Aquatica Orlando

Compact enough to cover comfortably in an afternoon, this SeaWorld water park has one attraction that nowhere else in Texas can offer. Stingray Falls sends your raft through darkness and out into a grotto where rays and tropical fish swim behind glass on both sides of you.

Around it sit the bigger thrills — Walhalla Wave and HooRoo Run for four-person rafts, Taumata Racer for head-first mat racing, and a set of tube and body slides — along with a wave pool that switches between gentle swell and something more energetic.

Two rivers circle the site for drifting, and shallow zones at Walkabout Waters and Kata's Kookaburra Cove give small children slides and fountains of their own. Palms and sand give the whole park a resort feel rather than a municipal one.