Our family had two weeks of unforgettable fun in August. A dear friend of ours from Madrid, Spain came to visit us. We were able to meet his wife and two kids. It was amazing how well our families meshed. It was as if we had always been friends. Our kids jumped right in and invited their new friends to play with them. We went on multiple adventures all over central and southern Minnesota. We explored the Mall of America, the Children’s Museum, Lego Land, Nickelodeon Universe and The Great Serengeti Waterpark.
We had planned to visit an outdoor water park, but Minnesota has decided to bring fall in early and we were concerned the cooler temps would not work for swimming. We thought about going to a pizza on a farm event, but the chances for rain increased as the week went along. We decided to play it safe and to find an indoor water park in Southern Minnesota instead. We wanted it within a few hours of Albert Lea as we had already done quite a bit of driving that week.
We hopped on google and searched for water parks in Southern Minnesota. The Great Serengeti Indoor Waterpark, Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites popped up. We did not find their rates right away so I decided to give them a call. When I called the man was courteous and informative. The rates for the waterpark is $12 on weekdays and $14 on the weekend. The weekly rate ran from Monday – Thursday and the weekend rate consisted of Friday – Sunday. We chose to go on Thursday and it was perfect. They have a canteen with treats and beverages. The lifeguards on duty were attentive, watchful and did a great job managing the pool.
We hopped in our two vans again and headed to Owatonna, Minnesota. It was easy to find as it is off of the same exit as Cabella’s surrounded by other hotels and restaurants. We unloaded our vans and walked into the large lobby area of the Holiday Inn & Suites. We paid for our wristbands at the front desk and then were directed down the hall to where the waterpark was located. Our kids bounced and skipped in excitement all the way to the door.
Thankfully half of our crew had already put on their swimsuits at home. The bathroom doubles as a changing area and when the water park is busy it can take a while to get everyone through and changed. We also appreciated that our kids were able to wear their lifejackets in the water. The waterpark also provides kick boards for the kids to use.
The toddler area of the waterpark has a small slide, an elephant spraying water, and splash sprayers. The toddler pool then goes into a little deeper area with basketball hoops doubling as a swimming area. Our big kids really enjoyed this area, especially the boys. The waterpark also consists of a lazy river and two big water slides. One slide is used with tubes, either single or double tube and the other slide is for human bodies only. The twins comfortably and confidently had fun on the lazy river as it was only 3ft deep.
We spent five awesome hours sliding, shooting hoops and playing as a family. We all definitely agreed it was worth the price and we are looking forward to having this option when the snow starts falling and we have cabin fever. We will definitely be back.
This place looks awesome! We love going to a water park each winter so I’m going to have to add this place to our list!
It was awesome! I had no idea we had a waterpark like this so close to Albert Lea. We will definitely be utilizing this when we are going stir crazy from cabin fever this winter.