Disclaimer: I’m being offered 4 complimentary passes to visit Sahara Sam’s Oasis this Spring just for writing this post, and then a review after my visit.
My kids are addicted to indoor water parks. We went to one in the Poconos area in March of 2011. They LOVED it. My favorite part of the whole trip was knowing that we were still not yet warm weather enough to go to a water park, but we were at one!
Ever since then, they’ve asked to return to the indoor water park, but we haven’t had the chance to do a return trip to that water park, or any other one, for a long time. However, this year, we might be hitting a couple of them! I’m very excited. If it was up to me, we’d do a tour of indoor water parks across the country. Just good fun.
This particular year, we’re shooting to get to Sahara Sam’s Oasis in New Jersey. I know, I’m not one to purposely head to New Jersey. The traffic to get there is kind of nutty, and I like to avoid it at all costs. However, for the kids, and an indoor water park, I’m willing to deal with it…….
Right now, there’s a bit of hoopla about the park. It’s not just indoor anymore, they’ve opened a new outdoor water park to add to the excitement. Sure, it’s not opening until May of this year (and with the way our weather is going, who knows if we’ll have s now in May.) It’s not a HUGE expansion, because really, the indoor park is HUGE. There’s just a few extra goodies they’ve put in place: 25 meter leisure pool called The Blue Lagoon; a children’s splash park called Splish-Splash; a full service bar called The Wipeout; volleyball courts; and a 12,000 square foot wave pool, otherwise known as The Rip & Roll.
All of this new stuff is positioned right next to a fantastic new building that has new kitchen facilities, restrooms, bigger party facilities (because they do birthday parties at Sahara Sam’s Oasis,) and a brand new, 350 foot body slide, A.K.A. The Nile Mile. How cool is this news? Well it’s even better, because when you have an annual pass, or a standard admission ticket, there’s no extra fee to use the outdoor section of the park when it runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day each year.
Our hope is to visit in April, but my kids love wave pools, and the only one they have is outdoors, which won’t be open until May. It’s going to take some coaxing of the husband to head out to this one before the Wave Pool opens, but we’ll see what I can accomplish. The other thing I don’t adore? It’s not attached to a hotel. There’s nothing better than having an indoor water park attached to a hotel. Just put the bathing suits on, grab towels and flip flops, and walk to the park…….another hurdle I have to overcome, and coax the husband on, as well.
What do you think? Should we take advantage of the free passes? No hotel included, I’ve got to find the funds for an overnight stay……
