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Wet and Wild at Six Flags White Water

Want to be the most popular parent on the block? Take your kids to Six Flags White Water, one of the largest water parks in the South. Located in Marietta, this not-to-be-missed Atlanta attraction is rated one of the top 10 water parks in the country by the Travel Channel.

With two 7-year-old tour guides leading the way, White Water was the perfect place to spend a summer afternoon. The park boasts 50 water attractions and is filled with every imaginable water slide – curvy or straight, ones where you can race your friends, one-person slides and four-person slides, some enclosed and some defying gravity.

The thrill-seeker among us couldn’t wait to try out the Tornado, the park’s famous thrill ride. Shaped like a funnel, the ride shoots your raft of two to four people down a steep slide to navigate the six-story funnel and spill out the narrow opening into a large pool.

Aside from rides, new to the park this year are cabanas, room-like tents that allow privacy and shade from the Georgia sun. Rental prices vary and include chairs, loungers, lunch and snacks.

One of the largest water attractions is White Water’s wave pool, called Atlanta Ocean, which spits out four-foot waves that mimic the ocean. You can walk into the pool just like a beach, and by the time the waves reach the shoreline they are much smaller, making it fun (and safe) for the smaller set.

Creatively divided into smaller water playground areas, White Water hosts an area for the youngest tots, complete with nearly slip-proof padded flooring. It’s equipped with smaller scale slides and fountains that spray just the right amount.

Preschoolers get to ride curvy slides, ending in a foot-deep pool of water. The area is a playground that sprays water from all angles.

Tree House Island, for kids ages 7 and up, dumps a 5,000-gallon water bucket every two minutes over the four-story tree house area. With levers and knobs that spray and shoot water, it’s a lesson in physics, albeit a wet one. There’s an activity area with a mushroom fountain and slides galore, and even a lazy river.

The best part throughout the day was watching as children eagerly waited for their parents to come off a ride. The best part for my two tour guides was laughing as mom came foolishly down a slide into the pool area. Priceless.

– Tiffany Capuano

Lake Lanier Beach and Water Park Offers Families Thrills

On a warm weekday, we packed up the minivan after lunch and headed for Lake Lanier Beach and Waterpark, which is about a 40-minute drive north of Atlanta. Our kids were bouncing with anticipation in their car seats, asking almost every five minutes, “Are we there yet?”

Though I had been to Lake Lanier years ago for a corporate picnic and had driven through the holiday Magical Nights of Lights a couple of times, I had missed the whole water park attraction. I had always thought I’d like to take my children there when they were a bit older. We were taking a chance that they would enjoy it, at ages 3 and 6, and did they ever!

We started our afternoon at Georgia’s largest wave pool, Wild Waves, where both kids would have been content to spend the rest of the day. The waves were substantial enough to excite the kids, and mild enough to ease my mind. We then moved on to the Chattahoochee Rapids, a rollicking rafting ride, which my daughter and I could ride together.

My daughter was thrilled by everything at the park, from the three-story interactive FunDunker to the aptly named Intimidator, which features a sudden 200-foot drop reminiscent of the most exciting roller coaster rides of my childhood. In all, there are 11 water slides, each offering a different exciting experience.

My son found his happy place at the Kiddie Lagoon, specially made for the under 42 inches crowd. About 10 inches of water surrounds a brightly colored playground that’s irresistible to the little ones, and oversized mushrooms cover kids with showers. Other key features of Kiddie Lagoon include a wave pool for the younger set and a tame water slide that inspires smiles, not fears.

Beyond Kiddie Lagoon stretches a pristine white beach, where parents can relax while the kids play in a shallow, roped-off part of the lake.

All areas of the park are well-supervised by a legion of lifeguards, and parents should have no trouble finding a place (and maybe even a chair) to keep watch over their youngsters. Sunscreen is an absolute must, but gigantic umbrellas offer respite from the sun.

At the end of the day, when closing time (6 p.m.) was announced over the PA system, we were among the last to leave the park. About the only utterance we heard on the way home was: “When can we go back?” After that, our children, spent and satisfied, slept – with smiles on their faces.

– Beth Balga

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