Ventura Park, Cancun - Review


There seems to be an overwhelming amount of choice when it comes to days out with the kids on the Riviera Maya,  but they all seem to have one thing in common - all the parks/tours are very expensive. We knew this in advance so had tried to budget for at least one big day out as we knew the boys would LOVE any of the parks in and around Cancun/Playa del Carmen. 

Initially we looked at Xcaret and Xel-Ha and had budgeted for a day at one of these (around £250-£300 for a family of four), but the more we looked in to it the less we actually liked the look of the big nature water parks like these. Now, I know people who have been and LOVED them, so I'm sure they are a fab day out but they were just so expensive for us on a travelling budget that it was difficult to justify the cost for one day.

Instead we opted for a day at Ventura Park, which is in the Zona Hotelera in Cancun. It has a pretty big waterpark area, ziplining, go karts, a VR type zone and a dolphin swimming option (though this was not something we wanted to do). Crucially for our Star Wars obsessed boys though, it also has Star Wars BattlePods in the VR section which clinched it for us.


There are three ticket options for Ventura:

  • Fun Pass, which gets you entry to the waterpark and the ziplining plus one visit to the buffet
  • Platinum Pass, which gets you the waterpark, ziplining, go karts and unlimited buffet stops, unlimited ice cream and drinks
  • Platinum Plus Pass, which gets you all of the above plus the VR zone and swimming with dolphins

We opted for the Platinum Pass - after we'd added it all up it was cheaper to do this and pay for the Star Wars BattlePods seperately.

This cost us £149 in total for the four of us, plus an extra £7-ish for the Star Wars BattlePods and the Laser Maze. We hired a car for the day (as it was way cheaper than getting a bus and taxi there from Playa del Carmen); parking is free - once you can find it! I have never seen such a badly signposted attraction - it took us a good 3 or 4 times driving past/round it before we got in (and judging by some of the other driving around us, everyone was having the same problem).


Once in, it was definitely a mixed experience. I'll start with the good stuff!


The Good

There was absolutely no-one in the VR Zone when we arrived. Not a soul. We'd paid for credits for the Star Wars BattlePods but as there was no-one else there the boys got to stay on them for as long as they liked (which, predictably, was bloody ages!). The pods were fab and they could choose from various Star Wars scenes to navigate through (including Hoth, Endor, destroying the DeathStar etc). 

Boys playing on Star Wars BattlePods










The ziplining was pre-booked so we had a specific time which meant that there was minimal queuing for this (great, since it was baking hot!). The zipline across the waterpark was brilliant, and Griff and Steve also had a go at the bungee jump which they both loved.

The Go Karts also had hardly any wait time and you got to go round the track several times which was really good fun. Plus Griff was JUST tall enough to drive one himself, which he loved!


The waterpark itself was also great - 6 or 7 big slides with next to no queues for any of them, plus a big wave pool and a lazy river. We'd read that you had to pay to hire the inflatable tires for some of the rides but this wasn't the case - you just picked them up at the base of the slide.


The Bad

God, the start of the day....the locker machines weren't working and then when they were it was confusing - some machines only took pesos, some only took dollars, some were for the large lockers and others only for the small versions. It took around 45mins to sort this out, which was a pretty rubbish start to the day!

The helpdesk queue for buying anything extra was also looooooong (another 30mins or so). 

And then there were the queues for the buffet. I'd read that these could get long but it was still ridiculous - the queue just to get in to the restaurant snaked right through the park, then once inside you had to queue again for a buffet. Then AGAIN if you wanted a drink (this alone took about 20minutes). So....whilst it's advertised as 'unlimited' buffet/drinks the reality is that it takes so long that you can only really visit once (unless you love queuing).


Boys in front of wave pool at Ventura Park
The verdict

So a bit of a mixed bag. The start of the day was rubbish and the queues for food/drink were ridiculous, BUT the day was saved by the fact that the waterpark was great and the Star Wars BattlePods were brilliant for our two. Also, weirdly whilst the queues for food and drink were massive there were virtually no queues for anything else.


And a tip - you can't go on the ziplining/go karts/VR stuff when wet so we did these first (having seen this tip on other blogs!). 


Overall, I don't think we'd rush back but the boys did have a great day (they gave it an eight out of ten). Saving £100ish also meant that we could put this cash towards a snorkelling tour in Cozumel (more on that in a separate post!).

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