Hawaiian Falls Waco — Attraction in Waco

UPDATE, 13 SEPT 2020: We were invited back by management. We were greeted at the gate and had a nice day last Saturday.

Like stated before: {The park is decent, clean and doesn't feel cluttered like some parks. They were not overcrowded. There seems to be adequate seating, and shade. (More than most other parks) they have cabanas you can rent with an attendant. Souvenir drink cups with free refills, the lazy river was also nice. Bathrooms were decently clean. I especially liked that you could bring a cooler in for $15. For smokers, I noticed you could get re-entry bands for your wrists. Social distancing signs, hand sanitizer etc were all present for those that are concerned about that stuff right now. The staff on the waterslides and the lifeguards (in general) were professional. At the front gate they were helpful & seemed to be happy to help and be there.}

For our second visit nothing that was a positive on our first changed as far as the park cleanliness, etc. So I am pretty confident that they maintain this park nicely and on a sustained basis.

Clean water, bathrooms, AND attentive (hard working, patient) staff!!!!! I wished more parents would watch their little kids as good as those hard working life guards did!!! Come on folks, don't leave your 4-8 yr olds UNATTENDED in the wave pool!

Anyway.... I was highly impressed with all those families swiming that these lifeguards could figure this out, and get these kids out of danger (trying to swim around on their own alone).

I have no doubt this is a well managed park, with hard working people who care about patrons and the upkeep of the park, and IF there is any problems, that will in a fair manner take care of any situation properly.

PREVIOUS 3 STAR REVIEW: The park is decent, clean and doesn't feel cluttered like some parks. They were not overcrowded. There seems to be adequate seating, and shade. (More than most other parks) they have cabanas you can rent with an attendant. Souvenir drink cups with free refills, the lazy river was also nice. Bathrooms were decently clean. I especially liked that you could bring a cooler in for $15. For smokers, I noticed you could get re-entry bands for your wrists. Social distancing signs, hand sanitizer etc were all present for those that are concerned about that stuff right now. The staff on the waterslides and the lifeguards (in general) were professional. At the front gate they were helpful & seemed to be happy to help and be there.

WHY ONLY 3 STARS? We left after 2 hours. When we purchased our tickets we marked "special needs/assistance" on my adult daughter ticket. She had ankle surgery 4 weeks ago & needs assistance along with her crutches and is sporting a neon green bandaged ankle. (She's very noticably slow and obviously needs assistance to anyone that sees her)

Long story short, her & her husband (who is mainly assisting her) were being told to physically separate in the pool like teenagers. She about cried. This effectively meant that she could not swim or get into the pools period and she's been looking forward to this for weeks. She's been planning and looking forward to this 1 day since her surgery & for her husbands birthday. I DID SPEAK TO AN EMPLOYEE NAMED IVY. She was very helpful, and about 15 minutes later told us that she spoke to her supervisor etc, and that if it happened again to tell her. After she left my daughter was still alittle down, along with her husband, so we quietly exited the park after being there just two hours since it really impacted our afternoon. (A few other things occured, but they were small things that on their own are not a big deal)

I WOULD SAY DEFINITELY GIVE THIS PARK AT TRY! because I'm thinking our situation isn't a common problem (if that makes sense) and IVY did her best to help. It's just my daughter and husband were just so disappointed and down (not mad) that it unfortunately (again) effected the entire "feel" of the afternoon for us...

We have season passes to HF, with our primary location being Mansfield. The kids like to go to the one in Roanoke to get a change in scenery from time to time so we decided to check out Waco for the sane reason. The kid at the gate apparently is not aware of all park access passes. My boys are 14. The Waco park is not as impressive to them as the other 2 parks. To quote them about the activities, it is more "chill than fun". I rent cabanas almost every visit because we are there all day. We were running behind on the visit and arrived around 12-1230 instead of when they open. The girl at the cabana checkin window was NOT friendly AT ALL. I question the person that placed her in a customer facing position. I had to tell her my name 4 times before I finally spelled it for her, at which time she looked at me like I was the one playing stupid. When I spelled it, another person finally stepped in to show her how to do her job. The girl that took us to our cabana was friendly. She even directed the people that had taken over a couple chairs from my cabana to move. That is important for later as the other cabana next to me was empty. When we got settled, I let the other people next to us know that they could use our extra seats on their side as it was only the 3 of us. They asked if I was sure and thanked me. Fast forward to the original party leaving for the day and other cabana party arriving at about 2. And arriving. And arriving. Over 20 guests. When the 1st cabana party left, I pulled our seats back to our area out of habit. Mind you, the cabanas are only supposed to be for 10 guests. And a party package only includes tickets for 8 people. The new party started claiming seats from my cabana that we had our belongings in! Literally had our towels on them that should be an obvious "don't sit here" clue. Initially, I was trying not to be bothered. However, the group was walking around and through the space that I paid for. The paid for part..the host of that party was loudly complaining and insisting that refunds to her guests be issued because she paid for them with her party package. There was more than 20 guests in that cabana. The party package did not include 20 tickets, nor did it include the use of my space. I sat quietly till that party decided to take over both sides of my table without asking. Then 2 of their kids vomited in my area. I did not cause a scene, I just found an employee and requested to be moved because I had enough. The team member quickly accommodated us. But at that point it was after 4, I let it go on for too long so we decided to leave at about 5. Needless to say, this was our 1st and most assuredly our LAST trip to the Waco park.

2 stars because of the cabana attendant and the employee that quickly accommodated my...

I know that there's better potential in this place than what we exhibited on our visit, on Sunday. Here are some of the problems that we experienced.

1. Wave Pool inoperable. Wasn't working. Don't know for how long it hasn't been or how long it won't be.

2. we went to a food court, where there was a trailer parked in like a pavilion. We ordered a kids hot dog plate for my son. She said they didn't have them, we had to go to Sharky's. We went to sharky's, ordered a kids meal plate hot dog, and she told us we needed to go back to the place that we were at!!!. I told her that we had just come from there and told us to come here. Then all of a sudden, they had one!?!? Neither one of the cashiers seemed like they wanted to be there at work. I felt as on both locations, that I was inconveniencing them. The rest of the park staff seem to be enjoyable and helpful. Especially a couple of the lifeguards.

3. My son wanted to play on the children's splash area. I wished that they would slow the flow down on filling the bucket that pours, so that it would pour as less frequent. It scares him. When he climbs up the stairs, it splashes and it scares him. By the time it's getting to the slide, it's splashing again. If they control the flow to about half speed so that it didn't fill up as fast, and poured less often, that would be a major help to kids who get scared of the splash.

I feel that if the wave pool was working, and I wasn't getting the runaround on my son's hot dog, and they actually had smiles and felt like they were glad to take our order, and the splash from the bucket fill was a little bit slower, I would probably give this place five stars.

I understand this is not the market of San Marcos where you have a giant water park. This is a great place to go for locals. It just needs a little bit of improvement.

Lastly, save yourself some money and buy your tickets online in advance. You'll be...