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Margaritaville Resort & Island H20 Live Water Park

From all the videos and reviews that I've seen, this looks to be the worst major water park in Central Florida. And with the lack of single-rider slides, I'd rather save me money and head to Volcano Bay or Typhoon Lagoon once instead of going to this place twice.

Also, is it just me or do all the slides seem like they were cut in half? The "water-coaster" is the biggest failure in this department, as it's barely a water coaster. Jeez.
Were we really expecting this to be better than any of the existing water parks?
 
So I watched the Tim Tracker video and I agree that the social media "theme" is going to age poorly. Wow that's an odd choice. Something else that struck me though was how short all of the slides are. Definitely won't be wasting my money to go here when I could go to VB or Disney's water parks for not much more and all would be far superior choices.
 
So I watched the Tim Tracker video and I agree that the social media "theme" is going to age poorly. Wow that's an odd choice.

It's not like they built a volcano or a mountain. It's signage, easy to change out in 3 or 4 years. And as I've said, what day guest uses the ride's real names in Aquatica or Volcano Bay? If this encourages some social media posting the first couple years, it's done its job.

Definitely won't be wasting my money to go here when I could go to VB or Disney's water parks for not much more and all would be far superior choices.

I gotta keep you honest here, Nick. Ticket window to ticket window, Volcano Bay costs FOUR TIMES what this costs. Disney parks OVER THREE TIMES as much. While I agree nowhere same league, in no way is that "not much more."
 
I gotta keep you honest here, Nick. Ticket window to ticket window, Volcano Bay costs FOUR TIMES what this costs. Disney parks OVER THREE TIMES as much. While I agree nowhere same league, in no way is that "not much more."
What are you talking about? A one day ticket is $50 to get into H2O Live.
 
The cost and theme fills a need left after Wet and Wild closed, this reminds me of a nicer Watermania park (the park on 192 east of I-4 that closed in 2005).
 
@Nick is right. Even during preview days, a single-day ticket was $49.99. (Although now the website lists it at $44.99 - at any rate, let's just say it was in the $40 range.)

I remember that because I was shocked an annual pass was only $20 more than a single-day ticket. We bought the annual pass during preview days at only $69.99 - now APs are $89.99.
 
I actually don't think the park is nearly as bad as most people are saying. Do keep in mind that this isn't Disney or Universal or Seaworld moving assets into a water park but a brand new company still figuring things out with themselves and the market around them. It ain't perfect, hell it ain't even that great, but it isn't poor at what it's trying to do. Look at Wet n' Wild in it's first few years, it was pretty shabby too.

That said, after going a number of times I've gathered quite a few bad first impressions I feel I should warn others about:

  • Single riders is still a huge oversight. There are no single rider queues and no place to add them later either. A fourth tower with primarily body slides would fix this issue real quick. Honestly I think straight up copy and pasting Royal Caribbean's slide tower from CocoCay would be perfect. Of course that's definitely not gonna happen, but we'll see what they actually do in regards to expansion.
  • The wristband needs a hook. Why should I care about these points, what do they really give me? I've been more than a couple times so far and there have been too many problems with tap stations not working or my pictures not sending/sending me a different family's photo. It's kinda a mess and I hope they stabilize it as soon as possible.
  • The lazy river needs more than one entrance/exit. Oh my god how did they miss this? Isn't part of the point of the lazy river to give guests a way to quickly get through the park? So much for that. Guess you'll have to walk, speaking of which....
  • Every path in the whole park makes you feel like you're going the long way around. Which is strange because the footprint of the park isn't large at all. I'll use Wet n' Wild as a comparison, because despite being about the same size it always felt like you were less than a minute away from anything in the park, while this somehow...doesn't?? I'm not even sure how they did it but everything feels so long and winding.
  • One more problem with the paths. In this park, the traditional water jets that other parks keep at foot level to make sure people don't burn their barefoot feet on the pavement have been substituted with lawn sprinklers that tend to shoot up into your face rather than at your feet most of the time. Not only is the thought of spraying what looks like reclaimed water at guests really gross, I also just find myself walking in the hot dry pavement when they're on because I can't stand being pelted in the face with water while just trying to get from point A to point B.
  • Similar problem with Lazy river, but the center island with Sports Court and the Pelican's Paradise water playground needs more than one entrance as well. I've seen so many people asking where to enter it because you can see Pelican's Paradise from everywhere in the park, but you can't enter unless you go through a really tight off center sidewalk. It's really just not good design work and I don't think there is a good way to fix it.
  • The name "Island H20 Live!" is such a mouthful. It is so dreadful to say and doesn't even match the barebones social media theme. The theme is also trying too hard imo but it isn't anything a few new signs can't fix.

Again, willing to be optimistic about the future of this park. But they have a lot of soul searching to do to really get a system that works like it should. If they wanna settle for the FunSpot of water parks, lower that price level and keep doing what you're doing. But if they truly want to replace 2016 WnW as the local's water park of choice they need some better quality slides and some better quality of life additions.
 
I actually don't think the park is nearly as bad as most people are saying. Do keep in mind that this isn't Disney or Universal or Seaworld moving assets into a water park but a brand new company still figuring things out with themselves and the market around them. It ain't perfect, hell it ain't even that great, but it isn't poor at what it's trying to do. Look at Wet n' Wild in it's first few years, it was pretty shabby too.

That said, after going a number of times I've gathered quite a few bad first impressions I feel I should warn others about:

  • Single riders is still a huge oversight. There are no single rider queues and no place to add them later either. A fourth tower with primarily body slides would fix this issue real quick. Honestly I think straight up copy and pasting Royal Caribbean's slide tower from CocoCay would be perfect. Of course that's definitely not gonna happen, but we'll see what they actually do in regards to expansion.
  • The wristband needs a hook. Why should I care about these points, what do they really give me? I've been more than a couple times so far and there have been too many problems with tap stations not working or my pictures not sending/sending me a different family's photo. It's kinda a mess and I hope they stabilize it as soon as possible.
  • The lazy river needs more than one entrance/exit. Oh my god how did they miss this? Isn't part of the point of the lazy river to give guests a way to quickly get through the park? So much for that. Guess you'll have to walk, speaking of which....
  • Every path in the whole park makes you feel like you're going the long way around. Which is strange because the footprint of the park isn't large at all. I'll use Wet n' Wild as a comparison, because despite being about the same size it always felt like you were less than a minute away from anything in the park, while this somehow...doesn't?? I'm not even sure how they did it but everything feels so long and winding.
  • One more problem with the paths. In this park, the traditional water jets that other parks keep at foot level to make sure people don't burn their barefoot feet on the pavement have been substituted with lawn sprinklers that tend to shoot up into your face rather than at your feet most of the time. Not only is the thought of spraying what looks like reclaimed water at guests really gross, I also just find myself walking in the hot dry pavement when they're on because I can't stand being pelted in the face with water while just trying to get from point A to point B.
  • Similar problem with Lazy river, but the center island with Sports Court and the Pelican's Paradise water playground needs more than one entrance as well. I've seen so many people asking where to enter it because you can see Pelican's Paradise from everywhere in the park, but you can't enter unless you go through a really tight off center sidewalk. It's really just not good design work and I don't think there is a good way to fix it.
  • The name "Island H20 Live!" is such a mouthful. It is so dreadful to say and doesn't even match the barebones social media theme. The theme is also trying too hard imo but it isn't anything a few new signs can't fix.
Again, willing to be optimistic about the future of this park. But they have a lot of soul searching to do to really get a system that works like it should. If they wanna settle for the FunSpot of water parks, lower that price level and keep doing what you're doing. But if they truly want to replace 2016 WnW as the local's water park of choice they need some better quality slides and some better quality of life additions.
I don’t think the park looks “bad” per say, but with how little there is for single riders and also how short the slides look, I just find more value in Disney’s water park AP or even just going to VB.
 
Quite frankly there is a market for this park based off of the insane prices of other parks as an addition to a lot of other family vacations. Fun spot of water parks fits. I think the theme is a lot less worrisome that some of the older people probably think it is. I could even see universal partnering for a few years if they are spending the money on the next dry park and not ready for a second water park.

Disney or volcano bay is not the value for single riders at current prices. That is aquatica. Disney may be the AP value depending on how much you go to waterparks and when.
 
Quite frankly there is a market for this park based off of the insane prices of other parks as an addition to a lot of other family vacations. Fun spot of water parks fits. I think the theme is a lot less worrisome that some of the older people probably think it is. I could even see universal partnering for a few years if they are spending the money on the next dry park and not ready for a second water park.

Disney or volcano bay is not the value for single riders at current prices. That is aquatica. Disney may be the AP value depending on how much you go to waterparks and when.
The park is next door to DAK Lodge and DAK... Universal partnering would be odd since it’s so far away (and tbh, beneath them quality-wise at this point).
 
The park is next door to DAK Lodge and DAK... Universal partnering would be odd since it’s so far away (and tbh, beneath them quality-wise at this point).
Cheaper than building your own park for a few years if you need to throw everything and limited contractors into a new main gate, I doubt Disney at all cares.
 
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