If your family is looking for something to do this summer…read on!!
Calypso, Canada’s largest themed waterpark is opening this Monday. (yup..Monday June 7th)
It’s located only 20 minutes outside of Ottawa. So it was a no brainer that I was going to accept a tour seeing as I was visiting my parents. (for a change).
Here’s what’s in store for your family:
-35 thrilling waterslides
-themed restaurants
-a wave pool that accommodates 4,000 sunbathers
-dryers for your wet towels!!
-plenty of parking
But the feature that stood out for me…was the ‘MONEY AT MY FINGERTIP” payment method.
This is nothing but GENIUS.
So so SMART and SO SO convenient for families.
Here’s how it works: a family goes into the park and puts $100 on an account. Each family member swipes their fingertip over a pad. If Johnny (who is 16 and doesn’t hang out with his mom or dad) wants to buy an ice cream later …he just swipes his finger over a pad when he makes the purchase. If Stephanie is hanging out with her mom…and they buy a drink, again, they just swipe their finger over a pad when they make the purchase. NO need for wallets!!
I was so impressed.
Don’t get me wrong..the whole park is fabulous. Every detail has been thought of.
The waterslides(each and everyone of them) promises to be thrilling, captivating, produce screams, and entertain families for HOURS.
Here’s another photo of a ride. Can you say, 9 stories high?
I hope you get a chance to visit this new waterpark soon. You won’t be disappointed.
twitter: @CalypsoOttawa
How are you, Just wanted to let you know that your blog is not displaying properly on my Samsung X820. Besides, I’m now visiting this page on my notebook, Thanks
I went there yesterday and I must say I it was very disappointing. Largest in Canada? no way. Mont-saint Sauveur and Valcartier beats this thing out of the water by at least 10 times. 35 attractions.. right, If you only count “big people” things, there are 10 UNIQUE slides (which 3 are “3 different” turbo slides lasting a good 5 seconds.. whoopie). Let’s call it 8 shall we? Even at that, the other 7 are very redundant. Allow me to list them…
1. White Turbo Slide.
2. Yellow turbo slide that spirals around White turbo Slide.
3. 5 Lane “Dragster style” Turbo slides… which arent very “Turbo” IMHO.
4. Boomerang type with 2 people.
5. Boomerang type with 6 people.
4. Curve and twist Slides for 2 people.
5. Curve and twist Slides for 6 people x2.
(You can prolly see how this is very redundant so far.)
6. Long Slide w/ toilet bowl drop ending (Individual), 1 Red colored, 1 White colored.
7. Long Slide w/ toilet bowl drop ending (Tubes for 2 people), 1 Orange Colored, 1 Black colored.
There. Thats it. After u done like 4 of them, its like doing the others. Not very fun. Mont-Saint Sauveur uses the mountains as the slide base which allows for much higher and longer slide runs. At least they have individual, slide of you back twist and turn type, slides.
All the rides there have a good 45min+ line up for a mere 30 somewhat seconds of going down. Wave pool area supporting 4,000 people? I would say there was a good 900 people there yesterday, a little more and I would of raged. The park is pretty tamed and not very exciting. Pretty boring in my opinion. Like everything else at parks, food and what not comes with a stupid price.
6/10 easy
WOW! Just went there today and I was NOT disappointed!! We had such a FANTASTIC time!!! The $30 seems a bit steep but after having spent the day there, I would pay it again without hesitation – or better yet, we may buy a season’s pass. (admission is cheaper after 3 pm though too) The restaurant and snack food was not expensive and tasted great, so that saved us a lot of money, or you can bring your own lunch in and eat at the picnic tables (just no glass allowed). Most large parks have really steep prices for foods and beverages and ice cream but this park was so fair!!!
The lockers were $10 deposit but you get $5 back when you return the key at the end of the day.
I am not into water slides so i went on the lazy river and the wave pool and they were fantastic!! I watched the kids do the slides…..some great spots to watch them!
I think things must be running more smoothly than some earlier reviews I have read…b/c i was worried at first, but i think that’s to be expected with a brand new park? There were massive crowds but the lines weren’t that bad for the food and I thought it tasted great. We can’t wait to go back again!!!!
I was at Calypso very recently, some things you don’t mention:
– Parking was PAY, not free. No mention of this on their website. Nickel and dimed before you even stop the vehicle.
– The lockers were PAY, not free. $10 for a 2 cubic foot locker, ouch.
– The Fingerprint payment system was BROKEN already, and no staff were sure when it would (ever?) be brought back online. So you end up having to carry money after all.
– They do not take American Express. You know, the most popular card of frequent travelers that would visit the park.
– Much of the kiddie stuff was already broken and under repair. Opening week and already major disappointment for many kids who see red pylons and red tape everywhere they want to go.
– Lunch time was a disaster. Even though the restaurant we went to had less than 50% of the tables being used, and what appeared to be many wait staff, service was abhorrently slow. Lunch was 1 hour + long, and then if I wanted to pay by credit card it would have been another 20minutes for the line to pay. The lines for the cafeteria style food stretched 100m+ long. AND THE PARK WAS NOT BUSY!!!
I will not be back. I will not be recommending this place to anyone.
I don’t have kids but I want to go.
We are planning to go this summer. Can’t wait it looks fabulous! I know that my kids are going to have the best time.
Cool! From our discussion on Saturday, it sounds like the water park has been a long time coming, so I’m glad it looks like a lot of fun!
I just hope the water park has clear and open guidelines on what they do with those fingerprints they store.
Also, didn’t you mention the water park was equipped with dryers, so families needn’t go to the car wet?
WOW that is pretty awesome! I am impressed by the money thing too. Looking forward to going to the park, I think I’ll like it more than my 2.5 yr old son LOL