Every few minutes, a massive bucket tips and dumps more than 1,000 gallons of water across the children's play area in the indoor water park at Tropic Falls at OWA.Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com

Bad news: OWA’s new indoor water park wasn’t ready to open Monday as planned. Good news: The opening has been pushed back just two days, to Wednesday.

That revelation came Monday morning, as park operators gave media a final preview of the park that has been under construction since 2021. Inside the glass-paneled main building, water was flowing through massive slides, platoons of lifeguards were making the rounds and inner tubes drifted in the lazy river, ready for patrons. Finishing work continued throughout the nearly-complete hall and the grounds around it remained a bare-dirt construction site, pending the construction of a wave pool and other “Phase 2″ attractions coming soon.

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The multimillion-dollar facility, the first of its kind in the region, comes with a major rebranding: OWA’s established amusement park, along with the new water park, are now known as Tropic Falls. Starting Wednesday, a $69.99 combo ticket will grant all-day access to both. (For now, there’s an amusement-park only ticket, but no water park-only option. That will come later, operators say.)

Kristin Hellmich, the park’s director of marketing and PR, said the decision to delay the opening two days had been reached Monday morning. “It was very critical for us to make sure we had the quality on point,” she said.

In a separate news release, Hellmich attributed the postponement to “a few unanticipated delays” related to widespread labor and material shortages in the construction industry.

A trio of the adult water slides at Tropic Falls make a drop below floor level.Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com

When Phase 1 of the water park opens, patrons will have access to a dozen water slides, some of which loop outside the building or drop below floor level; a lazy river; and an extensive children’s area. Other features include a casual restaurant, a bar and an arcade. Hellmich said it will operate year-round.

For updates and ticket information, see www.visitowa.com.

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