Water Park Eases Into Opening Mode

June 30, 2008
By Steve Lord

YORKVILLE -- It has that "there it is" factor.

Parents know it. You've been driving for a while, the kids are getting anxious, it's hot in the car, even with the air conditioning on, and one of the kids pops up in the back seat and screams, "There it is!" Raging Waves, the 45-acre water theme park that opened Saturday here, has it, in large part because it looks like a theme park built on the prairie.

Although it stands in an area rapidly developing, there still is a lot of open land around the park along Route 47, near Galena Road. The slides and other attractions stand out like a small city skyline against the blue sky.

From miles away, the water bucket atop Kangaroo Falls is clearly visible, as are the multi-colored tubes and slides, looking like giant, twisted pasta. The Boomerang looks like a large satellite dish bursting forth from the ground, pointing skyward. There it is. But for many of the people attending Saturday's opening, the factor was less of "there it is" and more of "it's finally here." They have watched Raging Waves grow up around them.

"We can practically see the place from our house," said Greg Howard, of Bristol, who, with his wife, Angie, and four kids was one of the first inside Raging Waves on its first day. "And let me tell you, it has the best wave pool I've ever been in."

The situation is the same for Mike and Lori Dunn-Reier. "We live close enough to run home for lunch," Lori said. "We had a down payment on an in-ground pool, and we canceled it when they announced they were building this."

This does not surprise Mike Fijas, Raging Waves' general manager and a veteran manager of many kinds of water parks. As he watched the opening day crowd, he guessed it was "a pretty good mix" of locals and people from farther away.

"It's been a nice, steady crowd, but not a crush," he said, hands on hips, smiling at people walking by just inside the entrance. "For opening day, that's a good thing. It gives a chance to work the kinks out." Fijas said Sunday that opening day drew "moderate attendance," and Sunday drew slightly less, due to the cooler weather and rain. He did not release exact attendance figures.

But Fijas is counting on bigger crowds from throughout the Chicago region as the summer wears on and the word gets out about Raging Waves. That's because Raging Waves is the biggest water theme park in the state, surpassing the more than 20-year-old Magic Waters in Rockford.

The owners and operators of Raging Waves are counting on it being almost one-of-a-kind in the Chicago region -- closer to the area than Magic Waters and not tied to another theme park, like Hurricane Harbor at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee. And Fijas does not even worry about competition from the many park district or municipal water parks in the area -- such as Splash Country Water Park or the Phillips Park Aquatic Center in Aurora -- or the water parks tied to resorts. "To me, this is a true water theme park," Fijas said, "as opposed to a very nice water facility with some slides."

Those facilities would never have something like The Boomerang -- the satellite dish-looking thing that turns out to be a giant, twisty tube 72 feet high that empties rafts that can fit as many as four people into a giant funnel of water and eventually down into a pool. The Boomerang needs to be seen to be believed, so much so that there is an observation deck for parents to watch children, and the more cautious to watch for a while before deciding if they want to give it a try. Stand and watch for a while, and one will hear even macho teenage guys scream, and almost everyone in the observation area says, "Oh, my God."

With amenities like that, Raging Waves remains competitively priced. A season ticket is $110, and most park district water facilities have season passes between $80 and $100. Season passes are clearly more economical at Raging Waves because the daily price is $24, compared to $5 to $8 a day for public facilities.

But most public facilities charge more for people who live out of the district -- even Magic Waters has a lower price for people who live in the Rockford Park District -- and Raging Waves has offered the same deal for Yorkville residents, who only pay $56 for a season pass. "That made it a no-brainer for us," said Gretchen Hupke, of Yorkville, who bought season passes for her husband, Greg, and their child.

And there are even more ways to make it economical, evidenced Saturday by people tailgating in the parking lot with sandwiches they brought from home. "This really is good, clean family fun," Fijas said. "Sure, we have the tall slides, but we have a giant little-kids area, and the wave pool and lazy river, which everyone likes."