With the Summer heating up, In the Parks will be cooling off at some of Southern California’s top water parks. This week, we splash down at Knott’s Soak City in Buena Park. Soak City is a compact 13-acre water park adjacent to Knott’s Berry Farm theme park.  It features 17 tube slides, a wave pool and a lazy river. Read all the way through our review for a chance to win 4 FREE tickets to Soak City!

The admission prices are fairly reasonable
Single Day Regular (ages 12+)
Online: $25.99 / Gate: $32.99 / You Save $7
Single Day Jr (ages 3-11) / Sr (ages 62+)
Online: $22.99

Parking
Unfortunately, parking is shared with Knott’s Theme park and,because of that, is pretty expensive considering the short amount of time an average visitor stays in a water park.
Single Day Parking Car: $15
Single Day Parking Bus/RV: $20

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

The park is located directly across Beach Blvd, in the shadow of the lovely (and free admission) Independence Hall exhibit.  Following the pathway surrounded by lush landscaping leftover from the former Jungle Island attraction, visitors are led to the entrance of Soak City.

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Soak City, Buena Park, plays off of the long coastal history of the area in its theme.  Entering the park, guests are greeted with the park icon, the Golden Surfer.  In this main entrance area we have the usual guest services such as the lockers, annual pass processing, and the park’s only gift shop.

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?
The Golden Surfer

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?All day locker rentals are $8.  Not too bad.  But $25.00 for a large Locker?  Ouch.

Wipeout Surf Shop
Wipeout Surf Shop is the only gift shop in Soak City, but it carries  everything guests will need to enjoy their day.  They have the usual water themed souvenirs, but they also carry supplies like sunscreen, sandals and, of course, towels.  Not to candy and toys.

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Guests can also rent cabanas for the entire day to use as base camp for the group.  The cabanas vary in amenities, but all offer a cool, covered place to rest up. Guests can purchase the use of a cabana at the front of the park, but Knott’s advised us that people planning on visiting should reserve cabanas ahead of time on line here as they often sell out.

•Wavepool Cabana
10×10 Semi-Private cabana / Mon – Thur / $110*
•Malibu Cabana
10×10 Semi-Private cabana / Mon – Thur / $110*
•Malibu Cabana with Extended Shade Structure
10×10 Semi-Private cabana with 10×10 extended shade / Mon – Thur / $110*

*Holidays: Memorial Day – May 28, Independence Day – July 4,
Labor Day – September 3 pricing is $140

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

ATTRACTIONS

Soak City has a nice variety of watersides from the mild to wild.

Banzai Falls
Height Requirement: 42 Inches
This 41 foot tall racing slide is a hoot.  It’s funny to watch people get so competitive.  Good times.

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Pacific Spin
Height Requirement: 48 inches
Pacific Spin is a thrilling multi-person raft ride that includes a 132-foot long tunnel that drops its riders 75 feet into a six-story funnel. Despite the fact that this is the latest addition to the park (it joined the lineup 5 years ago), it packs quite a thrilling punch.

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Have you ever wanted to know what it’s like to get sucked into a funnel? This is the ride for you.

Sunset River
Height Requirement: Guests under 42 inches must be accompanied by a responsible adult, guests under 48 inches need to wear a life vest.
Spanning the park in a giant figure eight, is the parks lazy river attraction, Sunset River.  At 1,780-ft.-long, this is one of the longest water park lazy rivers in the world. It is also a simple and friendly for all ages attraction. Think of this as the Peoplemover of Knott’s Soak City.

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

There are zero depth entry points (which make it easy to enter) and the path is quite wide.

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?The Sunset River has a disabled loading chair at the entrance as well.

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Old Man Falls
Height Requirement: 48 Inches
The highest waterside tower in the park is the Old Man Falls Tower, which has three slides stemming from its peak.   Pipeline, Point Break and Riptide are all the fastest slides in the park and require riders not wear any abrasive suits or accessories.  It’s fast and fun.

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Malibu Run
Height Requirement: 48 Inches
Lower down the Old Man Falls tower, at 39 feet, are the four inter tube slides: Dropoff, Heavy Swell, Rincon, and Wave Chaser.  These are fun, basic slides that are pretty much a fun ride for all ages.

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Tidal Wave Bay
Height Requirement: Guests under 42 inches must be accompanied by a responsible adult
Rider Safety: Swimmers under 48 inches must wear a life vest
Every water park needs a good wave pool.  Thankfully, Soak City has a sizable 750,000-gallon Tidal Wave Bay.

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Toyota Beach House
The Toyota® Beach House offers three stories of hands-on water fun including interactive water guns, nozzles, and faucets.  Every five minutes the water bucket atop the structure dumps a crushing 500 gallons of water on everyone below!

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Gremmie Lagoon
Height Requirement: Must be UNDER 54 inches
The children’s play area in the park is a nicely themed little splash zone called Gremmie Lagoon.

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Laguna Storm Water Tower
Height Requirement: 42 inches
Rider Safety: Swimmers 42 inches – 48 inches must wear a life vest.
For those still looking for more of a thrill there is the 43 foot tall Storm Tower.  These enclosed raft slides are in almost total darkness with waterfalls inside the tube along the route.  What’s nice about these is that the height restriction is not as high as the other thrill rides.

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

FOOD
The park delivers adequately on the food, offering the basics in meals and munchables.

Three locations around the park have everything from pizza to fried chicken to burgers.  What was surprising was the reasonable pricing on the food in this park.  We were also told that the food items are all being systematically revamped and improved.  The burger, we were told, was particularly good.

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Longboard’s Grill
This is the main food location in Soak City and offers pretty much something for every taste.

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?

FREE ADMISSION FOR MILITARY PERSONNEL & VETERAN’S!
4th of July! (Monday thru Friday July 2 – 6)

WE LOVE that Knott’s Soak City Salutes our Military service members by offering free admission for all active or retired service members! All that they have to do is show a Valid Military ID at any open ticket window on July 2nd thru 6th to receive a free admission ticket!

Remember ,however, that this offer is for active & retired military personnel only.  However, they are permitted to purchase up to 6 additional tickets at the “Show your Military ID” price for their friends and family members.

THE VERDICT:
Overall, we feel that Knott’s Soak City in Buena Park is a pretty good deal for the money.  While the parking is a bit too far on the pricy side, you can’t really go wrong with a $26 admission price for a day of fun at a water park.  What is an even better deal is the Gold Pass for $149.  The Gold Pass gives you entry into All three Soak City parks in Southern California, (Buena Park, Palm Springs and San Diego), Free Parking, AND entry into Knott’s Berry Farm through the end of the season.  The perfect day would be to roll into Knott’s for a few hours, then go cool off at Soak City.

WANT TO GO TO SOAK CITY FOR FREE?

The contest is now closed.  Congratulations to DBhays as the winner  of the Knotts soak city family pack.

 

Knott’s Berry Farm is so convinced that you will like Soak City that they are giving away a pack of 4 tickets to the water park to one of our readers! What do you have to do to win? Answer the question below. If you post the correct answer in your comment you will be entered in the random drawing in which one lucky winner will get the prize of four tickets into Soak City.

Q. WHAT IS THE HEIGHT OF THE OLD MAN FALLS TOWER?

You can go here to find the answer.  GOOD LUCK
The winner will be announced in one week.

Let’s hear from you below folks. Are you ready to visit Old Man Falls in person?

And that is the news from Soak CIty today.  But that’s not all, not by a long shot.  We have a whole other article about the Disneyland Resort too. Over the weekend we have news from Six Flags, and Universal Studios too. So, please be sure to click the links and check back to the site all weekend for lots of great new articles.

Knott's Soak City , Is A Visit to Knott’s Soak City a Good Deal?
Click here for the Disneyland Resort 

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Norman Gidney
Norman Gidney, also known as Fishbulb, has produced and edited many of the articles on MiceChat over the years.