Schlitterbahn Galveston - Review (lengthy)

I went to Schlitterbahn today. I'll break my day down into three main parts, in case anybody wants to skim through.

Customer Service

First of all, they didn't know what the heck they were doing, customer service wise. I guess that's to be expected, though, since they just opened up a month ago. We got our tickets from the Credit Union on Friday and gave them to the ticket guy, after talking to another guy and then calling somebody, he tells me that I have to go to the guest relations. I go to a booth that I THINK is guest relations and wait behind some lady that tried to get season passes, but they screwed up her order, so that was another few minutes wait. I finally got the ticket situation worked out and got my wrist band to enter. Oh, by the way, while I was at the guest relations booth, some guy came by with a BIG sign that says "Guest relations and pre-paid tickets"...Yeah, that would have been helpful five minutes ago.

While I was getting my ticket, my wife asked about the meal bands. Basically, you pay about six bucks and get a wristband that gets you a combo meal in the park, which is a pretty good idea. It saves you a trip to to locker for money and it saves you about a dollar off the food. He tells me to get the meal band at a gift shop in the park. I go to the gift shop, and of course, they tell me to go to guest relations. I go back to the guest relations booth, and there is a different guy there. He tells me to get a meal band at a gift shop. Yeah, that suggestion box is gonna be filling up. We get our meal bands and head to the lockers. It turns out that the lockers are those stone age lockers that use a key, instead of the computerized lockers with the touch screens that pretty much every single other amusement park in the world has. They must have got these for free from an old bus station to save some money. I'll have more on the lockers a little bit later...

The Park Itself

The park was very clean, which is expected for a brand new park. It was also pretty well organized. There were big signs at the attractions, and the park was easy to get around and navigate. There are really only about half the number of slides than advertised, because the towers have multiple slides that are pretty much the same. There are two main areas, the outdoor area that's open in the summer, and the indoor area that's open year round.

I'll begin with the outdoor area, called Surfenburg. There is a big tower with two family raft ride that was pretty fun. One of them wasn't working, though. That was actually the only ride at the park the park that wasn't running, which I found suprising for a new park. There was a smaller tower with three different regular slides, which were all good, but pretty much like slides at all the other water parks. There was another ride that catapulted you off a conveyer belt, up and down two different hills, then through a pitch black, swirling tube, which was awesome. The best attraction in Surfenburg, though, was this boogey board ride. They give you this foam boogey board looking thingy, and you ride on this sheet of water that is being shot against you along the bottom. The great thing about the ride is that it lasts as long as you want, depending how good you are. I saw a couple of guys stay on for a good 1-2 minutes. Most of the riders lasted about ten seconds. It's great to watch the ride, because every ride is different.

The indoor part is called Wasserfest, which had two pretty good sized kids sections. There were two towers on the Wasserfest side, one with two tube slides and a steep drop slide that hurts like a mofo. There is also another tower with two regular slides that are the same and two tube slides that are the same, again pretty standard when compared with other slides. The hot tub was the suprise attraction. The water was heated to about 85-90 degrees. It feels great to sit in the warm water and just chill for a few minutes. My group actually spent 30 minutes in the hot tub just BSing. There is also a swim up bar with beer, sodas, and chips. The river that goes around the park definitely takes some getting used to. There are parts that don't move at all, and there's one part of the river with a wave machine that carries you at a pretty fast pace. If you have surf shoes on, the floor of the river is really slippery. It's definitely more fun to walk the river than ride it in a tube, though. The wave pool in between the two main areas was decent, but undersized. It wasn't as fun as Water World's old wave pool.

The food was your standard burgers, chicken strips, corn dogs, ect, and a BBQ stand. I didn't eat any BBQ, though. The food was above average. The service was decent, though the person there didn't know how to input the meal band, so that was a couple minutes wait. My friend had to wait a good five minutes for his food, which was strange, considering he had the same thing as me
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The Great Locker Debate

So, I'm in line for the boogey board ride (third time), right before we're about to leave the park. I discover that I lost have my key. No big deal, I thought, I'm just out two bucks for the key deposit. Well, I tell the guy at the lockers that I lost my key, and he says to talk to the chick in the gift shop (guess where I'm going with this ). I talk to the chick in the gift shop, and she says to talk to the locker guy. I get pissed off and almost start screaming. My voice was definitely elevated. It turns out that they have to call a manager that has the master key. They end up calling two different guys, and somebody finally comes after waiting about fifteen minutes. Keeping the master key next to the lockers makes way too much sense, right??? I guess don't trust some minimum wage, part time kid with the master key to the lockers. My only solace was that there was another guy that lost his key, so I didn't feel like a total dumbass. All I know is that I've never forgotten the combination to one of those computerized lockers. Maybe they'll wise up and invest in some decent lockers.

Final Analysis

Overall, it was a decent day. I probably won't buy a season pass, even though I only live about 30 minutes away. I DEFINITELY don't recommend going during the offseason when only the indoor part is open. You would probably get bored in about an hour. It's worth going once, maybe twice a year. They're building a third part, which should make the park a lot better. There is a drawing of a twisting slide in the park brochure in the area being constructed that looks pretty good. If you can, I recommend putting off a trip until the new part opens, as long as they don't raise ticket prices. Overall:

Attractions: B
Food: B
Customer Service: D- (The only reason I'm not giving them an "F" is because it was a new park, and the employees were actually friendly and helpful, despite being inept)

Oh yeah, there is free parking, and the park didn't charge for a tube rental, which I thought was awesome. Hope this helps!

 

I'd wait until the park is completely finished to get a season pass. As it is now, it's worth one or two visits a year. The park is really easy to find, too.

All day tickets are about $35 with tax at the gate, but I got mine for $30 at the credit union. There's also a half day ticket for $17 that begins at three, but the park closes at 7:00, I think.