This blog is a compilation of my experiences during my first trip to Wonderla. I hope someone would find benefit from this someday.
I have been promising my son that I will take him to Wonderla one day during his vacations, and after a lot of procrastination on this topic, we decided to go there on May 20th, 2017. His school reopens on 29th May, and I did not want to delay this so close to that date, for the fear of him falling sick due to the water games and possibly missing his first day at the new class.
I started looking for people who could come with us to amplify the thrill. But unfortunately we couldn't get anyone... shows how much influential I can be! Any ways, from the moment I proclaimed that we were going to Wonderla, Dev was excited.
The park opens at 11 AM, and closes at 7 PM. So we had 8 hours including the lunch break. We had more than 60 rides to enjoy. That gives us just below 10 minutes to try one ride, and this included the waiting time and the ride time. It was almost clear from the above equation, and from the reviews we read about the park that we cannot try all the rides. So it became very important for us to have a good plan of action. Now, there were two types of tickets - Normal and Abnormal err.. sorry.. Fast track. The Fast track tickets allowed you to access the ride faster. The number of fast track tickets sold were restricted to 500 per day. And all the rides were supposed to have a separate queue for Fast track people. I called up the Wonderla inquiry and they suggested (obviously) to take the Fast track tickets - which was priced almost 1.5 times the normal one. Even from a lot of reviews I felt that taking the Fast track tickets made more sense.
On Friday, May 19th, I took a print out of the map of Wonderla and sat with Dev to plan the "attack" that evening. We saw the videos of almost all the rides in you tube and marked some of the rides as "must go" ones, and some as "skip". Thus we had a list of 24 "must go" rides. Our plan in brief was to go to the water park first until lunch (at about 2 pm) and then go for the kids, land, and if possible the high thrill ones. Since only we two were there, I decided not to go for a ride which was not suitable for Dev. It was 11:30 PM by the time we were satisfied with our plan.
During that night, I spotted Dev wake up during his sleep multiple times and look at the clock to see if it was morning. He was clearly very excited. Unlike the other vacation days where we have to push him down the cot to wake him up, by 7 he was up on his own. We started from home at 9 and just before we started (I wanted to delay the payment until the last minute) I booked the Fast track tickets online. We reached Wonderla at 10:10. There were a few tents infront of the park setup by the employees who were on strike - for unjust termination and transfer of employees. I think I saw the board that said this was the 741st day of strike. I dont know about the details of the strike, but I would have looked out for some other job if the strike went on for so long. Not many people had reached the park by then, and it was not difficult to spot a parking space. There were enough security guards at the parking area to assist us find a place to park. After that we walked to the entrance. We showed the e-ticket at the counter, and got the Fast track wrist band. We stood in the queue to enter and at the entrance gate, the security guard scanned the bar code, but had trouble with the code. He took us to his supervisor who called someone else and made sure our tickets were valid and let us in. I highly appreciate the way they handled the issue. They could have just asked me to go to the main counter and get this clarified. But here these people were taking the lead to solve the problem. Taking up the ownership of a problem and trying to solve it is what makes a difference in how and when the problem is solved. This especially struck me because of the horrible experience I had at the BBMP office trying to change the birth certificate of my younger son who is just 3 months. It was just a 2 minute job, but they wasted 3 days of mine, stand infront of multiple officers as a refugee.
Once inside the park, we were greeted by a couple of people dressed up as cartoon characters. They entertained the kids.
We understood that the water park opens only at 12. So we had to change our plans, and go to the land rides first. It was just 10:45, and so we were suggested by a security guard to go for the laser show and musical fountain until it was 11. The show was just "ok". We then went to the termite coaster and train counter and waited for the clock to strike 11. At sharp 11, the counter was opened, and after a couple of trial runs of the train, we were allowed to get into the rides. Dev and me enjoyed the ride. This was the first time Dev was riding such a thing. He was always scared to do it. Happy to see his change.
Then we went to a few more rides - and once accidentally to a high thrill ride - which to my surprise Dev really enjoyed so much that we went in it 3 times. We could take the same rides multiple times as we had a huge advantage with the Fast track tickets. The queue for the Fast track people was very less. We did not have to wait more than 10 minutes anywhere, where as the normal ticket people were waiting for more than 30 minutes. For the first time, I experienced myself how it is to feel like a person from the so called "backward class" get ahead with reservations for everything - from education to getting job and to getting promoted. I saw the same type of frustration and irritation in the faces of people standing in the normal queue as the merit based people felt when rejected from a job and then seeing a much lesser qualified person get it just because his forefathers belonged to a certain caste.
By 2 we had completed almost all the land and the kids rides - some of them a couple of times. The ones we did not do were the ones for which Dev did not qualify - minimum height of 140 cms. He was just 125 cms. By 2 we started feeling hungry and went to Green's Restaurant. We had north Indian thali. The food was good, but expensive. Dev, unlike the other days, quickly had his lunch and was ready to go to the water park. So, by 2:30 we took the locker key - which is a watch type of instrument which de-activates the lock once it is brought near the lock. We kept all our items in the locker and headed to the water rides with our swim suits on. We went to all the possible water rides. Dev was clearly very very excited! Both of us were running back to the starting place of the ride the moment we finished one, and tried the next ride. We then went to the lazy river and fought amoung ourselves, by over throwing each other from their "vehicle". We then went to the play pool, where there were lots of rides and ample place to just sit inside the pool and enjoy. The ground was paved with rubber sheets to make sure no one got hurt even if they fell. During our play in the Play pool, we saw a parade of a lot of people dressed up - The Grand Parade. But Dev was not interested in them. He was fully engrossed in playing in the Play pool.
By 6:15, we went to the wave pool, but we missed to get any waves as they had stopped them by then. We enjoyed the pool for about half and hour, and came out. We had a quick snack and headed to the locker to change our clothes.
The ones that we both liked are
Land rides
* The dungeon ride - tried it twice
* Crazy Cars - tried it twice
* Sky Wheel
* Wonder Splash
High thrill ride
* The Wonderla Bamba - tried it 4 times
* The drop zone - tried it thrice
Water rides
* Boomerang
* The lazy river
* Twister - tried twice
* Play pools - spent over 3 hours in this.
I have been promising my son that I will take him to Wonderla one day during his vacations, and after a lot of procrastination on this topic, we decided to go there on May 20th, 2017. His school reopens on 29th May, and I did not want to delay this so close to that date, for the fear of him falling sick due to the water games and possibly missing his first day at the new class.
I started looking for people who could come with us to amplify the thrill. But unfortunately we couldn't get anyone... shows how much influential I can be! Any ways, from the moment I proclaimed that we were going to Wonderla, Dev was excited.
The park opens at 11 AM, and closes at 7 PM. So we had 8 hours including the lunch break. We had more than 60 rides to enjoy. That gives us just below 10 minutes to try one ride, and this included the waiting time and the ride time. It was almost clear from the above equation, and from the reviews we read about the park that we cannot try all the rides. So it became very important for us to have a good plan of action. Now, there were two types of tickets - Normal and Abnormal err.. sorry.. Fast track. The Fast track tickets allowed you to access the ride faster. The number of fast track tickets sold were restricted to 500 per day. And all the rides were supposed to have a separate queue for Fast track people. I called up the Wonderla inquiry and they suggested (obviously) to take the Fast track tickets - which was priced almost 1.5 times the normal one. Even from a lot of reviews I felt that taking the Fast track tickets made more sense.
On Friday, May 19th, I took a print out of the map of Wonderla and sat with Dev to plan the "attack" that evening. We saw the videos of almost all the rides in you tube and marked some of the rides as "must go" ones, and some as "skip". Thus we had a list of 24 "must go" rides. Our plan in brief was to go to the water park first until lunch (at about 2 pm) and then go for the kids, land, and if possible the high thrill ones. Since only we two were there, I decided not to go for a ride which was not suitable for Dev. It was 11:30 PM by the time we were satisfied with our plan.
During that night, I spotted Dev wake up during his sleep multiple times and look at the clock to see if it was morning. He was clearly very excited. Unlike the other vacation days where we have to push him down the cot to wake him up, by 7 he was up on his own. We started from home at 9 and just before we started (I wanted to delay the payment until the last minute) I booked the Fast track tickets online. We reached Wonderla at 10:10. There were a few tents infront of the park setup by the employees who were on strike - for unjust termination and transfer of employees. I think I saw the board that said this was the 741st day of strike. I dont know about the details of the strike, but I would have looked out for some other job if the strike went on for so long. Not many people had reached the park by then, and it was not difficult to spot a parking space. There were enough security guards at the parking area to assist us find a place to park. After that we walked to the entrance. We showed the e-ticket at the counter, and got the Fast track wrist band. We stood in the queue to enter and at the entrance gate, the security guard scanned the bar code, but had trouble with the code. He took us to his supervisor who called someone else and made sure our tickets were valid and let us in. I highly appreciate the way they handled the issue. They could have just asked me to go to the main counter and get this clarified. But here these people were taking the lead to solve the problem. Taking up the ownership of a problem and trying to solve it is what makes a difference in how and when the problem is solved. This especially struck me because of the horrible experience I had at the BBMP office trying to change the birth certificate of my younger son who is just 3 months. It was just a 2 minute job, but they wasted 3 days of mine, stand infront of multiple officers as a refugee.
Once inside the park, we were greeted by a couple of people dressed up as cartoon characters. They entertained the kids.
Then we went to a few more rides - and once accidentally to a high thrill ride - which to my surprise Dev really enjoyed so much that we went in it 3 times. We could take the same rides multiple times as we had a huge advantage with the Fast track tickets. The queue for the Fast track people was very less. We did not have to wait more than 10 minutes anywhere, where as the normal ticket people were waiting for more than 30 minutes. For the first time, I experienced myself how it is to feel like a person from the so called "backward class" get ahead with reservations for everything - from education to getting job and to getting promoted. I saw the same type of frustration and irritation in the faces of people standing in the normal queue as the merit based people felt when rejected from a job and then seeing a much lesser qualified person get it just because his forefathers belonged to a certain caste.
By 2 we had completed almost all the land and the kids rides - some of them a couple of times. The ones we did not do were the ones for which Dev did not qualify - minimum height of 140 cms. He was just 125 cms. By 2 we started feeling hungry and went to Green's Restaurant. We had north Indian thali. The food was good, but expensive. Dev, unlike the other days, quickly had his lunch and was ready to go to the water park. So, by 2:30 we took the locker key - which is a watch type of instrument which de-activates the lock once it is brought near the lock. We kept all our items in the locker and headed to the water rides with our swim suits on. We went to all the possible water rides. Dev was clearly very very excited! Both of us were running back to the starting place of the ride the moment we finished one, and tried the next ride. We then went to the lazy river and fought amoung ourselves, by over throwing each other from their "vehicle". We then went to the play pool, where there were lots of rides and ample place to just sit inside the pool and enjoy. The ground was paved with rubber sheets to make sure no one got hurt even if they fell. During our play in the Play pool, we saw a parade of a lot of people dressed up - The Grand Parade. But Dev was not interested in them. He was fully engrossed in playing in the Play pool.
By 6:15, we went to the wave pool, but we missed to get any waves as they had stopped them by then. We enjoyed the pool for about half and hour, and came out. We had a quick snack and headed to the locker to change our clothes.
The ones that we both liked are
Land rides
* The dungeon ride - tried it twice
* Crazy Cars - tried it twice
* Sky Wheel
* Wonder Splash
High thrill ride
* The Wonderla Bamba - tried it 4 times
* The drop zone - tried it thrice
Water rides
* Boomerang
* The lazy river
* Twister - tried twice
* Play pools - spent over 3 hours in this.
What I liked in Wonderla
* Extremely helpful staff. All of them seem to have the ownership of park, and so their attitudes are very good.
* Very clean. I have not seen any garbage lying around anywhere.
* Lots and lots of water dispensers.
* High quality rides. The rides seem to be (I am not an expert in evaluating them) of good quality. No squeaky noises or any jerks or any rusty parts.
One thing I would like to see is the reduced prices for food, especially with the verdict that malls and other entertainment bodies need to have the products sold at the same MRP as outside.
The overall experience at Wonderla was very very good! Hats off to Mr Kochouseph Chittilappally and his team for maintaining such a good institution. Wishing you the very best!
