Soaky Mountain Waterpark — Attraction in Sevierville

My Fiancé and I (in our 20s) enjoy coming to Soakys! We've only ever been during the middle of the week in August, though. In the most recent visit, there were times later in the day when we had no wait for the rides! Some random things to know: This park can be VERY strict on weight/height requirements. Be prepare to be weighed individually AND as a group (if you're on a ride with more people) for EVERY ride (excluding the wave pool and lazy river of course (also, I think the mat ride only has a height requirement). If you as an individual weigh too much (and I'd imagine not enough), they will make you walk back down. So parents make sure your kids meet all the requirements before sending them to a ride to avoid being upset. The signs at the start of the ride tell you everything you need to know! Most rides have a scale at the base for you to weigh yourself/your group to know if you meet the requirements before wasting time waiting in line. If it's a hot sunny day, be mindful of the hot concrete. In certain areas, they have sprayers to help cool the walking surfaces but not everywhere. We wore our chacos/sandals to walk around the park and up to the start of most rides. On the bigger tube rides they will allow you to take them off and hold them between your legs as you ride (I saw where one lady had a pair of shoes with no buckle, laces, etc that they let her wear and not take off tho). They will tell you at the top, "You can't wear your shoes," and we just take them off and put them in our lap. At the entrance to the rides, they do have shoe racks to place your shoes if you want to leave them there. The only ride we left our shoes at the bottom was the mat ride. Unfortunately, the concrete and stairs can be extremely hot to get to the start of this ride... so be careful! They really should put a sprayer in this area. You are allowed to wear sunglasses with a safety strap. If no safety strap, they will ask you to remove them and hold them. This park does serve alcohol. They will check your ID and then place a bracelet on your wrist that says like 21+. They do keep free water in drink coolers (with a nozzle) & small cups to help you stay hydrated (it doesn't taste the best in our opinion). The website states you are allowed to bring in one factory sealed water bottle. So we always freeze 2 and bring in with us (we did one per person and nothing was said). The waters melt throughout the day and keeps it cool. I've also brought in an empty stainless steel cup before to use. No personal coolers are allowed. Always read through their website for information like this prior to going. If you are staying at Wilderness in the Smokies when your entrance to Soakys/parking is included just make sure your parking pass to the hotel is visible (the parking booth worker will just give you a thumbs up and let you go on to park. Then, just wear your wristband they give you from the hotel to get in. You can just walk straight to the gates and get your bags checked, and then, the next staff members acknowledge your wristbands and you are good to keep walking on in. We have never eaten at the park so I can not speak on the food. We have kept a cooler in our vehicle with sandwhich stuff, fruit, veggies, etc. And came back out to the vehicle to snack and then return to the park if you're trying to be budget friendly! Or just don't like park food/want to be healthy (make sure you get your hand stamped so you are allowed to reenter). There are no picnic areas in the parking lot. I haven't tried it, but I heard an announcement where you can charge drinks and food at Soakys with/to your wristband from the hotel. They have speakers all through the park that plays a variety of music. There is not a towel station (like inside Wilderness), so bring your own towels. Don't forget to bring/reapply sunscreen! They do have a store there for things you may have forgotten. They have a row of bathroom stalls and then a row of designated changing stalls inside the bathrooms. Overall, the park seems pretty clean and...

💥💥💥DO NOT WAIST YOUR MONEY💥💥💥 WELL WORTH THE READ!!! A MUST IF YOU HAVE CHILDREN!!! I am a Dollywood season pass holder and was considering switching to this park for summer fun. We went yesterday for the first time and this park is a one and done! When we entered the park I went to guest services and asked what the rules were for shoes, glasses, phones and hat while riding rides...the girl at guest serves didn't have a clue! She had to call on the radio to get an aquatic manager to come answer my questions...but I got a shocking answer to one of them....specifically my phone, I already had it in one of the waterproof pouches around my neck while standing there. I asked her what do I do with my phone? She said nothing, you can wear it on every ride! I said at Dollywood they don't allow you to wear them due to safety in case it gets caught on something. She rolled her eyes and said we are not Dollywood, we don't care about that!(in a snarky voice) WOW, JUST WOW!!! Well after you finish reading about my experience, you will see that safety is definitely NOT a priority to this water park! We waisted well over 100.00 for admission for 2 adults, a parking pass and 1 souvenir cup! We were able to ride on ride and got tossed around the wave pool but what was worse was trying to fight tooth and nail for a tube to get on the rapids river! You have to stand out in the middle of the rapid moving water to beg for a tube from someone getting out! All while getting pushed down under the water by people trying to beat you to a tube! The water surges in intervals, creating waves that make the riders go faster. However,if you are standing there trying to get a tube, the waves and current will knock you clean off your feet and then as you are trying to surface to the top of the water you get hit by a tuber or another adult getting pushed by the waves! I took on so much water that I am still vomiting up water 24 hours later! When an adult or a child drowns they will change this nightmare! And NO, there was not a lifeguard anywhere near this area! Now on to why we only got to ride one ride. First, the minimum weight to ride is 150lbs on most rides. I do not weight 150lbs, so no riding by myself! Then the person I went with is over the 250-280 for the maximum weight on the single or double rides. Then you can't have a combined weight of 300-400lbs on most rides. This needs to be stated where it is easily accessible on their website! The only way I could find it was Google search it! I couldn't find the minimum on their website! The wave pool, this wave pool is no joke! It will definitely knock you off your feet! The waves are very violent, not enjoyable at all! It basically beat you to death! Trying to get our souvenir cupwas a joke as well. We were sent to 3 different places then back to the first place after getting it from guest services. 🙄 I understand this place is very popular and young teenagers probably really enjoy it, but I am only in my middle 50's. I drive an off road Jeep and hike up mountains, so I am not a couch potato! However, the amount of older men watching all these teenagers and little girls run around in their thong or just down right risqué bathing suits is just alarming and scary!!! This is coming from a retired Police Officer of 25 years, so I have seen it all and this was horrible! What are these parents thinking allowing their child dress like this....until you see the mother has on the matching suit or close! Like I said...this is a one and done! I pray this park doesn't loose a life or a child doesn't come up...

The park was fine and had an awesome wave pool. Lines were long, but we expected that this time of year on a weekend. The reason for low stars on my review is due to very few options for people with food allergies and staff who seemingly had no knowledge of how to accommodate guests with food allergies. The website says absolutely no outside food allowed and states that they “offer allergy-friendly options,” however, I did not find this to be true. First of all, they have VERY few options for people with gluten sensitivity, and when you add additional allergies, there are even fewer options. There were about 3 to 4 items TOTAL that I could eat in the entire park. Having simple things like fresh fruit (bananas, apples, etc.), food with clean ingredients, and more variety of fresh foods would help this issue. Most of the food available was junk food with long ingredient lists, which does not work for people with multiple food allergies and sensitivities. Even with the few items that I had to choose from, most everything I ate made me sick due to cross contamination.

The staff appear to have no training whatsoever on food allergies, cross contamination, etc. Even the manager I spoke with did not seem to be knowledgeable about it. Most people with food allergies will get sick from even a tiny amount of the food allergen. For example, if the staff changes gloves before making my order, but get the ingredients (lettuce, shredded cheese, etc.) from the same containers that they have been reaching into and getting ingredients with the same gloves for the previous orders, then changing gloves is useless because the food itself is already cross contaminated. In this situation, staff would need to get new, clean ingredients out to make orders for people with food allergies.

If they aren’t going to allow people with food allergies to bring in their own food, then there needs to appropriate food options and staff training to be able to accommodate guests with food allergies. In my case, I had no way of leaving and getting food elsewhere because my husband was at another event, and so I had no vehicle. After getting sick from food earlier in the day, I went to base camp and asked what I could eat there. The young man brought out the allergy book, and after looking at a few things, I said, “I don’t see anything here I can eat.” He shrugged and, without saying a word, just walked away to serve other guests. No offer of getting a manager or trying to find some way to accommodate, absolutely nothing!

When I went to guest services to report this issue, a manager did speak with me and offered to find something I could eat, but no other apologies or compensation was offered for all of the trouble I had already experienced in trying to find something to eat. Since the manager did not seem very knowledgeable about food allergies or cross contamination either, I decided I was just going to wait to eat until after leaving the park because I did not want to risk any more food making me sick.

Overall, for anyone who has food allergies, I would not recommend eating any of the food here, even the food marked gluten free, due to the high likelihood of cross contamination in the food preparation. The park should change their website to say that people with food allergies may bring their own food, because they are NOT able to accommodate food allergies. Most places, including Dollywood, allow guests with food allergies to bring their own food, which would...