Riviera Maya Events

On Saturday February 20, Ventura Park opened its gates to a large group of specially invited guests for a preview night of what the new park has to offer. Located at the southern end of the exciting Cancun Hotel Zone, the new park is an expansion of the original Wet’n Wild water park, now with all kinds of cool attractions to explore. It opens to the general public on March 1, 2016, and let me just say that Ventura Park exceeded my expectations! (Please forgive my photos... my cell phone takes decent nighttime images, but not the best.)

Ventura Park Areas

If you have ever been to Wet’n Wild Cancun before, you’ll remember that the water park was pretty extensive with lots of unused space. I was worried at first that Ventura Park had cut down a lot of local plantlife to build the new attractions, but what they have managed to do is basically just fill in the empty spaces of the original water park to make it feel more vibrant, colorful and exciting. The new Ventura Park has a few new restaurants and bars, plus an ice cream stand. It has been classified into many different areas, each with its own unique theme:

Wet’n Wild: Cancun’s water park attractions haven’t changed much, featuring a wave pool, a lazy river running through the park, plenty of water slides, a Bubble Up for kids, and a kids’ splash area.

AaahVentura: Probably the most exciting part of Ventura Park, this area has a jungle expedition theme with a heli jump, beautiful rope bridges to explore, and a few ziplines that cross the entire park.

Fun World: The carnival-style atmosphere of this area lets you enjoy attractions like a small but thrilling roller coaster, a classic chair swings ride with amazing ocean views, and a traditional carrousel for little kids.

Underworld: This indoor arcade has a bunker-style feel to it, featuring its own bar, Star Wars Battle Pod games, a laser maze called “The Mission”, and lazer tanks (similar to bumper cars, but played in giant spinning tanks. Underworld attractions come at an extra price unless you purchase one of the upgraded packages.

Grandprix: This small go kart track has plenty of curves! You can choose to ride in an individual kart or a double kart. (Kids 1.0 meters - 1.40 meters tall must ride with an adult.) Grandprix has an extra cost unless you purchase one of the upgraded packages.

Beach’O: Ventura Park’s beautiful beach club has a small infinity pool by the Caribbean Sea and a cevicheria, along with plenty of loungers, palm trees and shaded bali beds to create a serene atmosphere. Access to the beach club and snacks from the cevicheria come at an additional price.

For more info, this Ventura Park blog post has a detailed description of the rides and attractions available.

 Ventura Park with Kids

My main thought throughout my time at Ventura Park was that this would be a great place to come with kids. The water park and carnival-style rides especially make it an attractive option for a day out as a family. However, one thing to consider is that most of the rides and attractions have minimum height requirements (1.07 meters tall for most of the water park rides and games, 1.40 meters for some of the bigger rides like the roller coaster, and varying heights throughout the park) We saw more than a few kids get upset when they didn’t meet the height requirements for the roller coaster or the go karts, so keep that in mind especially if you have kids between the ages of 5 and 10.

Pricing and Packages

Ventura Park just released its prices on Facebook this week, with varying prices for tourists and locals. You can choose from a daytime pass (10am to 5:30pm every day) or a nighttime pass (5:30pm to 11:00pm Wednesday through Saturday), or upgrade to get both. Prices only include certain areas of the park, depending on which package you choose, but all passes have all inclusive food and beverage. You can also purchase packages with transportation to the park.

The most basic package for tourists has a price of $79 USD for adults, including the main areas of the park like Wet’n Wild, AaahVentura and Fun World. (See all prices below)

If you’re a local living in the state of Quintana Roo, which includes Cancun, Playa del Carmen, the Riviera Maya and far beyond, you can access the park’s discounted local pricing, which starts at only $499 pesos for adults with the most basic daytime package. Not bad! Unfortunately, Ventura Park has confirmed to me that they DO NOT accept Temporary / Permanent Resident cards as local ID. They only accept IFE cards, driver’s licenses and social security booklets as ID in order to access the local prices.

After visiting Ventura Park, my first impressions are that it’s a wonderful option for families with kids, groups of friends, and even couples looking for a fun way to create memories and enjoy a fun day or evening that will make you feel like a kid again. For the latest updates, follow Ventura Park on Facebook.

Originally from Virginia, Laura Winfree moved south of the border in 2005 to major in tourism at La Salle University Cancun. Today, she works as a copy writer for a local travel agency in addition to freelance blogging, writing and translating. Laura writes about her life as an expat in Mexico at http://gringationcancun.com and http://www.facebook.com/gringationcancun. Nightclubs and weekly beach trips are her favorite part of living in Cancun!