HERSHEY, Pa. -- A giant bucket of water splatters on my head.

I can't see for a few seconds -- long enough for my 5-year-old daughter to get a running start through East Coast Waterworks, a towering, Technicolor, water-spewing monstrosity.

It will be five minutes before I find her scooting down one of seven slides here at the world's largest waterplay area.

East Coast Waterworks is the centerpiece of the Boardwalk at Hersheypark, a gleaming 4.6-acre waterpark that opened this spring in time for the centennial year.

The four-story East Coast Waterworks is an active child's dream and an overprotective parent's purgatory. Some 54,000 gallons of water churn through a tangle of crawl tunnels, cross bridges, pull swings, tip cones, squirting umbrellas and assorted other irrigated toys -- 600 in all.

Imagine Wet Willies, the kid's waterplay area at West Homestead's Sandcastle, on steroids.

At Sandcastle, Wet Willies is just for children 54 inches and under, and parents sit on the pool's edge while watching their charges romp through this gentle waterplay area.

Hershey's East Coast Waterworks is a turbo-charged dash in a structure so big it looks as if it should have its own ZIP code -- or at least post office box. Preschoolers, teenagers and intrepid adults scream as they squirt each other, crawl and climb. Most run toward the huge blue and orange overhead beach pail stamped with the words "Boardwalk," dumping torrents of water. After getting nailed the first time, I run the other way.

If this is too much chaos, toddlers can romp around Hershey's Sandcastle Cove, a sweet play area with small slides and jets for young children, or enter the gentle wave pool at Bayside Pier. I try to nudge my daughter to these oases, so mercifully peaceful. The parents are actually sitting and waving to their children. They are taking photos, creating relaxing vacation memories.

But no. My daughter is an action chick and is soon an impossible-to-photograph blur in East Coast Waterworks. How can I fight it? She is in kid heaven, so my husband and I double-team her. A kind lifeguard helps us track her down when we momentarily lose track of her in the criss-cross of bridges, tunnels and ropes. She goes down the small slides while some teenagers careen down the scary four-story ones.

This towering structure is decorated with a giant piece of salt water taffy, a hobby horse and sunglasses. Piped-in sea gull calls compete with a sustained amusement park shriek.

The beachy theme runs through the entire waterpark, a tribute to the old-fashioned East Coast boardwalks.

You wouldn't confuse this boardwalk with Atlantic City or Coney Island.

But for such a landlocked Central Pennsylvania tourist destination, the waterpark does a good job of offering some seaside amenities -- from a fake wood boardwalk surface (actually compressed concrete) to Nathan's hotdogs to Boardwalk Fries.

It even draws people who live close to the water. In the peak season months of July and August, the largest contingent of tourists comes from New York City and Long Island area.

It was smart for the amusement park to put $21 million into this waterpark, the biggest investment in its 100-year history, said Paul Ruben, North American editor of Park World, a trade publication devoted to amusement parks. Waterparks entice people to stay on during the hot hours of the afternoon, when a roller-coaster ride feels too sticky. The longer they stay, the more they spend.

"The whole idea of an amusement park is to consume your way through the park," he says -- especially soft drinks, the biggest profit-margin item.

The crowds are buying plenty of drinks on this steamy day -- washing down their Hershey chocolate and cotton candy and fries -- and most are staying put in the Boardwalk as the sun bears down. The concessions are scattered throughout the park.

The lines of roller coasters and other dry rides grow in the evening, a big advantage of a combination waterpark/amusement park such as Hershey.

The waterpark at Hershey is not as big as Sandcastle, which spreads out charmingly along the Mon River like some bucolic resort and seems quieter than the Boardwalk at Hershey. For hot weather relaxation, it is hard to beat the sublime pleasure of floating along Sandcastle's Lazy River and watching boats on the Mon as trains chug across a railroad bridge. Sandcastle, the sister waterpark to Kennywood, has more water slides than Hershey and boasts the one with the more terrifying drop -- the aptly named Monster, a free-fall slide with its 60-foot fall that momentarily pushes many riders off the slide for a second or two as they hydroplane. Just watching this body slide scares me.

But Hersheypark's new waterpark does have some inventive slides, including one that looks like a giant cement mixer.

The approach to the Coastline Plunge Vortex is 50 feet in the air. I peer down at the industrial-looking cement mixer and have to walk up the steps twice before I summon the courage to stay on the raft. (A beer from the boardwalk at Sandcastle would have helped me overcome my fears here! But Hersheypark is dry except for the beer served in one restaurant. You can't take it to go, though.) The teens surrounding me can't wait to go down again and again.

The ride drops down a steep but short fall -- the stomach-dropping moment -- before the raft lands into the cylindrical device, which rocks my raft up one side and then down to the other side. It is an odd sensation but not as bad as it looks. Even so, I am happy to be dropped into the exit pool in one piece.

Another thrill ride at Hershey is the Waverider, the ride that tests people's skills as they sit on a surf board and ride waves. Some people ride the waves and others wipe out as they shift their weight on the board.

But the distinctive feature of Boardwalk at Hershey is the sheer size of East Coast Waterworks. People love water play areas, said Mr. Ruben. The bigger, the better, making this the gold standard.

An energetic rider could get up early and do the waterpark and then move to the rail rides. Or they could easily make Hersheypark a two-day destination.

We are here just for the day. As the sun goes down, it is hard to lure my daughter away from the waterpark to the some 60 other rides. My daughter rides a few kiddie rides -- but without much conviction.

Her heart belongs to East Coast Waterworks.