My first trip to an indoor water park

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(Edited)

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Over the past couple of years @mrsbozz and I have tried to make an effort to stop buying our nieces and nephews "things" for holidays. The truth is, they are all blessed enough to have pretty much everything they want or need. They don't need more stuff. In light of that fact my wife and I would much rather gift them experiences. Times that they can look back on fondly when they are older.

This year, it was decided (by @mrsbozz) that we were going to take our three littlest nephews and niece to an indoor water park for their Christmas present. We have a couple of them near where we live, but after trying to get into the one in Mt. Pleasnt, it was decided we would visit the one in Frankenmuth, MI.

I wrote a post several years ago about Frankenmuth. It is a small tourist town in Michigan that has fully embraced the Bavarian theme. They are famous for a couple things including their chicken dinners, being home to one of if not the largest Christmas store in the world, and my favorite, home to the oldest brewery in the state of Michigan.

It just so happens Zehnders Splash Village is right next to that Christmas store called Bronner's.

I was able to get us a one night reservation for the day after Christmas. Apparently, my wife knew something I didn't because while I was expecting it not to be very busy due to the holidays, she knew better.

It was packed! This must be what families do for the holidays, or families that don't celebrate the holidays and want to get away. I don't know.

I was shocked at how many people were there though. My social distancing alarm was going off as I knew there would be no way to maintain distance and cover out faces while swimming. I was a bit nervous.

As I said, I picked a room that gave us two beds since the kids are all still small enough to sleep together. It also provided us with five wrist bands for entry into the water park. At $400 USD it wasn't cheap for that one night stay, but when you figure it was spread across three kids, it wasn't too bad.

The cool thing is, since you can't actually check in to your room until 4:00 PM or so, they still let you have access to the park starting at noon. We found a changing room, got the kids ready, and entered the madness.

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The kids played for a good couple of hours before my older nephew decided he wanted to go down the water slide. He was too nervous to go on his own, so that meant that Uncle Bozz had to step up and accompany him. Well, I am going to be honest. I have never been down a water slide that I can remember in my entire life, so this was a new experience for me as well.

You can see in the photo above where the water slides dump out.

You can also see a pair of pasty white legs sticking up in the air next to the guys head in the center. Just past the lady in the red bikini. Yep, that would be me. Totally durffing the landing. The life guard was laughing at me and she said she had never seen anyone come out quite like that.

Unfortunately, that is when things started to go down hill. The three littles played for a bit more and were basically all over the place. It was hard keeping up with them. As I was trying to keep up with them in the lazy river, I somehow got some pretty severe road rash on my foot. It was bleeding pretty bad and I knew I was likely done swimming with the littles for the day.

We got the text message that our room was ready, so I checked in, and moved our car over to the area where our room was. I also stopped and got a couple baskets of french fries for the kids to snack on.

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As the kids were playing and we were busy snacking, I started to realize that people were walking in and out of these double doors a lot. To my great surprise, there was a whole other section of the park that we hadn't even discovered yet!

I took the kids over there for another couple of hours and let them play while I let @mrsbozz have a small break from the madness. Due to my foot bleeding I wasn't able to enter the water, but I still watched them from the sidelines. They were having a blast.

Finally, @mrsbozz caught up with us and suggested I get our stuff moved into the room. It was getting close to dinner and once the kids started getting hungry it would be game over, so we needed to be prepared.

As I was bringing in the last load of luggage, I ran into everyone heading to the room. We ordered some food and after eating we decided to hit the arcade.

I should mention that as I was walking back and forth to get the food, I noticed that everyone was out of the pool in the one section and I saw the life guards dumping jugs of chlorine into the pool. Not a great sign. Someone clearly had an accident, so it was good that the kids had picked the arcade after dinner and not swimming.

The plan was to let them swim some more in the morning before we packed up and headed home.

The arcade was kind of a bust. It was small and cramped, overpriced, and the prizes were basically cheap junk. The kids had a great time I think, but it was pretty short lived.

We headed back to the room and started to get ready to play some games and call it a night. The kids were all ready for bed when my youngest nephew got out of bed and started walking towards the bathroom. @mrsbozz asked him if he was okay and he said yes. He got just around the corner and into the bathroom when suddenly we heard a retching sound and a splattering sound on the tile floor.

I don't handle vomit very well, so my wife made me stay around the corner. She cleaned things up as best she could while I called housekeeping to let them know what was up. I requested new towels and a mop.

They sent a very nice young man who seemed quite unfazed by everything that was going on. It turns out he had worked in a nursing home and this was not the worst thing he had ever dealt with.

I slipped him a $20 for his trouble and thanked him.

The young patient said he was feeling better, but we put a trash can near his bed just in case. Sure enough, about an hour later, he got sick again. We called their parents and it was decided we would meet up to have them go home. It turns out their mom had suddenly gotten sick too.

We handed them off successfully and I found out later that he didn't make it from the drop off point home without throwing up again. He was right as rain the next day though.

Instead of going back to a hotel room that smelled like vomit and a smaller bed, it was decided to just go home and sleep in our own bed.

It's a bummer that we spent so much money for a room we didn't even use, but I think the kids got more than their fair share of fun and memories out of the afternoon we spent together. They played in the water park for a good five to six hours before things went south, so you can't really complain about that.


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All pictures taken by myself or @mrsbozz



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30 comments
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It's beautiful; I like it; I hope you did enjoy it there.

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I wouldn't say it was my favorite place in the world, but the kids enjoyed it and that alone makes it more than worth it! Thank you!

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I still afraid to be in crowded places, specially in ones that people are without a mask
hope you enjoyed your day there and be safe

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I am honestly the same way. This was a rare exception for us. Blame the kids I guess :)

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I hope I can also visit this kind of place in the coming days without the fear of covid. Greetings from the Philippines!

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Yes, Covid was definitely at the front of my mind while we were here. My hope is there was enough chlorine in the air and water that it won't be much of an issue. So far we are still okay!

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So far we are still okay!

That's good to hear. Keep safe always.

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Yep, that would be me. Totally durffing the landing.

Honestly, is there any other way to grandly exit a water slide!?!?! lol

We have a town in N. Georgia about 2 hours away from us that is completely styled after an alpine village and most of the stores and restaurants have a Bavarian theme. It's called Helen and it is one of our favorite places to go a few times a year.

I saw an Undercover Boss episode featuring a water park and I'm probably scared of going there for life! lolol

I don't handle vomit very well, so my wife made me stay around the corner.

lolol I only laugh because of how much I'm relating to this right now! I have seen some of the worst humanity can do to each other and waded through all kinds of blood and other fluids, but, man, I can't handle vomit or dog poo!!!!! My loving wife makes so much fun of me!

I'm sorry your trip was shortened a bit but, as you said, at least the kids had a good day of exploring the park and more importantly building memories with you and your wife.

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That is really cool. I have some family that lives in the Carrollton area, but I don't get the chance to visit them. It sounds like Helen and Frankenmuth are very similar. Trust me, it wasn't the cleanest place and I would much rather take them to one of the great lakes versus an indoor park. I think we are going to try to do a camping trip with them this summer to kind of make up for how this one got cut short.

I can handle our dogs poo, but I am definitely a sympathetic puker, if I see it or smell it, I am likely to join in!

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I have some family that lives in the Carrollton area

I'm about 30 min or so from Carrolton and they have one of my favorite restaurants there, The Corner Cafe there specialty is unique takes on sandwiches. University of West Georgia is where my wife completed her masters when we were dating.

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That is really cool. Small world huh! I might have to get down there sometime. I do love a good sandwich!

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What a lovely place you really had fun as well

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Yes, my wife and I laughed probably about as much as the kids did!

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(Edited)

Looks like a lot of fun. I bet the kids had a blast.

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They really did and despite all of the mishaps, that is all that mattered.

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A lovely park to be in, it looks beautiful.

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Lol at your pasty white legs I think I did similar the first time I went down one glad the kids had fun for a while
A pity one got sick hope he is feeling better now and your foot has healed

Thanks for joining Wednesday Walk :), I truly enjoy exploring the world virtually each Wednesday seeing walks from all around the globe and feeling I am there and experiencing it all myself, such as I did in your post just now :)

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No problem! Just wait till tomorrow I have something with even more pictures ready! I am looking forward to writing it up.

Yeah, overall we had a good time. I can't wait to spend more time with them through the year.

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Oops I knew this wasn’t your walk post my mistake

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That looks awesome, wish we had those here, we have plenty of outdoor water parks but indoor ones give you rainy day options.

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Yes! Rainy day and in our case sub freezing temps days!

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his is a very big park with a lot of facilities, is the park for both adult and children? I believe you had enough fun out there @bozz

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Yes, there were plenty of adults and children playing. They have it separated into different sections depending on your age. Certain areas only the little kids can play in.

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