Hurricane Harbor Phoenix

"I bought season passes for my family thinking it would be a good investment to beat the heat in Phoenix during the summer. Terrible investment. From the beginning of summer to mid-September we’ve came out 10-12 times. There are never enough life guards to keep attractions open. I’ve never seen the lazy river open, not once. Splash island is a glorified splash pad with 7 water slides of various lengths for young kids. I’ve never seen more than 3 open at one time. Paradise Island is a big pool area. It’s open about 50% or the time but closes randomly throughout the day, I assume because the life guards go on break/lunch. Snack vendors are a toss up whether you’ll see them open. Hopefully you don’t get hungry or thirsty because food and drinks are some of the most expensive I’ve seen at a park. It’s on Disneyland’s level. To make it worse, the last time I got drinks they were about of everything but a couple of choices. I think all they had was sprite the last time I went. They have water coolers set up at places but they get empty fast and never had ice in them to begin with so the water is hot, if there’s any left when you check. Overall terrible experience every time I’ve been. Save your money."

"My daughter came for a visit and we took her here on Saturday September 9th. We purchased tickets in advance, which we were able to avoid the lines to walk right in with no wait. Several of the rides were closed due to shortage of lifeguards, which was disappointing. This made the lines for the other rides quite long. Temperature outside reached 112 degrees, so needless to say it was miserable standing in the long lines. We spent most our time in the wave pool, which only a portion was open due to shortage of lifeguards. The lazy River was another ride that was closed. I rated my experience at Hurricane Harbor 3 stars, In my opinion this would have been a better experience had all the rides been operational, and temperatures were cooler. I would definitely suggest going on a day with the temps being below 100, and when all rides are operating."

"Not worth your money. Filfthy and most rides are closed. 1. Arrived shortly before opening time and no one was operating the parking gate and checking parking passes so everyone who parked in got in for free. Which is frustrating because we paid for parking in advanced so lost money on that one. 2. The wave pool kept getting closed down for “safety” at “10 minute” intervals which were more like 30 minutes each time. 3. The lazy river was shut down due to “not having enough lifeguards”. 4. The big rides that have the giant rafts were only sharing TWO rafts all day long, while 5 more were sitting aside deflated. Causing extremely long lines at extremely long periods of time (over an hour wait) in the extreme 115 degree weather. 5. The entire place was filthy the moment they opened. Obviously no one sweeps up at the end of the day. 6. The kid area was a huge let down. The splash pad wasn’t operating. And the area with the kid pool and kid jungle gym litterally smelt like feces. The water was brown and it was DISGUSTING. (see photos) I refused to let my toddlers play in it. So they had only a couple things that were open that met their height requirements. 7. The little stand alone snack bars were all closed except the Dip n Dots. They had about 8 stands and only 1 was in use. So the line was wrapped around the place. Their excuse for not opening the other ones was “schools tomorrow, so we’re not opening other stands” it was on a Sunday, the last day of Summer Break, and you’re not going to go all out and let kids have fun and make the most of it? 8. The bar was closed. 9. The food was awful and tasted like it was day old food. They also don’t have lids for the drinks so how do you manage to carry food and drinks back to your seat without spilling? 10. They ran out of raft rentals instantly so we never got one. Even though we were one of the firsts in the park. Such a waste of money. They operate only a quarter of the rides, but you still have to pay full price. Pure greed and highway robbery."

"I hate to leave yet another poor review for HHP, but I do want to leave an honest recount of our experience while adding positives as well. There is indeed a LOT of potential for Hurricane Harbor, but changes are needed and I hope they take these reviews to heart. To start with the pros: HHP has a decent park layout where everything is easy to walk to fairly quickly, awesome adrenaline-inducing water slides (even with the sometimes exceedingly long queue times), ample seating under shade structures, and good food / alcohol options (yes it's overpriced- but what else would you expect at a water/theme park?) As others have mentioned, however, the wear and tear of this place is evident if you look for it. I felt a little apprehensive climbing up the stairs for the slides and seeing the rust, deterioration underneath. The furniture we used was filthy and difficult to adjust. Some of the restrooms were also disgusting: likely a fungi breeding ground. Hurricane Harbor also needs to better allocate the lifeguards. It definitely ruined the experience waiting half the day for the lazy river, then the huge influx of impatient visitors all at once made it unpleasant. All the visitors at this park were all grouchy and impatient, actually, and you can't blame them. Lastly, the 'wave' pool needs to be upgraded or relabeled - we didn’t even realize the waves were on until we saw the small breaks on the edges. As they have lifeguards lined up every foot in this pool, I think they could up the machine a bit. During the time we visited most of the food and drink stalls were opened and well stocked. The queues were long, so I would highly recommend utilizing the app! Also, I would highly highly recommend water shoes because you’re experience here will be abysmal avoiding or failing to avoid getting your feet burnt!"