Where Our Information Comes From — and How We Verify It
Our complete sourcing framework: the six-tier hierarchy that governs every water-park guide, our eight-step verification workflow, our operator-consolidation discipline, what we deliberately do not use, and our human-in-the-loop policy for any automated assistance. This is the backbone of our E-E-A-T standard. Read alongside our Editorial Policy.
What is on this page
1. Sourcing Principle
Every factual claim about a water park — its name, address, season, hours, attractions, pricing, height rules, accessibility provisions, operator, and parent company — traces to the park’s own official website or to the relevant regulator. We do not build guide entries from auto-scraped aggregators or unverified review sites.
If a piece of information is not confirmed on the park’s own official page (or, for safety and regulatory facts, the relevant agency), it does not get published as fact. Where a park is silent, we say so rather than fill the gap with a guess.
2. The Six-Tier Source Hierarchy
When sources differ, the higher tier governs.
The park’s official website
The primary source for park name, address, operating season, hours, headline attractions, per-slide height and age rules, admission pricing, add-on fees, and accessibility provisions.
The operator & parent company
Official corporate pages — Six Flags, Palace Entertainment, Great Wolf Resorts, Kalahari Resorts, Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando, SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment, Herschend — for ownership, season-pass programs, and chain-wide policies.
Federal safety & health bodies
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act for entrapment prevention; the CDC Model Aquatic Health Code (MAHC) for aquatic-facility health standards.
State & local regulators
State and county health departments for aquatic-facility permits and inspections; state amusement-ride safety programs for slide inspection and design.
Standards & credential bodies
ASTM standards (ASTM F2376 water slides, F2461 aquatic play, F1487 play equipment); PHTA Certified Pool Operator (CPO) and NRPA Aquatic Facility Operator (AFO) credentials; lifeguard certification via the American Red Cross, Ellis & Associates, StarGuard ELITE, and the YMCA.
Industry & consumer bodies
The World Waterpark Association (WWA) and IAAPA for industry context and best practice; the FTC and state Attorneys General for consumer protection.
3. The Eight-Step Verification Workflow
Every park guide passes through these steps before publication and at each quarterly review:
- Locate the park’s official website. Confirm it is the genuine park site — not a ticket-reseller or aggregator.
- Open every page. A human editor confirms name, address, season, hours, and attractions.
- Verify pricing — gate vs. online, child/senior/military, and season-pass tiers.
- Cross-check the address against the embedded map.
- Confirm height & age rules for headline attractions.
- Confirm the operator & parent company — ownership changes often.
- Dial-test the phone on a quarterly cycle — confirming the line answers and routes correctly.
- Editor sign-off. A second editor reviews end-to-end, including the “not the operator” notice and the 911 / lifeguard / Poison Control / 988 emergency framework, then stamps the “last reviewed” date.
4. Operator-Consolidation Discipline
The water-park industry consolidates frequently: chains acquire independents and parent companies merge, often while a park’s location and name stay the same. We track both the day-to-day operator and the ultimate parent company for every park, and we re-verify ownership at each quarterly review — so our guides reflect who actually runs a park today, not three seasons ago.
5. What We Deliberately Do Not Use
- Auto-scraped data feeds — they drift out of date and cannot be verified to a primary source
- Ticket-reseller sites as a source of official pricing or policy
- Unverified review sites as a source of factual park data
- Social-media posts as a primary source for park facts
- Outdated cached pages — we confirm against the live official site
6. When Sources Conflict
If two sources disagree, the higher tier governs — the park’s own official page beats everything else for park-specific facts, and the relevant federal or state regulator governs for safety and health facts. Where we cannot resolve a conflict, we say what is uncertain rather than present a guess as fact.
7. Human-in-the-Loop AI Policy
We use software tools for spell-check, grammar review, and routine drafting assistance. No editorial fact, price, season, address, telephone number, attraction detail, or ownership detail on uswaterparkguide.org/ is published from AI without human verification against the park's own official website. We do not auto-generate or auto-publish park entries. This human-in-the-loop standard is central to our E-E-A-T commitment.
8. Children — COPPA
While water parks are family destinations, this website is intended for the adults planning a visit and is not directed at children under 13. Consistent with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. See our Privacy Policy for detail.
9. Update Cadence
- Quarterly — full re-verification of every park’s pricing, season, hours, attractions, phone (dial-test), address, and ownership
- Within 48 hours — broken links, dead phone numbers, and major pricing/season/ownership changes reported by readers
- Within 7 business days — other reader-reported corrections
- On change — when a park changes ownership, closes, or rebrands, we update and re-date the page
10. Contact
Questions about our sourcing, or a correction to a source? Email info@uswaterparkguide.org with the subject “Sources query” — include the page URL and, for park-change reports, a link to the official source.
Found Something That Needs Updating?
Email info@uswaterparkguide.org with the page URL and the official source link. Broken links and major changes are fixed within 48 hours.
📧 info@uswaterparkguide.org