2012 Waterpark Preview - Part 1

With Memorial Day weekend quickly approaching it's a great time to check out what's new at North American waterparks.  The popularity of these facilities seems unstoppable, and there's plenty new for Summer 2012.  We will check out some of these additional this week, leading up to the long weekend, which is traditionally when many waterparks open for the year.

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Dixie Landin' and Blue Bayou Waterpark offers guests both amusement rides and water slides when they visit, and this year the waterpark has more than ever before to offer.  The park is adding a set of four Aqua Loop water slides this Summer.

© Dixie Landin' and Blue Bayou Waterpark

The slides all depart from one tower, and above you can see that half of them have been installed so far.  When complete the ride will have quite a visual impact.  The park hasn't really published an official name for the attraction yet, but I'm sure they'll have something unique when they do!

Other renovations include bath house renovations and a complete overhaul of the lazy river, making it look brand new.


Splash Kingdom Waterpark, located in Redlands, California, is a popular local establishment where families can enjoy a day in the sun.  Filled with an enormous tower that features eight different slides along with a surfing simulator, the park has a major new addition this year.

 © Splash Kingdom Waterpark

New for 2012 is a 17,000 square foot wave pool, currently unnamed.  The attraction is something that the park has wanted to add for a while, and brings with it a tremendous increase in capacity.  Also seen on the above drawing is a mat racing slide, though I think that may be a future addition.

The park is having a contest to name the new wave pool.  You can submit your ideas via the park's official website.


If you're headed to Denver, Colorado any time this Summer you might want to stop by Water World, one of the largest waterparks in the country.  New this year is the Mile High Flyer, which is one of the highly regarded Proslide hydromagnetic water coasters.

 © Water World

The new slide features a black and yellow color scheme, and plenty of twists and turns.  I actually have to admit that from the new park map the ride appears to resemble the layout of Holiday World's Wildebeest.

The ride will use a conveyor belt lift so that there is no tower to walk up, though the ride fits into the landscape which is a decent sized hill.  I can't find the length of the ride anywhere, but one story puts the maximum height of the $4.5 million Mile High Flyer at 45 feet.


When My. Olympus Water and Theme Park announced the addition of the Lost City of Atlantis I assumed it was just a large water play structure.  Well, it is, but it's also a lot more!  Now that the structure has been completed we can see all that is offered:

© Mt. Olympus

There are some full sized slides in there, much like ones that you'd find standing alone at many parks.  In total there are 7 different slides that come off the structure, along with a geyser that shoots water 120 feet in the air, and a giant tipping bucket.

The orange and pink slide to the left of the photo is especially interesting, as riders end up dropping down into the "boomerango" section where they climb the wall and then fall back down.

Aerial Antics: Dixie Landin' and Blue Bayou Waterpark

Located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Dixie Landin' and Blue Bayou Waterpark offers guests both amusement and water rides on the same property.  It would seem as though the water rides are a bigger draw, but perhaps that has to do with the weather in the area!

Guests are greeted by the red and black Voodoo, a giant family bowl slide.  The water park likes to build the "world's largest" versions of all its rides, and when Voodoo debuted this was no exception to that rule.

Another pair of huge slides can be seen here.  On the left is a Tornado style ride, named Azuka at the park.  To the right is a huge set of mat racer slides, aptly named the racers.  Blue Bayou has plenty of other slides, as well as a lazy river and wave pool.  Next year the park will see the addition of new AquaLoop slides, sure to be in some way the "world's largest" I'm sure!

Over on the Dixie Landin' side of things there are a bunch of different rides and attractions for visitors to explore.  Above is the Splinter, a classic log flume that features two different drops.  It is flanked by several flat rides, including the Flyin' Tigers, Zydeco Express, and the Gumbo Yo-Yo.

The park has some bigger rides, too.  On the left is the Ragin' Cajun (the park sure likes to end words with an n'), a Boomerang that was originally located in the United Kingdom.  The park's Hot Shot, an S&S creation, was moved from Miracle Strip amusement park when it closed.  The Xtreme, a Maurer Sohne spinning car coaster that came via the Netherlands, can also be seen.

The backside of the park contains another midway filled with additional rides.  Here we see the park's Ferris wheel, and a Rainbow ride - which are becoming increasingly rare these days.  The coaster seen here is the Galaxy, which was previously located at two different Louisiana parks: Pontchartrain Beach and Fun Fair Park.

To see Bing's aerial of Blue Bayou and Dixie Landin', click here.

Thankful For... New Park Additions!

Happy Thanksgiving!  Hopefully you have plenty to be thankful for on this day, I know I do.  In light of this blog however, let's be thankful for some recent park announcements!

Waldameer Park is advertising "plenty of new things" for next season, coming off of this year's large North End expansion which contained three new rides.

Next year the Happy Swing will take up residence in Kiddie Land, near the Ravine Flyer 3.  This kid-friendly ride has been popping up in many parks, namely the Planet Snoopy expansions seen this past summer at several Cedar Fair parks. 

Waldameer's relaxing train ride, the L. Ruth Express, will also welcome a second train in 2012 to reduce wait times and add capacity to the popular attraction.  For a sneak peak at the train, check out the park's recent blog post on it.

Dark Ride fans will also be happy to hear that the park's Wacky Shack will have a redesigned loading area that will provide better and faster loading, a big plus.  The park will also move to being cashless in 2012, using Wally Cards for transactions that take place inside the park.

Dixie Landing and Blue Bayou water park is known as the Land of the Giants, as they have a penchant for building only the biggest models of popular slides.

Next year will be no different when the park builds a brand new Aqua Loop water slide.  The park shared a photo of a 4 slide version on their Facebook, but mention the ride singularly on their website, so I'm not sure how large this instillation is. 

Either way, Aqua Loop slides have become quite popular as a high level water park thrill slide.  I have a feeling this will fit in rather well with the park's existing mega-slides.

Other enhancements will also take place, such as renovations to the park's existing lazy river and an updated Bathhouse.

A Blast From The Past - Class of '01

Since Mid-February the Blast has been taking a look at the coasters of 2001. With the 2011 season soon to be in full swing, we thought we would wrap up this series. This week we bring you brief snippets of six of the last seven 2001 coasters.




Originally located at Pontchatrain Beach, Gaxlaxi is a standard SDC, it was moved to Fun Fair Park in 1978 & opened on July 11, 2001 at Dixie Landin' where it still operates today.




Looping Star at Beech Bend was on the Carnival circuit until the park purchased it in 2000, it operated at Beech Bend until September of 2009. At the end of the season it was sold to Sauble Beach in Ontario Canada and is currently being constructed there.




Six Flags Great Adventure's Nitro was the other 2001 B&M, opening on April 7th of that year. The L shaped out and back was billed as the most explosive coaster on the planet! Nitro was the parks 12th scream machine and Six Flags Great Adventure declared themselves "The Mother of All Coaster Parks."




At Lake Winnepesaukah in Rossville Georgia the new addition for 2001 was Wild Thing. The L&T Systems Wild Mouse was renamed White Lightnin' after the end of the 2001 season.

There were two Vertical Velocity (V2) coasters that opened in 2001. Six Flags Great America's V2 opened on May 18th and Six Flags Discovery Kingdom's V2 opened June 22nd.

The Intamin LIM Shuttles were orginally identical in their innagrual year, but Discovery Kingdom's coaster was modified with the rides front spikes angle being changed from a 90 degree angle to a 45 degree angle in order to met Vallejo's height restrictions. The rear tower, while still at a 90 degree angle, was shorten 36 feet.

Well.. there's just one 2001 coaster left and it's very special to us, so it's the perfect story to end this series. Venture a guess, or look througn all the Blast posts of the three and a half months or just wait until next week to find out how the series ends.

Dixie Landin' / Blue Bayou Expanding?

Dixie Landin' amusement and Blue Bayou water park, located in Baton Rouge, LA, has filed plans to expand their park and add a large campground to their property.

In a time where small parks and/or not well established parks are being picked off one by one (see Celebration City, Hard Rock Park) it's wonderfully refreshing to see a small park making plans to expand.

According to this article from WBRZ2 out of Louisiana, the park would expanding with a new roller coaster, food court, and more rides, along with more parking and the expansive campground.

The park has been making a name for itself by adding large water slides from Proslide, such as Voodoo (a large bowl slide) and Azuka (a large Tornado slide); the park also is home to the Ragin' Cajun boomerang coaster.