a peek inside the fishbowl

1 | karen

November 5th, 2010 at 12:43 pm

I visited Calypso on a Friday before school let out. My kids loved it. Had I known Mont Cascade was going to slash their prices I may have waited.

That being said, my son went both places and thought Calypso was much better.

I really enjoyed myself as well but I did think the entire place was rather pricey.

2 | lacoop

November 5th, 2010 at 1:58 pm

We went to Calypso this summer. It was expensive, but it was great. The lineups at the favourite attractions were big…but they were pretty fantastic rides. Some of the attractions didn’t have lineups (the beach, the slow river), but they were crowded. By the way, the beach is an accident waiting to happen…to many big people being tossed around by waves…the people being tossed could easily land on somebody else — we are talking hundreds and hundreds of people in this wave pool…I would guess someone small could go under and not be noticed immediately. If you go, bring your own food and set up a picnic site, as there is plenty of space. On a hot day, the whole thing can be fun.

3 | Shannon

November 5th, 2010 at 10:44 pm

We avoided Calypso after hearing how long the line ups were and people only getting on 4 good rides in one day. We went to Cascades and had a blast. For super cheap! Can’t beat that! I’ll hit Calypso once the novelty has worn off.

4 | Hilary

November 6th, 2010 at 3:27 pm

I went this summer for a friend’s birthday. The weather was a plus and a minus – it was a fairly cool, grey day so we shivered a lot, but the lines were comparatively short! I would envisage a LOT of waiting on a hot day.

On the minus side, it is very expensive, the food is poor quality (bring a picnic!) and I am sure the slippery, wet kids’ pirate play area is going to result in an accident very soon! (Though it’s a great area, we adults loved it :)

On the plus side, the whole set-up is clearly a step beyond Cascades and there are things for everyone to do, even those who aren’t adrenaline junkies. There are some crazy scary rides!

5 | Jen_nifer

November 8th, 2010 at 10:05 pm

We bought 2010 Season Passes for Calypso at the end of 2009. We are in the east end of town, so it wasn’t too far to drive, and my husband is a fish.

We were disappointed that such a remote place charged for parking. We paid the $25 for season parking (it was $5/day). I really enjoyed the 3 or 4 times we went in June, before it started to get crowded. We brought a picnic every time. Since our son was only 4 1/2 we spent most of the time there in the wave pool or lazy river. We did a couple of big rides, but he wasn’t up for much of it. We ended up going 6-10 times over the summer.

Our boy got cold fast between rides, even on sunny days. I hope that Mont Cascades keeps prices low for 2011, because I think it will be more appropriate for our son’s age.

6 | Jen Hughes

November 8th, 2010 at 11:16 pm

We never made it to Calypso this year, despite that being on our list of things to do. We heard about the high price, the long lines, and also that our kids might not get the most out of it since they’re still pretty small.

We decided instead to head to Mont Cascades as well, due to slashed prices. But, we never made it there either! But will definitely do so next year.

Have you heard about the other big, new waterpark being planned for near Richmond/Manotick, called Allottawatta? Talk about war of the waterparks…