One of the most anticipated attractions in the history of the City of Hattiesburg is nearly ready to accept visitors, with season passes for the upcoming Serengeti Springs Water Park at the Hattiesburg Zoo set to go on sale on Black Friday, November 24.
On November 16, officials from the Hattiesburg Convention Commission – which runs the zoo and the water park – said the tickets at that time will be offered the lowest prices featured, at $60 per attendee. Tickets are available solely online at https://www.serengetispringsms.com.
“We are very excited about it,” said Rick Taylor, executive director of the Hattiesburg Convention Commission. “I will say that building a water park is more complex than we ever imagined going into it, but most everything we do, we figure out later that it was a lot harder than we thought.
“But it’s going to be spectacular …. and (seeing certain things), I can envision it being completed, so I’m excited about that. I know the public is going to be excited when we put it all together, so I think the fact that we’re going to get the tickets on sale, we’re in the final stages.”
Originally, commission officials hoped the water park would be ready and open to the public sometime before the end of this summer. Back in August, however, Taylor announced that the opening of the $10.5 million water park had been pushed back to spring of next year, in order to give staff more time to ensure the site gives visitors the best experience possible when the park comes online.
That announcement was made during an August 8 news conference at the site, which is located adjacent to the Hattiesburg Zoo at the former Cameron Field, which is being relocated to Tatum Park to make way for the water park.
“Our target is Memorial Day 2024,” Taylor said. “Probably in very late March or early April (of next year), we’ll do a (media) sneak peek and tour.
“By that time, we’ll start assembling the cabanas and the landscape and all that. Although we don’t know for sure that we’ll be able to do this, but our hope is that weather permitting, that we may be able to open a weekend or two prior that that.”
Perhaps the biggest challenge to the project has been rain delays, which have occurred at the rate of nine to ten “rain days” per month. Although most of the construction and dirt work has been proceeding as schedule, the rain has resulted in delays to features such as the Fusion Fortress Water Play Structure.
“Literally, every time our construction team would send me invoices, they would mark on it the number of rain days on it, and I’d look at it and say, ‘no way,’” Taylor said. “And of course, they’d have documentation showing all these rain days.
“So that did put us behind, and that’s important in terms of the type of work we’re doing.”
In addition, the commission has encountered other setbacks because of supply chain issues with several electrical panels and switches, which are vital to the operation of water flow for the Fusion Fortress and adjacent lazy river.
“We still, on one of our sets of customized power distribution switches, we don’t have an arrival date,” Taylor said. “We’re counting on our friends at Mississippi Power to help us out, squeeze a little bit on some vendors and get those electrical panels in that we need to run the pumps for this site.
“So we’re excited to see that come to fruition.”
Construction of the water park is taking place in two phases. Work on the current Phase I, which began last summer, will include the aforementioned 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 will consist of nine slides of varying heights, along with multiple water play areas and two bucket dump stations.
Underneath the Fusion Fortress will be a Life Floor, which provides a cushioned floor that is anti-microbial and will hold no standing water. The Life Floor will feature an additional 19 spray toys.
The commission has already accepted receipt of all cabanas, innertubes, life vests, retail merchandise, park décor, food trucks, office equipment, poolside furniture, tables, chairs, umbrellas and cabana safes. Those items are currently housed off-site and are ready for installation prior to the opening of the park.
Work on Phase II of the water park will begin anywhere from two to four years after the opening of Phase I. That phase will consist of a tower of four water slides.
The $10.5 million price tag for Serengeti Springs will be funded by the Hattiesburg Convention Commission’s earned revenues, along with the existing 2-percent restaurant tax at Hattiesburg restaurants. The water park will be designed to be self-sufficient and profitable.
As far as parking, the zoo will continue its shared agreement for parking space with Hardy Street Baptist Church, in addition to the zoo’s current parking.
“Not only am I excited about it, when I look at it I think “this is beautiful and it’s such a great location,” Taylor said last month. “For the last few weeks, all I can think is ‘gosh, we need a water park – it is so hot.’
“So all of that fits together, and the commentary that I’m getting from the public is that it just takes time to build these. I’ve gotten no negative comments – just positive saying ‘hang in there; we can see this is going to be great.’”
For more information on the park – including the park map, rules and prohibited items – visit www.serengetispringsms.com.
