Splash Lagoon is the indoor water park in Erie, Pennsylvania. While this park
doesn’t have the name recognition of a Great Wolf Lodge, it is one of the
largest indoor water parks in the country. But is it worth visiting? Find out in this review.
Splash Lagoon opened in 2003. Expansions were added in 2005 and 2011,
so the park now covers 80,000 square feet. Splash Lagoon is attached to three hotels-
Comfort Inn, Hawthorn Suites, and Holiday Inn. There are package deals including lodging and
water park admission for roughly $250-$400 per night depending on the day, or you can purchase
day passes for Splash Lagoon. These will cost $35-$50 per person as of 2022, with the higher
prices occurring on weekends and holidays. And this is much more affordable than some other
chains like Kalahari and Great Wolf Lodge that charge 2-3 times that for non-resort guests.
I visited with a day pass. Parking is free and then you pick up your wristband at the
Splash Lagoon lobby. If you need a locker, you can purchase one at the adjacent gift shop for
an extra fee. Lockers are scattered throughout the park. I was assigned one in the very back
by the ropes course, but I’d request one by the changing rooms if possible.
In peak season, this water park is open daily and is often open until 8 or 9 pm.
On off-peak months, the park can sometimes be closed a few days
mid-week and/or have reduced hours. I don’t think this is a full-day park.
I think you can comfortably experience everything here in just a few hours.
This water park looks quite good. The place has a light Polynesian theme. You have some
murals on the walls, but not much else. This is a place where the attractions do the talking.
From the outside, you can see a tangled mess of slides to build anticipation.
Then visitors enter the park on the second level, which creates a nice reveal. You have a giant
water fortress in the center of the park with colorful water slides sprawling in all directions.
This gives the park a lot of energy. I also appreciate how Splash Lagoon lets in enough
natural light that the place doesn’t feel like a dark warehouse like some indoor water parks.
And the park is kept at a comfortable 84 degrees yearround.
I visited on a summer weekend and the park had a healthy crowd. Most slides were just
a 5-10 minute wait. The one exception was the Cyclone tube bowl slide. This
attraction had approximately a half hour wait all afternoon. I’d recommend riding
this one first or experiencing it if you happen to catch it with a short line.
Multiple slides share the same towers and as a result, they use the same staircases.
This meant there would be 2 to 3 separate lines on the same staircase. This was an
annoying and awkward set-up. If you wanted to ride the body slides, you’d need to squeeze
past everyone else’s tubes on the way up the tower. Most people understood the set-up,
but sometimes you’d run into someone who thought you were line cutting and wouldn’t let you pass.
Operations were otherwise fine. Dispatches occurred at a steady rate and the staff members
I interacted with were mostly friendly. Now let’s talk about the slide lineup. You
have 5 adult water slides on 2 separate towers. The two largest slides are the
bowl slides- one where you ride in a tube and another where you ride on your back.
Cyclone is the tamer and more popular of the two. This tube slide has a sizable initial plunge
followed by a fun spiral in the toilet bowl. Hurricane Hole is the wilder of the two. You have
a fast-initial plunge and an intense transition into the bowl. Then you’re flushed out the middle
into a deep pool. This exit is super disorienting since you won’t always go feet first! Just watch
out for the sides of the pool while you’re exiting. I cut my finger on one of my rides.
Shark Attack is a well-paced body slide. It holds its speed well and has some forceful
turns. You can feel some of the joints on this one, but it wasn’t too uncomfortable.
Python Plunge and Big Kahuna are two tube slides. Python Plunge looks like it should
be translucent with its yellow tube, but most of the slide takes place in darkness.
There are one or two sudden dips along the way that sneak up on you.
Big Kahuna takes place in a blue and visible tube. This one was milder and average for the genre.
For kids and families, you have the giant Tree House in the center of the park.
This includes an endless series of sprayers and dump buckets plus a few smaller body slides.
Then for the littlest guests, there’s the Monkey Shines Island and Kids Treehouse play areas.
There are also some notable non-slide attractions. The park features a
30,000 square foot wave pool that’s one of the largest at any indoor water park. Then you also
have a flow rider surf simulator, a lazy river underneath the Treehouse, and the Adventure Bay
activity pool with basketball hoops and floats. You also have some non-water attractions. I
didn’t try any of these so I can’t speak to their quality. There’s a ropes course that I believe may
be included with admission. Then you also have an arcade with games, an XD shooing dark ride,
and laser tag. These are upcharges. If you’re hungry during your visit,
the park does have a few dining locations, but I ate prior to arriving.
So do I recommend Splash Lagoon? I think this is a great option for families, even more so than a lot
of the Great Wolf Lodges. The laid-back atmosphere and slide lineup is perfect for this demographic.
It’s fairly priced for an indoor water park and it’s nice how this place is open year-round too,
even when Erie is covered in snow. I don’t think the slide lineup is as appealing
for thrill-seekers, but it may be worth pairing with a visit to the nearby Waldameer. I think this
place is a bit better than Waldameer’s water park and it’s a fun option to wait out a thunderstorm.
So those are my thoughts on Splash Lagoon, western Pennsylvania’s indoor water park. What are your
thoughts on this park? Let me know what you think down below. If you enjoyed this review, I’d
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lot more roller coaster and amusement park videos here at Canobie Coaster. Thanks for watching!