Flash Flood Water Park
35 W. Hamblin StreetI’m not gonna pull any punches. I hated water parks when I was a kid. The rest of my family loved them.
Our vacations all centered around water parks. We went to Wisconsin Dells several years. We went to Indiana Beach a couple times a summer. I sorta got my way one year when we went to King’s Island in Cincinnati….but we only got to do the amusement park one day and the water park three days.
I wore glasses up until about 5th Grade when I got contacts. I hated water parks because I couldn’t see. I’d have to store my glasses somewhere then run around the park blind. I hated it.
My kids are nothing like me. They love water parks. We don’t really do vacations anymore because…you know, sports. We’ve done Great Wolf Lodge a few times but no big trips to go to a water park.
Last summer, J needed something to do with the kids and a couple of her friends. She suggested the water park in Battle Creek. Turns out, the kids had a ton of fun. We promised to do it again this summer.
Flash Flood Water Park is part of the Full Blast recreation complex on the corner of Hamblin Avenue and Capital Avenue in downtown Battle Creek. The water park part of the complex has an entrance from the parking lot on Hamblin so you don’t have to go inside the rec center.
Entrance to the water park is $12/person and you’re given a wristband so you can come and go. We saw people come swim for a while then head out to their car to eat, then head back in. You pay right inside the metal gate then there’s a small hallway that has lockers and bathrooms before you head out in to the pool area.
Our goal was to get there right around 11:00 when they opened. J wanted to grab some chairs in the shade on the west side of the pool. We walked past the zero depth area found a few plastic lounge chairs and claimed our spot.
The pool area of the water park is pretty standard pool stuff. It goes from zero depth for the littles when you first walk in to a little over 4ft deep on the far end of the pool where the slides are. There is a small play structure and some water feature for the smaller kids in the zero depth area.
The slides are the reason the kids love those place. There are two slides each 200 ft long. One slide you go down on your back. The other slide requires a tube. Single person tubes are available to grab before you head up the landing.
There are also two person tubes you can rent from a trailer on the other side of the pool. We didn’t realize you had to rent these and when the kids saw one just floating in the pool with no one around it, they grabbed it and went down the slide a few times before the rightful owners asked for it back.
The kids ended up playing for about two and a half hours. We had planned on stopping for breakfast but we got a late start and J really wanted to get there by 11, so we hit the McDonalds drive thru instead. I didn’t really want McDonalds so I waited.
Not a bad choice to wait. The water park actually had a pretty decent concession stand.
The concession stand is on the opposite of the entry building. There’s a couple of windows with a pretty big list of food coming out of said windows. It had all of the concession stand favorites, like the Walking Taco L got, but it had some more unique options too.
I ordered the Waffle Fry Supreme when I went to get L’s walking taco. This is a small boat of waffle fries topped with chili, jalapenos, nacho cheese, and sour cream. The sour cream was served in a packet on the side so I didn’t put it on…I don’t like sour cream anyway so I was happy it was done this way. The fries kind of work in place of tortilla chips as these fries are more like nachos. The chili is a really loose, spicy chili and the cheese is the stuff you get out of the can but it’s a classic concession stand flavor combination that I look forward to when I order from a window like this.
We promised the kids we’d go back and get a treat when it was time to leave. After about two and a half hours, we told the kids ten more minutes. Unfortunately, someone had a leaky diaper and the pool had to be cleared anyway because they had to shock it, so B and I got back in line at the concession stand for Dipping Dots. I got one for each kid and for J as well. I’m not a big Dippin Dots guy so I passed.
Of course, that wasn’t enough for B. He wanted an icy too. The icys are actually at the trailer next to the concession stand where you rent the tubes. The concession stand takes cards but this trailer only takes cash. Luckily enough, I had enough cash so he got a red and blue (making it purple) icy before we left too.
The day cost us about $75 but we got quite a bit of food. You could make it cheaper if you can say no to the concession stand.
I still don’t like water parks. The kids tried to get me to go down the slide by 43 year old me is still having the same issue 8 year old me had. I can’t see without my glasses and it bothers. My kids had a blast though. They would have stayed all day if they could have. They went back and forth from swimming, diving for stuff in the bottom of the pool, and going down the slides. A place like Flash Flood is such a great asset to the community.
SW Michigan Dining 