Why Myrtle Beach’s largest water parks will no longer be open on weekdays this summer
It’s still summer on the Grand Strand, and it’s still hot.
But tourists can’t cool down on weekdays at the area’s largest water parks any longer this year.
With Horry County, Georgetown County and some surrounding school districts beginning classes this week, the Myrtle Beach area’s three primary water parks are closed on weekdays.
Myrtle Waves Water Park in Myrtle Beach and Wild Water & Wheels water park in Surfside Beach don’t have enough lifeguards to open the gates on weekdays. Splashes Oceanfront Water Park at Family Kingdom Amusement Park has been closed all year as a precaution due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Myrtle Waves and Wild Water & Wheels will still open on weekends through Labor Day, but the weekday closures are about two weeks earlier than normal.
“COVID has just messed everything up. I’m not going to blame it on anybody. We’ll blame it on COVID,” said Mark Lazarus, owner of Myrtle Waves Water Park in Myrtle Beach and Wild Water & Wheels water park in Surfside Beach.
Water parks normally have enough international students working as lifeguards through J-1 visas to remain fully open through Labor Day weekend, but that program has been largely inactive because of the coronavirus pandemic’s impact across the world.
Lazarus said he got a few lifeguards from Jamaica and Colombia this summer who were working the parks as second or replacement jobs, but not nearly as many as he normally does.
“All my lifeguards were high school kids this year, and that’s because we didn’t get a lot of J-1s this year either, so that kind of hurt us,” Lazarus said. “We had to hire a lot of 15- and 16-year-olds too that we generally don’t hire that filled a lot of spots, but they can only work so many hours and you have to watch that.”
Water parks relied largely on local kids
Lazarus’ two parks had so many teenagers certified to be lifeguards through the Red Cross — approximately 150 — that the businesses received an award from the nonprofit.
Lazarus said he asked Horry County Schools superintendent Rick Maxey if the district could start next week, and he said Maxey told him the district took a survey of teachers and parents and chose to keep the early date.
“We’ve still got a lot of people here. North Carolina went back to school and most of South Carolina is in school, but New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, they’re all still here and a good crowd,” he said.
The water parks also lost dates the first couple weeks of the summer season because schools completed the 2020-21 school year late.
Lazarus said many other area businesses hired high school students who are no longer available during the week.
“I know a lot of businesses hired a lot of local kids this year. We always do, but that’s all we had this year,” Lazarus said. “It would have been nice to stay open at least one more week, but that’s okay. We had a good season and we’ll survive and get ready for next year.”
Lazarus’ Broadway Grand Prix go-kart business is still operating seven days per week through October. It will then be open on weekends through the end of 2021 with the exception of full weeks around Thanksgiving and after Christmas. It opens for the 2022 season on President’s Day Weekend in late February.
