Amusement Park News

Big Rivers Waterpark & Adventures in New Caney, Texas, launched the opening of new amusement park rides in late 2021 with the plan to open more rides at the start of the park's 2022 season in mid March.

There will be eleven new amusement rides added to an area of the park known as the Big Rivers Fairgrounds. The park extended its season by offering these amusement park rides that offer plenty of fun without getting wet as cooler weather arrives. Along with the new rides, the park also offered a special Christmas at Big Rivers from Thanksgiving weekend throughout all of the holiday season.



According to big Rivers Waterpark & Adventures founder Monty Galland, “With the addition of the fairgrounds, Big Rivers becomes the newest amusement park destination in the greater Houston area. With 11 amusement park rides, including a spinning coaster, Big Rivers will be a year-around destination.”

There is still more ahead, however. The eleven rides are not a replacement for the upcoming, planned Grand Texas amusement park, which is planned to have themed attractions.

Currently, Big Rivers Waterpark & Adventures, according to the Montgomery County park's marketing director Carl Foy, has a variety of six water slides, Storm Surge, Comal Crush, Frio Falls, Pecos Plunge, Sabine Scream and the COLORado River Racer. There is also a wave pool, a lazy river, and in the Gator Bay adventure park section, the extensive Hawk's Glide ziplines, as well as a six-story Eagle Challenge course. There is also the “tallest outdoor climbing wall in Texas; Wild Isle, an aquatic obstacle course on a spring-fed lake, petting zoo, alligator habitat, archery and more.” The Rio Grande lazy river attraction is billed as the largest in Texas and offers free tubes for guests. There's also the Polliwog Puddle splash pad for little kids.



But Galland still has much bigger plans, making this only one component of the planned 632-acre large Grand Texas development. The upcoming themed Grand Texas Amusement Park should total 140 acres, and Galland is also planning to construct two hotels for guests as well as an outlet mall. “Waterpark, Adventure Park and now Amusement Park, we anticipate guests will be coming back multiple times each year just to do it all,” he enthuses.

The larger planned theme park is still in the works but getting closer, Galland says. Construction delays began shortly after his company purchased the land in 2013 and he elected to construct the waterpark prior to any other, due to oil prices and “the amount of infrastructure that it takes to power and supply an amusement park…We decided to build a lot of these ancillary pieces first, and as we did that, we contributed to the development of that infrastructure, taking some of that capital cost off the table.”

The decision also helped to reassure lenders that Galland could successfully operate the waterpark, adventure park, and RV park prior to commencing the larger Grand Texas project. He noted that having never built a waterpark before, the entire process was and continues to be, a learning experience, starting when the waterpark was being built, with the importance of making certain that water can be successfully diverted, and land remain dry. There was also inclement weather to deal with during the building process that delayed even the waterpark's premiere to 2018, with a soft opening over Memorial Day weekend of that year and the last major ride opening in mid-July 2018. But that's all in the past.


 
The new Fairgrounds rides are about to open for family fun, and will include the Rolling Thunder spinning roller coaster, SPINdletop, a swing that propels riders in a pendulum for 360 degrees, a family attraction known as the Screaming Eagles, is a modern day Flying Scooter, that allows the riders to control the flight path of the car, and a rocking pirate ship called Lafitte's Fury. There will also be seven more rides, each varying in intensity from children's attractions to more rides that thrill.

The park is advertising a 2022 Season pass as the best way to take in the Fairgrounds this year, as well as taking in both the wet and dry park attractions throughout next year. The waterpark attractions will reopen in May. The Fairgrounds attractions will run March through December. Passes are $69.99 per person.



Along with the grand opening of these new rides, Christmas came to Big Rivers in a “big” way. The first holiday event ran Friday and Saturday nights in December with free admission and parking. It offered guests the chance to explore lights and decorations as well as taking free photos with Santa using guests' own camera or phone camera. There were also free arts and crafts decorating, a petting zoo, and kids' fun with both a Hay Pavilion and Sand Hill. The holiday event ran from 6 to 10 p.m.

For an additional fee, guests could purchase cookie decorating activities, S'mores kits, hot chocolate, and other food items such as pizza, funnel cakes and adult beverages. And, also for an additional fee, guests to the holiday event could be among the first to experience the Fairgrounds amusement park attractions.



With further developments ahead, the Big Rivers Waterpark & Adventures is a venue that's flowing well toward a “grand” future.