Excellent(ish) swimming pools/leisure facilities in Winnipeg to take young children to?

Unfortunately the hotel waterslides are rather lame compared to what is available in Grand Forks or Thief River Falls. If I'm paying $100/night for the room I may as well cross the border and go to a half decent hotel waterpark rather than our "pool plus a slide" hotels we have. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that they build that damn indoor waterpark while my kids are still kids since we usually head south at least a couple times a year just for the waterparks.

Thief river Falls is no longer open. I believe Canad Inns was going to build a water-park here but too much red tape and way too many demands placed upon the chain from the City and Provincial government.

That red tape was part of the $7 million gift. It should not stop them from striking out on their own. Maybe someone will build one near the new Ikea... Or the new stadium. Or the new museum. Or...

Just another photo op for Vic Toews and sammy...

Hey. I got news for you. Ya' don't have to be a kid to enjoy the water parks.

I cried when skinners closed down. I used to even bring my kids sometimes when it was a going concern.

btw. a word of advice....never go into those kiddy hot tubs thingys..... they're equal parts of chlorine, water and pee.

i went to skinners twice. once when I was younger and then once when I moved to the city with my family

the second time I got an ear infection so bad my ear was about twice its normal size, I was on the strongest over the counter antibiotics possible and the 2 tylenol3 with coedine would only relieve the pain for about 1 hour at a time.

Its so awesome when the Ear nose and throat specialist actually says "wow, I have never seen anything this bad before"

NOT

freakin dirty water

Goth_chic wrote:Thief river Falls is no longer open. I believe Canad Inns was going to build a water-park here but too much red tape and way too many demands placed upon the chain from the City and Provincial government.

just when did theif river close?

A few months back I believe.

You sure about that? The website doesn't indicate anything about them being closed:

https://www.sevenclanscasino.com/page/rtf_amenities

I've had a few friends go down 2 or 3 months ago and they are severe gambling addicts, I'm sure they would have mentioned if it was closed.

The waterpark was closed, it is open again.

I'm guessing probably maintenance work then. They've been open for a while, wouldn't surprise me if they had to do some major repairs by now.

Yankee Doodle land, huh? What exactly exists on the other side of the border, cross-border shopping wise? All I can picture is scenes from Fargo and a lot of native run casinos.

Good vision. Not sure what attracts Winnipeggers to Fargo and Grand Forks. Seems shopping is travel-worthy. Harrumph.

Cheap gas and cheese?

Albertville is a decent trip. There are fewer and fewer stores in the states that don't exist in Canada. And even fewer in Grand Forks / Fargo. Hate to think this defines Winnipeggers, but I think a lot go for the Super Target. And if you are building, apparently the prices at Menards can't be beat.

And yup, cheap gas as in $20 less per tank. Given that Winnipeggers will line up for 3 blocks plus to save $3 on a tank of gas, it's hardly surprising.

Mmm. It sounds much like BC/Washington then.

We're paying $1.21/L for regular gas (self serve) here right now. Winnipeg looks like a major bargain.

St Norberter wrote:Albertville is a decent trip. There are fewer and fewer stores in the states that don't exist in Canada. And even fewer in Grand Forks / Fargo. Hate to think this defines Winnipeggers, but I think a lot go for the Super Target. And if you are building, apparently the prices at Menards can't be beat.

And yup, cheap gas as in $20 less per tank. Given that Winnipeggers will line up for 3 blocks plus to save $3 on a tank of gas, it's hardly surprising.

The price of gas difference is negligible. People are just usually not great at math.

Incorrect.

at $2.54 a gallon, that works out to $0.671 per litre. Substantially less than the $0.969 per litre we are paying up here. Exchange right now is negligible.

When I filled up in Pembina on the way back, my tank was almost dry and it cost $55 usd to fill. The same fill would have cost me at least $75 here. That's a major difference.

Well considering that there is ZERO sales tax on all clothing and shoes in MN, your ahead 12% right off the bat with the exchange rate being almost at par. Then add to that 20-30% you can easily save on items at Albertville, and without much difficulty you can come out 40% or better ahead vs. shopping at the mall here. That more than makes up for the cost of a couple nights hotel and a trip to the waterpark. The way I look at it is that as long as I'm buying items I needed to purchase here anyways, then I get a free long weekend trip with the family paid for by the savings in shopping.

Grand Forks has never been much of a draw for me, I'd rather continue on for another 4 hours and go to the Twin Cities. However, the new waterpark did manage to get us down to GF last year for the weekend just to check it out.

^ And add to that the fact that US stores know how to discount. Big Sale here - you're generally luck to get 20%. A few stores we hit in Albertville were name brand outlets, which then had ridiculously priced clearance racks or 75% off everything in the store or triple discount sales. We hotwired the hotel and got a $49 rate for a $230 (hotel website) room. So if you know what you are looking for you can save a ton!

I wonder why there are no spray pads or skate parks in the Maples?

I think I'll ask Mohinder Saran, MLA for my area, the next time he comes to ask for my vote.
I will also ask Mike O'Shaughnessy, or who ever replaces him durring this fall's election.

Mo, Mike... why dont we have a spray pad or skate park for our little ones? Can we not afford it? Why do I see a skate park in the middle of the North End and there are never any kids skating? Just Gangster looking Teens selling Dope? Why oh why...

Years ago, there was a report called "PUFS" (Public Use Facility Survey or some such thing) and it included plans to close Seven Oaks pool in favour of a spray pad/wading pool type thingy. It also included plans to close, consolidate and blow up some of the 70+ community centres, so it was met with much opposition and trashed. Instead, the choice is to maintain the status quo, and we see how thats working.

Actually, the status quo for the City is to reduce services / maintenance til the place falls apart bt itself.

St Norberter wrote:Incorrect.

at $2.54 a gallon, that works out to $0.671 per litre. Substantially less than the $0.969 per litre we are paying up here. Exchange right now is negligible.

When I filled up in Pembina on the way back, my tank was almost dry and it cost $55 usd to fill. The same fill would have cost me at least $75 here. That's a major difference.

did you declare your gas purchase at the border as required?

did you remember that your gas tax is now going to maintaining another countries roads so to maintain yours a little extra tax has to be taken?

Even forgetting that. $20 is really not that much. Especially considering that We have had cheaper gas quite frequently AND it dont take much of an exchange difference to really eat that $20 up.


The one I like about the gas price difference is that their "mid" gas is 2 cents per gallon more or even the same price as regular ( and I have seen cheaper)
instead of the 5 cents per litre more we pay here.

The difference between mid and regular will add 50+K to a tank of gas for me when I am on the highway.

LivingDead wrote:I wonder why there are no spray pads or skate parks in the Maples?

I think I'll ask Mohinder Saran, MLA for my area, the next time he comes to ask for my vote.
I will also ask Mike O'Shaughnessy, or who ever replaces him durring this fall's election.

Mo, Mike... why dont we have a spray pad or skate park for our little ones? Can we not afford it? Why do I see a skate park in the middle of the North End and there are never any kids skating? Just Gangster looking Teens selling Dope? Why oh why...

You could ask your community centre. Or better yet. Go out and run for President next time election.

Deank wrote:

LivingDead wrote:I wonder why there are no spray pads or skate parks in the Maples?

I think I'll ask Mohinder Saran, MLA for my area, the next time he comes to ask for my vote.
I will also ask Mike O'Shaughnessy, or who ever replaces him durring this fall's election.

Mo, Mike... why dont we have a spray pad or skate park for our little ones? Can we not afford it? Why do I see a skate park in the middle of the North End and there are never any kids skating? Just Gangster looking Teens selling Dope? Why oh why...

You could ask your community centre. Or better yet. Go out and run for President next time election.

Hahahahaha, you're funny!!

Deank wrote:

did you declare your gas purchase at the border as required?

No, I did not declare the incremental gas I purchased (the difference was only about 3 gallons as I filled up before I left.) However, we declared all our purchases and presented receipts at the border - made it really quick to pass through.

Deank wrote:did you remember that your gas tax is now going to maintaining another countries roads so to maintain yours a little extra tax has to be taken?

Perhaps we should be looking at what the US does with their gas taxes and how they get allocated. Our highways are absolute sh1t compared to those in the US.

Deank wrote:Even forgetting that. $20 is really not that much. Especially considering that We have had cheaper gas quite frequently AND it dont take much of an exchange difference to really eat that $20 up.

Oh, cheap gas isn't the motivator for me, although it is quite the difference. But when you have people in this city who will line up for hours and blocks to save $3 on a tank of gas, you can see where it would be the motivator for some.

Deank wrote:The one I like about the gas price difference is that their "mid" gas is 2 cents per gallon more or even the same price as regular ( and I have seen cheaper)
instead of the 5 cents per litre more we pay here.

The difference between mid and regular will add 50+K to a tank of gas for me when I am on the highway.

I forgot to, but next time check the octane ratings on US gas. IIRC, US regular unleaded has a lower octane rating than Canadian regular unleaded ( kind of like US vs. Canadian beer! )