PROVO — When Paula Abbott heard Provo's Seven Peaks Water Park was selling season passes for just $30, she thought it was too good a deal to pass up.
So did the rest of Utah County.
At least it seems that way to Abbott. On a recent trip to Seven Peaks the park was so crowded her kids didn't go down one water slide in two hours.
It's been so crowded at times that some patrons have called with complaints and concerns that the park is violating safety codes.
Seven Peaks management declined comment, but Provo City spokesman Mike Mower said the park has not violated the fire code this year.
"We've responded to several complaints, and they've been in compliance with the law," Mower said.
Abbott said the last time she was there, however, it was so crowded she turned around her family and left. "They must have sold . . . some astronomical figure, because it's wall-to-wall people."
In years past, season passes went from around $60 to more than $100 at Seven Peaks, which says it is the state's largest water park. This year, the park offered special discount passes through Utah Valley employers at $30 per person. A one-day adult pass costs $18.50.
"I don't know a single person who doesn't have a pass," said Chris Fisk, who has taken her kids to Seven Peaks the past six summers. "The average day this year is more people than I ever saw on their biggest day last year."
Abbott and Fisk say the park is so crowded it has become unsafe. They worry that lifeguards can't adequately do their jobs.
"It's unsafe. It's too crowded. It's body to body in the pools. I can't even see my own kids," Fisk said. "If one of my kids happened to trip in the kiddie pool I wouldn't be able to see them go down because it's so crowded."
Stacy Nadauld, a Springville mother who has bought a season pass the past four years, says her kids even avoid the slow moving "lazy river," because it is so packed with tubes.
The lunch line typically takes 45 minutes, the bathroom line sometimes lasts 15 minutes. And the wait for a slide? Forget about it, Nadauld says.
"We go when it opens and stay until it reaches the panic level," Nadauld said. "My kids just don't have fun."
The park is so crowded, Nadauld said, her 2-year-old got lost the other day for 15 minutes. Nadauld said the park staff told her there was nothing they could do to help her.
"They could have sold about 20,000 less passes," she said.
Abbott, Fisk and Nadauld said they only attend the park during the week. They all said they won't buy season passes next year.
"We've had season passes for years and years and we won't be back," Fisk said. "I would love to know if in the long run it (the discount passes) was a good business decision."
E-mail: jhyde@desnews.com