Whale's Tale Waterpark — Attraction in Lincoln

This park really isn't worth the money. At $35 a person (including ages 3 and up), you don't get that much bang for your buck. There's 7 slides (the kiddies slides don't count) and if there's any crowds, you end up waiting in line all day long. We went mid-week in July and it was super crowded. We probably went on 5 slides over the course of SEVEN hours because of the lines!

The lines weren't managed well either - they make you wait at the bottom of the very tall stairs because there's only a handful of tubes (seriously we counted - one water slide had 6 tubes active with 4 more half deflated at the side and this is with at least 50 people waiting in line) and once someone hands you a tube, you have to race up the steep stairs and barely have time to catch your breath before it's your turn to go on the slide.

There were several times we were stuck in a non-moving line for 20 minutes or more (NO one was on the slides) and the park staff didn't say a word about the reason. I found out later that it was likely because there was a missing child - apparently the whole park stops if a child is missing. While that's great (I have children of my own), a little communication goes a long way and there was none from the staff.

Also, there's 4 main water slide areas, but WT uses the same stairs and line area for multiple slides. One area has 3 slides (1 set of stairs) and another has 2 slides (again just 1 set of stairs.) That means if you want to go on one of the less- popular slides, you are still stuck waiting in the long line for the popular slide. I get that WT didn't want to spend more money for additional stairs, but it's just not managed well.

There's also not many options for shade. They should offer more paid Cabanas and lots more umbrellas scattered around the park. As a mom with young children, this was a huge inconvenience. As it was, we had to walk to the other end of the park (honestly not that huge a deal since Whale's Tale isn't that big) and drag chairs to sit under some trees away from everything to get a little shade.

Furthermore, the slides don't actually open until 10:30 and they close all the rides by 5:45 which isn't cool when we paid as much as we did and had to wait in such long lines all day! (At 5:40, we were in line on the stairs for one last slide ride and the attendant said "you're lucky you're here now. We're closing right now. This will be your LAST ride!"

I really wanted to like Whales Tale. My kids enjoyed it. But I doubt we'll go back.

If you do go, make sure you don't go on the weekend. It was bad when we went on a Wednesday - I can't imagine...

This review was long overdue, especially in regards to Destiny the lifeguard. for whatever reason I was having trouble posting reviews under my actual email. But finally, I figured it out again. Last summer, me and Part of my household Family were in Lincoln, New Hampshire on vacation. We went to Wales tales a couple of times, while we were there we had my youngest daughter, me and my fiancé. She was just starting to learn to swim and get a little bit better, etc. her and my fiancé had been going down most of the rides all day, which are all 4 feet at the bottom, when they got off the huge wave one and started heading towards the big toilet bowl ride or drop whatever you wanna call it. Before we knew it, my daughter was almost to the top about to go down the ride and my fiancé wasn’t up the stairs yet. Then he starts booking it upstairs, and I was booking it down to the bottom to inform the lifeguard that a little girl who was seven years old, was about to come down and she couldn’t swim. If you’ve never been there then to give you an idea, this is the only ride where it’s 8 feet deep at the bottom. Every other ride, she could stand at the bottom. So I’m yelling to the lifeguard and telling her about my daughter, when all of a sudden she drops down through the hole comes up, tries to swim to safety, but is getting drenched with gallons and gallons of water. Under the water, she went again. DESTINY, That’s an amazing Lifeguard paying attention, did not hesitate and she was in that water, saving my little girl. It was truly a terrifying moment. They actually shut the ride down and everything for a few minutes, so everyone could gather their emotions. I cannot thank destiny enough for the park for hiring her, those are the kind of people that you want as lifeguards on water rides for your children’s safety. We went back the next day to sing our praises to Destiny as we couldn’t find her directly after the incident. I am forever grateful to you destiny and you are amazing! Mommas like me all over hope for lifeguards like you! Other than that good etc is a little pricey but that’s expected and still soooo much...

We went to whales tale on a Wednesday and had an ok experience. There were many things the place needs to work on as well as some other things to keep in mind if you come here. This water park is located in a valley so it is common to be veryy windy. We went here on an 80 degree summer day and the water was freezing because the wind lowered the temperature so much The slides here are decent if not very old. Banzai Pipeline was good! Food here is honestly really bad and I hope it’s improved. Everything is just basic water park food but somehow with even less options. Also, aside from two salads there were no vegetarian or vegan options in the ENTIRE park which is an issue I have never seen elsewhere. This park also had a very clear shortage of lifeguards with all slides being run with the absolute bare minimum of lifeguards. This meant TWO lifeguards were running a tower with FIVE water slides causing the line to move incredibly slowly. The wave pool was also half shut down due to not enough lifeguards. Although this was not the lifeguards faults, there was just too much work and too many people for the amount of lifeguards. A lot of the slides are old and in need of repair/repaint and the lazy river was dirty and filled with bugs. There are lots of bees in certain areas, and not just a few: our table near the wave pool had a swarm of bees that kept coming over, so choose a spot without lots of bees I would say to get here early so you can get a table, because as with most places tables ran out after about 45 minutes. We went on a Wednesday but the lines were long and as mentioned the lifeguards weren’t helping the lines that much. However I loved the location in the mountains and the diverse amount of slides. I would just recommend lowering your expectations and preparing yourself for the fact that this won’t be like some other water parks in the northeast like water country...