City of North Mankato Spring Lake Park Swim Facility — Local services in North Mankato

This park used to be sweet. I would take my kids here with a pass every year. This will be my last year. But, as these are my complaints, not everyone will have the same experience. The pool is nice in general to go to, but for our family it didn't work out. Edit to response: North Mankato below responded to me, and I want to respond to them, especially about the food. The food and beverages being confiscated were not glass at least on my end, they were in expensive treats that I wanted to bring with my family so that I don't have to spend money on pool food. I also clean up after myself. As for the pricing. The pool is expensive, yes you can buy a discount, but for a large family of 7 people I have to buy an additional pass for one member of my family. I am not complaining about the guards, in fact I said in my original post that the life guards are well trained. But, the pool opens June 1st now not after memorial day and is often closed due to rain (which I understand) and too many people. So, the price on how many days I can come gets higher.

Positives: Typically clean and life guards seemed to be well trained. They have a zero immersion pool and many fun things to do here, like slides.

Expensive for larger families. I have 5 kids. I have to buy an additional pass for my little one. Life with a large family is expensive in the first place, but this makes it even harder. Their general passes are expensive as it is. Minus one star.

They are very strict with the food, beverage policy. Meaning for my large family we have to buy their food and water if we are there for an extended time. Yes, water. If you think they won't stop you at the door, they will have multiple people. Minus one star.

They switched this 2 years ago, where it used to be more relaxed. I used to buy my kids something in any case, while I was there, but I refuse now if we are there for under 2-3 hours.

This is a minor thing. But their showers and seating areas are just not enough when there is a typical amount of people. Also it is on concrete which is VERY hot and slippery.

Also, they start after the public school ends, and are also regularly overfull on nicer days.

I'm not out to complain, but it is expensive for families, having to be searched for food and beverages, to keep costs down for our family is also not a positive. This isn't a Valley fair water park. This is...

First I want to give a shout out to the concession stand workers. We had a group of about 14 10-11 year-old boys and 4 adults on 6/25/24. I was able to pre-order and pay for 5 pizzas to be ready by the 1:45 break. They brought them out right on time and already had everything cut and plated up for us, and it was all ready to go when the boys got out of the pool! The girl who arranged it all was so sweet and helpful and did everything she could to make it as convenient as possible. It was such a huge help and timesaver for me, and I can’t say thank you enough!!

As far as the facility goes, there are so many fun options for kids and adults of all ages! My son and his friends had an absolute blast and were living their best lives!! The dads had a great time as well while the moms were able to relax 😉 The lifeguards are very attentive and I was comfortable letting the kids go explore and do their own thing (we kept tabs on them of course). The pool and amenities are clean and in good condition, besides a few loungers that could probably be replaced. And unless you’re already wet, I would suggest using the bathrooms by the concession stand so you don’t have to sit on the wet toilets in the bathroom 😂 All in all it’s a great place to spend...

Get ready… here are my qualms with this establishment. Mainly all the staff were rude except the lifeguards. The hospitality was rude and most interactions were dismissive. The main staff at the counter rolled their eyes when I asked about collecting my belongings. YIKES. There was also a long wait line without no notice. I waited for 50 MINUTES because I NEEDED A POOL DAY! There was no transparency about the capacity of the pool shared which was a problem when people were standing in line for long periods of time (in 95 degrees weather in a heat warning!) extremely dehydrated, sunburning, and unhappy in line because no staff checked in on anyone’s health. Even when you got in, you’re obviously thirsty because you were cooking in the sun… BUT unfortunately you could not even drink from the fountains because the filters were RED! You might think I’m done complaining BUT NO. They had NO CONDIMENTS FOR THE UNSEASONED HOT DOG THEY SOLD ME. If you are coming to this...