One of the most-anticipated projects in recent Hattiesburg history recently capped off a successful inaugural season, as officials from Serengeti Springs at the Hattiesburg Zoo announced that more than 103,000 guests had visited the water park in the four months since its opening.
The park – which is operated by the Hattiesburg Convention Commission – officially opened on May 25 and operated from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day seven days a week, along with weekends through September 29. Of the guests that came through the park during that time, approximately half traveled more than 50 miles, with some coming from states as far away as California, Washington and Hawaii.
“We had a great season, especially for our first (season) – we learned a lot, but we were able to accommodate a lot of folks,” said Rick Taylor, executive director of the Hattiesburg Convention Commission. “We probably had two and a half months of just solid visitation from Memorial Day weekend through the first couple of weekends of August, and then with school getting back in, it slowed down through the rest of August, and then we only opened on the weekends in September.
“But amongst all that time, we (hosted) over 103,000 guests, and we’re very excited about it and looking forward to next year. We’re looking at ways that we can increase the number of folks that can come in.”
That measure is necessitated by the number of guests who visited within the first couple of weeks of the park’s opening, when staff quickly realized that a lack of chairs was an issue that would soon need to be resolved. As a temporary solution to that, after the first two Saturdays officials limited attendance to the park to better accommodate the present visitors.
“That was good for everybody that got in, but not so good for folks that maybe were not as much (involved) with social media and following us, and they might have driven from some distance away and found out that there were no more tickets available,” Taylor said. “So that’s a real key issue for us to address over the winter, to figure out how we can accommodate more.
“We’re looking at adding some more cabanas, and we’re looking at how we place our chairs to give a little more space so everybody can have a ‘home base.’ But to me, that’s a great problem to have, and we were thrilled with the public’s enthusiasm and interest in the water park and visitation.”
Serengeti Springs staff will also work toward such measures as adding more shade areas throughout the park for next season.
“We did notice that there were a lot of grandparents that brought their grandkids, and they didn’t want to lay out in the lounge chair under the hot sun, so we would run out of spaces for them to be in the shade,” Taylor said. “So we’re going to address that before next season – we won’t completely solve it, but we will add substantially more shaded areas for folks to be able to sit under.”
The water park’s second season is expected to begin on Memorial Day weekend 2025, although it may open intermittently in April depending on the weather.
“We won’t open fully (in April), but weekends – maybe Saturdays and Sundays,” Taylor said. “That will all be dependent on two criteria – one, the weather is going to have to be warm enough.
“Then the other thing would be just getting all of these projects that we’ve learned here in Year One completed, and make sure we’re ready to go.”
The park consists of two phases of construction. Work on Phase I, which began last summer and is now complete, includes a Fusion Fortress Water Play Structure, an entry building with a gift shop and showers, a 150,000-gallon lazy river, a swim-up pool and bar, group pavilions, cabanas, food trucks, a staff office building, and loungers and Adrirondack chairs.
The Fusion Fortress consists of nine slides of varying heights, along with multiple water play areas and two bucket dump stations.
Underneath the Fusion Fortress is a Life Floor, which provides a cushioned floor that is anti-microbial and holds no standing water. The Life Floor features an additional 19 spray toys.
Work on Phase II of the water park will begin anywhere from two to four years from now. That phase will consist of a tower of four water slides.
“We did have a very good (first) year, and we want to see if we can duplicate that,” Taylor said. “Sometimes you have a really good year because you’re brand new and everybody wants to try it out, but we’re hopeful that the experience was good for everybody.
“We did get a lot of comments on the resort feel of it, so we want to make sure that we preserve that and keep that. We want it to be a unique experience for our guests and for all the folks, so that they come back again and again. So we’re committed to not only what we did this year, but improving that and helping everybody have an even better time.”
