one did anything about it. It wasn’t until we were leaving at 6pm that I overheard people talking about what caused their cut feet.

-HOT and dirty turf. Yikes- take and wear flip flops so you don’t get burns on your and your littles’ feet. Yikes. Good idea, poor execution.

-cranky life guards. I get it, you’re tired... but that’s your job. Don’t get mad at me and my kids for not following a rule that isn’t posted. Also, more than half of the lifeguards we talked to (my 2 year old has a fascination with life guards) don’t speak English.

splash pool & pad, the rock steps up to the little slides smelled so terribly like urine, after two times down the slide, I just...