Great River Water Park — Attraction in Saint Paul

I brought my kids here on a day off from school. Open swim hours were 9-11am that day, so we got there shortly after 9:00. (FYI, the address on the website says 205 Lexington Ave N, but it's inside the Oxford Community Center, which is 270 Lexington Ave N, so use that address instead, otherwise GPS will be a little off.) We paid at the front desk (only $4 each, and I had to pay even though I wasn't swimming), then went to the locker rooms to change. Lockers were plentiful, but to have a lock, you had to rent one from the front desk. We opted to go without one.

There were 3 different areas: 1) a huge lap pool with diving board; 2) a pool for exiting the water slides; and 3) a zero-depth entry wading pool/splash pad. My kids enjoyed them all, but probably their favorite part was the water slides.

After swimming, there are shower spigots and soap dispensers and high automatic dryers for washing off and drying. Outside the community center is a playground, so we played a little more outside too to dry off before piling into the car for the drive home.

FYI, this indoor water park is only open during the off-season. It is closed when outdoor water parks are open for the summer. This is a gem -- affordable, fun and diverse. We will be...

Our second time taking swim lessons with our toddler. Suddenly they say we can’t go into the locker rooms until 10 minutes before class? That is right when the other swim classes get out, so there are 50 families trying to use 10 changing rooms. I asked a supervisor, since that only happened once before on the first day of class. He confirmed that is their policy and they should be enforcing it every week. Said we are free to change in the public bathrooms by the gym. Most people missed the first 5-10 minutes of a 30-minute swim class because they couldn’t get changed in time. That plus the cold pool, we won’t be back for swim lessons. They have a good toddler pool, but avoid...

Booked in advance and was told waterparks were open for our dates. They called the day before to say the waterpark closed at 4pm on the day we arrived, which was no problem because we were counting on swimming the other two days. Drove 5.5 hours with two toddlers only to be told the waterpark is NOT open the next two days. Stuck in Dubuque now trying to find a pool as we promised swimming. So much for a relaxing and easy family getaway—now overpriced hotel stay in an outdated and dirty hotel. The only saving grace is the river view and warm weather, nether of which have to do with the establishment. Would go somewhere else...