"No dream is too big."
-- DreamWork's Turbo
The modern water park depends on one essential ingredient: thrills. Roller coasters may go faster, but something is unsettling about skimming across the water in nothing but a bathing suit, unrestrained and exposed. The trick is to make you feel as if you were at the edge of danger, while the slide's designers ensure you never actually cross it.
The story of modern water parks starts in New Jersey. Action Park, located at a ski resort in Vernon, pushed the limits of what thrills these types of rides could offer.
With rides designed in-house, the park sometimes crossed the line into being dangerous, a reputation magnified in the internet age. When I was a kid, my family visited several times, and I remember having a great time.
With Action Park part of New Jersey's history, it is fitting that the state is now home to the DreamWorks Water Park, located at the American Dream Mall at the Meadowlands Sports Complex. Billed as the largest indoor water park in North America, it has multiple high-thrill slides alongside family-friendly adventures and play areas for little kids, all themed to various DreamWorks properties like Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, and Madagascar.
On a recent trip to New York, I visited the park with two of my daughters, both of whom are on the severe end of the autism spectrum. While we had a great time during the three hours we spent there, we experienced some hiccups:
The Good:
Outside of Disney, you are not going to find this level of theming in a water park. It was clean and laid out well. The views of New York City through the exterior glass walls were stunning.
At first glance, the rides didn't seem very unique, but many of them packed a good punch. Some, like the drop tower with a trap door that sent you into what they claimed was a record"'breaking descent, bordered on terrifying.
While young, most of the attendants were friendly and attentive. Almost all of them recognized the needs of my daughters and exhibited the required amount of patience. On the one slide I allowed them to ride alone; the lifeguard could not get them to confirm that they knew how to swim due to their communication limitations. He cautiously kept them at the top until I climbed the stairs to assure him that they had the skills required to ride safely.
We visited on a non-peak day, which not only lowered our price but also allowed us to ride all of the open slides, most without having to wait.
The Bad:
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