Birthday Bliss

My 10 year old wanted her birthday to be special this year, after having been canceled for 2 years in a row due to the pandemic. She asked if we could postpone her celebration two months this year so she could celebrate at one of her favorite places - Splash Country. I did a little research, and as soon as the reservations for retreats and canopies opened for the season, I booked a deluxe retreat with a birthday party package. 

A deluxe retreat at Splash Country is an absolute gem. You have a covered shelter with a tv, mini fridge, sofa, loveseat, coffee table, bar with 4 barstools overlooking the lazy river, ceiling fans, and a patio area with 4 lounge chairs. For a birthday party, they add some streamers, a birthday banner, a table top birthday sign, and they leave a Splash Country towel, drawstring bag and signed card for the birthday guest of honor. There are also cups with butterfly straws for each guest attending that will be used for a special treat later in the day. The deluxe retreat has water stocked in the fridge, cold and ready for your arrival. In the afternoon they bring a snack basket. There is a phone located in the retreat, in case you want to order lunch or need a question answered by a host. There is a large double-cabinet for storage with a lock and key. It is well worth the extra expense to rent a deluxe retreat, especially if the day is calling for rain, you have 8-10 people attending, and definitely if you have the gold or diamond discount. 

When we arrived, we checked in at the retreat counter just inside on the right past the main gate. Check in was quick and easy. They ask that you leave a credit card with a $100 hold on it for the day. This way, if you choose to use the service of calling in a food order to be delivered to your retreat, you don't have to deal with payment during the day. It's basically your open tab for the day. 

Once we arrived at the retreat, the staff asked us when we would like to have cake. We decided on 2 PM at their suggestion. This meant that from 10-12 the kids could go play and do rides, then come eat from 12-12:30, go back out and play from 12:30-2, and come back to have cake. The host left us to enjoy our day and told us to let them know if we needed anything. 

The water park is extremely well staffed, with multiple security officers, hundreds of lifeguards and water staff, and many other staff with various positions posted throughout the park. We felt completely safe and secure. One thing we did was put a wrist band on each child in our party, labeled with our retreat name, so we could easily spot them and know they were with us, because once they got wet in their suits they all looked the same and it was hard to find them. This also helped other parents who were there know if a kid was supposed to be in our retreat or not, and if anything happened, the staff members knew where to bring the child. We thankfully never needed to use the wristbands, and the kids ran all over the park all day on their own, but it was nice knowing we had an extra safety measure in place just in case. 

One important thing we shared with our guests and that one needs to know before hosting a party here - you cannot bring a wrapped gift into the park. Most guests brought a gift and a gift bag, and put the gift in the bag after passing through security. 

Just before lunch we used the phone to order kids meals and some adult meals from the Campsite Grill. One thing to know is that if you want a hot dog, nachos, or one of the other food options not offered by the Campsite Grill, you will still need to go stand in line and pay for those food items. They cannot be ordered by the phone for delivery to the retreat. However, there are plenty of options at the Campsite Grill - hamburgers, grilled chicken sandwiches, chicken tenders, salads, personal pizzas and more. Most of the kids got chicken tenders with fries, applesauce and a drink. If you are a pass holder with a dining pass, they will scan all of your passes at the end of the day to remove any meals or snacks on your tab. 

The meals arrived right at noon as requested, and we used our Sharpie to put a name on each meal box and cup, so there would be no confusion. The kids came streaming in and grabbed their food and picked a place to sit and eat. There was ample space for all 10 of us to spread out comfortably and eat. I will say the trash can was very full after lunch was cleaned up, and next time I would bring an extra trash bag for overflow. 

After eating and running back out to play, there was a rain delay. The park played some really fun rain & thunder songs, and made numerous announcements. Once lightning had been over 10 miles away for at least 15 minutes, they reopened the attractions. During the rain delay, we were SO THANKFUL to have the retreat! The kids watched TV, ate the snacks that had been delivered, and just hung out to rest. The snack basket they brought us had apples, grapes, chips, gold fish and granola bars. There were about 4 of each item, but plenty to share. It happened that our cake time fell during this rain delay, which worked out perfectly. The cake was beautiful. For a girl they had the wave pool with a butterfly. For a boy cake, we heard it was a lazy river cake. The cake was delicious. It was a vanilla layered cake and simple sugary icing. It was the perfect size for our group, with a couple of pieces left to take home. 

As the kids ate their cake, the host asked when we would like to do our birthday parade and get Icees. We decided to do those at 3, while we were still on a lightning delay. A handful of staff members came over with 2 birthday banners, and paraded us across the bridge while announcing to everyone it was Abby's 10th birthday. We arrived at the Icee stand and each child got an Icee in their souvenir cup with butterfly straw. The one kid who didn't like Icees was given a soda instead with no questions asked and no hesitation. After everyone had an Icee, the staff members announced one more time that it was Abby's 10th birthday, and they, along with many people nearby, sang Happy Birthday to Abby. We were able to take pictures with the birthday banner and then headed back to our retreat. 

When the lightning cleared, they began playing some sunshine and it's all right now type music. The people who were still in the park (many ran out as the rain came in) rushed back to the rides. 

As we got closer to the evening, we began cleaning up in our retreat. I found that brining our collapsible wagon and some extra reusable grocery bags with us that day was very helpful. We were able to load all of the gifts, leftover cake, souvenir cups and straws, towels, bags and more into the wagon to pull out to our car without having to make multiple trips or carry heavy loads for a long distance. I highly recommend the wagon. Just know that to go through security coming into the park, they ask you to remove all items from the wagon so they don't have to search through every bag. You carry your load through security while pulling your wagon, and then once past the guards you can throw everything back into the wagon. Leaving with the wagon is no problem at all. There are wider entrances and exits to accommodate these. 

We have a season photo card for both parks, and stopped by at the end of the day to get our photos. I would highly recommend not waiting until the end of the day to do this. If you find yourself near the photo place during the day, stop in and grab your photos then. Most of the places in Splash give you a wristband when they take their photo, but with River Rush, we had to know the approximate time we were on it to get our photos pulled up. That took some time and we probably missed a few. I do recommend the photo card though, because we ended up with over 20 photos to upload and share. It was well worth it. 

The staff, the retreat, the cake, the decorations, the friends and of course the park made this the perfect birthday celebration for Abigail. We would definitely recommend it to friends and family. Definitely book your retreat and party as early as you can, because most of the deluxe retreats sell out for the entire summer early in the season. Your party date has to coincide with an available retreat. The earlier you book the better your chances of getting the date and retreat you want. A map of the retreats is available on the Splash Country website. Be sure you log in first if you have a pass so you get your discount. We had a lot of positive feedback from our guests about how great of a party this was. It is different, unique, and a LOT of fun, without a lot of work by the parents.