SCOTTSDALE, AZ (AZFamily) — Hurricane Harbor is a waterpark in north Phoenix, and Jenn Gardner thought it was just the right place for her daughter’s 11th birthday party. “She is in fifth grade, and she has a great little group of friends. And that was their big request: ‘We want to do a waterpark,’” she said.
When the big day rolled around, Jenn went on Hurricane Harbor’s website and bought ten tickets for around $500. Then, she and all the girls made the 45-minute drive to Hurricane Harbor. On Your Side’s Gary Harper asked, “You’re able to corral all these kids like cattle into two SUVs and you drive over there and it’s probably an exciting time, right?” Jenn replied, “Oh my gosh! A lot of Taylor Swift. My ears were bleeding. But they were so excited. “They were so happy.”
But all that happiness came to a screeching halt when the partygoers pulled up to Hurricane Harbor and found an empty parking lot. The waterpark was unexpectedly closed, leaving Jenn and other customers wondering why. “I’m like no it’s not closed. I just bought these tickets today like an hour ago. There’s no way a website would let me buy tickets for today if it was closed.”
Jenn says it was like a scene from the 1980’s hit movie Vacation when the Griswold family is welcomed by a closed amusement park. “My first thing was how do I fix this problem. Because I can’t dwell and cry over this,” she said. At that moment, Jenn decided to take all the girls to a competing waterpark on the other side of town, where they swam, laughed and had a great time.
Jenn says she wasn’t worried at all about getting her $500 back from Hurricane Harbor. After all, their website accepted her payment for that day and never indicated the waterpark would be closed. Jenn said, “There’s no way I’m not going to get my money back. Something must have happened. There was a mess up. “I’ll get my money back.”
But to Jenn’s surprise, she says Hurricane Harbor said they had a strict no-refund policy, particularly regarding weather. “Yeah, weather. But it was beautiful that day. “It was sunny and beautiful all day.”
On Their Side got involved, and after contacting Hurricane Harbor and explaining Jenn’s situation, they decided to issue a $500 credit back to Jenn. She’ll keep checking her credit card account to see when the refund hits because she says $500 is a lot of money. “Yea, I have three kids, so I can really use that $500.”
On Your Side will wait for Jenn’s refund to arrive. When it does, I’ll let you know in a follow-up news report. In the meantime, Hurricane Harbor’s statement is below:
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