Schlitterbahn will kick off its season at 11 a.m. Friday, May 27, at 94th and State Avenue in Kansas City, Kan.
According to Jeff Hays, spokesman for the local Schlitterbahn water park, employees have been sprucing up the park during the off-season.
“The park looks great and we’re excited for the summer,” he said.
Schlitterbahn has added an exclusive season pass area inside the park this year, he added.
During the past year, no one has built a taller water slide than the Verruckt at the Kansas City, Kan., water park, and it is still the world’s tallest. The water slide is 158 feet, 7 inches, and visitors walk up hundreds of steps, then two or three persons get into a raft to ride it. Riders make reservations at the start of the day for the ride.
“People from all over the world are coming in to ride the Verruckt,” Hays said.
Schlitterbahn will celebrate American Heroes Week from Monday, May 30, through Sunday, June 4.
During those days, there will be free admission for all military personnel, police, firefighters and EMTs, he said. Their immediate family members will get 50 percent off. The members of the military and the police, firefighters and EMTs will need to show their work photo identification.
The regular cost of admission at the gate is $44.99 for ages 12 to 54, or $32.99 for ages 3 to 11 or 55 and older. There is a $5 off offer available on season passes through May 3 on the Schlitterbahn website.
While Kansas City, Kan., has had some rain in the past few days and rain is still in the forecast for the weekend, Hays did not expect the rain to affect Schlitterbahn operations much.
If there is lightning on Friday, the attractions will be shut down while it is in the area, and then everything will be opened up again afterward, he said.
“They come through and are gone, like this morning, here and gone in 20 minutes,” he said.
For more information, visit www.schlitterbahn.com/kansas-city.