This waterpark was a lot of fun to travel to! There were so many things to do depending on age and activity level. We traveled to Waterloo from Omaha meeting family from Milwaukee and Des Moines. Everyone thought it was a reasonable amount of travel time. Tickets for the park are moderately priced but we found that it was cheaper to buy them at the hotel we were staying at. You do need to pay for parking as well, which I didn't love, but understand. Overall, a great way to cool off on a hot day while making some fun memories with family! read more

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Oh me oh my. Please don't listen to the haters. I came here with my buddies ready to get wet on a cloudy day. And I can assure you, we got pretty dang drenched. Every slide was great, and one cool thing about them is they lead you into water. Lazy river is a must try. I was truly in a state of peace. And then when you're tired of acting tired, there are plenty of slides to re-ride. Wave pool also cool. Got sunburned, good time. read more

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Fabulous place. We did a big long summer vacation across the country seeing many national parks and other great sites. The one thing my boys liked best all summer was this Lost Island Waterpark. They are already asking to go back. read more

June 2025. parking is $10.00 per car, larger vehicles are $15.00 per. pay the parking because they will photograph your plate and put a " barnacle" on your windshield. if you have a season pass you don't have to pay this fee as it is included in your seasonal rate. personally, i believe they have implemented this to compensate for the lack of attendance at the Themepark. disclaimer: I AM A SEASON PASS HOLDER. this year I haven't been impressed by the dazzling personalities of staff members. upon arriving you are asked to have your bag checked which is whatever. what I don't appreciate is being poked at with a stick and talked to like they think they are part of the SS. I also don't like the fact I need a stamp when coming or going which I do a lot as I live less than a mile from the park. my photo is shown on my pass, so I don't feel i need to go through this process every time I decide to leave and come back. it's a fun place most of the time. food is extremely overpriced for what you get as are drinks. one last thing is watch the QR code you're scanning for parking i had a friend that was charged $29.90 from some company when she used the code. read more

We love the water park. Usually visit a few times every summer. But maybe just once this year, because they decided to charge $10 for parking on top of the high cost of admission. read more

Great lazy river and thrill ride slides were a blast! Do the slides as early as possible as the wait time in line can take awhile! We were only able to ride on a handful of slides but not all due to the wait times. The food was a little pricey. We had ate at Castaway Cafe. Had two cheeseburgers and two Chicken bites baskets with 3 drinks and it was $55. No refills on the drinks. The burgers were dry but the kids liked their chicken! Fries were good! Rented a small locker for $7 and it was enough space to fit 2 small bags (Fanny packs) plus 5 peoples phones and other electronics. Downside, the wave pool is very small compared to others, such as Adventureland's wave pool. There were so many people in it with tubes and this made it so unpleasant when the waves were on and tubes were hitting you in the face. Tubes honestly shouldn't be allowed--Adventureland doesn't allow them in their wave pool and it's 10x better! read more

My daughter and I took the four-hour drive to Waterloo to go to this park and it was worth it! You don't have to pay for parking, which is amazing. And we bought our tickets ahead of time so getting in was a breeze. Even though there were a lot of people there, as it was a Sunday, our longest wait was on the water rollercoaster and it was about 25 minutes. All of the other rides had a 5-10 minute wait a the peak of the day. The food was decently priced for it being an amusement park. They are building a theme park across the road from the water park, which is supposed to open next year, which will be awesome! My daughter had an absolute blast and we are definitely going to go back next year. read more

Best in Iowa. Great slide plenty of loungers. Lots of food choices. Love the swim up bar off the lazy river. A must stop during summer.

A pleasant discovery when on a baseball tournament weekend with some downtime. Very clean and great rides for kids and adults!!

This is the worst place ever! Both or their main roller coasters were down payed 500 for a family of 6 and had no RIDES! Place sucks

They don't take safety seriously and the gm Matt Nieman instead of addressing the issue calls me a keyboard warriors for warning you people family and kids read more

So much fun! This is a perfect place to spend a day having fun with friends or family. They have activities for all ages including a kiddy pool and lots of water slides. I took my boys on a hot Tuesday. And even with the corona virus going on they made the park feel safe. They had strict limits on the number or park guests so the park was not overcrowded. All of the employees were wearing masks although the guests were not. But in reality how do you go down water slides with a mask on? The park employees were sanitizing the rafts between guests and trying to promote social distancing. Was it a covid free environment? Probably not but you can tell they tried. If you are worried about catching covid you should probably just stay home. The park was well maintained and it's been almost 15 years since I've been here. They have added lots of new slides. We ride them all! They have lots of food options to choose from for lunch too. Pizza, burgers, salads etc. My tips- bring water shoes. The cement gets hot on your feet! They do have some for sale in the gift shop if you forget. Get a locker- for $5 we had a locker for the whole day and didn't have to worry about keeping our valuables safe. Best part was the locker was keyless. We programmed our own code in it to use for the day. Tickets were $32 each for the entire day. Not bad for a day full of fun. I can't wait for the amusement park to open next door in a couple years. read more

This is far and away the #1 water park in all of Iowa! Not too big but not too small, good parking, good food, and most importantly, an EXCELLENT selection of slides! Didn't do the water coaster or ProSlide TORNADO ride but that's because I went by myself (shoulda brought a friend.) Definitely gonna be back here in the future! read more

Worth a visit if you are in the area! 1. SLIDES. Good selection, most involve tubes both multi and single. There is a greenish tube slide that has lights inside. There is a 5 person big tube slide. There is a 4 person 'rollercoaster' tube slide. There is one with a steep drop that makes you fly up the other slide. There are a couple ones you just go as a person. There is also a crazy carpet one (keep your face up and elbows in). Ofcourse there ks always one super high steep slide. All very good. The lazy river has a nice flow and is so long. There are multiple kiddie areas. There is also the wave pool. 2. Amenities. There are lawn chairs everywhere for use, some umbrellas. They do have expensive covered areas for rent. Bathrooms available. Restaurants available. I bought a slushie for 5$. So it is expensive and super lame that you cannot bring in your own coolers and food. 3. Location. 10 minutes from my house! I am not sure what brings anyone to Waterloo Iowa.... but if you are around, go! There are also go-karts and minigolf which I have yet to try. 4. Price. Its like $30. Great price! Unfortunately its a one price fits all, no kid prices or family packages. Its $160 for the season so I went with that. Overall I am happy with my season pass purchase and have gone twice this week. Weekdays have been less busy but Ill expect more lines to the rides as school gets out and weekends. Had a blast today after the clouds disappeared!! read more

Lost Island Waterpark - Reading while I hope it warms up here! - Water Parks Near Me - Waterloo, Iowa

The Theme Park was really well themed and had great original IP. The fact that so much time and consideration went into making it more than a bunch of rides but rather a whole experience is incredible. We will be back when visiting Iowa next year. read more

I got a gold season pass (which includes a seasonal cup) and my cup was stolen today, so I went to customer service and they didn't even try to use the chip to get it back, instead the tried to SELL ME a cup, and they are so greedy for money they overprice everything and it's so unnecessary. I'm unhappy with my experience. read more

This is a review of the nearby Lost Island Theme Park, which is right down the road from the water park. (I did not find an entry for the Theme Park in Yelp yet...) I was really impressed with my visit to this brand new theme park in Waterloo, IA. The owners really put a lot of imagination, passion and love into this place, and it shows in all the details you find while here. Each area in the park, or realm, has its own music, color scheme and atmosphere. The different areas represent Air, Water, Earth, Fire and Spirit. They have a really strong ride line-up for a new park. They have 2 adult rollercoasters, and one of them, named Matugani, is truly a fantastic experience. Their dark ride, named Volkanu: Quest for the Golden Idol, is a Disney level ride and one of the best dark rides I have ever been on! There are also an excellent amount of flat rides and children's rides here, and even little playgrounds for smaller children in each realm. They even have a really imaginative app where you can gather badges and learn more about the park. I will also say the staff here was extremely friendly! This park deserves more support and attention. It is a real gem, and having been to over 100 amusement parks, I am confident in this. Sure, it is not perfect and there are small areas that need improvement, like more shade. But considering how new the place is, it is amazing what they have achieved here. Please give it a shot if you can. This theme park is amazing! read more

Lost Island stepped up and has since included 911 dispatchers as first responders. There was some miscommunication due to changes in staffing. Their recognition does not go unnoticed and is very much appreciated! read more

I won't lie, there isn't a ton to do if you're a college student stuck in Iowa City for the summer. My group of friends was looking for a cheap and fun day trip to get out of Iowa City and Lost Island was a lot closer than going to the Dells. $25 is a pretty good deal for a water park this size. I would say it's comparable to the Wet 'n' Wild brand of waterparks, maybe a tad bit smaller. There are a good mix of chill, thrill, and family/kids rides to keep you occupied for most of the day. We went on a day that was somewhat cold and overcast but because of that we didn't have much of a wait for most of the rides despite the fact that it was the middle of the summer. Aside from parents there with their children, our group seemed to be the oldest people at the park. Is there an age where you get too old for this stuff? I don't think so. But with that being said, if you're not a fan of screaming kids running everywhere, you're in luck because the lifeguards here do a great job of keeping unruly kids in check. Locker rental was fairly cheap (I think $5) and food was a little expensive but not awful. We just opted to get snacks to hold us over and then eat dinner elsewhere. THEY HAVE DOLE WHIP HERE AS A SNACK OPTION, FORGET DIPPIN' DOTS! Their beer options are somewhat impressive for a park like this. Kona Brewing Co. and a few local Iowa beers. Overall, I had a good time and would go back again. read more

Other than being busy (buy tickets online so you can pretty much walk right in) it was a great place to visit. Renting a cabana was perfect as we had seats in the shade all day! The food (tacos and nachos) were great! Four of us ate for $40 so not too bad at all. Definitely recommend visiting!! read more

Definitely a great place for a family to go to. I say it beats Wisconsin Dell's. It has been voted as one of the top 10 water parks in America. Inexpensive tickets for the family. They have a camping ground near buy. But my son and I went on a Thursday and we went on every water slide they had and maybe one was a 10 minute wait. But it took like 2 hours to go through them all because there are so many. Plus the 2 we really liked we hit 3 times. But this is a hidden gem in Iowa. They have a lot of areas/pools for kids under 4 hidden in different corners.ibsaw one that was not even being used. All were nice. There lazy river is nice. I would say pack a cooler with food and drinks, leave it in your car. When you have put in about 2.5 hours gather the family, you can leave, eat up, come back in. They let you. read more

Lost Island Waterpark - A view while walking in. - Water Parks Near Me - Waterloo, Iowa

If you haven't been it's worth going to check it out. There is a bunch to offer and multiple kids areas. However if you take your 4 year old that you have to pay for like an adult pass they still can't ride anything. Kids need to be 42inches to ride anything with an adult with them. We did get her on one slide being the big yellow one. They have plenty of seats out there for you to enjoy be there early as they do fill up quickly. The food was ok and the drinks they don't have much to pick from for adult beverages. However they keep the park very clean and the water was very clean as well. The water was the perfect temp for you to enjoy it. We will go again and try it as an adult only trip so we can actually try the rest of the slides to see what they are like. read more

There's a reason this waterpark is ranked one of the best in the US! There are plenty of great slides for kids and adults. There's even a "water slide rollercoaster" and a huge wave pool. Plan to spend the entire day! read more

Get there early to maximize you admission dollars. If possible pack a picnic lunch and eat outside the gates to save some cash. This was a great day with the kids. At first I thought $103 for three riders taller than 48" and one shorter than 48" was a bit pricey, but in the end it was worth every dollar. Numerous exciting rides for the big kids and two kiddie parks make this an exciting family friendly park. We went on a Wednesday so I'm sure it was a light day. The wait times ranged from 0 minutes to 15 minutes depending on the ride and got shorter as the day wore on after lunch. Honestly it was harder for my wife to get me out of the park than the kids. Highly recommended. read more

Lost Island Waterpark - Kids always warm up for the scary rides in the lazy river. - Water Parks Near Me - Waterloo, Iowa

Lost island is so much better than the second rate water park at AdventureLand! Lost Island is cleaner, better maintains and the staff is so much friendlier! After visiting Adventurebay I will never go back! An awful experience! read more

This is by far the best water park in Iowa. We have been coming every year since 2011. Tons of rides, well managed and safe. Arrive early to get your money's worth if you only have a day pass. Also: do not waste your time/money trying to eat there. On busy days, you can stand in line upwards of an hour. Today, we stood on line for 1 hour and 15 minutes just for dip n dots. The two kids they had working behind the counter were slower than molasses in January! They had no sense of urgency even with a line of 50+ people. Bring your lunch and snacks and downs your time on the rides! read more

My family drove up from DSM to meet friends at this Waterpark. We have been to many other water parks and were looking forward to trying this one. The place was clean and well-cared for. There were beautiful flowers everywhere. The bathrooms were clean! The staff were friendly and helpful. The lifeguards were alert. They rotated from station to station, making a game of it jogging between rotation placements. It seemed that whoever is running this place pays staff well and has built a culture of safety and fun for the teen staff who worked there. There is an array of water slides to chooses from. Extreme water slides, family water slides, lazy river and wave pool. We will return and highly recommend. read more

Among the nicer of waterparks I've been to. This park is large (more than a dozen slides, a wave pool, lazy river, and ample chairs/seating/lay-out room), and not over-crowded (I've been twice, and neither time did I have to wait more than ~5 minutes in line for a slide). Service is moderate; bunch of teens working for the summer, but decently trained and polite. Standard park-foods on-site, they even have an adult's drink stand (some beers and a tropical alcholic drink). No outside food/drinks allowed. Tubes, mats, etc. provided at slide side, and the entire place is kept very clean. read more

DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY!!! They sell advanced day pass tickets, stating they currently have 1600 person capacity, says on their site purchase your tickets the night before you plan to arrive, and for an extra $5 you can get fast pass / speedy check in. So I purchased tickets and fast check in the night before we went. Started the day out fine, then comes time for daughters noon medication, we went to the gatekeeper, I explained we needed to go to the car so my daughter could take her meds and have a snack, is that ok? he said yes you can come in and out of the premises, and proceeded to put a stamp on our wrists, he even showed us the direction of the pizza shack we inquired about. We go out handle her needs, and went to the fast line to reenter less than 5 mins later, and were DENIED reentry as they had reached capacity, and had a line of patrons waiting to buy tickets on site. They said it was currently a 1 in,1 out, policy in effect, I explained we (obviously the only 2 in wet swimsuits at the point of sale ticket hut), had already be in there, my belongings were on a chair in there, and we got permission to go out, showed them our stamps. She had the nerve to say too bad, yeah that's a bummer, hopefully you get back in! They argued with me for over 20 mins. Your pass is only good for entry 1 time, No guaranteed reentry. I was frustrated as to why they were still selling admission tickets if at capacity, I said please just refund me at this point, the staff refused, I asked to go in and get my belongings and just leave at that point, they refused, if I wanted my things back I had to wait in the line, me and my daughter had to stand in the line for over 30 min in our wet swimsuits, while my personal belongings and beach bag were poolside, the older man in the Gilligan's island hat, that stamped our wrists, blatantly lied to his manager that he told us exit at our own risk as capacity was getting close, he literally told us the opppsite!!! There was NO signage indicating leave pool area at your own risk no guaranteed reentry, the staff, not 1 of them, verbally informed us, and their website says your welcome to come and go for the day of your pass, (to picnic etc.) Their website has a COVID tab and about 6 paragraphs down there is a sentence stating your not guaranteed re entry due to capacity restrictions. SHAME on you Lost Island for your deceptive and shoddy business practices and advertising, your subpar waterpark ( the lazy river and wave pools ), and EXTREMELY rude employees!!! NEVER AGAIN!!! read more

Love this park. The rides are great, and my kids had a blast. Love that you don't have to sit a specific way on the inner tubes on the lazy river. My only complaint is the locked rental. $5! Miss the ole dollar rentals. read more

This is my favorite water park because the food there is very good and the slides and wave pool are very fun

This waterpark is SO much fun!! I have been here three times and no matter what, I always have a great time, as does everyone else I'm with. Last Friday we were here from open to close! The place is very clean, there are plenty of beach chairs for everyone, the lines never get too terribly long, the rides are all really fun and offer a lot of variety, the staff is very friendly, and the price is right. The tubes for the lazy river and wave pool are not rented, you just use what you want to use. They have some very unique rides, like the roller coaster style water ride, or the sideways funnel. Everything is really fun, and they have several pools for small kids, too, which are sort of "separated" from the major traffic areas. My only complaint is they don't have a picnic area outside the park for people who don't want to eat from the concessions, but we just bring a blanket and find a shady spot :) Although the prices for the concessions really arn't too bad. We may just eat inside the park next time. Far and away more fun than the Adventure Bay waterpark in Adventureland (and closer!!) We'll definitely be back again and again! read more

We went to Lost Island yesterday and we had a blast! Most of the staff weren't too friendly, but there a few that were really nice. Prices for food and drink were what I expected to pay for going to an amusement type park. The only thing I don't really agree with is that the "family" sized locker was $13 although you do get $5 back when you return your key. All in all we are very happy with Lost Island and are already planning a trip with our whole family for next year! read more

If you live in Waterloo a water park pass is a must you can get one around $150.00. If you get the gold pass it comes with a refillable cup and a 10%discount on all food and they have good food at a good price. It's very clean and the lifeguards are very well trained and don't put up with kids acting up I've seen them kick kids out for misbehaving which is how it should be;) can wait for 2015 summer season read more

I would very much not recommend this water park for any single parents with kids unless they are older and taller. I took myself and my two kids, one age 4 and one age 5, my 4 year old was to short to ride any rides weather an adult with or not and my 5 year old could only ride if with an adult, well I am not going to leave a 4 year old alone to wonder to be able to ride with my 5 year old so in the end I spent almost $100 for us to get in and to hang out in the wave pool and the baby area. Highly disappointed, I will definitely recommend just going to your local pool before going here u less you have someone else with you than can take your younger kids like my situation. read more

This is one of my favorite water parks ever! The only one that beats it is Noah's Ark (America's largest). There are a lot of rides to go on and the park is very clean and it's never overcrowded. I go at least once every year with my family and we love it every time. They usually get a new ride/attraction every year or so. It's great. You won't be disappointed. read more

Lots of rides, big lines, nice time. Pretty pricey tho.

It's a little pricey at $25 per person, but not more so than other big water parks. If you live nearby, the season pass would pretty much be a no-brainer. Overall, I'd have to say this is an awesome water park with a great variety of attractions. Sadly, I have to dock them by 1.5 stars because they try to gouge you the moment you walk into the park. We were going to rent a locker, and the bank of lockers nearest to the entrance has a sign that says to go to Trader Jim's to get a key. We went there, where we found out that there were 3 sizes of lockers, ranging from tiny (about big enough for a small tube of sunscreen and your keys) to normal size, to a little larger. The prices were all obscured by other signs that were taped on, and you had to lift those signs to see the prices. I think the smallest cost $2, the medium was $3, and I don't even remember what the large was. But on top of that, there was an additional $5 deposit!! We decided, "screw that, we'll just go back out and put our stuff in our car." But that's not the end of the story. Later, we found the original bank of lockers which all had keys and only cost $0.50!!! These were the ones we remembered from our first visit, and the person at the trading post didn't mention anything about this cheaper bank of lockers when we told her $3 was too expensive and we swore it was less than $1 the last time we went. So apparently if you're a regular, they want you to go ahead and use the cheap lockers, but if you're from out of town or haven't been there in a while, they figure they might as well suck a few bucks more out of you while they have a chance. Now, onto the good. We first went in 2009, and since then we've been telling all our friends about it and have been wanting to go back. They had a really good variety of slides back then, but since our first visit they added 2 new slides. The first is the roller-coaster-like Wailua Kupua (which is similar to the original "Master Blaster" at a water park in Texas), which has 3 uphill segments that send your raft a couple feet airborne after each drop. The only downside to that slide is that the landings were so jarring that it felt like my brain was bouncing around in my skull, and it still seems like I'm feeling the effects several days later. The second new attraction is the Tá Katipo, which is a 4-lane racer slide. Unfortunately, we didn't even find that one while we were there in June 2012, because it's way at the back of the park--so I guess we'll have to hit that one next time. Out of the older attractions, we of course liked the wave pool and the body slides (Polynesian Plunge & Samoan Splash). I'm not sure which is which, but I think the purple one went a little faster. The lazy river was also nice, but the weather was a little gloomy on our most recent visit, so we dreaded the ice-cold waterfalls and fountains, which were unavoidable at one or two points. But if it were nicer out, we would have been aiming for them. Molokini Crater (2- to 4-person tube ride down a huge tilted funnel) was fun, but the initial drop is a bit scary and feels like you're going to flip over. The Calypso Cascade seats up to 5 people in a big raft-like innertube and is probably one of our favorites. The Tangerine Tempest is a single-person enclosed tube slide that drops you into a giant funnel, where you swirl around 3 or 4 times before dropping down the exit tube. It looked a little scary because most people we watched ended up flipping out of their inner-tubes at the end, but in reality it turned out to be a pretty tame slide, so I'm not sure how they fell out. The Kiwi Koaster is a 1- or 2-person slide and is part open, part enclosed. It was okay on a 1-person tube, but it seemed a lot more exciting on the 2-person tube. Emerald Adventure and Jade Rapids were basically fully-enclosed versions of the Kiwi Koaster. We didn't go on Lost Soul Falls because neither one of us likes drop slides...but if you're into that sort of thing, it looked like you could get going pretty fast. In addition to the slides, they have plenty of lawn chairs, a couple water volleyball nets, beach hammocks, and more. Of course, we were too big to go on the kids' rides, but they have an awesome water playground/castle for the little ones--complete with little water slides and a bucket that dumps a load of water every few minutes. I would highly recommend going on a weekday, or if you're only planning on being there a couple hours, going for the last few hours they're open, because the park seems to clear out by about 5 or 5:30 PM--at which point, there are no lines and you pretty much have the park to yourself. read more

Water park itself was great. If you have a special needs child or a beginner swimmer, DO NOT purchase the mermaid experience. They wont accommodate to their needs. Our daughter was left back while the others got to do the experience. The fins they gave her kept falling off as well. The water park is well worth the $25. The mermaid experience was a waste of $30. read more

This waterpark is a place for people of all ages to have a blast! You can spend your day lounging by the wave pool or in the lazy river and having a few drinks to speeding down slides with your friends and family. Its a family friendly place with various different areas for kids and splash pads. The staff there is great which can help put parents minds at ease. Their prices for admission are very reasonable, but you may want to bring a cooler to leave in your car for a snack because the snack bars can get a little pricey. Overall its a great park with lots to keep you busy all day long! Go have some fun in the sun!! read more