As your planning your next vacation here to Texas, Schlitterbahn water parks are one of those must go to destinations for family Summer fun.  Out of the 4 Texas parks, my family and I decided for the 4th of July to go to the one in New Braunfels which is really close to Austin. This made for a quick one day trip for us. 

I wanted to round up some useful tips for you so when you do decide to make it this way to visit the park you'll be prepared.  So here it goes.

USEFUL TIPS WHILE VACATIONING AT SCHLITTERBAHN

Before I give you my tips, let me start by explaining some of these come from going on a day that presented less desirable circumstances. We woke up with the plan to get there at noon even though it opened up at 10a.m. It was a sunny day with little cloud cover but as we ventured on our 30 min drive and got closer I began to notice it was getting cloudier. Well, I haven't shared this but my sweet husband not only is a DIYer but he's an amateur meterologist or how he puts it, weather enthusiast with a plan. After voicing my concern for the clouds my husband perked up, quickly replied, "what I didn't look at the weather to see what it's going to be today."

Well to our dismay it said 100% rain around 3:00p.m followed with a big thunderstorm on track to ruin our water park fun that whole afternoon. Despite the weather conditions we decided to not let the tickets go to waste and continue on with our 4th of July family getaway. 

This is a good segway into my first tip. 

1. Check the weather before you decide to purchase tickets. Pretty important to secure a full day of fun. Ha!
2. If you want to save money purchase the least expensive Value General Admission Tickets ONLINE but be sure the dates you are visiting doesn't fall during the restriction dates to get these tickets.
3. I highly suggest springing for a Cabana. It's worth the extra amount. At first I didn't want to spend that extra money but its a great family space away from the crowds, to eat, talk or like us shelter from the storm.
4. Skip on purchasing any of the add ons like towels, cups, water shoes. You can bring in your own towels, cups and water shoes. No use paying park prices for these things. Head to your local Walmart, or Target to find these items way cheaper.
5. Bring your own cooler! You can bring all food and drinks except alcohol in plastic containers, no glass.  Below is the list of items we brought: 
6. Dry goods, like paper plates, silverware, and paper towels, cups (we used our Yeti type cups so the drinks stay cold)
7. A bag with your pantry items, like chips, snacks, crackers, bread
8. A bag with your towels and sunscreen
9. If your getting a Cabana bring a phone charger, they have outlets which is a big bonus.
10. Change of clothes to leave in so your not wet while heading out
11. If you want to take photos while out on the rides bring a water proof case for your phone. This I forgot so sorry no ride photos to share. 

• cut up pineapple, strawberries, apples
• packaged cut up slices of variety cheeses
• veggies
• hummus
• small container of condiments
• sandwich meat for one kid 
• my homemade ham salad
• Summer sausage cut up in slices then halved to eat with cheese and crackers
• LOTS of bottle water
• Cokes and Dr Peppers for the soda drinkers, not me I quit 6 years ago
• Ice

We rented the Surf Village Deluxe Cabana because it had two lounge chairs, table with chairs, ceiling fan, your own waiter, and an electric outlet. These Cabanas were nice because it was close to restrooms and lockers with easy access to one of the lazy rivers. Use the lockers to lock up your car keys, wallet and phones while out playing.

Here we are waiting out the storm. Taking time to get on the phones, this is why we came to Schlitterbahn to get away from the distractions. HA! Darn Rain!

As your looking at the map of things to do, this park has two parks to it an East which is newer park and West (original park). You can visit both parks in a day by using their free tram system. If you want to skip lines they do have a Blast pass you can purchase that will allow you to bypass the lines. We didn't purchase these but we also got lucky and waited out the storm and had the last 1.5 hours to roam the park without crowds. The storm lasted about an 1.5 hours so pretty much everyone left. 

We, ok I enjoyed the lazy rivers the most because to tell the truth this momma is a scared-y cat for big high rides. My kids really enjoyed the Castle rides, favorite Black Knight at the East park. Next ride that's a must do Dragon's Revenge, with cool video effects. We didn't get to make it to the West park because the rain took up the time for us to enjoy that park, but based on my oldest son's reviews from going there more than us, said East is better than West. The hours of the park are 10a.m - 8p.m. You should be able to visit both parks in a day with not doing every single ride due to wait time.  If you can come for 2 days it might be better than 1 day. If we didn't live around here, I'd recommend coming to New Braunfels and doing Shlitterbahn and the Comal River. The area is so pretty with so much to do in the water. Downtown also has some great shopping and eating. Highly recommend stopping at FriesenHaus to eat some really tasty German food as we ate there on our way out of town. My husband is pretty picky with German food and we all agreed it was REALLY Good!

This is my family and I as we're heading out after we changed our clothes and about to leave the park.

Despite the rain coming in, this quick trip will always be remembered. A good day after all. Thanks for stopping by. Let me know if you head to New Braunfels would love to know what you think.