I have to admit - I was a little worried before our visit to White Water Bay this weekend.

I did my regular online search beforehand, and the reviews I saw didn't shine a good light on the place. I read about broken rides, awful lines, smelly astroturf and rude staff.

But we gathered up the sunblock anyway, and went to see for ourselves. And we didn't see any of those things. Not even one.

Follow up:

Perhaps those reviews were written before the park was sold to new owners in January 2007. All I know is that we had a great day with a lot of fun, right at home in OKC.

This late in the year, the park is only open on weekends, from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and there's only five days left - August 29 and 30, and September 5, 6 and 7. During the summer, they're open during the week, too, with later hours. They have all the dates and times online on their calendar.

Turned out, we visited the park on Operation Military Kids day, where the first 400 military guests received free admission and a catered meal. So the place was pretty full, but who better to spend the day with than America's finest and their families?

Parking is $5. There's also a spot where people can drop off their kids or whomever and leave without having to park. Tickets are $25.99 for people above four feet tall and $21.99 for four feet and under. Children ages 3 and under are free. There's usually discount tickets floating around at places like 7-11, which can help with the prices.

We got there a little late since we hit some stores first to find a baby float. We didn't find one, but we were able to get one at the gift shop (oh, I'm sorry, the Tabago Trading Shop) at White Water. We also got a swim diaper there since in the rush to leave, we forgot the two year old's swim suit. She wore the diaper and a little t-shirt all day. The prices were high in the gift shop, but don't we all really expect that? It was better to spend $10 on a baby float than not have one all day. The float didn't work right when I got it out of the package, but the kid manning the register didn't give us a hassle about it at all - he just took the broken one and had me grab another off the rack. The second float held air perfectly.

We didn't rent innertubes ($7 for a single; $8 for a double) or a locker ($8 for a single; $15 for family-sized) and instead relied on the free tubes and the hope that no one would pick up our stuff off the lounge chair we sat it on. We also didn't pay to stash our cooler ($5), instead opting to park our cooler in our car. They don't allow outside food or drinks, and the prices are high - just like you expect theme park food prices to be. We saw a lot of people with their own snacks or water bottles though. The staff didn't seem to ask them about it, and no one searches your bags when you go in. When lunchtime came, we got our hands stamped and just ate our sandwiches in the car.

We started in the baby area, (aka Kids' Kove) just to get our bearings. The online reviewers warned about the bathrooms, so I wore my flip flops in there when I went to get the two-year-old ready for the pool. There was a little water on the floor, so I'm glad I had them on, but it wasn't gross or anything - just pool water that had dripped off of wet people.

The baby area was nice - there were a lot of lifeguards there, and there was a lot of fun things for the kids to play on.

Was there anything we didn't enjoy? The slides were good. There were a couple that my six year old son was afraid of, but once his nine year old sister convinced him, he enjoyed them. Sometimes he would get a life jacket (they have some to use for free) if one was available. He was nervous about being in the deep water at the end of some of the slides, since he can swim, but he likes to be able to touch bottom. On those slides, I went down first, and the lifeguards would let me stay in the area (just not at the bottom, of course) to help him if he needed it. That worked really well.

We only saw one slide that wasn't working - the pink part of the Bermuda Triangle. Lenora really liked the other slides on that one. I didn't like walking all the way up. She fell out of her tube the last time she rode it, and somehow cut her back on something in the slide. She didn't feel it and it wasn't openly bleeding - just raw and scraped, so we put medicine and a bandage on it when we got home.

They loved the wave pool and the open swim area, the slides and the lazy river...I mean, Castaway Creek...that was my favorite too. We all liked The Big Kahuna, which was the great big slide that all of us could ride at once. I think the two year old liked it - she didn't freak out, at least. The line for The Big Kahuna was the longest for us. We probably waited there for 20 minutes. That was the worst one, though. I don't think we waited more than 10 for anything else, and most were only 5 minutes or so.

Waiting on tubes took a while, but it was a better option for us, personally, to not rent tubes. If you rent them, you can go straight ahead and get in line without having to wait for a tube to ride down. That added a little time...but with five of us, it would have cost way too much to rent tubes.

I also read a review that said the astroturf wasn't clean, but it looked great to me. I saw people cleaning up throughout the day. I got a chance to talk to one lady during closing - she was sweeping in the Kids' Kove. She was incredibly nice. Matter of fact, all of the staff was nice. It was a really friendly place to be.

All in all, a really good day. If you haven't been to White Water in a long time, it's still a lot of fun and seemed to have things for the whole family to enjoy. There's still time to go this summer!

White Water Bay's web site

White Water listing on Wikipedia