Coronavirus Comeback

Hawaiian Falls splashes back into Dallas-Fort Worth with new perks and precautions

You'll have to lounge farther apart this year.

Photo courtesy of Hawaiian Falls

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is allowing waterparks to reopen on Friday, May 29, and a couple of Hawaiian Falls parks in Dallas-Fort Worth aren't waiting a minute longer.

The Mansfield and Roanoke locations will reopen that day, while The Colony park will reopen June 4, and the Garland location, June 5. All will have enhanced sanitation and safety protocols, as well as a few perks and coming attractions.

The first perk comes if you have a season pass. Hawaiian Falls Mansfield and Roanoke will welcome season pass-holders up to an hour-and-a-half early (9 am-10:30 am) beginning Friday, May 29 through Sunday, May 31 before the parks open to the public at 10:30 am.

Inside the gates, guests will find new measures taken to curb the spread of COVID-19. These include:

reduced guest capacity.
hand sanitizing stations and frequent cleaning by staff (tubes will be cleaned after each ride).
six-feet social distancing measures (such as chairs and tables spaced out) at the front gate, Sharkey’s Café, and other queuing areas throughout the park.
social distancing practiced through slide-loading.
staff wearing masks and gloves in admissions areas and cafes.
more measures, as outlined here.

“Each of our waterparks are several acres, so we have the ability to safely spread out our guests in each park,” says Hawaiian Falls Managing Director Ryan Forson in a release. “We’ve added signage to help manage the flow of guests throughout the parks and to ensure proper social distancing. Chairs and tables are also spaced apart for optimum distancing. We’ve added temperature and wellness checks for all of our employees. Front gate staff, as well as food and beverage workers will be wearing masks and gloves.”

One group of guests is getting a particularly big welcome back: healthcare workers. Hawaiian Falls will donate more than 4,000 season passes this summer to workers at hospitals, including Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital and Alliance Methodist Mansfield Medical Center.

"As healthcare workers continue to serve the communities in Texas, Hawaiian Falls will honor (them) at several hospitals that serve our local communities in Roanoke and Mansfield by providing free season passes for the summer," the release says. "In addition, immediate family members can purchase a season pass at a significantly reduced price."

Park visitors will also find several new attractions this summer. Coconut Cove at Hawaiian Falls Roanoke is an activity pool with a floating obstacle course, water basketball court, in-water lounge seats, shaded lounge space, and cabanas.

And Hawaiian Falls Mansfield's old Splashwater Reef beach has become Turtle Bay, a turtle-themed family play area with five new kids’ slides, additional shade, seating, and cabanas. It is set to open mid-June.

Guests are encouraged to purchase tickets before arrival on Hfalls.com to reduce points of contact. When visiting the park, they're encouraged to pay with debit or credit cards rather than cash, as well.

health openings families

Vinyl Record News

Dallas record store chain Josey Records opens location in Garland

Josey Records

Vinyl at Josey Records

Dallas music maker Josey Records has extended its reach east: The record store chain, whose empire includes one of the largest single independent record stores in the U.S., has opened a location in Garland, at 1005 Northwest Hwy., at the intersection of Centerville Road, where it's selling its trademark assortment of vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, turntables, music posters, new releases, and music accessories.

This is the sixth location and the third in the Dallas area, joining the original in Farmers Branch which owners Waric Cameron and Luke Sardello opened in November 2014. They've since opened locations in Plano, Tulsa, Kansas City, and Vidalia, Missouri.

The original location is a giant place with 16,000 square feet devoted to vinyl, 45s, CDs, turntables, and T-shirts. They do a good job showcasing new releases and collector vinyl — they made CultureMap's list of 5 best places in Dallas to buy vinyl records — and are known to host album release and listening parties such as a recent blockbuster celebrating Linkin Park.

They made headlines in June 2020 when they acquired the vast musical inventory of Bill’s Records following the death of owner Bill Wisener; Cameron and Sardello both worked at Bill’s, and knew the sprawling collection first-hand.

"It has taken us years to even start going through it, but in last two years, we've made some headway," Cameron says. "Bill's has its own audience, so we created a specific Instagram account, just for Bill's Records merchandise called @billsrecordsvault."

They chose Garland because they saw it as an area that was under-served.

"There are very few record stores in that area of northeast Dallas, Casa View, Garland, Rockwall, Mesquite," Cameron says. "We have customers who live over there, so it seemed like a good place for a store."

The storefront they're in was most recently The Music Store, which sold and rented musical instruments and accessories; but coincidentally, it's next to an address that was once RPM Records, a hip record store from the '90s.

The Garland store follows the same model as their others: selling new and used records and merchandise, and buying used goods, as well.

"One thing that's cool is that each location takes on its own identity," he says. "We buy used CDs, vinyl records, cassettes — we're a used resale business — and what we buy from our customers dictates what that store becomes. For example, our Plano store has a lot of classic rock. So we're looking forward to seeing what Garland gravitates to."

Garland does have one thing that the other locations do not.

"Right now, Garland has this incredible collection of jazz," Cameron says. "We bought a great collection of jazz records — someone called and wanted to sell it. We get that a lot, we buy major collections from all over the U.S., we even make house calls. So we saved it for the Garland store."