As some of you know, last week my husband and I took our kids to Darien Lake for some summer fun! We were given the tickets in exchange for a review. I only do reviews for places or items that will be beneficial to my readers as well. I also give a completely honest review and am not influenced by the fact that I was given something free by the company. With that being said, I wrote some key things I noticed at Darien Lake that I thought might be helpful for families visiting.
First: Parking- is an extra $9, just so you are prepared. I didn’t realize parking was extra.
Second: Lockers- When you first enter park, it’s a little overwhelming. A ton to look at and navigate, but we knew the first thing we wanted to do was get rid of our bags! So we made our way to the lockers. We ended up choosing the lockers near the water park because we figured we would start there since it was so hot out that day. We were able to fit 2 bags and a cooler into a large locker. They have three different sizes medium, large and extra large. A medium locker was $10, large was $15 and extra large was $20. To us the $15 was well worth not going back and forth to the car (which is an option if you’re up to it) or carrying the bags. The best part about the lockers were you don’t have to carry a key! During check in (which is digital) you pick a passcode! And then you just type that into the key pad on the locker. Pretty cool in my opinion! Much better than having to carry around a key or quarters like some of the other amusement parks we’ve been to. The only thing we wish we would have done differently was put our stuff at the “Midway Lockers” instead. We didn’t realize there were other lockers in the middle of the park. It was quite a hike back to the water park lockers to get stuff like waters each time. So my suggestion, either buy two medium lockers (one at the midway with waters and food and stuff and one at the water park for your water stuff) or just do one locker at the midway one but you have to be willing to walk in the Main park with your bathing suit on (which I was not haha.)
Third: Drinks/food- BRING your own waters!!! They were so expensive there (on average $4 a bottle.) I was so glad we brought a ton with us!! We also brought lunch and then bought dinner and dessert. We didn’t realize it til it was too late but you can buy a large pizza for about $19, and it would have fed our whole family. We unfortunately didn’t do that and spent a lot more than that on just hotdogs and hamburgers. As for dessert we got fried dough and omg let me just say… Sooooo worth the $7!!! A) it was HUGE!! And B) it was sooooo good!!! The girl working there was super sweet too. Good customer service always makes the food taste better doesn’t it?!
Fourth: Rides/games- The rides were all great. We really had a wonderful time. There were little to no lines (full disclosure we went on a week day so I am sure that helped.) My older son (who is 52 inches tall) could go on basically every ride there (with the company of an adult.) However my younger son who is about 46 inches tall could not go on the bigger rides like the roller coasters. Which I was fine with because it got me out of going on them!! #Idontlikerollercoasters. But there were still a ton of rides for him to go on. There is even a whole section for little kids (I would say ages 2-5.. My 7 year old was a good sport and went on a few of them with his little brother but he was kind of bored) but perfect for the little ones. Our favorite rides were the scrambler, the swings, the predator, and the pirate ship. Games were on the pricey side, so we decided to skip those all together. There was so many other things to do there that it wasn’t really necessary.
Fifth: Water park- Thank God for the water park! It was so hot there, so it was so refreshing. Here are a few tips: 1) you can wear your flip flops or water shoes out into the water section and you just have to find a chair (they have a ton of loungers chairs for you to put your stuff on) so you can leave you shoes and towels there. I don’t suggest bringing any valuables tho, unless you don’t plan to leave your chair. As for the water rides, they have a huge water area for kids of all ages. There’s little slides, pirate ships, floating treasure chests and a huge house type thing that the kids can climb in and that leads to a little bit bigger water slides. I loved this area because the kids could just have fun in the water and there were no lines. Then down past the Pirates cove part is the big water slides and lazy river. We went on the lazy river as a family which was fun but the bigger slides were too scary for my younger son, so him and I headed back to the cove and my husband took my older son on some water slides. They reported the slides were awesome but they waited FOREVER in lines. Therefore they didn’t go on many of them.
That pretty much sums up our experience. We had an amazing day and the boys said it was one of their favorite places ever! A lot of awesome memories were made that day and we definitely plan to go back! It was well worth the drive!! I highly recommend Darien Lake if you are visiting New York this summer or fall!
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