Saint Sauveur Waterpark

The truly lazy river :)

Some of you may know I’ve never outgrown my fascination w water parks.  I’ve heard several times over the years about a great one in Quebec that’s built into a ski hill,  but never really had time / excuse to come visit (to put in perspective - I expect it’ll be about an 8h drive home tomorrow, so it’s a multi-day commitment to come to the park).  It is, however, only about an hour from Parc Omega, so combining the two seemed a fairly brilliant idea.  Weather forecast for today had been iffy but turned out to be fairly ideal.  Got to the waterpark (Sommet Saint Sauveur) just as it was opening and the parking lot was already fairly full.  However, checkin was smooth and fast (prepurchased tickets).  You’re also allowed to bring food and (non-alcoholic) drinks into the park, so that was civilized.  We snagged a couple beach chairs for the day - there was never any shortage so wasn’t worried about "hogging" them.  And also a locker for the more important stuff.

No real change room (although C mentioned finding one later on the other side of the park).  Not surprising since this was a ski resort first.   However - the washroom was huge w a ton of stalls that were an acceptable size to change in.  Only thing that caught me out - when I first went in, all the doors were closed and another woman was waiting so I also waited in line.   Fairly normal occurrence in women’s washrooms.  Until 2 kids came in who had clearly been here before and just walked down lightly pushing on each door till one opened 🤦‍♀️.  Yup - doors are spring loaded so default is closed rather than open.   The other woman and I quickly found spaces and when moments later a camp load arrived the instruction from the counsellor was “check the doors till you find an open one and then get changed” - so yeah - partially you need to know the system.

All sorted and good to go, we decided we’d do the slides in order from one side to the other.  Except the two furthest weren’t open yet so slight deviation.   Most of the slides were two-person tube rides, with one solo tube, one set of tube-less, and one that actually involved a raft 😂 

This park is hands down the best I’ve ever been to.  And the number of adults there without children attached seems to suggest I’m not the only one who feels that way.   I’ll give you some of the more unique highlights:

A individual-tube ride where you drop down into whirlpool after whirlpool.  There’s an intermediate and an expert version of this one (albeit we only did the expert one, but we did it more than once cause we enjoyed it so much) - the trick is to grab a rope attached to the side of the whirlpool- otherwise you can be stuck in the middle for ages ;)

There was a 2-person tube ride (opened an hour later than the rest of the park) that was through a pitch-black tunnel that basically was just a series of drops.  They were very insistent that the heaviest person being in front.  I'm going w that was a safety issue because if the lighter person had been in front physics suggests the heavier person may well have landed on TOP of the smaller person.  Esp if difference was significant (think large father and small child).  For us though what it meant was extra speed, and I got some air time right before each drop 😂.   This was by far the fastest ride and we did it multiple times.

There was the Colorado River.  Okay so this is on the other side of the park from most stuff (there are two rides all on their own).  We started heading up the long walk up the mountain - questioning if we were doing something wrong since we were the *only* ones not carrying a yellow two-person tube.  And it was a long hike up so it’d be annoying if so.  But we got to a place where the trail split, so we went away from the yellow tube ride, and eventually there were other people behind us, making me think we were maybe going to a real ride.  Then we started to hear the rapids - like white water rapids.  Half way up a mountain?!?!   A little disconcerting but okay.   And then we see the ride hut and realize there are a ton of other people there in line, nobody carrying anything, so clearly an okay place to be.   That line took us an hour to get through.  To put in perspective, we didn’t wait longer than a couple minutes for literally any other ride.

So next to the line was a chair lift - that every few mins was hauling a raft up.  Like an actual raft - not a floaty tube.  There was a warning - in both languages - about it being a high intensity ride, must be in good physical condition, no pregnant women or people w heart conditions, etc.   I completely ignored this exactly as I would at any amusement park - because I have the luxury to do so being generally healthy and fit.  This one?!?!  This one I should’ve respected.  

We waited and waited - you can’t see much from the line and we weren’t hearing the screams you hear from some of the rides (that tunnel drop ride I never made it through without a screech).  Yeah - you know when there’s a small child and they fall and they scream you can pretty much assume they’re fine?  But if they fall and are silent, you know there’s a real issue?   This ride was the grown up version.  

So the staff person was talking quite a bit to everyone before sending them off.  You sit one at either end of the raft, both facing in, with legs stretched out diagonally (I nominated Chris to go backwards 😂).  There was a shift change right before we went though and the staff person didn’t say a word to us.  No instruction, no heads up as to what was coming, nothing.   And from what you can see at this point it looks like all the other rides - a bit of a start to get some speed and then follow the route to the bottom.  

The idea behind this one is that it would mimic white water rafting.  I have been white water rafting, several times; I loved it.  I did not believe for a moment this would mimic that with any degree of success or realism given the whole water-slide concept but still thought it’d be a fun ride.

Dear Reader, let me tell you how much I misinterpreted.  Not only did it 💯 capture the realistic parts of white water rafting, it significantly increased the intensity.   The helmets they give you are neither decorative nor merely to keep the lawyers happy, there is a very real chance your head will be banged off concrete at some point on this ride.   I somehow ended up w road rash on my shoulder blade - still not sure how that happened 😂    Multiple times I would’ve been launched from the raft if not for my death grip on the handles.  Like significant air time and tossed around as though I were in a blender.  More than once I ended up lying flat out, w a good portion of me on Chris’ side of the raft.   Since I was wearing contacts, I couldn’t see for most of it, and more than once caught a  wave in my face.    There were well timed moments when it settled just long enough to reposition myself before kicking in again.  When I say it was intense, I’m not exaggerating.   I’m glad I did it.  It was worth the wait.   I’m not sure I ever need to do it again ;).  

Seriously though - actual white water rafting you’re paddling not holding on - if I hadn’t been holding on w everything I had, I would’ve been out of the raft and floating down the river after the first set of rapids here. 

So yeah, that one was wild.  Although I have to admit, Chris seemed to be having a blast lol.  As a recovery measure we visited the lazy river ;).   This park has two lazy rivers.  Well one lazy and one less so ;).  So the lazy river meanders around mostly near the kids’ section.  It is like every lazy river you’ve ever experienced.  Although the one thing it did better than others I’ve been on is their tubes had head rests!   Beyond civilized.  

The other lazy river is a thing dreams are made of.  It’s basically a combo of lazy river and wave pool - so you move a fair bit faster and can’t quite nap through it, but it’s zero effort.  Win.   And THEN….  They fished all the kids out for high tide!   I was told that this was worth experiencing before I came so when we got there we found out when high tide would be (4:30 for the curious) and were on that river floating our way around well before 4 ;).  High tide they basically significantly increase the volume of water rushing in for the waves so you’re moving faster and with more drama throughout.   At this point, it no longer really resembles a lazy river at all but it was tons of fun, lots of laughs, and in the end only got out cause we got in so early I was freezing!   The water was warmer than the air, as the break in the heat wave finally caught us :)

So yeah - Saint Sauveur waterpark - 5 stars, fully recommend.

Some non-water-related activities we didn't try
but that had cool names :)