Disclosure: I was provided complimentary tickets and parking to visit Water Country in Portsmouth, NH with my family.
Last Monday I packed up the Town & Country to head off for a two hour drive to Portsmouth, NH where the family would enjoy a day out at Water Country. I had a total of four children and two adults in the vehicle and we were ready to head off. The biggest thing that saved our long trip? The Nabi Tablet and Squiggle Pads. The two tweens had their cell phones to entertain them as well.
Upon arrival, we checked in and grabbed our complimentary tickets for admission as well as our cabana. We were all really shocked and excited when we saw that our cabana was a luxury one, versus the lower end cabana options. While all of the cabana’s looked great and gave some privacy, the one we had looked over the wave pool and lent us just enough privacy that we didn’t end up using a locker for our stuff.
Water Country Cabana Rates:
- Diamond Hill Builders Party Deck — Fits up to 20 adults and is furnished with 3 large tables with 4 chairs each under a shade canopy and 6 lounge chairs. Price ranges $249-$299.
- Pool Side King Cabanas & Captain’s King Cabana — 8 people with a table, 4 chairs and 4 lounge chairs. Price ranges $150/140.
- Poolside Jolly Roger — 6 people with a small table, 4 chairs and 2 lounge chairs. Price ranges $129/$119.
- There are many other cabana options available that will lend you a shady place to rest and group back up with those who come with. Visit WaterCountry.com and click on Cabana’s, under Plan a Visit option.
Tips on choosing the best cabana for your visit; be sure that the location of your cabana suits your visit needs. For example, had I been strictly visiting with just my two younger boys, I would have been best suited to have a cabana located near the Pirates Lagoon as that was my sons’ favorite spot at Water Country.
Once we were all settled into our cabana, we wanted to take a walk around the whole Water Country site; this was our way to figure out what there were for rides and where various places were located so that when we split up to be boys with boys and girls with girls, we all knew where each other were located. There were so many rides to choose from, I was very impressed with my daughter for trying this Double Dive Boggan water slide. Basically it’s really high up, you have to carry your mat up to the top, lay down face first and lunge down this water slide. My sons absolutely loved it, even if I had a bit of a heart attack watching my sons be that high up! My daughter, who has a really big fear of heights loved this ride, but only for one time. It was simply a little too much for her preference, the sons’ and their Dad went down it a bunch!
Once we started going on various rides, we got to know how nice most of the lifeguards are here. You see, when you visit a place like Water Country, there tends to be a lot of young adults being the lifeguards and these days you never know what personality they will have. Thankfully we were blessed to have some pretty kind and compassionate lifeguards to tend to us, if we had any needs. My middle child is high functioning autistic, so that brought on some challenges, but the life guard at the shack to the Wave Pool showed his true colors in customer service. I was overall very pleased with all but one lifeguard who was a bit overwhelmed it seemed, in how the coverage was for those watching people on rides and how kind each of them were.
I must admit, once we all found Thunder Falls, that is where the family spent all of their time. We must have spent an hour at this one ride. I loved that I could stand at the bottom and take pictures. The four children went on by themselves; ages 12, 11, 7 and 5. I allowed them to go up the stairs alone and onto the raft; which is a huge deal because I rarely let my sons out of my sight. I felt very safe here at Water Country, at all times!
One piece of advice for planning your visit to Water Country is to think about what works best for your family, when I was choosing a date to go, I chose a Monday because I was hoping the place wouldn’t be as packed. My middle child doesn’t do well waiting in long lines but honestly, even towards end of day about 5pm when the place started to get packed, the lines were moving really quickly. The staff on hand at all rides were really good at keeping the lines down so that everyone could enjoy riding over and over again!
We ended our day with a few pictures to capture those who were here this day; on the left is my ex husband and our two son’s, on the right is my daughter and youngest with my daughter’s best friend and in the middle is my son, Aj eating up some fried dough for the first time! On our way out, I treated the children to two fried doughs. They split the dough in half so boys shared with boys and girls shared with girls. The fried dough was about $6 and it was HUGE, certainly enough to share among at least 2 people!
Our overall experience was fantastic! The kids are asking when can we go again this Summer, and I certainly think I will be adding Water Country to our day visits next Summer because it really was a great experience from start to finish, even for my autistic son, which makes me smile big!
If you are planning a trip to Water Country in Portsmouth, NH anytime soon, I have a promo code for you:
Use code Blog30 to save $3.00 off the $38.99 admission price this Summer 2014 season at Water Country. Click here to visit Water Country’s website to purchase your tickets today!
Have you been to Water Country before, or a water park in your area? What was your favorite part of the water park?
It does look like such a cool/fun place to visit. And hurrah for a cabana!! I’ve never had one, but I love the idea.