Visiting Noah’s Ark Water Park: Largest Water Park In The US

When Shae found out that we’d be staying near Noah’s Ark Water Park in Wisconsin Dells – the largest water park in the US – we knew it was somewhere we had to visit while on our 50 state road trip.

Based on work commitments, weather and other plans, there was only one day we were going to be able to make it to Noah’s Ark Water Park. So on the Thursday morning during our stay in Madison, we dropped off our dog Truffles at a dog sitter we found on Rover and made our way up to Wisconsin Dells.

Spread out over 70 acres, the park is very spacious, yet it doesn’t take too long to get from one end of the park to the other.

Once inside, we made our way to Big Kahuna – one of two wave pools at the park. They have tons of sun loungers by the pool, so we laid out our quick-drying towels on a couple of them.

There are more than 25 rides and attractions at Noah’s Ark Water Park and, other than the kiddie areas, we went on pretty much all of them.

Some of the kid areas looked fun though. Paradise Lagoon has a hanging zipline above a pool in case kids can’t hold on until they reach the end.

One ride – Scorpion’s Tail – was closed, but I’m not sure I’d have plucked up enough courage to go on that. That’s a water slide where the floor drops out beneath you and the ride begins with you falling straight down.

I did go on the ride next to it though – Point Of No Return. The walk up to the top of the slide was fun as there were signs at each turn saying, “This is the point where your knees go weak”, “This is the point where you can hear people’s screams”, etc. Then when you get to the top, the sign says, “This is the Point Of No Return”.

I was a little nervous when getting on the ride as it’s a steep slide down. You can’t see the slide as you push yourself off which is a bit unnerving, but your feet touch the slide immediately and it’s not a straight drop. Point Of No Return was a fun ride and didn’t end up being scary once on it. Shae filmed me on the way down:

On the plus side, lines for the ride were incredibly short as there were no more than five other people in line on both occasions. On the negative side, the ride hurts at the end when you reach the water at the bottom. You slam across the water, so my butt and back were pretty sore after a couple of rides down.

The newest ride at Noah’s Ark Water Park is Raja which is apparently the world’s largest King Cobra dual slide. You sit in a tube, slide down in a couple of loops, then drop down and up the other side, sliding back and forth until you come to a stop.

It was fun to experience, but the wait was ridiculously long. There wasn’t even a particularly long line, but it takes forever to get people through. The ride takes longer than most at the park as you slide back and forth for so long at the end. That meant I had to wait in line for about an hour to experience it. By comparison, the longest wait we had on other rides was about 15-20 minutes.

If you don’t want to wait an hour in line, give Stingray a try. It’s a similar ride but as it’s shorter, you don’t have to wait in line as long. This was a ride Shae wasn’t keen on riding, so she filmed me on the way down:

The water park’s also home to Black Anaconda, the first water coaster either of us had ever seen. It’s called a water coaster as it’s a cross between a water slide and roller coaster. You sit in a raft and slide down some sections, but are then pushed uphill in other sections.

From what I can tell, the raft gets propelled upwards by a travelator-style moving section. Here’s a quick clip we filmed while waiting in line to show what it looks like in action:

Within about an hour of being at the park, the sky got darker and it started to rain. Given that we were at a water park, getting wet didn’t bother us. However, we were concerned that a thunderstorm would mean they’d have to close the park. Thankfully the rain only lasted about 15 minutes, then the weather the rest of the day was great.

Noah’s Ark Water Park has a good mix of rides – some tame, some adventurous. After lunch, we decided to let our food go down a little and chilled on the lazy river which they’ve weirdly named Adventure River.

Adventure River was the longest lazy river I’ve ever been on. As we prepared to get out, I asked Shae if we’d gone around two or three times.

The answer was neither. Apparently we’d only gone round once!

The park even has a ride that can soak you even if you’re not on it. Flash Flood is the type of ride you’ll often find at amusement parks which blasts a wall of water into the air at the end of the ride. Riders get soaked, while there’s also a viewing platform where bystanders can get drenched too.

Shae and I have waterproof phone cases, so we stood on the bridge at the end to record it. (n.b. That’s an affiliate link to the phone cases we bought on Amazon. If you buy something using our link, it doesn’t cost you anything but Amazon pays us a small commission.)

Shae and I ended up staying at Noah’s Ark Water Park for about seven hours, by which time we were toast. My stomach was quite literally toast as I’d forgotten to apply sunscreen to that part of my body. Four days later and it’s still red, but thankfully not so tender.

Final Thoughts

Shae and I had an excellent time at Noah’s Ark Water Park. There were a bunch of fun rides, lines weren’t very long (other than for Raja) and it was a comfortable temperature outside.

We used to have a season pass for Water Country USA in Virginia and I enjoyed Noah’s Ark Water Park more than that one. In the summer, it’d sometimes get to 100° at Water Country USA. That’s not so bad if you’re in the water, but it’s incredibly uncomfortable when waiting in line. Lines also tend to be longer at Water Country USA, so I’d definitely recommend visiting Noah’s Ark Water Park if you’re staying in or near Wisconsin Dells.

Cost

We bought our tickets the night before as we found a deal on Groupon. If we’d bought tickets directly, they’d have cost $34.99 per person. Instead, Groupon was selling tickets for $30.99 each and we paid using Groupon gift cards we’d bought at a 10% discount. That effectively means each ticket cost $27.98 – savings of 20%.

Unfortunately there’s a $15 parking fee; with taxes and fees added on, that increases to $16.01. Taking that into account, our total outlay was $71.97. $36 per person is fairly expensive, but we had a great day and so I’d say it was worth the price.

To save money, we brought our lunch and left it in a cool bag in the car. When leaving the park, you get a stamp on the hand so you can re-enter for free after eating. There are several picnic tables in the shade by the parking lot, so you don’t have to eat in the car.

Noah’s Ark Water Park 2018 Promo Code For Readers!

Following publication of this post, Noah’s Ark Water Park reached out to offer a discount to readers (you can see that in the comments below).

We don’t write sponsored posts or accept freebies, so we declined their kind offer of free tickets for us. However, we’re more than happy to pass on savings to you, so if you use the promo code noahsblog18 you’ll save an additional $5 per ticket. That takes the ticket cost down to $29.99 – cheaper than the Groupon deal we got if you don’t have any Groupon gift cards bought at a discount.

Here’s a direct link to their tickets page with the promo code pre-populated.

Address

Noah’s Ark Water Park, 1410 Wisconsin Dells Pkwy, Wisconsin Dells, WI 53965