Safari Island Community Center

Waconia, 1600 Community Dr, Waconia, MN 55387 | ★ 4.5 (44 Review)

📞 +1 952-442-0695

Activity

Gym Indoor playground Personal trainer Swimming pool

About the Club

Enjoy everything Safari Island Community Center has to offer including: splash in our indoor zero-depth entry pool and 175' slide, lap pool with 1m diving boards, and pool basketball hoop, and spa. After your swim, enjoy one of the many additional amenities including: Lion's Den 4-level indoor play structure, fitness center, over 45 weekly group exercise classes, indoor track, 4 court gymnasium and batting cages. We promise you won't wan to miss out on the fun!

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 Safari Island Community Center
 Safari Island Community Center

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Reviews

Angela Grimm

★ 5

Source: Google

Shirley Paulson

★ 5

A shoutout to Kristi Sherlock. She works as an administrator, a personal trainer, and sometimes as an instructor. There are things she does that make for a great experience and we don't see.

Source: Google

Maxwell

★ 5

Source: Google

Barbara Otte

★ 5

Great place to bring young kids to play in the water. Large play pool, swimming lanes, life guard. On duty. Swimming lessons.
Exercise equipment.
There is a fee to use facility.
Membership levels. Staff are friendly.

Source: Google

Rachel

★ 5

I will recommend every single parent to bring their child to swimming lessons here. Mallory is absolutely great with my preschooler! Patient, kind, and fun. My daughter has so much fun in the water and learning how to swim. I love at the end of each lesson, they have a fun open swim for 5 minutes with the elephant slide and fountains.

Source: Google

Katie Tronsgard

★ 5

I love being a member at Safari Island because I love my shine fitness dance class and also the other class at 6:15pm before my dance class I also like the waking track and also the gym they have to do their too

Source: Google

Paula Streiff

★ 5

Source: Google

Jessica Flury

★ 5

I signed up for a membership 6 months ago and am still going 3 x week! That says a lot! I use the pool, fitness center, and track a lot. I’ve always wanted to try a personal trainer so finally did it a few months ago. Ally is awesome! She’s pushes you but not without knowing you can do something. I would never push myself that much.

The only suggestion would be to have more open gym time for my kids. When the school uses all courts, safari island doesn’t get to use any. Sometimes the courts are empty but the coaches are kind of rude if you use them. It would be really nice if they had their own gym space.

Source: Google

Hannah F

★ 5

Great experience for adults and kids. Birthday party area for a reasonable price. Friendly staff. Thank You
-Hannah Franke

Source: Google

Rei Sch

★ 5

Source: Google

olezhon1

★ 5

It's a very nice place in community to go to!
Oleg Y.

Source: Google

Charlie Costa

★ 5

service is alright employee colin bolton was very helpful he needs a raise now

Source: Google

Brady Barkosky

★ 5

Great customer service.

Source: Google

The McKeevers

★ 5

Outstanding facility! Our family loves Safari. Being a family of five we do it all there: Group fitness classes, the track, the pool, the Lion’s Den, and we’ve even had birthday parties there. We so appreciate the friendly employees and wonderful service too!

Source: Google

Jennifer Kirsch (Staff)

★ 5

Awesome staff! Clean facility. Great workout class options

Source: Google

Ellie Ferezy

★ 5

The indoor waterpark is an amazing place for kids of all ages. The locker rooms for the pool area are nice, with a lot of storage. Haven’t used the indoor playground or gym yet, but our kiddos love the pool. Another bonus is the hot tub is right next to the kids pool, making it easy for parents to supervise their kids while relaxing.

Source: Google

Tricia Furman

★ 4

Nice swimming area! Small class sizes are great!

Source: Google

Preston Meiser

★ 1

Got kicked because having fun

Source: Google

Guertin Family Realty

★ 5

Safari Island is a huge part of our wellness routine. Dennis enjoys workouts in the weight room and walking on the track. Jane enjoys a variety of classes including yoga and aqua classes. The staff and instructors are the best! We are very fortunate to have such an exceptional community center nearby.

Source: Google

Emmalee Hoen

★ 5

We have so much fun at safari island. From swimming to playing at the Lions Den. Burns some good energy especially during the winter time.

Source: Google

Brooke Greenwell

★ 5

My family and I have been members of SI for 9 years. I enjoy the variety of classes they offer (beginner to advanced) and my kids enjoy the track, weight room and open court amenities. I would highly recommend checking out the facility and getting a tour.

Source: Google

Loretta Lundquist

★ 5

Such a great place for families.

Source: Google

Katie Akre

★ 5

Love group the fitness classes, especially Shine/Uplift with Ali and Jackie!

Source: Google

Jill Stieve

★ 5

Been coming to safari island for 15 years now I think I would be lost without it!!

Source: Google

Juan Mendoza

★ 4

Fun place to swim !!!

Source: Google

Elizabeth Knaus

★ 5

I’m thankful for Safari Island and everyone who manages and cares for it well. Our community is fortunate to have many opportunities.

Source: Google

Erin Wohlers

★ 5

Great facility! We love using the group exercise classes and of course the pool and playground for our toddler

Source: Google

Moriah Dunn

★ 4

Amazing facility with great staff who are always willing to help! Very clean and good amenities with the pool and playground. I do wish their pool schedule was easier to read and there were more pool classes during the day since I work overnights and can't make it to them but the classes they offer are well described and are very inclusive!

Source: Google

Alysha Bergerson

★ 5

Always nice to take the kids and let them run and climb in the lions den!!!!!

Source: Google

Nicholas Gredyk

★ 5

Great experience with adaptive swim lessons

Source: Google

Lisa Luciano

★ 5

Safari Island Community Center has something for everyone. This facility is a lifesaver during the cold winter months, and a gem in the community all year long. Gratefully, Lisa Luciano

Source: Google

Cmunt

★ 5

Has a little something for everyone. Fitness classes, personal training, weight room, running/walking track, lap pool, kids pool and play area for younger children. Staff is friendly and building is always clean. Good price for what you get.

Source: Google

Rachel Bell

★ 5

My family loves going to safari island! I especially love the fitness classes and taking my kids to the pool! Very affordable for how often we use this facility!

Source: Google

Carla S

★ 4

So fun! And wonderful for the kids in the winter to get energy out. But....it's expensive unless you get a membership and the pools are freezing!!!!🥶

Source: Google

L G

★ 2

This review is strictly based on our experience at swim lessons here, we are not members. Last year we did the parent and child swim class when my daughter was eight months old and it was a great experience. Unfortunately, this was not the case this year.

The main instructor is a young girl who really seemed like she didn’t like her job or have any sort of passion for working with children. There was never a welcome when class started, such as welcome everyone for being here. In fact I don’t even know her name because she never introduced herself. She never asked what my name or my child’s name was. Never called my child my name. Also could not have been bothered to give any sort of critiques to parents during the class. Never demonstrated with the manikin. There was never any closing goodbye such as thank you for coming or have a great week. These were all things that the instructor last year did with our class.

The class routinely started five minutes late, which is precious time being wasted when the class is only 30 minutes long. There were times where she “ran out of activities “and went back and had us sing the same songs again. It should be common sense to have a wider array of activities in your back pocket to use in instances like this.

I felt the instructor this year was incredibly inexperienced. When you have young or inexperienced instructors they need to be supervised or have someone overseeing them. I’d imagine this is not the experience they want parents and students to have.

During class today one of the instructors said “we are going to do a new song. We didn’t practice this. It is going to be rough.” Nothing like admitting you aren’t prepared for your job or didn’t care to prepare! It’s not that hard to practice a simple toddler song!

The reason we had decided to do swim lessons here for my daughter was because it is three times cheaper than Foss but you get what you pay for.

I understand that this is an introductory class for infants and toddlers that is used to get them comfortable being in the water, but I would at least expect an instructor who is enthusiastic, has a passion for working with children, and who wants to take the time to provide valuable critiques, and get to know her students. Every class was rinse and repeat the same activities and songs with no variation. This session was honestly a waste of time and money. My family will not be back and I would never recommend swim lessons here to anyone.

Source: Google

Anna Kostochko

★ 5

Source: Google

Big Boy & Lil Boy Entertainment

★ 2

Nice facility, nice enough staff, but it is increasingly frustrating when you pull up the gym schedule online, only to find out once you arrive that the schedule has changed. Tonight was a perfect example. Schedule states two open gyms until 9pm, we got there and found out there is a private rental from 7-7:45 and therefore no open gyms. I would estimate close to 25 people were asked to leave the gym.
Not sure what can be done, but just wanted to share some constructive feedback.

Source: Google

Lindsey Werner

★ 5

Great for a cold day!

Source: Google

Tim Schuster

★ 5

Amazing!

Source: Google

Jerimiah Hartmann

★ 1

Safari island is great in a lot of ways. The staff is always friendly the place is always clean. The thing that stops me from giving a five-star review is the pool in the pool schedule. The pool is generally kind of cold and when I look at the pool schedule the pool is open swim from like 8:00 in the morning until 3:00 in the afternoon. This is ridiculous! If you are like myself I bought my membership so that I can bring my daughter to the pool to go swimming and practice what she learned in swimming lessons. But when the pool is only open on weekdays from 8 to 3:00 and my daughter doesn't get out of school until 2:40 it needs to be in bed by 8:00 how in the hell are we ever supposed to use the pool? The ridiculousness of this blows my mind. I know what people are going to say which is go on the weekend except that I'm a single dad and I have a job where I have to work on weekends so that's not an option for us. Not to mention the fact that they say they have the slide open. What what they don't tell you unless you look at the fine print is the slide is open for 20 minutes and then there's a 20-minute break or the slide is closed. Okay I can understand that it's for safety reasons except that I've sat there and timed it and when I have the slide is often open for 15 minutes and then they closed it for a safety brake and it's closed for 30 minutes and then it might actually be open for 20 but then it'll be closed for another 30. I have no idea why this happens especially when I've brought it up to management and I've been nice about it. My biggest issue is exactly that it's not being taken care of it's not being monitored and it still continues to happen after it's been brought up to management. I love supporting local and that's exactly why I went to Safari Island versus the many other places that I could go. If these things could be solved I would give this place a solid 10 Stars if I could. Everything else at Safari Island is great the only issue is the pool. I want to reiterate the staff is amazing the facility is always extremely clean everybody's always extremely friendly. And I highly recommend Safari Island for anybody who's not going there for mainly the pool.

Oh here we are again. I checked the website to make sure that the Lion's den play area is open my daughter's in there for all of 5 minutes can we get told we have to leave because they have a birthday party in there and that the Lion's den is going private this was not on the website it was not on the schedule and so again we made a trip just to be told that we can't use the facility even though we're members this is completely and utterly ridiculous. These things need to be put on the schedule. Otherwise people need to be compensated this is just sickening frustrating and maddening

Source: Google

Katie Nelson

★ 3

We like having a community center that has a variety of offerings, including the pool. However, I do not trust the lifeguards. I have written into the center regarding lack of lifeguards attentiveness during swim lessons and never received any email back. That lack of response matched the level of care I feel most of the lifeguards have. I have noticed that lack of attentiveness during open swim too. They seem to prefer chatting with one another, chewing their nails, and slouching in a chair than actively watching swimmers from their stations.

There are a couple good ones that I have noticed teach lessons too. But when they are teaching, they can’t also be on lifeguard duty.

I have witnessed the devastation first hand that can come in a matter of moments with water, and because of that do not allow my child to go to Safari Island without us, not even for birthday parties because I have lost all trust.

Source: Google

Kevin Wendland

★ 3

Very simple workout area. Nice staff!

Source: Google

michelle schoening

★ 4

Super fun, and kind staff.

Source: Google

Betty Allen

★ 4

The Customer Service was Good the Front Desk Staff was very accommodating and attentive to my questions and gave a tour of their facility.

Source: Google