Today, I’m going to look at a couple of shopping complexes I visited near Gulf Shores, Alabama around Labor Day. Timely, I know – Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I visited both OWA in Foley, AL and The Wharf at Orange Beach and saw their respective fireworks displays. I’ll tell you which one I prefer and why I won’t be riding any more roller coasters anytime soon!
OWA
OWA, meaning “big water” in the Muscogee Creek language (so, “OH-wah” not “oh double-yoo ay” like I thought) is a large shopping and amusement park complex in Foley, Alabama.
Shopping and Dining
At OWA, there’s the “downtown” section, situated like a village around a small lake with plenty of shopping and dining options. This is the place for Cinnabon, Aunty Anne’s, and Paula Deen’s – so it’s very much like The Island in Pigeon Forge. Touristy food. This area is free to visit anytime. There is even an attached hotel if you want to make it your primary stopping place.
Amusement Park
Adjacent to “downtown” is The Park at OWA, a pleasant amusement area with a long central fountain midway feature. The only proper roller coaster is in the middle in the back, with kiddie rides to the right and more thrill rides to the left. Across the board, there are 21 rides, seven of which are proper thrill rides with up to four more that may be interesting to adults.
Day passes to the park seem to be in the $20-30 range. $30 usually, $20 currently. I feel like I paid $25.
For some reason, I thought that three hours would be more than enough time to ride seven rides. Boy, was I wrong! In the end, I only rode three rides and the last one was only because I was in line when the park closed. That is over an hour per ride and it wasn’t even very crowded!
Amusement parks during COVID
The reason for the incredibly slow lines was that they were greatly under-loading the rides each cycle, and also had to wipe down each seat between each cycle. And each ride except the roller coaster was staffed by only one person. For instance, on my last ride of the night, they only seated 5 people on a ride that has 13 seats. I found it super frustrating to stand in line for so long when the lines weren’t that long to begin with. It just all moved so slowly.
And, of course, I realize they were trying to control for COVID and still stay open but I don’t think it did much good. The teens I saw wiping down the seats did a cursory job at best and it was the other folks in line that didn’t wear masks (or didn’t wear them properly) and crowded in closer than 6 feet. It seemed the closer I got to actually getting on the ride, the closer other folks got to me.
I wore my mask the whole. sweaty time, and sanitized my hands after every ride and didn’t catch COVID, but still. It’s this experience that has put me off riding any more rides until I get properly vaccinated and things return more to normal. Other people just aren’t going to respect your COVID airspace.
Roller Coaster at OWA
What rides I did make it on were properly thrilling, even more so than they looked. The roller coaster, Rollin’ Thunder, packs a surprising amount of punch and airtime in a small amount of space. It’s a one-car, nine-rider train with a straight-up, 90-degree lift hill and an overbanked (i.e. OVER 90 degree) first drop. I think my head got banged around a little bit but the airtime was amazing!
I managed two more rides during my evening – the Freedom Flyer (high swings) and Twister, a spinning pendulum ride with a LOT of upside-down time.
Fireworks
I was there the Saturday before Labor Day, which was a night for fireworks at OWA. I ended up watching them from the queue of the last ride of the night. If I had it to do over again (and not during COVID) I would ride rides during the day, eat a nice dinner, then hang out around the lake with dessert to watch the fireworks. I walked around after getting off my last ride and the lake seemed to be the prime watching spot.
The Wharf at Orange Beach
The next night, I tried another popular shopping complex, The Wharf at Orange Beach. There’s no amusement park but there is a Ferris wheel!
Otherwise, the place was pretty drab. Compared to OWA, which is a pretty village-like setting, The Wharf is a boring non-pedestrian street with two-level shopping complexes on each side. In fact, only the bottom level was mostly shopping (and even some of those are closed by evening.) The upper levels mostly hold proper businesses like dentists and churches, though there is an arcade as well.
The most exciting bit is the marina end, where all the boats are docked, A big hotel fronts this area, and all the restaurants are at this intersection. A fun bar that looks like a boat is in the middle. If you have an actual boat yourself, I can see how this would be a fun place to motor up to and get some dinner or drinks and do some shopping. I myself had the worst daiquiri I’ve ever had at a bar with some live music further down.
Entertainment at The Wharf
Ferris Wheel
About halfway down the right side of the complex is a lovely Ferris wheel. It’s not as big as The Great Smoky Mountain Wheel at The Island in Pigeon Forge but it does have a nice LED light program that makes it pretty to look at while you eat your ice cream or sip your terrible daiquiri.
The carriages are little buckets that maybe seat four people across from each other (or five if some are little). If you catch it at sunset (my favorite Ferris wheel trick) you can see the sun set into Portage Creek. $7 per person, per ride, kids under 3 ride free.
Laser Show
Every night year-round, there is Spectra, a laser show, usually at 6:00 and 7:00 pm. It’s pretty silly and mostly aimed at kids. But hey, if your kids dig it, it’s a fun nightly event that is totally free. Often, there is also a DJ and the general vibe is one of crowd participation. Prepare to hear a lot of “baby shark.”
There seem to be themed shows throughout the year. A holiday themed one is on now, and I saw a patriotic laser show the day before Labor Day.
Fireworks
I was there for the Labor Day fireworks, and they were okay. Initially, I was trying to stay out of the crowd, so I was on an upper level but I ended up having to move down to the street. If you are standing at the Marina, fireworks go off behind the left-hand building. There is music playing but the fireworks weren’t timed to it.
Amphitheater
Adjacent to The Wharf is a large amphitheater that hosts big-name acts. Currently, their 2021 lineup includes Luke Bryan and Brooks & Dunn.
Conclusion
The Wharf at Orange Beach is better for it’s location and lower budget – it’s closer to the beach and the free laser show is fun if you want something to do with your young kids after dark.
But I enjoyed OWA better. It’s prettier to walk around and I like the shopping options better. The Park at OWA is expensive but if you go for the whole day, it’s not a bad price for 7-11 good rides. More if you have kids. It is farther from the beach, about 20-25 minutes from Gulf Shores. (But then, The Wharf is 15 minutes from central Gulf Shores. It depends on where you’re staying.)
It’s neat to see how amusement parks have changed around these times. It’ll be nice when it’s all over. Also, those pictures you took are absolutely beautiful!