Wheeling Aquatic Center

Loved this place. They had something for kids of all ages from the big water slides (either go with or without inner tube), toddler slide/​splash area and zero depth area, the much deeper pool area with drop slides for bigger kids, a big sand play area, and my favorite the water playground area with a splash area, huge bucket that filled with water to splash everybody, and there was even a water basketball area. This was a great water park if you didn’t want to go to a resort type water park. We paid about $ 37 for 2 adults, my 6 year old and free for my 2 year old. We spent a good 2.5 hours there going to the water slide, toddler splash and the water playground area. We didn’t even get to the water basketball area. I liked that the particular places of the park that we went to were well staffed with lifeguards standing, walking around and sitting on watch ready for anything and checking if kids are sitting on things they’re not supposed to, etc. oh and every so often they have a 15 minute safety break where everyone has to leave the pool area.
Whoever designed this park thought pretty carefully where everything should be placed in terms of safety in particular. I had a pretty big age gap I was worried about how to keep track of them and if our family would be able to stay together. It was pretty easy due to the layout. The toddler splash area can be good for both my kids. Even the water playground area would have been okay too as long as I hold his hand up and down the steps. But off to the side there were little splash areas too to play with. The kids were too young for the much deeper pool area with the drop slides but that was on the other end of the park so they couldn’t easily access it either.
The only con was I couldn’t figure out how to work the showers afterward to rinse the kids off because they wouldn’t turn on for me. There was a handicap one that was working but it kept spraying cold water.
Oh and this wasn’t really the park’s fault per se but the women’s restroom toilets were not being flushed! And people went poop in there! Either moms are not keeping watch of their kids’ flushing or even adults were doing this! So watch out when you go in the stall or send your kid in there!
I haven’t tried their café food so can’t comment on that.
But thanks for a great time Wheeling Family Aquatic Center! It was a good place to take my son for his 6^th birthday!

When we arrived, the reception staff were completely clueless about our reserved event. It took us 10 minutes to check in. The choices at the snack bar are all unhealthy. For the inner tube slide, they had only THREE inner tubed available. That’s right … just 3. For a park that can hold hundreds three is ridiculous. They lied too. I went to the office about noon to complain about the dearth of tubes. «We’re filling them up.» An hour later, still just 3. I could have blown up 5 to 10 with my lungs alone in an hour.

We have been coming here for a friend’s son’s birthday for the past three years. Great indoor pool for toddlers. It has a very small «lazy river». Kids love it here. I’m not sure if older kids will like this place, though.

While it is a good, big pool, the disaster of a concession stand ruins the experience. We have a huge camp that can’t come any more since they spend all their time in line. The staff behind the counter is the worst. So many unhappy customers. Booboo.

I go there a lot because it is cheap. However, it is very crowded. If you want to do same laps, it might be tricky. They only have 4 lanes, and it is typical to have 4 people per lane, and private swimming lessons where they stop in the middle and discuss what they are doing. Also, the women locker room does not look very clean, and it smells of mold or something. Again, it is a cheap place. Yiou get what you pay for. I pay about $ 87 or something just to swim (no access to other facilities) for the whole year.

Ok, let me start out by saying if I could rate just the staff (life guards, concessions, etc) I would probably give them 4 to 5 stars… However if I were to rate the entire experience sadly it was more like a 2 star adventure.
I have lived in wheeling for a year now and I have been itching to check out the outdoor aquatic center. So in retrospect deciding to do just that on a Sunday afternoon was probably not the best plan. I assumed to get the resident discount I only needed to show my id and a piece of mail like every other park pool on the face of the earth… But no! Apparently to get that $ 3 off per adult you need to go spend $ 5 on a resident card!!! Now it is good for a year BUT everyone in your household needs to purchase one, which seems ridiculous to me. Obviously if my husband and I are residents so are our children!
Luckily this trip it was just me, my mom, and my 2 year old little girl. My mom is a des plaines resident yet we lucked out and only got charged $ 20 for the two of us. The locker rooms were far from as clean as some other Unilocalers had mentioned! In fact they were pretty gross! We ventured out of the locker rooms to see the chaos of the chair situation (more a complaint about the public than the pool), we found 2 chairs together when we happened upon a family that was leaving. This was at 5pm and they closed at 7pm, so wouldn’t you know it right as we tried to get into the water they announced a 15 minute safety break and EVERYONE had to exit the pool!
So when we were finally able to get into this pool, which was PERFECT temperature btw, I realized that this beach style layout would only have been a good idea if they had included enough space for anyone over 5 feet to stand in the water and have it come higher than your belly! The small area that actually fit this criteria was jam packed!
Now here’s where the thing I disliked the most comes in and once again isn’t so much wheeling aquatic center’s fault… The horrible rude people in that pool! No one pays attention to their kids and no one watches where they are going. I have been to many a public pool and NEVER EVER dealt with so many rude rude rude people! In this case I would probably take away a star from the staff because they should be scolding these mothers that don’t seem to care or notice their child doing something out of line. Case in point… They have this little whale slide thing for small children and there is a staircase up its back and the kids slide out his mouth. Now for my little one that meant I had to take her up the slide and grandma caught her on the bottom. So this being for LITTLE kids all the mothers were gathered around this whale. First I tried just helping my baby girl up the stairs next to me yet this group of like 6 Lil jerks decided they were gonna cut us and she nearly was thrown down the stairs. They slid down and came back around to cut us again and only one woman told her child to wait their turn when they saw me literally put my leg up and tell the kids to be polite and wait their turn. Then one kid decided he could care less (far too big to beon that slide FYI) and tried to literally push us out of the way, I told him there was no way that he was cutting her and to back up before I went and found a life guard. There brings up another question… Why is there no lifeguard on duty at this slide??? There should have been and I strongly believe there should be consequences for these adults and children!
But anyways there were a couple drop slides which I didn’t get a chance to check out sadly, but I did check out their other two slides. The first one was an inner tube slide and I was expecting it to be lame but it turned out to be pretty good… It even flipped me! I actually lost my sunglasses and the lifeguard told me he saw them so I should go down the other slide in front of him and he would direct me where to grab them… Mission accomplished. Sadly we didn’t check out the bucket drop part which looked fun or any of the sand areas, I do plan on checking that out soon. We decided to get a snack at the concession stand and I was pleasantly surprised that those prices were reasonable and they had a pretty good selection. Also as I said before the concession stand staff was very nice. I’m going to give this place another chance on a weekday and hopefully I will have a better experience!

I learned the hard way that in order to get the residence rates (I’m a resident) you first have to pay $ 5 and obtain a proof of residence ID card — what the flip? I decided against it and paid non residence price. I later learned that I can simply walk over to the Par District (literally across the parking lot) and pay for a Family Annual Pool Pass — yes, this cost me more (initially) but after only 4 visits, it’s paid off. No brainier. PLUS, I showed them my receipt and the earlier payment into the pool went towards the Family Annual Pool Pass. And did I mention its an «annual» pass? Yes, that’s right. To my pleasure the pass is good for a good 12 months… Meaning, even though I only have 3 more weeks left of this year to use the pass, it’s still good for the entire family come next summer — good through July 27, 2013. Awesome in my book!
Now for the pool itself… It’s fabulous! They have zero depth, lap lanes, splash park, grassy tanning areas, piped in music, sand pit area, consessions (although we always bring in a backpack of snax!), water slides, plenty of pool chairs, etc… You have to see it to believe it. There is something for everyone here. You will not be disappointed. I would definitely recommend this place for a family outing!

Actually the Wheeling Aquatic center has been around longer than 3 years. My grown children went when they were young. They loved that place.

good place to jump on the water locally.

We decided last Saturday to celebrate my wife’s birthday with family and friends. It was shark week on Discover channel so we figured ‘what the heck — let’s do a pool party’. I guess the Wheeling Park District Outdoor Aquatic Center has been around for seven years now and I really don’t know why we hadn’t been there yet — I wish we had.
So… I’ll get the unpleasantness out of the way first — If you pay taxes to the Wheeling Park District (WPD), you get reduced ‘resident’ admission. It’s like that everywhere — I know that and I don’t complain when I go somewhere else and pay non-​resident fees. Now… they don’t indicate it anywhere on the WPD website but you need a special card to prove residency. A government issued license with your address isn’t good enough — you need to get this special ID available at the WPD office and you pay $ 5 for the privilege of having this card. The building is only 100 yards away, and I probably should’ve just walked over to buy the flippin’ card, but I was loaded down with 30 lbs of beach gear and the kids just wanted to get in the water. I made a yuck-​face and coughed up the extra $ 8 for all of us to just get in. Live and learn… live and learn.
Anyhow, my displeasure ended there. You walk in and immediately you can tell this place is the b-​o-​m-​b. It was crowded and yet we found a group of chairs in a shaded area. They have so much for a kid to enjoy (for big kids like us too). The wait for the two water slides goes quick — even when there’s a line, the lifeguards keep it moving quickly. Oh… and the safety! Lifeguards are everywhere. I witnessed a minor ‘incident’ where a kid was having a hard time swimming to the ladder; not drowning per-​se, but just dog paddling a little too strenuously. Whistles started blowing and two lifeguards scrambled to his aide — it was cool to watch and a little embarrassing for the victim. Still — it made me feel safe or something. In addition to the tube and body slides, they also have two ‘drop slides’. The main pool area is zero-​depth entry so it’s totally safe for the very little ones. They have sand volleyball courts (which nobody was using). They have another ‘sand pit’ for the kids to get their dig on; ’tis a nasty endeavor that I encourage my kids to avoid. They also have one of those bucket things that dumps water on you. Also, they have a concession stand that sells all the stuff kids like. Popcorn? Hot dogs? Nachos? Popsicles? Yes… they have all that stuff. We would normally pack some bananas or apples since we don’t particularly care to feed our kids this kind of fare but we figured «let the kids eat the junk one day… it’s fun!» It should be noted that the WPD website specifically said ‘no outside food or drink’ bu a quick glance around revealed they are not enforcing this rule at all. People bring sandwiches and soda in rolling coolers and it apparently is no big deal. Again — live and learn.
Except for the whole ‘resident’ thing, our day at the pool was dynamite. This place sets the standard by which other suburban pool locations should be measured… we loved it!

The first time I went here, I was around 12 years old, with a summer camp, and almost drowned! But heyyy! No hard feelings.
I returned when I was 15 and had a nice time. A fairly large pool with a few slides. Tons of chairs… sand vollyball… big locker rooms. Not too bad for the suburbs.

So I wanted to take the baby swimming, since it is finally getting nice outside. A friend said that she takes her baby to the Wheeling Aquatic Center for swimming lessons, but I wasn’t ready to do that yet because I wasn’t sure if the baby would like it or not. I checked online and they have infant swim on tuesdays and thursdays from 10 to 11, for $ 3 for us both (parent and child).
We went to the indoor children’s pool last week and had a great time! They have lots of fun things for the kids to do (a polar bear shaped waterslide, a misting rainbow, hoses for the kids to play with, and lots of other things too)…The baby really enjoyed the water, the people who worked there gave me a special life preserver to use for baby, so she wouldn’t drown or slip away from me and go underwater. I also really missed swimming, and even though I didn’t actually swim (I just sat there, getting the baby used to the water), I had a great time too!
We’re looking forward to going back there soon, maybe even today if it warms up a bit! I can’t wait for it to get warm enough to go to the outdoor pool, which looked incredible… now if I could only get her daddy to go…

This is far and away my favorite swimmin’ hole in the greater Chicagoland area. Seriously worth the 30 – 45 minute drive from the city!
They have two large slides, two drop slides, lap lanes, a grotto-​like area, sand volleyball courts, a plethora of chairs, a giant sandbox and a HUGE children’s play area.
The locker rooms are incredibly clean and the rates are SUPER reasonable. There’s also a concession stand, but I haven’t bought anything other than water in years.
Did I mention the grassy knoll, perfect for picnics or group outings?
LOVE THIS PLACE! Probably one of my favorite lazy-​summer-​day destinations.