The dock was a big hit with the kids and adults alike. The ladder is hard to use, but does work; it is just hard to get up onto the dock generally. We had it next to a 'Lily Pad' floating mat and that worked great.
To blow it up: There is NO WAY I was going to be able to blow it up with the hand pump; it would have taken half a day. BUT I used a battery powered leaf blower to get it all blown up (took about 5 mins at the most) and then used the hand pump for another five mins to get some pressure in it (about 5 psi). Worked great! and was super fast. To use the blower I put the valve on 'open' and just held the end of the blower up to the valve ring, the blower end is way bigger than the valve itself, but it fit snug enough around the outer ring that it pushed plenty of air into the dock. I used hearing protection too since the blower was loud.
Justin Spence 
