FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX: Wet'n'Wild Sydney

As part of our "Enjoy Sydney" campaign, we bought ourselves season passes to Sydney's Wet'nWild. The water theme park opened a few years and we still had not been. To be honest, the entry tickets are not cheap. However, with a special offer on to get one pass season pass for free, it made the price acceptable. We had about 4 months to make the most of it...

We arrived there just on opening time and were able to enter quickly. There were already many families and many of the "good" shady spots were taken. However, there were many tables under shade that were still available. So what did we think? In no particular order:

1) Having bands per person is a good idea. However, they all look the same so if you happen to mix it up, there's no way of telling them apart! This wouldn't really be a problem unless you are a big family at the entry gates having to rearrange bands between you...

2) The bands only came in one size! It kept sliding off Jonah. We tried his wrist and his ankle to no avail. In the end, it came completely off on one of the slides. The staff were kind enough to replace it for him but it still meant taking time to go to customer service which was time away from the slides.

3) The locker system was not intuitive and despite trying several lockers, our bands didn't work on them. Once again, this took us 30 minutes to sort out!

4) There were no consistent service levels from the staff. Some were fantastic, some were just atrocious!

5) There was very little shade in the walkways that link the various areas of waterslides. The ground got very hot and it wasn't a particularly hot day on the day we went.

6) We went within the school term and so the lines were not too bad, but I can imgaine how awful the wait would be in peak season.

7) The slides were actually quite good and a lot of fun. Be prepared though, the water is very cold! The loading system though could have been a lot more efficient. They need to look at the major theme parks around the world to learn a few things or two! Waiting 15-20 minutes per ride would be alright, but not if you had to wait an hour or two...

8) Food, as expected, is not cheap. The quality is average.

9) The park was easy to find but from our cursory research, if you don't have a car, it might not be the easiest place to get to by public transport! We were there early and so did not have trouble finding a parking spot. However, the parking lot seem large enough with good capacity.

All in all, we had a good time. We probably won't renew our passes until they improve the services and facilities around the rides. It is a shame as the rides themselves were quite fun.