Columbus Zoo Building New Tidal Twist Family Roller Coaster for 2021

The Columbus Zoo is working on adding a new family roller coaster, named Tidal Twist, in time for their Summer season.  The park has released only limited details on the new coaster so far, stating that it will be of the spinning variety, stand 36 feet tall and hit a maximum speed of 30 miles per hour.

The new ride will be replacing the park's Redwood Falls log flume, which already been removed from the park.  The log flume was a newer attraction at the park, having opened in 2008, so in the end it didn't have a very long life at the Zoo.

© The Park at OWA

Going off of the Tidal Twist's statistics, it was quickly matched up to be one of Zamperla's family spinning roller coasters.  A similar model can be found at The Park at OWA, seen above.  The small coaster will be a fun family alternative at the Adventure Cove section of the Columbus Zoo.  

Recent photos from inside the Zoo show that they have already poured a large rectangular foundation for Tidal Twist to be built on.  The Columbus Zoo is also home to the Sea Dragon, a PTC wooden roller coaster that dates back to 1956 and was a part of Wyandot Lake park.

Zoombezi Bay Debuts New Baboon Lagoon Water Park Expansion

Ohio's Zoombezi Bay water park, a part of the Columbus Zoo, has built an exciting new themed water play structure for its 2014 summer season named Baboon Lagoon.  The attraction has taken up home in the water park, which occupies the former home of Wyandot Lake amusement park, in a new development that also features interactive pools and plenty of new lounge space.

Baboon Lagoon is a massive WhiteWater AquaPlay RainFortress, complete with animal theming that makes it a perfect match for the Columbus Zoo.

© WhiteWater

The $4.5 million attraction opened to guests on May 17th, 2014.  Baboon Lagoon is surrounded by a heated wading pool and features more than 90 interactive play elements, 9 water slides and a tipping bucket capable of dumping 1,000 gallons of water on visitors below.

When Zoombezi Bay asked for some unique theming for their play structure, WhiteWater was happy to provide.  Said John P. Gannon, General Manager of Zoombezi Bay, "we are thrilled to introduce Central Ohio to the most exciting multi-level play structure that the area has ever seen. WhiteWater was able to theme the structure to our unique requests. Zoombezi Bay is owned by The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium; and as such; we wanted a structure that was full of animal surprises. WhiteWater’s design studio can make whatever a park’s unique needs call for”.

Baboon Lagoon features sixteen life-sized baboons and the giant octopus that can be seen in the above photo.  All custom created for the park, the process of creating the sculptures began with giant blocks of Styrofoam that were carefully carved by hand.  After being treated, painted, and assembled, the giant creature took up residence carefully holding onto the side of the structure. 

Zoombezi Bay opened in 2008 along with the small amusement park Jungle Jack's Landing, both of which exist where Wyandot Lake was.  The parks, along with the Columbus Zoo, make a giant entertainment and educational complex.

Zoombezi Bay's 2011 Expansion

A new expansion will take place at the Columbus Zoo's Zoombezi Bay water park next year. Seen above, the park announced the addition of a master blaster water coaster along with a half pipe slide.  No further details were released, but the half pipe slide shown in the video looks to be a WhiteWater Boomerango.  WhiteWater also markets the Master Blaster water coaster as well.

Zoombezi Bay opened in 2008 on much of what used to be Wyandot Lake, but contained a selection of new slides and attractions.  The Columbus Zoo expanded this past season with the Polar Frontier exhibit.

Sabrina's Brochure Spotlight: Wyandot Lake 2006

I have a confession to make. When I acquired this brochure, I didn't have the foggiest idea that this park even existed. For all the industry-related reading I've done in my lifetime, I thought I was well beyond such "a-HA!" moments, at least as far as U.S. parks are concerned. I guess not! Of course, the irony here is that by the time I found out Wyandot Lake existed, it sorta didn't anymore.

Wyandot Lake spent the better half of 2006 as a Six Flags property. It had become part of the Premier Parks family a number of years beforehand, and thus transitioned right into the new management team's hands once that era came to an end in late 2005. But by mid-2006, Six Flags' debt-induced "property shedding" movement had begun, and it was announced that Wyandot Lake would be sold to the nearby Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.

If there's one good thing to be said about the closing of Wyandot Lake as we--er, you--knew it, it's the fact that the Columbus Zoo made the wise decision to retain the Sea Dragon, a classic John Allen woodie which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2006.

Oblivious to the management shake-up that was about to alter the course of Wyandot Lake's history, this happy-go-lucky brochure writer proudly boasted of how much "more" the park had to offer in 2006. They even had a brand new go-kart track, Sunshine Speedway. Sadly, very few of Wyandot Lake's assets were retained by its next owners.

Caution: Dry brochure material above. Read at your own risk of boredom!

Wyandot Lake had built up a nice selection of both wet and dry rides by the time it closed. Nearly all of them were auctioned off later that year, with the Grand Carousel fetching the biggest return. But don't be too sad, because the Columbus Zoo has replaced them all in kind! Check out Mike's Aerial Antics feature on the newly rechristened "Jungle Jack's Landing and Zoombezi Bay" for a recap.

Last but not least, here's a look at Wyandot Lake's final operating calendar, along with a list of the many special events mentioned at the beginning of this brochure.

Now that the park has essentially merged with the zoo, families have even more options for fun. If you're curious to see exactly what has become of the former Wyandot Lake site, check out Jungle Jack's Landing and Zoombezi Bay on the web. Or better yet, stop by and see for yourself!

Aerial Antics: Jungle Jack's Landing

Jungle Jack's Landing, along with Zoombezi Bay water park, were at one time part of the former Wyandot Lake Amusement Park. Sort of. I mean, they sit on the land where Wyandot Lake was, but not much from that park is still standing today. Here, I'll show you!

Here is the former Wyandot Lake Amusement Park with a considerable amount of it already removed. I would have loved to have a more complete image, but they are no longer on Bing. Wyandot was owned for Six Flags for a while, but was never a very large park. It featured one family wooden coaster, some water rides, a selection of flats - ya know, the usual.

After Six Flag as a company began to have troubles, they started selling parks like hotcakes, and Wyandot was one of them. You see, the massive (and rather neat looking, I might add) Columbus Zoo is located directly next door to the park. The Zoo has never been shy toward adding unique attractions, even pushing the limits of the typical 'zoo' experience often. With that, Wyandot closed after the 2006 season, and officially became part of the Columbus Zoo.

And after some careful planning, the Zoo announced Zoombezi Bay water park and the Jungle Jack's Landing amusement area, to be built on top of what once was Wyandot Lake park. Above you can see that transformation underway - very little of the original park was saved. The wooden coaster, a small lazy river, and a water play structure were the larger items spared from the bulldozer.

And all that hard work paid off, as seen here. A brand new, world class water park was built, and a small - but poised to grow - amusement park were born.

Zoombezi Bay was a showcase of the latest and greatest (I use that phrase too much) in the industry - just check out this slide tower! You have a little of everything mixed in there: speed slides, bowl slides, rafting, take your pick! Nice colors, as well.

And here's that sliver of the park that hearkens back to Wyandot Lake times. The Sea Dragon, a classic John Allen designed ride, still thrills families today. It was opened back in 1956 and built by PTC. The park was smart to have saved the ride. That's the lazy river I spoke of earlier that they also saved running underneath the coaster.

Plenty of new rides were added to Jungle Jack's as well, such as this log flume named Jungle River Falls. The park also has a nice selection of rides for the whole family - classics like a sea dragon and scrambler, along with children's rides like a jeep safari and mini-teacups.

If you want to peruse all the changes the park has seen, Bing's aerials are available here.

Daily Spin 9.9.09

More information about Nickelodeon and Southern Star Amusement's plan to reopen Six Flags New Orleans has been leaking out recently. The developers recently had a press conference at which they answered the questions of the citizens of New Orleans about the project.

The video that's with this article has shots of the park's plans, but they're too small to make much out. Looks like Mega Zeph is still there, though, along with the Boomerang and splash boat ride. Hard to tell for sure, but I think a water park would be located on the same spot that Six Flags added the super heros themed area shortly before Katrina. I don't believe the park has any money yet from bond sales to start work, but they're touting a late 2010 opening.

Looks like it was a pretty rough year for the Columbus Zoo's Zoombezi Bay water and amusement park. Attendance at the park should come in at around 325,000 people, down from over 400,000 last year. Bad weather and the economy are, not surprisingly, to blame. Read more from the Columbus Dispatch.

Legoland California, on the other hand, has had a great year and has now filed plans to build a separate admission water park on their property. Details are quite slim, but it's expected to sit on 5.5 acres and open by next summer. The L.A. Times has more info.

Daily Spin 6.9.08

Kings Island Central has some new aerial photos of the 2009 coaster construction. In these you can really see what they're clearing out back in the woods. At a quick glance, the area that has been cleared fits perfectly with that layout that First Drop published.

Coaster Force has published some interesting interviews with a few of the top executives from Hard Rock Park. These guys are pretty frank, not something you find in this industry too often, so they're a pretty great read.

Toy Story Midway Mania is having it's cast member's preview, and MouseTimes has photos. The level of detail on the outside facade of Midway Mania is really amazing. The Orlando version lacks this, but has it's own unique themed indoor queue.

I'm not a big fan of reporting ride accidents (other sites cover those) but this is news, there was another cable break on an Intamin freefall, this time on Hurakan Condor at Port Aventura, Spain. The cable was removed before the ride car was lowered, so thankfully no injuries like Kentucky Kingdom's accident. RideAccidents has photos.

New photos of Aftershock at Silverwood Theme Park can be seen in this thread on RCPro. They've started construction the towers, and from additional posts in the thread one side is almost completed.

Zoombezi Bay opened on Memorial Day as we know, but the park was quite a success on that opening day. This article says that attendance was over 4,000, which is really pretty good for a water park only.

Columbus Zoo Preview

© 2008 Mark Rosenzweig

The Columbus Zoo is almost ready to open their new sections, Jungle Jack's Landing and Zoombezi Bay. Mark Rosenzweig has a preview gallery of the new areas that can be found in his SmugMug gallery. Check it out!

It doesn't look like the concept art ... but the place looks really nice. They have a solid selection of slides and a bunch of new rides mixed in with just a couple of the old from Wyandot Lake.

Both sections are to open on Memorial Day, the 26th, according to the park's website.

Zoombezi Bay Construction Update

One of our readers, Nick, was nice enough to send a couple of pictures of the construction going on at Zambezi Bay water park that's being built at the Columbus Zoo for next summer.

As you can see the area is pretty torn up. There's some buildings going up though, and you can see a lot of poured concrete in the middle there.

Now that's a slide tower! Looks like fun, eh? That looks rather tall as well.

You can see more of Nick's pictures by following this link.

Thanks again to Nick, and remember if you have something to contribute feel free!

Zoombezi Bay at the Columbus Zoo

The Columbus Zoo has created a page with some press information and facts for their new water park, Zoombezi.

Looks to be a full day water park at this point. I hope it turns out as nice as the concepts. With this press I'll add it to the NewsPlusNotes 2008 Tracker page.

Here's the link.

Columbus Zoo Water Park Expansion for 2008

As we know, the Columbus Zoo purchased Wyandot Lake from Six Flags, closed it, and is currently building a brand new water park where Wyandot once was. The water park is planned to open for the 2008 season.

These concept art photos were online before, but now that the Zoo is having a "Name Your Water Park" content they have the images readily available.

I really like the look of this one. I hope all the theming that can be seen comes to reality.

A couple more images, as well as the contest entry form, can be found on the park's website.

As for the hardware, Proslide lists Columbus Zoo as having purchased a Tornado Slide, a Dark Mammoth Slide, and a 6 Lane Octopus Racer slide.