Pirates Bay Waterpark — Attraction in Baytown

The weekend of July 11th was our 16th wedding anniversary & we chose to spend it with our children. We drove over 4 hours in on Saturday morning to go to this waterpark, we checked the rain chances and it was 7% vs the 67% here in Louisiana. I purchased tickets online plus a cooler pass. We arrived at 1:05 pm, when we arrived were informed that if we had season passes we could go on through the gate into the waterpark but until then they were in a rain delay. I asked for how long, the girl told me there was a 70% chance of storms i said where are you seeing that, she said it was their weather app they were using. I commenced to looking up the weather for Baytown on 3 different apps & all of them had a 6% chance of rain at 3pm. It was not raining, there was some slight clouds but it was sunny & there was no thunder or lightning. When I kept asking what app they were using she kept getting on a walkie talkie and not much longer said they were opening the park back up. We waited a little over 30 minutes at bag check before they would allow anyone into the park that wasn't a season pass holder. We went through bag check then found a spot for our belongings & sprayed down with sunscreen. We walked towards attractions where there were lifeguards but the features were not on one being the wave rider. There were 2 lifeguards sitting there but they would not let kids use it, they didn't even have the water running to it, we let our son step into the kid area where we literally stepped foot into what is like a baby pool with a baby slide the water didn't even cover our feet entirely & they blew the whistle for everyone to get out of the water again. My husband approached a lifeguard to try & ask how long is the weather delay the entire time this lifeguard was disrespectfully backing up like he couldn't be bothered to answer a question. My blood started boiling at that point when the guy couldn't even be bothered to answer a simple question, the entire time the sun was blazing it never into clouds for more than a minute, my kids actually started to get red in the face from the sun. We were told by another lifeguard that if there were clouds in the sky or storms within 10 miles that the protocol is to stop water play for a minimum of 30 minutes but it was usually an hour. They wouldn't open slides back up until the sky was clear. I looked at a radar & saw that there was a chance of storms off & on throughout the rest of the day & knew the chances of the slides being opened back up even though it was not a drop of rain falling or a storm was very slim. My family & I were there only 5 minutes after driving 4 hours to come to this park. We walked to the ticket stand where an angry crowd was gathered. Only after this crowd refused to back down were people offered rainy day tickets absolutely no refunds because they wouldn't be closing the park. In that crowd we heard from one woman who said it stormed once the weekend before & they immediately refunded patrons, another man said one of the lifeguards said they were understaffed & didn't have enough lifeguards for the bigger attractions. Basically why people are paying more money to come, they couldn't even open those attractions. I don't understand why they would even sell tickets if they weren't going to open the big attractions at $35.00 a ticket, no one wants to stand in a baby pool for that price and maybe get in an overcrowded lazy river. We were given rainy day tickets. I asked the girl what if this happens again that we drive 4 hours all over again only to have a rain storm within 10 miles keep us from enjoying the attractions she told me only if I have the original tickets then would I be refunded. I told her not to worry I will keep the originals which I am but we made a day trip of it, so we drove 4 hours in to stand in a baby pool & 4 hours home with broken hearted children all for around $300.00. We & many others walking back to our vehicles told people what was going on as far as families that were about to go & they turned...

Update: original review is still below and can be seen. Updating due to my recent experience with their "swim lessons" I sent this email and never got a reply. 2 of the 4 swim lessons were rained out the second week and we got not email about rescheduling or compensation.

Good afternoon,

I have been taking my daughter to swim lessons this week. I understand the instructor is new, but there should be more oversight or training involved. I chose swim lessons for the expertise and for someone else to be the one hands-on. I have a 5 month old, so when I saw that the description was for them to get used to not having a parent involved, I thought it would be a great option for us. I understand having to teach things slowly and add on. However, that is not what happened this week. The first day started 15 minutes late, and they simply sat in the water for those 15 minutes and were asked to blow bubbles twice. The second day also started late (by about 10 minutes), and they each floated on their backs and bellies twice for a few seconds each time. Lessthan a minute total for the whole lesson. That was it. Third day, they started late again, no review of floating, they had them jump. They had them jump for about 15 minutes and then ended the lesson. My daughter jumped about 8 times and then didn't want to anymore. So that was it. Day four, they started on time! But then I had them jumping for the first 20 minutes. Admittedly, my daughter did not want to jump, so we left after 20 minutes because she was just sitting there. During each lesson, I had to go over and help move the kids around where she was asking them to go. Repeat instructions (as 3 - and 4 year olds need) to my daughter and her cousin and encourage them to do the things. This was very difficult since I had my 5 months old with me as well.

It is a lot of effort to get to the lessons since I am driving from over 20 minutes away. For a lesson to ge shorter than one way of my drive and to be essentially useless is very frustrating. My daughter does not know anything more about swimming than she did at the beginning, and we are halfway through. She does not know how to float since it was practiced 1 day for only a few seconds at a time. She may actually be more scared of the water than she was before (she never had trouble jumping in to her dad or myself but now doesn't want to jump in).

Both my daughter and I were very excited for these and now we are both just disappointed.

Original: I can only speak to the itty bitty beach party, since that's the only thing I've done with my 2 year old. We had a great time. The wait to get inside took about 15ish minutes, so not too bad. My water bug daughter didn't want to do any of the little slides in the play area because there was soooooo much water falling from above and spraying all over the place. This didn't seem to bother other kids though as many were happily doing it over and over again. There were a lot of people but it didn't feel overcrowded or overwhelming. Overall definitely worth it for a couple hours of water play time for just $5 (kids under 3 are free!). Can't speak to any of the rides or wait times for the usual park since we...

I understand it's cheap and at a good price but the lifeguards are very disrespectful especially I am a lifeguard myself with a lot of experience back to my point I respect them no matter the situation I asked multiple times when will the slides be open and when will we get back in the water apparently close to the morning there was thunder and now the whole day when the plane goes by or if there's a loud car they close the pool down for 30 minutes which I know how it works but what takes me off is they close it for an hour instead of 30 minutes I was there from opening to closing all in total I only had 40 minutes in the water since opening to closing and when the skies were clear they told us that they were closing permanently the day and instead of getting a refund they sign my ticket saying I can come back for free until the next month which I am very upset because I work a lot for the city and I barely have any time for myself which I had this day just been with my nephew and my brother instead they ruined my whole day keeping us in the heat as one of the lifeguards harassed me about no vaping which I did indeed put it up but he got in my face and threatening me to put it in the car as I flashed my lifeguard fanny pack to make him understand I was a lifeguard too he smirked and walked away and try to get back up but the other lifeguards ignored him understanding that he is overreacting and trying to cause a scene as in my case I didn't cause any problems and I put it up as he told me not to use it but I did not want to walk all the way back to my car just to put something meaningless up in the heat especially as a lifeguard he has no authority to force me into doing something like that and since we got there an hour early we had to wait another 2 hours even after the open the park just to get in the water all we did is swim in the lazy river we didn't even get to do anything else even after a hot day waiting and waiting to get back in the water we spent over $50 just to keep cool even after wasting when we brought from the cooler and now I don't have time to go back and my ticket is going to go to waste especially it was three that I paid and they will not give me a refund even after spending 2 hours driving to get there this is very unprofessional and I myself and my family friends and those who I will let them know to be aware about this location will not come back at all and to be honest it is the worst experience I ever had now next time I'll just stick with Schlitterbahn better for spending more money just to have fun and get respect for more professionals at a theme park which I deserved and us a head lifeguard for the City of Houston I've never experienced a disaster like this theme park and I fully would not recommend coming here and I will not remove my comments and review on here until I get my full refund!...