Wild Waves Theme and Water Park
In Federal Way, Washington, Wild Waves Theme & Water Park in Tacoma is an amusement park and water park. The Enchanted Village (with its accompanying water park, Wild Waves, which opened in 1984) is a popular summer destination in the Pacific Northwest and one of three waterparks in Washington state. It opened in 1977 as The Enchanted Village (with its accompanying water park, Wild Waves, which opened in 1984). As a result of the park’s takeover by EPR Properties, the name was changed to Wild Waves Water Park and Enchanted Village Amusement Park in April 2016, and then to Wild Waves Theme and Water Park in November 2016.
History
Byron Betts first opened the Enchanted Village theme park in 1977. Only a half-dozen rides were available on the original 12-acre (49,000 m2) park property. Wild Waves Waterpark was erected next to Enchanted Village in 1984, and the two amusement parks were dubbed Enchanted Parks. Enchanted Parks was purchased for $8 million by co-owners Michael Moodenbaugh and Jeff Stock in 1991. In 1993, Moodenbaugh traded his Enchanted Parks, Inc. stock for stock in Boblo Island Amusement Park, Inc., a jointly owned amusement park in Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada. Jeff Stock bought several rides from Boblo Island in 1993. In late 2000, Stock sold his interests in Enchanted Parks, Inc. to Six Flags for $19.3 million.
The park bought the Loop Corkscrew roller coaster from Warwick, Rhode Island’s defunct Rocky Point Amusement Park in 1997 and renamed it the Wild Thing. By 2000, the park had expanded to almost 70 acres (280,000 m2) and had more than 20 rides, making it the largest waterpark in the Northwest. Major expansion took occurred in 2002 and 2003, with the addition of several new attractions, several of which were constructed by Zamperla and S&S Power. In addition, over 1000 seasonal workers were hired in 2002 to work as ride operators and food service workers. Many of these seasonal laborers are also high school students in the area. For the 2016 season, the park was renamed Enchanted Village and Wild Waves Water Park to once again separate the two parks.
This was accomplished by creating a second entry to Enchanted Village at the top of the parking lot, with the main entrance serving as the entrance to Wildwaves Water Park. A pass to simply Wildwaves or just Enchanted Village might be purchased by ticket holders. They could also buy a park hopper pass, which is more pricey. Season Pass holders received complimentary park hopper admission with their purchase. This system was decommissioned for the 2017 season, and the park was renamed Wildwaves Theme and Water Park. Many people complained that the park hopping ticket system was too confusing, thus this alteration was made. Due to Covid-19, the park will not open in 2020. Tickets and season passes have been extended till 2021. There was a lot of covid during the 2021 season.
The park was renamed Wild Waves Theme & Water Park after it was purchased by CNL Income Properties. CNL also owns Elitch Gardens, Darien Lake Theme Park Resort, Frontier City, White Water Bay, Waterworld California, and SplashTown Waterpark, which were all purchased from Six different Flags for $312 million.
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