Splash! La Mirada Regional Aquatics Center — Attraction in La Mirada

I live locally and found this little gem about 5 years ago. Our family of 6 goes about 3 - 5 times a year. It's admission is not that bad. I feel it's a fair price for what you get, you could get a lot more somewhere else but you'll pay a lot more. For big kids 12+ it will get boring fast, as there are only three fun slides. If you have toddlers up to the age of 12 there's lots of fun to be had. For the toddlers and small children there are two different sections for them to enjoy different water features. The lazy river is great but gets pretty crowded and just like any lazy river it's hard to relax with rowdy kids, but that's the same for any water park.

In a different part of the park there is a large swimming pool to enjoy. There are lanes sectioned off for different activities, there is a somewhat shallow section sectioned off for little swimmers. My one complaint is the strict enforcement of their life jacket policy (which they provide if you don't bring your own) for little kids. We would like to try to teach our little ones how to swim without enrolling them in costly courses. So we take off their jackets and have them swim between us short distances. THose strict lifegaurds get on it quick. I understand rules, insurance and policies but it's my one bone to pick with this place as far as their regular policy.

Not sure why people complain or act surprised about no outside food or drinks, that's how a business makes its money. Entrance pays the rent, concessions make the profits. Plus you can do what we do once in a while. We go to a fast food joint down the street pick up pizza or burgers for cheaper and better than the park has and have a picnic outside a little inconvenient but we make the most of it. We also have had the park food, its amusement park food. Name a theme park that has awesome restaurant quality food for cheap prices, doesn't exist. So be realistic. If you have nutritional restrictions allergies, vegetarian or what not having to hassle over food isn't new to you. If your a health conscious person your out of luck here, maybe call it a cheat day. The trade off is your swimming a bit so your burning some calories.

Here is my real complaint (setting aside the lifejacket thingy) and what keeps them from 5 stars. They recently split up how they handle their food. One sectoin handles kids food nuggets, pizza, fries, and soda. Another sectoin handles burgers, hot dogs, smoothies, juices, and funnel cakes. Two different places, two different pay points, two different pick up locations for a food service that should be consolidated. You shouldn't have to deal with four different stops to feed your family, two places to pay for the two different foods. Plus it's insanely stupid to do it with main course meals, I could understand if deserts and meals were seperated this way but no. It didn't used to be this way, it wasn't awesome before but now it's really stupid and just a bad customer service experience.

I spoke to the facility manager about this and he explained that they recently lost their food vendor and they have a temporary vendor until they go "in-house". Bit of advice for Splash water park management. Think about the natural flow of things, how things work together what goes together with what. Try to consolidate the process as much as possible. Don't try to emulate the assembly line it's frustrating for the customer and leads to errors. Don't try to re-invent the wheel, look at successful establishments and how they service their customers and go for that. You'll find that 9/10 times there isn't an assembly line involved in the food process. Assembly lines are for high volume turn over all the time 24/7 so errors are expected and marginalized...

An Ode to summer together

Three times this season my kids and I went to Splash via Uber and pick up and drop off for Uber routes directly to the perfect spot by entrance for those of you using paid rides- the line was long on june 11, not bad at all july 5 and easy aug 4. There are two entrances when lines necessitate having two. The security is important in today’s world and was thorough on aug 4 there were sheriffs inside with a group presumably as chaperones and it was positive and they engaged the youth positively and other park goers. The park itself is vast wonderful oasis of beautiful coming together of every one. It is a beautiful sight. Don’t forget to look around and see every one having a blast together- every body. The water brings us together as a family. It is ultra safe too. Lifeguards dance to the music. It is a nonstop party. I witnessed fast acting staff, staff comforting kids on big slides, staff engaging with positive kindness when redirecting youth. The food is stellar and includes a wide array of excellent options particular attention was paid to kid menu design. Sterling example of culinary design with consumer palette front and center. Food comes out fast. Superb aquas frescas, burgers, fries, value pizza, shaved ice, dipping dots in a bag for ease and funnel cake a la mode. The slides are world class. The medium slides are enough for full day. The big slides are worth the entirety of Los Angeles experiencing. I surf and hydrofoil and those drops are great! Speed from the slides is worth it dads- you go too! The tower triggered my fear of heights it was a huge rush. Get ready to feel heart pounding drops and g-forces like big wave drops in winter surf here. Splash is a shining beacon of summer teeming with a beautiful togetherness of family- it is proof there is so much hope and love bursting from the world and our troubled nation: I saw our beautiful country play together in the water all pretense dropped- how priceless how irreplaceable my kids saw my American youth - I love you all my family- all of you. Go heal in the waters - come do the lazy river and see the tapestry of our future float by in hope for brighter days as the sun kisses the flag popping in the breeze. There is hope. There is healing- come see the real America together. And rock the slides-...

It's a nice little water park and very convenient because it's close to home. It can get really packed on the weekends, but I've usually been able to find seating somewhere within the park. There is a small play area for toddlers, a lazy river, 3 slides and a large pool (which is broken up into lanes with ropes). Parking is free, which is a plus, and lockers can be rented for $5 with all-day in/out access. The locker rooms are fairly large, although I wish they would have used flooring that is not smooth tile. The floors are soaking wet, which is to be expected at a water park, and the tile floor becomes extremely slick. I enjoy the music they play throughout the park, but they could stand to turn it down a few decibels.

My biggest complaint with this place is the "no outside food" policy. I wouldn't mind this policy if they had a variety of healthy options inside, but they don't. They offer a chicken or salmon salad and a salmon burger. The chicken and salmon are precooked, gross and rubbery. All other food choices consist of burgers, hot dogs, pizza, funnel cake, soda, chips, or fries. Take one look around the park and I challenge you to find more than 5-10 people that are not contributing to the obesity statistics in this country. I tried bringing in a bag of yogurt, almonds, and flavored water, but I was not allowed to bring them in. They said I could keep the bag in a locker and eat my snacks at the locker, but I could not bring the snacks into the Buccaneer Bay area. So they basically got me to pay $5 to keep my healthy snacks within reach, but I still had to walk halfway across the park to get to them when I wanted to munch on something. I was welcome to fill my piehole with the junk food made available there, but not the healthy snacks I brought. I love how they promote exercise by offering swim lessons here, but then they make it virtually impossible to maintain a healthy lifestyle while using the facilities. Not cool. I was not aware of this policy when I bought my annual pass, so I'm stuck with it this year, but I will not be buying any more passes unless the food policy...