The last weekend of the summer holidays was a blast. We didn’t do any summer vacation this year, and Snubnose was particularly disappointed by that. Unfortunately, the timing was pretty bad (just started a new job, and K is in the middle of some major changes as well), and it was impossible to take off for even a short duration. Snubnose has had to be content with promises of a trip maybe during the Dussehra or Christmas holidays.
She was a very good girl though, getting over her disappointment without too much fuss, and in return she got a pleasant surprise last weekend – a day trip to Wonder la.
We gathered up a few of her close friends and their parents and whisked them all to a day’s outing at Wonderla. Planning and organizing the trip was a bit of a pain, with many add-ins and drop-outs at the last-minute, but in the end the whole day was so much fun, and worth all the headaches it took to get there.
What is Wonderla?
Wonderla is an amusement park outside Bangalore, located off the Mysore Road, and is about 25 kms away from the center of the city. The park has some wonderful rides – both wet and dry. It’s also excellent value for money, with the entry prices quite reasonable considering the amount of rides they have.
Fun for the entire family
The last time we went was almost seven years ago when it had just opened all nice and shiny. Snubnose was just a baby, and when we came, we saw there was very little that she could sit on safely. So, we didn’t do much, but we could see that the quality of everything was just first-class, and when we went there last week, we were hoping they had maintained it in the same condition.
What a pleasant surprise to see it in just as great a condition! Even nicer was to see that safety has been given enough attention, there are people manning every ride and help is always around.
Like most people, we went for the dry rides and coasters first before embarking on the wet ones. There were plenty of rides for small kids this time, and Piglet had a ball going for rides multiple times on the choo-choo train, the caterpillar ride, the carousel, and other similar rides.
I love that I can barely see them above the caterpillar in the above photo 😊. Honestly, I was a bit worried for both the kids, it’s a ride that goes up and down, and in circles, and I wasn’t sure if they were ready for it. Adults were not allowed and Snubnose had vanished into the crowds with her friends for a go at the bigger coasters. Reluctantly, I let the boys go on their own for this ride, and they were quite ok with it. I did put my foot down on the Columbus ride, though. It looked fairly harmless, but I didn’t want to take any chances.
Instead, they did multiple rides on the choo-choo train and then hung out at the goose pond till the bigger children returned from their coaster rides.
Snubnose returned from the coaster ride, looking a bit green and unwell. I just assumed it was the ride and that she would get better with a little rest. So we stopped at Papa John’s for some grub and to give her a chance to rest and get over it. To my dismay, post-lunch, I saw that she was running a pretty high fever. So took off with her to the first aid center, where she got some medications and a proper bed.
An hour later, she still wasn’t fine and was in tears because all the other kids were at the water park, and she was sick in bed. Seeing that her tears were increasing her temperature alarmingly, I decided that she could go and sit in the splash zone for a while. Turned out to be the best decision. Within minutes, her fever had vanished and she was having a blast.
The splash zone (or play pool as it is called) was also fun enough for Piglet. I would have liked it to have been a bit more shallow so that he could walk around in the water.
Instead, I was carrying him in the little circular dinghy (is that what it is called?), which was also too big. He kept sliding out of it and so in the end I got quite a workout carrying him around in the water along with the dinghy. Still, it was good fun and even better seeing Snubnose enjoying herself again.
After the play pool, we queued up for the lazy river, which was a bit too lazy for our tastes. Piglet and his friend then had short naps, I opted to stay and watch over them while everyone else danced in the rain disco. I know everyone seems to enjoy rain discos, but they have never been something I enjoy. Instead, once the rain disco was done, I handed over baby-watching duties to K, and both Snubnose and I had a go at the huge water slides. Such fun!
We ended the day just loafing around in the wave pool and grabbing some dinner later. Only then did we realize that we had hardly taken any photographs of all the fun. We took a few extremely unflattering photos (flashbulbs + wet hair + no makeup + semi-dry clothes don’t an appealing spectacle make) before we reluctantly made our way back to the cars.
We saw off the summer holidays with a total bang!
Some more outtakes of the fun we had.
