Splash Country Indoors: Sliding into 2023 with a new 20,000 square foot addition

H&LA offers congratulations to our client, Glenn Robinson and Grand Country Resort, on their newest expansion of the resort to include a 20,000 square foot addition of the Splash Country Indoors waterpark in Branson, Missouri. We were honored to work with the client to complete the feasibility study for the expansion. We wish Grand Country Resort the best of luck with this exciting new opening!

Published by: Tim Church/Branson TriLakes News
Published date: January 2023

After more than a year of anticipation, the new 20,000 square-foot addition to Grand Country’s Splash Country Indoors has been completed and is now opened to guests.

Officially opening to thrill seekers on Thanksgiving Day 2022, the new addition features a 5,000 square-foot indoor wave pool, two raft racing slides, a third extra dark thrill slide and an activity pool.

Grand Country Resort Spokesperson Brandei Clifton said they opted to go with a soft opening, which gave unsuspecting guests of Splash Country Indoors the opportunity to experience the newest resort attraction first. 

“Your eyes automatically go to the wave pool; the region’s only indoor wave pool,” Clifton said. “Lots of squeals coming off the slides. Our other slides in the indoor portion of the park did not have a raft, so these are raft racing slides. You can race your friends and it times you in the end. It’s really, really cool to see the families with that competitive spirit come out where the dad’s racing the kids and the siblings are racing them, because every parent wants to live. Then there’s the older ones who come off the all dark slide. With the double tubes you get to ride with your family, so 42 inches and up can ride with a family member, so even the little bitty ones can enjoy it.” 

Prior to the opening of the new waterpark features, the facility was already home to nine water filled attractions, including a three-level treehouse with interactive water play and a 1,000 gallon tipping bucket, a 250-foot long lazy river, several water slides, hot tubs, and more. 

Though construction of the project only began in October 2021, Grand Country Property Manager Travis Howard shared these additions to the waterpark was something Grand Country Owner Glenn Robinson had on the back burner ready to roll for quite some time. 

“This was a project he’d been thinking about and thinking about and the timing was just right for us,” Howard said. “We wanted to offer something new and he thought what a better way to blow it out of the water, no pun intended, and create this addition to the water park that people could enjoy year round.”

Clifton added Robinson is always looking at ways to make the Branson area off-season shorter and shorter and bring families into town year round. 

“If you think about vacation right. Think how important vacations are for families. They save for it, they count down the days for it. Glenn is all about creating experiences for them that’s going to keep the same families coming back year after year. We see the same families all the time. The kids are a little bit bigger every year,” Clifton said. “Glenn is constantly innovating and refreshing things. It creates that new experience…When you create something new and reinvest those profits to keep the property relevant, you get to see the same faces and that’s really, really cool.”

As Splash Country Indoors is just one small piece of the Grand Country Resort property, guests can also enjoy the Grand Country Inn, Grand Country Music Hall, Grand Country Buffet, multiple shops, both indoor and outdoor golf, an arcade, indoor go-karts, as well as Glenn’s Frozen Custard and Papa Grand’s Pizza Buffet. With the variety of activities presented on-site, Clifton confirmed how easy it is for families to enjoy their vacation at Grand Country without ever leaving the resort.         

“When you park in our parking lot, you stay here, you play here, you eat here, you shop here,” Clifton said. “The arcade is open, see a show. Just put your car in park and have a good time.”

Now that the waterpark had doubled in size, Howard added guests can easily find themselves spending several days of their vacation enjoying everything Splash Country has to offer.

“They could spend an entire day in our original section and a whole day down here. We’ve got plenty of seating and lounge chairs down here in this new section where Mom can kick back and read a book and watch the kids play in the wave pool,” Howard said. “Dad can hop on the slide with them. They really do spend as much time down here as they can and soak it up.”

“The video screen is going to be the big feature here. We’ve got music videos playing and pumping out music for everybody to hear; they can really just get in that beach vibe,” Howard said. “We try to give it that beach feeling. Some of the color palate in here, you get that Caribbean feeling from that as well. We’ll have the additional eatery down here as well. We’ll offer the same grill items and funnel cakes again down here, to create that same experience down in this portion as well.”

As part of the atmosphere they’ve created inside of the attraction, Howard explained the teams have worked diligently to create the environment they have.

That’s our No.1 priority is the safety of our guests. Right behind that is keeping them happy and smiling as well,” Howard said. “Our staff works so hard at keeping everything as clean as possible, but also they regulate it very well to where you don’t have that chemical smell or that overstimulation of the senses.”

For guests looking to pay Splash Country a visit in the near future, they’ll have two ways of entering into the attraction. They can take the footbridge, which travels from the original part of the water park, over the lazy river and down into the new addition. Howard said he would also invite guests to come in through the new entrance, which is located on the back side of the building.

“It is one of the most beautiful entrances that I’ve seen created in Branson. It’s very Johnny Morris-like and it’s on purpose. We’ve got a great waterfall feature that everyone can enjoy on their way down,” Howard said. “If you come down during the night, it’s lit up with multiple colored lights that kids just love and enjoy. There’s some signs along the way that can pique your interest as to what you hear and what you see and what you’re about to experience. It’s really amazing what Glenn did for the entrance.”

For folks looking to visit Branson in the coming weeks and experience everything Grand Country Resort has to offer, the attraction is currently offering a special family vacation deal called the Warm Winter Fun Package. The package includes two nights losing at the Grand Country Inn, passes to Splash Country Indoors, Go-Kart tickets, mini-golf, admission to see either the Amazing Pets or the Comedy Jamboree shows at Grand Country Music Hall, two-large one topping pizzas from Papa Grand’s Pizza and a $10 game card to the Fun Spot arcade. 

“We’re proud of the fact that for 52 years Grand Country has been here and it’s constantly reinvesting in the property to make new experiences for families,” Clifton said. “It’s not going to become a dated resort, because they’ve always got that mindset of ‘What can we do to stay relevant in the vacation space, buzz worthy in the social space and just keep it fresh so that families are excited.’ We get that feedback a lot online from Grand Country fans who have been coming from generations, are just geeked out of their minds to see the new water park.” 

For the locals, Grand Country hasn’t forgotten about them either. Currently, Splash Country Indoors is hosting area appreciation to give area residents the opportunity to check out the new water park features for themselves. Tickets for locals are $18 (plus tax) for adults and $12 (plus tax) for children ages 11 and under. 

“We love our local families and we love the support you get from them. Obviously area appreciation happens for a lot of businesses and it’s our way of giving back to those families,” Howard said. “We just encourage people to come and enjoy the new space.