That won't last long, because the reborn WaterWorks is stunning - 60 attractions, including 30 slides, water heated to 81 degrees and so many amenities that PKI people refer to it as a "water resort." Three new attractions stand out.

Tasmanian is a funnel slide where a four-seater cloverleaf raft speeds though a pitch-black enclosed tube.

The raft then spills into a gigantic orange and blue funnel where the swirling water drives it up the walls of the 65-foot high funnel, giving some mighty good airtime.

Coolangatta Racer is a complex of four side-by-side slides intended for group racing. You ride on your belly on a mat through an enclosed tube, then straight down an open-air hill.

Jackaroo Landing is a family attraction equipped with water cannons that shoot far enough to surprise passersby, slides, fountains, geysers and climbing apparatus.

The Beach: 12:35 p.m. Wednesday and temperatures, unfortunately, are in the 70s.

The Beach, with 49 attractions spread over 35 acres in Mason, is the largest water park in Ohio. Celebrating its 20th anniversary, it has one new attraction and one radically refurbished one. Volcanic Panic won't open until July 3, but when it does, you'll find a slide built to conform to the terrain as it speeds through the treetops making its heavily wooded way down to a splash pool.

Kahuna Beach is the old Thunder Bay wave pool, but it's hardly recognizable, with dozens of new palm trees, several tons of white sand and stunning "rocks" creating islands and waterfalls and making it the most tropical of the parks on the tour.

Hurricane Hannah's: 8:18 a.m. Thursday and it's still sunny and definitely too cool to drive 31/2 hours north to plunge into an unheated wave pool at Geauga Lake (formerly Six Flags World of Adventure). The 690-acre park, founded in 1888, is an old-fashioned Coney Island-style amusement park with old trees providing the most shade of any stop on the tour.

At its Hurricane Hannah's Waterpark - it's only 66 degrees and the water isn't heated. The park is also on the smallish side (10 acres), but what it lacks in size it makes up in bigger, taller and speedier slides.

The centerpiece is Hurricane Mountain. At 100 feet, the seven-slide complex is the tallest in Ohio and gives some of the best airtime. Four slides require an inner tube - better airtime but slower - and three are body slides - faster, but less airtime because you're lying flat.

Soak City: 9:15 a.m. Friday and the temperature in Sandusky, Ohio, has dipped into the 50s.Cedar Point's Soak City, built in 1988, has gone through several expansions over the years. It boasts 14 slides, a 500,000-gallon wave pool, two lazy rivers, three kids areas and a swim-up bar.

And that's a good thing, because after hurling down the 102-foot Body Slide at 60 mph and discovering the 20-foot freefall section, well, you need a little something to calm the nerves.

Here's something no other park has: A lazy river with waves, some of them big enough to swamp your inner tube. If the waves don't, the geysers and waterfalls studding Renegade River's quarter-mile will do the trick.

Splashin' Safari: 9:45 a.m. Monday and time to go west to Holiday World in Santa Claus, Ind., one of a dying breed: a family owned and operated park. The Koch family is constantly updating and improving, adding at least one attraction a year in the 11-acre Splashin' Safari .

They also have little huts where you can get free soft drinks and free squirts of SPF 15 sunscreen.

This year, the new attraction is Jungle Racer, a 10-lane, 60-foot high racing slide with a clock at the bottom that flashes your time. Lie on a mat on your tummy and remember to hold up the tip for more speed.

Safari is also the first water park in the three-state area to install a funnel slide. Zinga, the same height and length as Boomerang Bay's Tasmanian Typhoon, also uses a four-person raft and is at its best when at least one rider is packing 50 or so extra pounds.

Hurricane Bay: 9 a.m. Tuesday, on the way to Hurricane Bay at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, in Louisville.

The newest of the water parks on the tour opened in 1993 between the fairgrounds and Louisville's airport.

One of the major kicks here is the 750,000-gallon Wave Pool, with waves so high that kids under 11 need to be with an adult to get in. Late last summer, the park re-programmed the computer to tame them a bit.

The other major kick is Mt. Slide Hai, a four-slide complex with one body slide and three tube slides and water jets pushing riders along at speeds up to 30 mph. In a dark, fully enclosed tube, 30 mph is fast.

The must-ride here is Caribbean Cruise, the park's lazy river. Just lay back and check the lovley landscaping.

Email jknippenberg@enquirer.com