Emerald Falls Family Recreation Center — Attraction in Panama City Beach

Wow, all I can say is I'm surprised at all the negative comments about Emerald Falls. It doesn't sound like the same place I remember. I worked there in the mid-90's and when I was an employee, we took pride in the park and it was one of the nicest, cleanest, parks on the beach. In fact all of us employees had nightly "chores" we would do before closing (someone would do the trash, someone would clean the bathrooms, someone would sweep, etc). The management I worked for (Johnny and Stan) were always on top of things and we had to make sure the park was clean at night for opening the next morning.

I enjoyed working there and we were always taught to be nice to customers so I think it's a shame hearing about how employees today were "rude" because that's not the way it used to be. I visited the park a couple of years ago when I was in Panama City and I did notice it wasn't in nearly as great shape as it was when I worked there. For instance in the kiddie section (that's where I mostly worked) the train had 4 cars, and the only time it had less than 4 was if one was being repaired. I noticed the train now only has two cars (the engine and the caboose) and it looked like the paint had been peeling. As far as prices, we didn't have armbands back then but we had a package deal were you could get like 25 tickets for one price (most rides took either 2 or 3 tickets.)

I hate to hear the negative reviews because it was a fun place to work. I hope the park gets some updates soon and they don't end up closing. That...

Hey! I've never ridden that invisible Carousel they have before this weekend! We ate at Guadalajara restaurant next door and the drinks were a little strong. So we decided to hit this place to,,,, you know ... Burn off some of the 'calories'.

At first glance, I knew I wanted to ride that invisible Carousel. It was super fast and it seemed to stay on for 15 minutes per ticket purchase. I was not at all disappointed! It would have been much better if all those invisible kids would have stayed on their own horse. They kept jumping around from one horse to another and several jumped on my horse! Several kept breaking line, thinking no one was looking. But I could clearly hear them!

It got so bad that I finally complained to the staff. I complained loud enough that they called the cops. The cops that they sent was super nice! They completely understood and made the attendant give me as many free rides on the invisible Carousel as I wanted until this white van with red letters and what seemed like 100 flashing lights came. They gave me a shot of something and asked me to start counting backwards from 100. I got to 94 and that's all I remember.

If you are in Panama City Beach, I highly recommend the invisible Carousel! It will literally take you out of this world! Just watch out for those invisible hellians...

As a former employee of Emerald Falls I got to visit the park and chat with the employees recently. Everyone I talked to was very friendly and one of the employees showed me the rides in Kids Kingdom (which is where I used to work most of the time in the mid-90's.) They've made some changes over the past few years but it was great being back in the park again. It brought back a lot of memories because I do have a lot of fond memories working there on hot summer nights (and seeing kids have fun on the rides.) I was glad I was able to visit and (as someone who used to work there) I highly recommend checking it out. It wasn't too crowded when I was there (and believe me when I worked there there were nights it was so slammed packed you couldn't even see the ground), so you shouldn't have any issues waiting to ride the rides. If you want to stay in the AC then you can visit the arcade where it looks like they have updated a lot of the games (and I remember when that arcade was built back in 1995!) Emerald Falls was a great place to work and a great place to visit so if you are in Panama City Beach be sure and check it out. (I don't live in the Panama City area anymore but I will come visit the park again next time I...