| Water Park of America | |
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| North side of Water Park of America. Water slide tubes exit slide tower and re-enter building. | |
| Location | Bloomington, Minnesota, United States |
| Attractions | |
| Amusement Parks Portal | |
The Water Park of America is the tallest indoor water park in the U.S.. It is 70,000 square feet (6,500 m2) in size with a slide tower ascending nearly 10 stories. It opened for business in May 2006. Located in Bloomington, Minnesota, it is a half mile from Mall of America and close to the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport.
The water park is attached to the Radisson hotel. Both the hotel and the park are operated by Davidson Hotel Company.
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The Water Park of America has a large slide tower, containing several water slides, and a large open area at the ground level that contains a variety of water rides.
The slide tower contains three body slides, two tube slides, and one family slide (this is the tallest slide, and it starts at the tenth story of the building and ends at the bottom). Body slides are slides on which riders slide directly on their body, without an innertube.
Below the slide tower is a large open area on the ground floor that contains: a wave pool, a lazy river, a “normal” swimming pool, a small pool with floating "logs" which children leap-frog across, a flow rider, two very large hot-tubs, and a large children's area for smaller children.
The wave pool runs for ten minutes and then is turned off for five minutes to let the machine that produces the waves cool. The wave pool is a tapered pool that starts with a beach entry and that gets about five and a half feet deep. It is also the beginning point and the ending point of the lazy river.
The lazy river is three-feet deep and makes a circuit around the outer perimeter of the park. One rides the lazy river on either a one-person or two-person innertube through “caves,” under bridges and waterfalls, past pools, and is eventually dumped back into the wave pool.
The “normal” swimming pool, also known as the "activity pool," is four feet deep. One end has four basketball hoops where people engage in friendly games of water ball. The other end is for general swimming.
Next to the "normal pool" is a smaller pool that has floating cross-sections of “logs” attached to the floor of the pool like lillie pads. Suspended above the pool is a large cargo net for children to hold onto as the “leap frog” from one floating “log” to another.
The flow rider is a shallow but very fast moving sheet of water, moving from 30–35 miles per hour, that one can surf or "boogie-board" on. The flow rider is 3 inches (76 mm).
There are two large, cave-pool themed hot tubs in the park.
The children’s playground area contains a large playground that contain stairs that lead to towers, cargo netting, and slides sitting in a few inches of warmer water. At the top of the playground is a large wooden bucket that slowly fills with water. Once it is full, it dumps a large quantity of water on anyone below it resulting in laughter and excitement from the children. The children’s playground has three small water slides that are designed for small children but which older children and adults also enjoy. The playground contains numerous other water toys and devices.
The water park forbids people from bringing in outside food. All food must be purchased in the park, which has a cafeteria.
The prices vary depending on the time of the year, week, and day but generally one can expect to pay about $26 per person. Children under one are free.
The water park also provides free life-vests for children. You are permitted to bring your own life preserver as long as it is a Coast Guard approved flotation device.
The Northern Lights Arcade is located between the entrance to the water park and the main lobby of the hotel. It is a large arcade primarily consisting of redemption games. However it also includes old favorites such as Pac-Man, and Pinball as well as newer games like Initial D, Maximum Tune, and Pump It Up, the most prominent and popular game in the arcade.
Shortly before opening day, the Mall of America filed a lawsuit against Water Park of America claiming trademark infringement. The Mall of America claims the water park name is too similar to the Mall of America name and could cause some to associate the two. The Water Park of America filed a counterclaim in the matter accusing the Mall of America of among other things knowing about Water Park of America's use of the name since the Fall of 2003, encouraging the use of the name, and encouraging the Water Park of America to spend millions of dollars advertising and promoting the name up until March 2006. Water Park of America went on to claim that the reason Mall of America changed its position became clear in a press release in which the Mall of America announced it was going to build its own water park as part of Phase II. The parties have settled the dispute under confidential terms.