Mountain Creek Waterpark, Vernon, New Jersey: Great Family Waterpark

Last summer I spent a day at Mountain Creek Waterpark, in Vernon, New Jersey. My first impressions were that of a safe, family oriented place to spend a warm day splashing around and have some fun.

After arriving with two of my friends, we waited for a half hour in line, which was much longer than I would have liked. After getting into the park, however, the lines were not too bad, probably because of the sheer size of the park and amount of rides. The park is separated into 3 main sections, each one with about 8 rides.

We first went to section one, which has a Tarzan swing. This was fun, but was also the longest line we had to wait on; about 25 minutes. Afterwards, we went on H2O, which is a 99 foot body slide that goes almost straight down. It's actually the tallest body slide in North America. Surprisingly, there was no line for this ride whatsoever, probably because it's so scary, not many people go on it.

Another great thing this waterpark has to offer is a wave pool, which is great if you like waves but don't like going in the ocean. Wave pools are infamous for the fact that they can be dangerous, but I was extremely impressed with the lifeguards on duty. It is clear that they all take their job very seriously, and that was comforting. In fact, I counted a total of 9 lifeguards at the wave pool when I was there, which shows that this park has safety as a main concern.

If I had to say something I didn't like about the waterpark, it would definitely be the food. This is not surprising, as all amusement parks are the same on this issue. The food was extremely expensive, and not very good. Guests are not allowed to bring food into the park, so it may be wise to bring lunch and pay a bit extra for a parking space on the upper lot near the entrance, so you can go to your car to eat lunch, then go back into the park.