Wings and Waves is the largest water park in Oregon and it’s a quirky one.
This is an indoor water park part of the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum.
The park is most famous for featuring an actual airplane on the roof. And multiple
water slides start from within that plane. So is this park worth visiting or is it just a gimmick?
Find out in this review of Wings and Waves.
Evergreen was an aviation company headquartered in McMinnville, Oregon.
The company was founded back in 1960 and operated for 54 years before closing due to bankruptcy.
In 1991, the Evergreen Aviation Museum opened across the highway from the company’s
headquarters. In 2008, the Space Museum opened adjacent to the Aviation Museum.
Today, the two museums have more than 50 different aircrafts, spacecrafts, and drones.
Then in 2011, the complex opened the Wings and Waves indoor water park.
The overall complex has undergone 4 bankruptcies. But it was purchased at liquidation by Bill
Stoller in 2020, allowing it to live on. Wings and Waves not only opened as the largest
indoor water park in Oregon, but it became the state’s largest overall water park too.
These records still stand to this day. I believe the original vision for the water park
was to have an educational focus about water and aviation, but it’s all about the fun nowadays.
And this place makes an incredible first impression. As you approach the park,
it’s impossible to miss the Boeing 747 perched atop the roof. This was once a real airplane
that flew over 25 million miles throughout its lifespan. Now it’s an iconic decoration.
And it’s functional too as the park’s four main water slides start in the fuselage.
The main park covers just over 70,000 square feet, which is a solid size for
an indoor water park. And it doesn’t have a warehouse feel like a lot of indoor parks.
The giant glass windows on the side of the building let in plenty of natural light.
Then you have a neat aesthetic. Each slide has a different color. Then you have all sorts of
aircrafts and spaceships scattered about the park. I also like the custom PA announcements given in
the style of an in-flight announcement, complete with your captain speaking.
Most water parks have a woodsy or tropical theme, so it’s cool to see something different,
especially because of how far the park leans into it.
Wings and Waves is compact and easy to navigate. The front half has the slides. The back half
has the wave pool and remaining facilities. This includes a gift shop, changing rooms,
and the park’s lone eatery. Called the Milky Way Café, this actually located on
the second floor so the seating area offers a great view overlooking the attractions.
I cannot comment on the food quality though since I didn’t get anything. And I’m not sure how many
guests do with this park’s extremely short hours. This park is open for just 4 hour blocks.
Somedays, there is only a single 4 hour session. During peak periods, you have two sessions. One
starting in the morning and a second starting in the afternoon. The park is always open Friday
through Sunday. Then the park is open the remaining weekdays during school vacations.
The different time blocks is a weird set-up,, but 4 hours is plenty of time
to experience all the attractions given this park’s size and attendance levels. In fact,
you probably can comfortably experience everything in half that if you’re pressed for time.
I visited on a summer weekend. The park seemed quite popular with families,
but the four main slides hovered around 15-20 minute waits most of the day. The most popular
slide tended to be Nose Dive, the park’s bowl slide, which isn’t too surprising. And lines are
kept open right up until park closing time. These slides are serviced by two staircases.
The one closest to the main entrance services Sonic Boom and Nose Dive, two tube slides.
The one further back brings you to the Tail Spin tube slide and the Mach One body slide.
Sometimes it can be a bit chaotic when multiple slides share the same staircase,
but the lines were clearly marked here and guests were sticking to the proper sides.
The top platform does get a bit hectic as you have multiple lifeguards calling out each slide color.
They will call a color followed by an action. Either someone waiting in the
slide will be told to dispatch or someone will be called to load up. Staff members
are fairly friendly though, just vocal. The tube slides all have minimum height
requirements of 42”, making them very family-friendly. They allow single or
double tubes. The park offers complimentary single tubes for all riders. However, if you want to ride
in pairs, be prepared to arrive early and pay a little extra. The only way to get a double tube
here is to rent one from the gift shop. And these can sell out. I arrived midway through
a session and they were already gone. I don’t agree with these being both
limited in quantity and behind a paywall. Double tubes will cost you an extra $8.
At least the other things are cheap, especially for an indoor water park. As of 2023, admission
costs $36 per person at the ticket booths. You get a bit of a discount if you buy in advance online
as with most parks. While that does seem a bit steep for a park with just 4 major water slides,
indoor water parks always seem to cost more than outdoor water parks of comparable size.
Keep in mind, this place needs to keep the air and water temperature comfortable year-round.
Both are kept in the low to mid 80s. On the bright side, you don’t need to
pay for parking. There’s a big free lot right outside the building.
And this place also has some of the cheapest lockers I’ve seen at a water park. Most parks
charge $15-$20 for a locker nowadays. Here, small lockers are $5 and large lockers are just $7.
Rather than a keypad, you have a wristband that activates a knob lock. You buy these lockers at
the gift shop as with the tube rentals. Now let’s move onto the fun stuff,
the park’s attractions. The four main slides stand 6 stories
tall and start in that aforementioned airplane. Mach One is the lone body slide. It’s smooth and
has good length. The slide is also dark for portions, but it ultimately is fairly mild..
You do have an exciting finale though. You have a very tight spiral that pulls some Gs and then
you are shot into the pool. I was pretty dizzy and disoriented once I hit the water.
The two standard tube slides are Sonic Boom and Tail Spin.
Sonic Boom is the yellow slide that is open for much of the descent. Tail Spin is the blue slide
that is entirely enclosed. Both are average in terms of speed and intensity, but they
solid duration. The park also offers a $10 virtual reality upcharge for Sonic Boom. I didn’t try this
nor did I see anyone else trying it, so I cannot speak on the quality or impact to operations.
The best slide is easily Nose Dive. This is a unique tube bowl slide.
Most of these start with the big drop into the bowl. This one has some slower turns at the start
in the dark, so you can’t quite anticipate when the main drop will begin. It’s a shallow plunge,
but it’s long and builds good speed. Then you have the fun visual spiraling around the toilet bowl.
For smaller guests, you have two water play areas and both look great. The kiddie slides
and sprayground take place around a rocket ship. Then the water fortress is themed to
an Oregon forest with a helicopter perched atop it. These were big hits with the younger crowd.
Then you have some pools. There’s an activity pool towards the front of the park with some
basketball hoops. Then there’s a 90,000 gallon Splashdown Harbor wave pool in the back.
This is capable of 6 unique wave motions, but the wave functionality was broken the day I visited.
Nonetheless, the pool was packed with families. The park also has a big video screen above the
pool. On select days, the park will play family-friendly films and this schedule is
posted online. Viewing a film from within a wave pool would definitely be a neat venue.
Two cons with the park’s lineup. One, there oddly is no lazy river. This is
a staple at most water parks, even indoor ones. Two, the park has not added any new slides since
its inception. I’d love to see another tower added in the future if the park continues to do well.
So do I recommend visiting Wings and Waves? I think this is a cool park. I think it’s a
fantastic option for families between its size and offerings. The aviation theme is neat and
the slide lineup is very approachable. Thrill seekers may be underwhelmed here,
but I still had an enjoyable few hours here given the fun atmosphere. And for locals,
this is easily the best water park in the area. This is very easy to add onto a visit to
the Evergreen Space and Aviation Museum considering its right there.
If you’re on an amusement park trip, this park is roughly 45-60 minutes from either Enchanted
Forest or Oaks Amusement Park. It’s quite easy to pair this water park with one of the others.
Until this park adds some more extreme slides, I don’t foresee myself returning,
but I am most certainly glad I saw this iconic water park with the plane on the roof.
So those are my thoughts on Wings and Waves, the unique indoor water park in Oregon. What
are your thoughts on this aviation themed park? Have you been there? Let me know down
in the comments. If you enjoyed this review, I’d appreciate it if you gave this video a like
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