Florida's Waterparks

[MrsSnape]

Sorry to do yet another Florida one...

I'm just wondering what the norm is in the water parks (wet n wild, aquatica.. NOT disney) for parents of older kids.

Is it safe to let ... say a 10 year old swimmer wander off and do his own thing or do you need to stay with them all the time?

Just someone was saying earlier how they sunbathed whilst the kids were off playing in the kid's areas and slides and I wondered how that would work...not sure I'd feel safe letting him wander around a huge waterpark in a strange place...? Am I being over-protective?

Went with DD (aged 6) to Florida last summer. We didn't manage to fit in Wet n Wild (and Aquatica has only opened this year), but we went to the Disney waterparks (Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach), as well as a slightly quieter park by Busch Gardens (Adventure Island). The first two parks were extremely large and busy and I don't think I'd feel comfortable letting a 10 year old off on their own - maybe if they had a friend with them, though. If you do go to Adventure Island, it's much smaller and quieter and I'd imagine that a sensible ten year old would be absolutely fine wandering around on his own!

Hope this helps!

MrsSnape - was it possibly me that said they sunbathed? Have DH there so he does all the slide stuff etc with them whilst I catch all the rays .

DH will always take both DS's (11 and 8) to the queue for which ever ride if they want to go on alone, but we don't necessarily go on the ride with them, but will wait at the end for them to finish.

The parks are vast and can understand your concerns - your are not being over-protective

My DD is 9 and I wouldn't let her wander off on her own at the waterparks. They are massive and we lost our bearings once or twice trying to find our lockers.

They are FABULOUS though. LOVED Typhoon Lagoon.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH I wanna go back

Typhoon Lagoon was my favourite Kbear.

We used to head for a little sandy cove called Blustery Bay.

We took fruit and crisps to snack on, but about 11.00am we could not resist those little sugary donuts. Sometimes though we took krispy Kreme Donuts if we had been to the supermarket the night before. Did you purchase those big drinking cups which you could just refill as often as you wanted? - very good value.

I am going on the 25th July - yeah.