raging waves waterpark

Although this place has some great water slides and all, the lines can quite literally be over an hour to get on one. Also, the food is expensive, and not very good.

Since this is the only water park in the area it gets very busy. It's not an inexpensive park, they charge for everything separately. The only way to save is to rent a Cabana package,it seems quite pricey but will save a lot in the end. You may also consider packing coolers and going to the parking lot to eat lunch, they do have picnic table for you you use.

This place rocks! They have plenty of things to do for all ages. They have different shows in the summer. Last year was a pirate show. Fun! They have a giant wave pool, with zero depth entry, I like to sit in the water and get a little sun. They have several slides, a kiddie pool area, lazy river. Concessions. You can bring your own unopened water in. You can also go out to your car and have your lunch or a snack. I recommend bringing plenty of sunblock. They don't have a ton of shaded spots and it can get pretty hot. They have tubes you can rent, lockers and cabanas. It is very clean and the staff are wonderful.

Raging Waves is very fun, but it doesn't seem like the biggest waterpark in Illinois. We were on one of the waterslides at the edge of the park, and we could see the whole place very clearly! The rides are very fun though. The funnel slide, the "Boomerang," was very fun and also the "Cyclone," which is a bowl slide. Many of them are large, and a little scary, but there is an area with smaller slides and a giant tipping water bucket. Overall, Raging Waves is very fun and a good place to go to.

Visited the week after memorial day, only 45-50 drive from Peru, IL. Beats all other waterparks I've been to. They had a online special where tickets were 19.99 usually they are 29.99, Some local chains have discount tickets so it's good to look around or get the season pass. It was in the upper 70s so the lines weren't terribly long love the water slides especially the cyclone. Lines are the shortest usually on the three sisters and they all provide a unique experience!! Food was average but I've had worse. The only major complaint is the fee for tube rental and the lifeguards yell at you if you aren't wearing a wristband. The lazy river is relaxing as is the great barrier reef wave pool although its much easier with a tube as the waves get big. Remember to apply sunscreen frequently you may not think you are in line long but I found out the hard way.

Ok I live in Yorkville but until recently have never been to Raging Waves because we have a pool. We usually do the indoor waterparks in colder months and have been to many different ones indoors and out. Raging Waves is by far the nicest one! It is laid out very nice with plenty of room and everything is kept very clean! The staff is attentive and the grounds are immaculate! Restrooms are kept clean which is a plus!!! food and drinks are not ridiculously priced like many other places. I know from living in the area that it does get super busy on holidays and weekends so do yourself a favor and try to go during the week when it is less busy. We have two 6yr old boys who couldn't go on certain slides because of height requirements which they do enforce and good they do for obvious safety reasons but There is plenty to do for all ages. If you are a parent, the kiddos will have a blast, and you can soak in some sun and relax!! 2Thumbs up and Im sure we will be back!!!

Dog ate my son's free ticket he received from school. I emailed the manager and he issued us a new one without a problem. Facility is clean, life guards seem diligent, and there is ample seating for parents to sit back and relax if need be. Concession lines seemed extremely slow and very long both times I've been there this summer. I recommend bringing a lunch to eat outside the park and rely on concessions just for snacks. We'll definitely go back next summer. It's kind of a tradition at this point.

I should just accept that amusement parks and water parks make it almost necessary to spend more money once inside the park to enjoy the attractions that you paid to use. Raging Waves offers VERY FEW free intertubes for the lazy river and wave pool so it is almost 100% necessary to purchase a $7 wristband per person to use the over abundant supply of rental tubes. Families that budget for their outings are in for a shock when they think they have paid for a day of fun only to learn that they need to shell out extra money once they get there just to use the attractions paid for without stalking free innertube users until they are done. And because there are so few of these tubes those who do have them are very reluctant to let them go, holding onto them longer then they might otherwise because they never know if they will get one again. I don't like doing business with operations that run like this. Increase the cost of the entrance fee and at least let everyone have free and easy access to the innertubes. The changing rooms/bathrooms: Towards the end of the day they were a disaster. The changing rooms themselves have no benches so you have no place to put your dry clothes - the floor, understandably is soaking wet so it is very difficult to change. The bathrooms again very wet and a lot of wet toilet paper all over the place. And lastly - there long lines for most of the food kiosks. It appeared that there was only one worker who would take the money and then get the food (ice cream at the one I observed). A very slow process and I always thought the person handling the money shouldn't be serving the food but I don't know if that is an actual law. My younger kids did have fun. The older ones (teenagers) were a little bored after a few hours. We probably won't be back.

Food lines are an hour and a half, food was disgusting!, wave pool was shut down for an hour, ran out of half of the ice cream flavors, bathrooms were gross could go on....

Waited in lines all day, even to get food was 1 1/2 hours. What a waste, don't bother with this place. Waste of time & money!

Brief description on how our day went on Wednesday August 14th 20141) Arrived early, around 9:30AM, park opens at 10AMParking spot was very close, and checking process went smoothly.Once the park opened up, I refused to pay $10 non-refundable fee for locker rental,I kept my small items with me in a sealed plastic bag.2) With advantage of arriving early at the park, we thought we will be able to use this toride some of the popular attractions with short wait times.The most popular ride, the boomerang, that seats up to 4 on a tube, had 1 tube running for the 1st 30 minutes.This tube had to come up on a conveyor belt since it seats 4 people...Imagine your child being 10th person in line, but had to wait 15 minutes to get in on a ride.It took my kids over 20 minutes before they came down on a tube. While I was waiting, one of the employees brought down half inflated tube down the stairs to inflate.SHOULDN"T THE STAFF DO THIS PRIOR TO OPENING?As I was waiting for my kids to come down, the line begin to get longer, get longer, and it became so long, it would have been a minimum 45 min wait at 10:30AM to get in another ride.My kids moved on to Cyclone, which is a 2 person tube that you bring up yourself, and theywere able to get 3 rides in 15 minutes.... big difference.3) Next up was Crocodile Mile, another prolonged wait times. Initially the STAFF was running 4 tubeson the conveyor belt, they increased it to when we were waiting in line.Again, the system was running very inefficient. I counted that 6 tubes came up and went down every 8 minutes. The 6 tubes came up all at once, and then everyone had to wait about 4 to 5 minutes for them to come up. I figured if you have 50 to 60 people in front of you, it is minimum wait of 30 minutes..Maybe that is my pet peeve, but after the experience with boomerang, you can see how this experience became sour.4) Around 11:30AM, the lines for the boomerang, the cyclone ( no tubes left), and crocodile mile becameenormous. Even my 3 kids: ages 7,9,and 11, were smart enough to realize that the wait was not worth thecheap thrill. We went to the wave pool.The wave pool, where the lifeguards just will not let anyone without the wristband ( needed to get private rental tube, extra $5 per tube) use the private tube. I saw a family standing by one of the tubes, not even in the wave pool where everyone was enjoying the waves, and one of the employees trekked on a side of the pool, went to the family and took away the tube. THERE ARE NO PUBLIC TUBES TO USE AT THE WAVE POOL.YOU NEED TO RENT A PRIVATE TUBE TO FLOAT IN THE WAVE POOL. See the scam here???You have like hundreds of private rental tubes... why police them?My kids did not want to rent tubes, very smart of them, why would I want to carry one with me all the time.5) We ate our snack, and went to the lazy river.There are not enough public double tubes for the people to use in the lazy river.There were people walking in the lazy river since they could not find a free double tube.We were fortunate enough to get one.6) After lazy river we went to "3 sisters" tube ride/ The ride has 3 different slides for one or 2 person tubes. It is the only tube ride that goes smooth and quick, even if the lines look extremely long.The problem is with the tube exchange.This ride also had shortage of 2 person tubes, and when you try to get one from youngpeople coming down, it is like pulling teeth. There is only 1 lifeguard in water making sure tubes do notfloat into the lazy river. There is nobody organizing the wait line for the tubes.... almost free for all.Teenagers seem to think that the tube is their to go around and around.. I had to explain to multiple kids, how it works... You come down, you give the tube to people waiting, and you get in line.This is total parenting issue, but from what I saw, many parents cut in front of the line so their princess does not have to wait... Majority of parents were polite7) My kids wanted to do more slides around 2PM, but the wait time was EXTREMEThe decision came quick, they wanted out...go home... bye bye.This was an obvious answer, the park was not THRILLING to them, just another headache8) Park closes at 6PM, we left at 2:30PM.You will be better coming at 3:30PM to 6PM when majority of people leave, but for daystayers, this is what it feels like. Good luck. This is once a year experience for us, my kidsdo not miss this place, they never did.We look forward to Great Wolf Lodge and Wilderness in the Fall.I

I am giving Raging Waves 3 stars with the thought that it could readily be 5 with some easy fixes.Raging Waves (RW) proclaims itself to be the largest water park in Illinois. While that sentiment may be meant to entice, the reality is that it feels more like an overly spread out theme park and not a water park (we were there a full 2 hours before even finding the wave pool!). Attractions are spaced apart so much that much (most) of our time was spent traveling between them. We were at the park for 5+ hours and left feeling like we really hadn't seen or done much. While the expansive layout may not be an easy fix, other things are.Here are some of the "pros":The park is clean.Though I don't recall seeing staff tending to garbage cans and the like, I also didn't see trash lying about or undesirables floating in the water. I wasn't crazy about seeing (uncovered) pretzels restocked via a wagon being pulled though the park, but I've seen worse in other water parks.There are attractions/rides not found in other area parksMembers of my party loved playing in the sand on our first visit and lots of repeat, in-the-know visitors came equip with buckets and shovels, etc. The pedal car attraction was also a stand out with some members of our group. The dive shown was an entertaining attraction, though I'm not sure how many times a "regular" would want to watch it. Also, the grandstands are unshaded, so if you're looking to take a break from the sun while watching some high divers, this isn't the place to do it.The "cons":No outside food or beveragesThis is a big one for me, as there are 2 locations to purchase food (excluding popcorn, ice cream and other typical water park snacks that just aren't going to cut it when you're hungry and/or in need of "food") and the lines are painfully long and slow moving. They allow picnicing in the parking lot, but on a 90 degree day do you realistically expect to pop out with your entire group just for water or a snack, especially if you're hauling yourself from a spot you've secured at the back of the park? Bottled water inside is $2.50 and quite simply is a necessity on an activity-filled, hot day. Being in chlorine filled water does not keep you hydrated, and has the potential to be even more dangerous as one may not realize the need to drink water and/or will be less inclined to do so at $2.50/bottle. Also, when hot dogs are the healthiest offering in the entire park, there's something wrong with the menu. And be forewarned, this place is literally surrounded by cornfields, so don't naively think you can just leave the park for a little while for a quick bite in town or to grab some snacks, like we thought. (Neighboring farmers take note! If you have more than corn to offer, a seasonal farm stand nearby with fresh fruit/produce would thrive!). I'm not a hippie and don't eat tree bark, but I don't see how a few grapes and some water allowed in with patrons will spell the demise of a water park. I'm not asking to bring in a grill or a pop up camper-o-food, for Pete's sake.GROSS lack of seating and shadePerhaps the park looks so tidy because most of the neatly manicured lawn areas are roped off to patrons. While aesthetically pleasing, more seating and shaded areas are desperately needed! I saw people huddled outside of the bathroom entryways and on landscape bricks, jockeying for scant spots of shade while they scarfed down a snack because of the lack of accommodations available (but not due to lack of room to provide it!) My group ate cross legged on the concrete in a chair-less, table-less gazebo just to get out of the sun for a few minutes. Fortunately we were able to do this, but plenty of others would not be physically able to do so. And given the amount of space available in the park, this is entirely inexplicable to me. Perhaps the park architects got over zealous with the Australian Outback theme and erroneously thought that very little reprieve from the hot, scorching sun adds to the charm of the park. For clarity, no. It does not.Lack of directories/mapsThe park has meandering trails and pathways, and multiple exits/entrances from the lazy river. The problem is, they're not marked. The ONLY park directory is stationed in the front of the park, and I exasperatedly happened upon a paper map in the gift shop. It was only by overhearing someone on the lazy river that I found out you could exit it at a certain point to get to the wave pool. RW, I'll be happy to make the simple signage for you to remedy this. I'll even keep it consistent with your design theme. Call me.Regarding the last two points, cabanas are available to rent. Some looked fabulous (there are several types and prices to choose from) so I wanted to learn more. I pulled out my newly-found map to look up the ones I liked, but none were not represented (RW, you're not making any return plans easy...or even desirable!)I'm a 30+ year veteran of another Illinois water park, and I really am trying to approach this review of my first time visit to Raging Waves objectively. There are some great ideas in play here. I love that the four-seat cloverleaf tubes are fed by conveyor belt by the guards to the top of some of the water slides (a tricky, 2+ customer job up several stairs at other parks) so all you need to do is get in line. I like the sandy areas and other "dry" attractions. I could do without your micro-management and penny pinching restrictions in some areas and complete oversight and indifference in others. And please stop boasting your "free parking." It should be free.Incidentally, I'm handy with a sewing machine too. So while you're thinking about adding some signage in the park, put me on your short list to sew up a few awnings and canopies to sprinkle about here and there so people can get a bit of a reprieve from the that fiery orb in the sky and actually enjoy your Midwest Outback. If you're not going to spring for chairs, then at least patrons will have a common shady area under which we can commiserate, or at least attempt to avoid passing out. Truly easy fixes that may mean not only the difference between 3 and 5 stars, but also between enjoying more seasons to come and closing indefinitely.

The wave pool here is very unsafe without inner tube. Problem? You HAVE to pay in order to get one and the lifeguard will yell at you if you do not have a yellow band. When I went into the wave pool there was this HUGE clog of tubes in he back. I got stuck under tubes, between tubes, and once in an empty tube. Every one of these pose a drowning risk. When I was under I got kicked in the face. The lifeguards are too busy yelling at people without bands to notice people in danger. These problems could have been stopped but NO they care more about money than safety. Raging Staff if you are reading this People first, then money.

We waited :40 to get in with tickets purchased from Costco, had 4, needed 1 extra. get to ticket booth, said she cannot sell it to me, I have to go to Guest Services. Ok wait another :20 in line,, get ticket. Said I cannot purchase tube bracelet here, need to go in.ok, get another inner tube bracelet, find a spot by wave pool, concrete going in is ice cold?Get to the water, even colder!!! it was 80 degrees today and sunny. Lazy River,, ice cold, kids play area, ice cold. you hear people coming down off the rides and they get off the raft into- you guessed it, ICE COLD WATER!! kids tried, so did we, could not stand the cold water and left at noon. long lines for food, waited :30 only (2) windows of the (4) open. left without eating as well.I would have much rather driven to the Dells for a day, than to waste my money here. It would have cost about the same for the (5) of us in the Dells that this did. FYI, the water temp in our Intex pool is 78, which we can handle and is unheated. This was somehow colder by approx 8-10 degrees. My legs were ice cold after getting out of the wave pool. This was nuts. Go somewhere else rather than the middle of a corn field for a water park. If you don't heat it, they will never come again! - and neither will I.

Water park has numerous slides for all ages. Wave pool, lazy river, sand area and food concessions are excellent. A day at the park is great for young, teen, families and seniors. Don't miss out on a fun day.