North Collier Regional Park Runs on Two Holiday Calendars. Here Is Where They Overlap.

North Collier Regional Park sits at 15000 Livingston Road, a short drive south from the Imperial Golf Estates gates. It looks like a single destination: one entrance, one set of parking lots, Sun-N-Fun Lagoon on one side and the Golisano Children's Museum of Naples on the other. On the holiday calendar it splits in two. Collier County Parks & Recreation runs the water park, the athletic fields and the Rec-Plex. CMON, the children's museum, runs its building on its own schedule. The two operators close on different days.

That matters this season more than usual. The county side has been running a pared-down operation since late summer, and its November and December calendar is still blank. The museum's calendar is already full. If grandchildren or other young guests are coming between Thanksgiving and New Year's, plan around the museum's published dates and treat the water park as a bonus.

The Days Each Side Closes

The county's FY26–27 holiday closure schedule lists Sun-N-Fun Lagoon, North Collier athletics and the Level 3 fitness facility at North Collier Regional Park as closed on Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. CMON's visitor page names a different set of holiday closures: New Year's Day, Easter, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Set side by side for this season:

Both sides are closed together on four days: Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Day. On every other date in the table, at least one side has something open or scheduled. The Friday after Thanksgiving is where the two calendars split most usefully. The county side is shut, and the day is not on the museum's holiday closure list. Veterans Day is narrower. The county side is closed, and CMON has only its Family Yoga class, after which the museum stays closed to the public.

The Friday After Thanksgiving Belongs to the Museum

For a house full of visitors, the Friday after Thanksgiving is often the day everyone wants out of the house. At North Collier Regional Park the county side is closed that day. CMON's posted hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. for the public and 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. for members, and the museum describes itself as open seven days a week with holiday exceptions. Friday, Nov. 27, is not one of the exceptions it lists.

Two details about CMON tickets matter before guests arrive. Admission is $18 for local residents and $25 general admission, so a resident pays $7 less per ticket than an out-of-town visitor. Tickets are sold in person only, not online. Whoever has the residency paperwork should be in the car.

The museum also has a midweek quirk. Public hours on Wednesdays end at 1 p.m. In the holiday stretch that turns three Wednesdays into half days: Nov. 25, the day before Thanksgiving, plus Dec. 23 and Dec. 30. Anyone planning a "day before the holiday" outing on one of those Wednesdays should go in the morning.

What the Water Park Has Published, and What It Hasn't

Sun-N-Fun Lagoon is running a much smaller operation this fall than the "five slides, cool pools, a winding lazy river" its own site promotes. Here is where things stand from the county's announcements:

• Weekends only since Aug. 8. A Collier County release dated Aug. 3 moved the park to Saturdays and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with no end date given.
• Slides and Lazy River closed since Sept. 19. A county release dated Sept. 8 announced scheduled maintenance on both.
• $5 admission while the work continues. The park's homepage prices it at $5 plus 6% sales tax for as long as the slides and Lazy River are down.
• No reopening date. Neither the county release nor the park's site says when the slides return.

The county's announcement put it this way:

"During the maintenance period, the water slides and lazy river will be temporarily closed. However, Sun-N-Fun Lagoon will remain open on weekends from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with other available attractions open for guests to enjoy."

The park's online calendar still shows only October 2026. That leaves the Saturdays and Sundays of Thanksgiving weekend and the week after Christmas covered by the standing weekend schedule and nothing more specific. The one firm holiday date is Thursday, Dec. 31. The county's holiday table lists Sun-N-Fun open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. that day, a weekday opening in a season of weekend-only hours.

Last year's timing gives a sense of when this year's details could appear. In 2025 the county announced extra weekday openings for Thanksgiving break on Nov. 14, and winter-break openings on Dec. 18. Those were 2025 dates and have no bearing on 2026 openings. They do show that last season's holiday schedules came out within about two weeks of the holiday. Anyone hoping for a weekday water park outing should keep an eye on Collier County's news page from mid-November on rather than booking around last year's pattern.

December at CMON, Date by Date

With the water park's winter schedule still open, the museum's December calendar carries the season. In date order:

1. Saturday, Dec. 5: Jingle Bell Bash, 3 to 7 p.m. Santa photos, treats and holiday activities. Reservations are required and prices vary by membership and age.
2. Wednesday, Dec. 9: Family Yoga, 1:15 p.m. Led by Elaina Vasta of Just Play Kids, $20 per child. The museum closes to public play after class, which lines up with its usual 1 p.m. Wednesday close.
3. Wednesday, Dec. 9: Merry Mahjong. An event for ages 21 and up with Hop Toi Mahjong, with tournament, open-play and a limited number of beginner tickets. The event page does not list a time.
4. Dec. 21–23 and Dec. 28–30: Winter Camp full days, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. $329 for three full days, $279 for members.
5. Thursday, Dec. 24, and Thursday, Dec. 31: Winter Camp half-days, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. $99, or $79 for members. The Christmas Eve half-day runs even though the museum is closed to the public that day.
6. Thursday, Dec. 31: Noon Year's Eve, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Ends with a ball drop at noon, a New Year's countdown that finishes before lunch. The listing does not say the museum's public hours are extended.

Winter Camp is the one item that solves a problem the rest of the calendar doesn't. It runs on both Thursdays when everything else at the park is shut or scaled back, giving visiting children a supervised morning on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.

For adults, two November evenings fill out the season. Stock Development's Backyard Bash, a 21-and-up CMON fundraiser, runs Friday, Nov. 13, from 6 to 10 p.m. with games, food trucks, auctions and live music. The Nov. 11 Family Yoga class falls on Veterans Day, when the county side of the park is closed. It is a registered class, $20 per child, and the museum's listing says it will not open for public play afterward.

The Quiet Room in the Exhibit Hall

One more option sits inside the park and doesn't depend on the water park or the museum. Purr & Play opened in March 2026 inside the North Collier Regional Park Exhibit Hall. It is Collier County's first feline interaction site, a cat lounge with adoptable cats from Domestic Animal Services and partner agencies. Visits are free. The county's Purr & Play page lists it open Wednesday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and takes walk-ins as space permits.

The same page gives different walk-in and appointment windows in its main schedule and its FAQ, and Purr & Play does not appear on the county's holiday closure table. Check the current details before driving over on the Friday after Thanksgiving, which falls inside its regular Wednesday-to-Sunday week.

Part of what makes life in Imperial Golf Estates easy is knowing which door on Livingston Road opens on which day. If you'd like help building a holiday plan for visiting family, or want an introduction to the places the Gulf Coast Luxury Group team knows across North Naples, Gulf Coast Luxury Group is glad to help. Schedule a Private Concierge Consultation.