OcalaMom.com

This week was the only week of the entire season that Wild Waters was open on the weekdays when the older school age children were still in school. Monday was Memorial Day and was packed. The remaining weekdays of the week were advertised to be opened from 10am to 6pm. As Season Pass holders and a mom of 2 little kids, we have been looking forward to this week to spend as much time there while the older kids weren't there.

However, we, and many other parents of small children were very disappointed when they abruptly closed at 2:00pm on Tuesday and 3:00pm on Wednesday. There was approximately an hour notice prior to closing over the loud speaker. Some of the life guards anonymously shared w/ us that they were closing b/c they didn't have the money coming in to pay for running the park for the amount of people that were at the park. As Season Pass holders, we paid to be able to use the park at the dates and times advertised. It's not our fault that less people showed up than they could handle.

When they closed the park early, everyone headed out; many non-pass holders were very disappointed that their money was wasted on a "cut-short" day. They left w/ no reimbursement or comp-ticket. After loading up the kids, we were one of the last people out of the park and stopped to inquire about the closing to one of the young life-guards. She explained the situation and told us "if we complained enough, they would give us a comp-ticket for a free visit back". We watched many people leave in front of us that didn't know about the comp-ticket and left w/o any compensation. It was obvious that they (W.W.) were trying to hold back on giving out the free tickets unless someone raised cain.

They did this 2 days, in a row. We even watched a grandmother bringing her "after-nap" granddaughter in at 3:00 on the 2nd day they closed (after driving all of the way out there) and left in tears after being turned away at the gate. Remember, they advertised being open until 6pm. I have no idea how many people came after they closed and met a closed gate w/ noone to explain why.

With our connection to the Star Banner..someone contacted the Park and this was the response they gave...

"Silver Springs Director of Marketing and Sales Brooks Jordan said the decision to close Wild Waters early on some weekdays is made when just a handful of visitors remain in the park.

"We do very well during the day with groups, but when they leave, there aren't enough people left in the park to justify keeping it open," Jordan said. "And just like other situations with incidents like lightning, our hours are subject to change."

Jordan blamed the lack of afternoon business in the park on the schools -- mainly, kids are still in them until the first week of June.

"A lot of it has to do with that kids are in school later this year until June," he said. "We expect to see a rise in business when the schools let out."

Jordan added that if officials decide to close the park early, guests receive a ticket good to return on any other date this year.

"We want to make sure that everyone gets a chance to come back and enjoy our park," he said."

I say...sounds nice, but that's not exactly what happened. It isn't like lightning and tickets were NOT passed out to EVERYONE.

Was anyone else there to experience this? Do I have a right to be ticked off? Thanks for allowing me to vent!

You definitely have a right to be upset. That is a prime example of the bad service that is typical of many businesses in the area. I haven't been to Wild Waters in a very long time, why...because it is run down and not well-maintained like it used to be. It used to be a happening spot to go for the young, but now it is pretty much an afterthought. If the customers were taken care of properly, customers would take care of Wild Waters. The same goes for all businesses in Ocala....START PROVIDING TRUE CUSTOMER SERVICE AND YOU WILL REAP THE BENEFITS. The customer is not number one anymore and it shows.