Crab Island Water Park: Inflatables & Crab Island

***The Crab Island Water Park is permanently closed due to restrictions on overnight anchoring from the County. ***

Crab Island is a great place to visit with your family when you're in Destin. In the past, the underwater playground had developed a bit of a reputation as a "party place" and families sometimes are thrown off by photos posted online by the "party crowd", which portrays Crab Island as a great place for adults to go get drunk. This has always been a great source of frustration for me, because, having grown up here in Destin, I know that those pictures don't accurately represent one of my family's favorite places to hang out. Well, times are a' changin', and a few years ago, Crab Island started to overcome its reputation with a few new family-friendly additions, such as the Crab Island Water Park.

The Former Crab Island Water Park

The Crab Island Water Park grew in popularity over the past few years to the point that it became a huge multi-acre attraction all by itself. Parents would rent boats to go to Crab Island and kids of ALL ages would spend hours at Crab Island bouncing and swinging and jumping and sliding on the inflatables. Then, a second water park set up at Crab Island as well. And that's when things started to get out of control...The County decided that too many people created a potential liability, and some cantankerous old locals complained that Crab island was starting to be a bit of an eyesore and said the inflatables looked too much like a theme park and were detracting from the natural beauty of Destin. The County decided to start charging businesses to be out at Crab Island. To top it off, they also decided to restrict businesses from anchoring overnight.

The overnight anchoring restriction ultimately closed the Crab Island Water Park down just before the 2020 season. Because it took days to set up the huge water park, it wasn't feasible to set the entire thing up at Crab Island each day and then have to take it down each night and pay the County large fees for doing so.

Water Park Alternative: Book Now for 2024!

If you're looking for more than just a regular visit to Crab Island and need to keep the kids entertained, the Crab Island Adventure Tour is for you! The adventure tour offers multiple activities including a dolphin tour, kayaks, paddleboards, banana boat rides, snorkeling at the Gulf Islands National Seashore (5 minutes from Crab Island by boat), followed by a stop at the Crab Island sandbar, where you can relax and enjoy the scenery. The adventure park is ONLY open to guests on the excursion and is not open to the public , so you will have to purchase tickets on one of the tour boats to access the activities and take part in the experience. Click here to view the schedule for 2024 and purchase your tickets. Check out the video of the tour below, taken in July 2020 (note: this tour did originally include a smaller inflatable waterpark, which has been removed and replaced with banana boat rides to comply with increasingly tighter regulations).

How Much Does It Cost?

Now for the pricing (you will need an armband to play): Pricing for the 2-stop tour featuring all of the activities and a stop at Crab Island starts at $85 for adults and $49 for children 5 & under. This includes your boat ride, captain to drive the boat, crew to assist with the equipment and to help keep you safe, and all the activities (dolphin tour, banana boat rides, kayaks, paddleboards, floating lounge areas, and snorkel gear plus a separate visit to check out the festivities at Crab Island.) It's reasonably priced since all of those activities done separately would cost over $160 per person.

The boat is also equipped with restrooms for your convenience. You'll want to book ahead as seats fill up quickly, particularly during the peak summer season. Click here to book your seats!