Water World in Colorado Staying Closed for 2020 Season

© Water World

While we had some great news over the past few days about parks planning to reopen (or already having reopened), we're still seeing some other properties go in the opposite route.

Located in Colorado, Water World, which is a part of the Hyland Hill Parks & Recreation District, announced that it will not be opening for the 2020 season.  Instead it is telling guests it looks forward to welcoming them for the 2021 season, starting May 23rd, 2021.

The park keeps the safety of their guests as their top priority, and having proper training time to get all their lifeguards ready to go seems to be a big part of the closure.  They note that there is no data that COVID-19 can transfer in treated water, but the state still hasn't given orders that they can reopen.  Instead of waiting for that clearance and then trying to hire and train staff, the park will just stay closed.

© Google Maps

The park has already extended all season passes and tickets to be valid for 2021.  Pass holders will also receive some extra benefits once the park opens next year.

Water World is also teasing what could be a new attraction for 2021, saying that they "have some EXCITING news to share" over the summer.  The park is known for a giant selection of water slides and attractions (seen above), and new additions are usually quite significant.

Aussie Mat Dash Racing Slide Headed to Raging Waves in 2020

© Raging Waves Waterpark

Illinois' Raging Waves Waterpark has been around for just over ten years, and has expanded several times since its initial opening.  It looks like 2020 will be another big year for the independent water park, as it will open Aussie Mat Dash, a brand new mat racing slide from ProSlide.

Raging Waves is themed around the Australian Outback, so the Aussie Mat Dash will fit in nicely with rides like the Platypus Plunge and Tasmanian Twisters.

© Raging Waves Watepark

According to the park, Aussie Mat Dash will be one of only three ProSlide Rally Racers, which feature enclosed sections of tube followed by a Rally Point where riders can briefly see each other to see who's in the lead.  After that it's back into enclosed tube as everyone races for the finish.  The ride, seen above, doubles over itself to save space, and will feature a bright rainbow color scheme.

The park, which is advertised as the largest outdoor water park in all of Illinois, is hoping that the Aussie Mat Dash's six lanes of racing will not only help improve capacity at the popular park, but also encourage repeat rides to try to claim victory!

Vanish Point Slide Tower to Drop into Adventure Island in 2018

© Adventure Island

Located just around the corner from Busch Gardens Tampa, Adventure Island water park has announced Vanish Point as the park's new for 2018 slide tower.

Consisting of three new body slides, two of them will feature trap door drops to start the adventure in a high-intensity manner.

The attractions are being added to the existing slide tower that contains the departure point for Colossal Curl, the park's most recent addition.

© Adventure Island

This clip from a video the park shared on Facebook shows how the new slides will be laid out on the existing tower.  Two of the slides, featuring red and green colors, will start with a trap door free fall drop into the slide chute.  Sliding downward, riders will encounter flat 360 degree loops before splashing on the run out trough.

The third slide, seen in blue, will still have a fast descent, though it starts with a traditional departure instead of a trap door drop.

The slides all start from 70 feet in the air and extend a total length of 425 feet each.  There will be around 1,000 gallons of water rushing down the slides each minute, so the experience is sure to be fast but thrilling.

Read more on the all new Vanish Point slides on Adventure Island's website.

Kalahari Pocono Mountains Expanding to be Largest Indoor Water Park in the U.S.

© Kalahari

The Kalahari Pocono Mountains indoor water park and resort, which just had its grand opening in July of 2015, already has expansion on its mind.  And not just a small one, in fact when the expanded facility opens in 2017 it will have what owners say is the largest indoor water park in the United States at 220,000 square feet.

The expansion will bring the resort to nearly 1,000 hotel rooms (about half are brand new), along with adding more convention space and additional amenities.

© Kalahari

This map of the additional 120,000 square feet of indoor water park shows some of the attractions being added.  There are several large water slides going in, including a Tornado style slide, mat racer and family raft experience.  There will also be a pair of high-intensity trap-door body slides that are perfect for thrill seekers.  The addition will also feature a new wave pool, expanded lazy river, and indoor/outdoor spa area and several large interactive play areas.

Keeping with the overall theme of the Kalahari resort, the new attractions will have African-inspired names such as Cheetah Race, Victoria Falls and Screaming Hyena.  Many of the new slide attractions are being provided by Proslide.

Two new restaurants will also come on board when the expansion work is complete, including the Double Cut Charcoal Grill, a popular concept borrowed from Kalahari's Wisconsin resort.

Massive "Wonambi" Water Slide to Debut at Raging Waves in 2016

Raging Waves, billed as Illinois' largest water park, has announced the addition of the Wonambi water slide for the park's 2016 season.  The ride's name further expands the park's Australian theme, as the Wonambi was a prehistoric constrictor snake native to Australia.  The bright red, orange and yellow attraction will be one of Proslide's TornadoWave slides, only the third of its kind to open in the United States.

© Raging Waters

This layout shows what Wonambi will offer riders when it opens this coming summer.  The ride starts with a couple gentle curves before the "constrictor" part of the slide's name kicks in with a tight 540 degree downward helix - completely enclosed as well.  The helix feeds directly into a large drop that is also partially enclosed and will send the 4 person rafts speeding into the giant wave element.  The rafts will slide high up the side of the wave until gravity takes over, providing a moment of zero gravity before heading down the final chute to the pool.

"Wonambi truly does take your breath away and it is one of the most dynamic and thrilling rides that a waterpark has to offer," said Randy Witt, Raging Waves co-owner.  "When it comes to offering thrills, Raging Waves leads the way in the Midwest."  The water park has also released a teaser video for Wonambi, embedded below.

New Water Park - Typhoon Texas - Opening in 2016

Happy new year to you all!  Let's start off 2016 by looking at someone entirely new, Typhoon Texas, a brand new water park under construction in Katy, Texas.

The water park is part of a 43 acre development that represents a $45 million investment by the builders of the park.  The finished product will look like this:

© Typhoon Texas

As you can see from the park's layout, there will be plenty of slides, pools and other play areas to keep visitors busy for a full day.  The wave pool, dubbed Thunder Beach, will cover 27,000 square feet and be a focal point of the park.  Paying homage to its development location, Typhoon Texas will feature a giant floral display in the shape of the state at the entrance, and the State flag in a few places in the park.

© Typhoon Texas

The water park's slide collection appears to be largely supplied by White Water, with at least four different slide towers on the property.  These include two large hybrid slides near the top of this photo, a trio of trap door thrill slides in the upper right, a huge multi-lane mat racer slide in the bottom, and some more family style slides near the wave pool.  There's also a lazy river, aqua play structure and a kiddie spray area as well.  The park's official website lists the names of all these attractions and more, check that out here.

© Typhoon Texas

The park was actually announced several months ago, and since then the park has been under heavy construction.  Recent photos they shared show the slide towers rising into the air, with all the pools and play areas also being formed.  Typhoon Texas is planned to be ready for a Memorial Day 2016 grand opening.

New "Rockin Ray" Half Pipe Slide Opens at Myrtle Waves

© Myrtle Waves Water Park

2015 marks the 30th anniversary for Myrtle Waves Water Park, located in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and the park is celebrating with a brand new attraction.  Named The Rockin Ray, the giant half-pipe slide has been painted bright pink and stands nearly 40 feet tall.  Those two factors alone make the new attraction stand out, but the thrills it provides has visitors excited to be among the first to take a spin.

© Myrtle Waves Water Park

The Rockin Ray utilizes two person rafts that start the experience by dropping down a steep plunge and into the half-pipe.  The slippery walls of the slide allow rafts to shoot high up on the opposite wall, giving riders a feeling of negative gravity.  The rafts slide down and up each side of the wall until they are dropped into the splash down pool.

Myrtle Waves Water Park just held the grand opening of the slide, which is the first major slide addition to the property since 2008.

The Colossal Curl Rising at Adventure Island

With the 2015 season just a little over six weeks from now, Tampa's Adventure Island water park has kicked Colossal Curl construction into high gear.  The new slide combines funnel and wave features that the entire family can enjoy together on four person rafts.

Back in December the water park shared this flyover video of the Colossal Curl work site, where foundations were underway.  This gives those of you who've been to the park a great idea of where the new slide is going.

© Adventure Island

A nice aspect of water slide additions is that the support structures can go up rather quickly.  It wasn't long after Adventure Island had the foundations complete that work on building the main support tower started. 

While the slide's tower was being built, crews were also busy starting to assemble parts of the slide in a service area.  This video, also produced by Adventure Island, shows off this process and gives some fun facts about the giant attraction.  I must say that while the slide is the same as the one that opened recently in Virginia at Water Country USA, this color scheme gives it a fitting tropical feel.  Both slides are great looking, though!

© Adventure Island

And this now brings us to current day, where the slide is now being installed!  The park just posted this photo of Colossal Curl's funnel section now in place.  Looking good so far, and no doubt that it won't be long until the rest of the structure is in place.

Adventure Island's 2015 season starts on March 7th, though no official word yet on whether or not Colossal Curl will open then.

Aquatopia Attraction Instillation Now Underway

If you're not familiar with Aquatopia, it's a gigantic indoor water park resort that is currently being built in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania, the above video will catch you up real quick.

The project will result in a 125,000 square foot water park that features 13 different water slides, of various shapes and sizes.  Many of the attractions are being supplied by WhiteWater, and one of them is even a first-of-its-kind combo slide.  When completed, Aquatopia will be the largest indoor water park in the Northeast United States.

© Aquatopia

Now that the indoor water park has been covered, the instillation of rides and slides has begun.  Aquatopia has been steadily sharing progress photos, like the one seen here and below.  The massive scale of the indoor space allows drop slides that top out at 65 feet - considerably taller than most indoor water park are able to offer!   Other planned slides include mat racers, a Constrictor, several tube slides, the longest indoor water coaster and even trap-door drops.  There will also be a surfing simulator, lazy river, and of course a big wave pool.

© Aquatopia

One thing that I really like about the project is that it has an overall theme.  Many indoor water parks just use a few fake palm trees to cover theming - not Aquatopia.  The park is themed around Sir Kartrite and his world travels.  In order to portray this theme the park has created some large set pieces, such as a grounded seaplane that's on top of one of the food locations, and Iggy, a giant iguana that will be perched in the park.

I'm excited to see the finished project in a few months!  It is also interesting that just down the road Kalahari is also building a large indoor water park resort, with Proslide supplying the bulk of their attractions.  Both new properties will join the existing Great Wolf Lodge that is also down the street - making quite a triad of indoor water park resorts!

Raging Waters San Dimas Building Water Coaster for 2015

A brand new hydromagnetic LIM water coaster will open in 2015 at Raging Waters San Dimas, marking the first instillation of its kind in all of California.  The new water coaster will stretch around 1,000 feet in length and be provided by Proslide Technology Inc.

Aqua Rocket will give riders a rush by combining the sensations of a classic roller coaster with the thrills of a water ride.  Utilizing hydromagnetic technology and linear induction motors, Aqua Rocket with be able to send four person rafts uphill, over a series of four peaks and three drops at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour.

“We are excited for the newest addition and looking forward to Aqua Rocket becoming one of the most popular attractions in California.” said the park's General Manager Mark Whitfield. “Ranked by Travel Chanel and USA Today, Raging Waters is one of the Top 10 Water Parks in the U.S…. and it just got better!”

One of Raging Waters' sister parks under the Palace Entertainment brand is Splish Splash, which also added a water coaster two seasons ago.  That ride was a huge success and I wouldn't be surprised to see Aqua Rocket be similar in size when it is completed.  The more water coasters, the better, I say!

The Return of the True Looping Water Slide?

A water slide with a real vertical loop once existed at New Jersey's Action Park, but it didn't last long.  Many years later the AquaLoop was created by WhiteWater, however that loop was not a true vertical one.

Now, a recent company to enter the slide manufacturing business (though they've worked on the structural side for many years), named Avalanche Waterslides, has created a modern take on the vertical loop slide.

© Avalanche Waterslides

Named the Skycalibre, the vertical loop slide will actually utilize a rider vehicle so that there's no direct contact between the rider and the fiberglass slide.  This is how riders are able to safely navigate the loop, says Avalanche Waterslides.

The ride stands 90 feet tall and starts with a truly vertical 45 foot plunge which feeds directly into the 30 foot loop.  The rider vehicles will hit a cool 50 miles per hour and those on board will experience up to 6 gs according to Avalanche.

I have to wonder if it won't be a bit difficult to get an insurance company to cover this style of ride, though the manufacturer's website seems confident there will be no safety issues at all.  They have built a full test model, after all.  The ride is listed at $1.4 million, potentially manageable for a smaller park. 

Action Park Returns to New Jersey

Action Park is returning to New Jersey in 2014!  Once know for having the wildest, and at times most dangerous, water park attractions, Action Park was a staple of summers for millions of visitors in the '80s and '90s.

Action Park originally operated until 1996, when a number of factors led to its demise.  The park and surrounding resort (including skiing in the winter) were later purchased and the water park reopened as Mountain Creek Waterpark.   Many of the original slides were tamed down or removed, and other activities stricken from the grounds.  The park has operated quietly ever since, adding new slides every so often - but working to move away from the stigma that surrounded the Action Park name.

Now the owners have decided to bring the name back, perhaps for publicity, again naming the water area Action Park.  In the media they have said that it is partially to honor a new looping water slide attraction, which hearkens back to the original looping slide Action Park was home to.

As for that new attraction, seen above it is being advertised as the "world's tallest double looping" water slide.  I'm not sure exactly how tall it would have to be to break that record, and also whether or not the "double looping" part means the tallest with two loops.  It also remains to be seen if this will be a Proslide SuperLoop with a horizonal loop, or a WhiteWater AquaLoop, which has a raised, though not vertical, loop.

Either way it will be interesting to see if the name change works for the park, or if the bad reputation will return once again.

Splish Splash Announces New Splash Battle Ride for 2014

Splish Splash water park, located on Long Island, NY, has announced a new splash battle style attraction for the park's 2014 season.  Named The Battle of Mutiny Bay, the attraction - commonly found in theme parks - will add to the unique selection of rides that Splish Splash is known for.

Seated in brightly colored boats, riders use water-spray “cannons” to blast other boats as well as spectators roaming the perimeter. The excitement is enhanced by shoreline guests returning splash-blasts with water cannons fixed along the perimeter of the attraction.  The boats will travel along a 300 foot path over a lagoon containing 185,000 gallons of water.  This style of ride has become very popular at parks across the globe, though this is the first water park instillation that I am aware of.  It's a great idea though, since both riders and those on the ground have the potential to get soaked!

Splish Splash is already hard at work on The Battle of Mutiny Bay, seen above.  Just last year Splish Splash opened Bootlegger's Run, a large water roller coaster that can be seen also be seen in the photo above.  The park has been adding some very unique slides in recent years, creating a line up of rides that is hard to beat.

The Beach Plans Expansion for 2014 Summer Season

Ohio's The Beach water park, located just around the corner from Kings Island, will reopen in 2014 with new improvements and additions that will make a day at the park even more inviting.  The Beach reopened in 2013 after sitting closed the prior year, and spent $5 million to do so.

© The Beach Waterpark

Above is one of last year's additions, a brand new kiddie play area (complete with tipping bucket, of course) named Big Creek Beach.  Much of the park was also painted and heavily renovated to be like brand new, breathing life back into the property.

The park has now announced more fun for 2014, including a two person zip line that will take riders on a 600 foot journey directly over the park's wave pool.  Without many details available on the slide, the Beach will also build a four lane mat racing slide.  The mat racing slide will stretch 400 feet long and be a part of the $1.5 million expansion. (side note - this is the third mat racing slide announcement this week!)

The Beach also wants to move into more winter operations, planning a large snow tubing hill that will operate starting in November.  Too bad they missed out on this terribly snowy winter!

The Beach is owned by Adventure Holdings, LLC, which operates many family entertainment centers in the U.S.

Bootlegger Progress at Splish Splash

© Splish Splash

It wasn't too long ago that Long Island's Splish Splash water park announced Bootlegger's Run, a new hydromagnetic water coaster, as the park's star 2013 attraction.  Fast forward a bit, and the new ride is currently being constructed at the park.

Seen above, the ride's final color scheme matches the patriotic red, white, and blue that was shown in the concept art.  More photos of the ride being built can be seen in this gallery from the park, but they're a bit outdated so I wouldn't be surprised if the ride is structurally complete at this point.

I also wanted to share this neat infographic the park released on Bootlegger's Run.  There's some additional details of the attraction in there, including a specific course length of 983 feet and a maximum height of 47 feet.

Splish Splash is a part of Palace Entertainment, which owns water parks all across the nation.  Hopefully this instillation of a Proslide water coaster will just be the first of many!

Blue Mountain to Build Summit Splash Water Park

Artist Rendering of Summit Splash

As soon as Summer 2016 visitors to the Blue Mountain Ski Resort, located in the Poconos in Pennsylvania, will be able to splash the day away at Summit Splash Water Park.  The $30 million full-fledged outdoor water park is set to start construction soon, with the general contractor already on board.

The park has been planned for years now, and will give the resort a full roster of Summer activities - obviously the Ski Resort aspect of Blue Mountain's name means that they're pretty busy in the Winter.  Camelbeach water park, located only 30 miles from where Summit Splash would be built, has proven the concept can work.  Camelback Ski Resort operates similarly, with a busy ski season and then a full water park for the warm months.

Summit Splash would feature a gigantic wave pool, lazy river, and several sets of slides.  The concept art shows one slide that would pass through a mountain structure and into a building before hitting the splash pool.  Future additions would make the park eventually cover up to 60 acres of the resort.

With the existing Camelbeach water park only 30 minutes away to the Northeast, and Dorney Park's Wildwater Kingdom only 20 miles away to the South, one has to wonder if the new park will overly saturate the market.  Blue Mountain plans a 110 room hotel to accommodate new visitors - the Poconos are famous for pulling New York and New Jersey visitors - so perhaps there is room after all.  We shall see!

From The Vault: Six Flags Hurricane Harbor 1995

Last week we took a look at Six Flags Magic Mountain's 1995 brochure, and that same year I had also received some information on their brand new water park, Hurricane Harbor.  After looking it over I thought it would make a wonderful compliment to that post, so here it is!

The entire water park was built right next door to the theme park, and opened as a full day experience instead of being added on to little by little.  As indicated in the brochure's cover, the park kept theming to a high level, making the park appear as though it was a hidden tropical paradise.

More concept art.  Looking around these interwebs we love so much, you can find some information on some of the companies that worked on the park.  Our friends at R&R Creative Amusement Designs were involved, along with some additionally great drawings and prop design from others.

Okay, here's the guts - they're breaking down all the attractions that were featured in "California's only themed water park."  The water park opened before companies had started to design the really crazy slides we see today, so the selection is pretty traditional.  You've got your big wave pool, lazy river, children's areas, and a nice variety of body and tube slides.

The large middle section needs few words to get its point across - the focus is a large piece of artwork showing a part of the middle of Hurricane Harbor.  One of the children's areas, Shipwreck Shores, had a play structure lightly themed as a pirate ship.  There also was a large volcanic peak that had waterfalls cascading down the side when the gates opened.

Watch out for the super creepy pirate on the lower right, though.  Not sure what he's doing there. 

I also got a map of the park, which I decided to include for a couple reasons.  One is that one side includes the Legend of Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, which is nice of them to share with visitors.  It goes on to tell the rather elaborate story of Captain Red Eye and his mysterious treasure map.  I'll let you guys read it yourselves.

I also wanted to include the map because it nicely shows off all the slides and attractions that were offered when the park first opened.  Looking back, though, there hasn't been an awful lot of development since the park opened anyway.  A Tornado slide was added, and one kid's area was redone and transformed into a Mr. Six area - only to have that theming removed shortly after when new corporate management took over.

It feels like this water park is prime for development, and soon.  But if it isn't a roller coaster, will Magic Mountain build it?  I kid, I kid.

Amazing New Water Park - Yas Waterworld

I've been checking out construction photos of this place for a while, and now that it is officially open I figured it was worth sharing with everyone.  Located just across Ferrari World on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, Yas Waterworld has opened and looks like one heck of a water park.

The highly themed property centers around the "Legend of the Lost Pearl," and is far more than just a collection of traditional water slides.

The park boasts 43 different rides and attractions, making it one of the largest parks of its kind anywhere.  The above photos are from WhiteWater, which is proud to have supplied 12 of the park's 14 water slide complexes that make up Yas Waterworld.  The slides include several world's firsts, including a family Rattler slide, and a huge flow barrel surfing wave.

The park has also opened a version of WhiteWater's SplashQuest interactive video game, named Pearl Masters at Yas Waterworld.  Guests who play "search for lost treasures, interact with magical creatures, fire water cannons and solve ancient puzzles and tap into the hero within you," according to the park.

The layout of the water park is rather large, and includes several shopping and food areas as well, located indoors to avoid the heat.  There's of course a gigantic wave pool and lazy river among the more traditional water park attractions.  Kids will enjoy a water playhouse structure as well as a covered area with mini versions of many of the big slides.

One definitively not traditional attraction featured at Yas Waterworld is the Bandit Bomber, an inverted roller coaster where riders can blast those on the ground with water bombs.  Likewise, there's plenty of water cannons along the ride's path that people on the ground can blast up at passing trains.  The coaster is the first of Vekoma's "Splash Party" line of water coasters - perhaps if it is a success we will see more of them in the future.

While WhiteWater has made most of the slides at the park, Proslide did make two rather significant contributions.  Both are family style water coasters, but one of them ends in a giant Tornado funnel, the first of its kind (that I've seen, at least).

For more photos of the park that really give good perspective check out several updates from the Theme Park Guy.  There's some aerial shots that really show off just how many attractions are piled into this one park.

A Late Addition for 2013 at Hurricane Harbor Arlington

Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, located across the highway from Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington, Texas, has announced the addition of two large new water slides for Summer 2013.  The new attractions will be in celebration of the water park's 30th anniversary season.

The new slides will be named Typhoon Twister and Tsunami Surge, both providing riders a different experience.

The Typhoon Twister will be a bowl style slide, where two riders at a time sail down a drop and into a large bowl-shaped where they slide around the outside as they slow down.  They're eventually funneled into an exit chute as the ride ends.

The Tsunami Surge looks to be one of Proslide's latest thrills, the TornadoWave, which is quickly popping up at parks across the globe.  Rafts plunge down from 68 feet in the air and up onto a 40 foot tall wave shaped structure.  When gravity takes over (and a weightlessness feeling ensues) the rafts plunge back down the wave and back toward the landing pool.

No word yet on whether the addition of Tsunami Surge and Typhoon Twister are in addition to or in place of the previously announced Black Hole of Doom 4D slide.  Announced as part of Six Flags' 2013 chain-wide expansion, the plan was to makeover the park's Black Hole slides with special effects and other treats and make it a new attraction.

Not much has been heard on that plan since the announcement, until suddenly the park revealed plans for the two new slides above.  Whatever the plan, it's great to see exciting new water rides popping up!

Update - a reader (thank you!) tweeted us that the park had confirmed that the plan for the Black Hole renovation is off, and the ride will continue to operate as it has in the past.

New Details and Layout for Splish Splash's Water Coaster

We covered the addition of Bootlegger's Run to Splish Splash water park last week, and at that time there was no layout for the ride available.  Seen above, that has changed.  The ride, which features a patriotic red, white, and blue color scheme, will feature several steep plunges and hills after the initial lift.

The layout appeared in the Suffolk Times, and the article gives a few new details about the hydromagnetic water coaster.  It will be built by Proslide, and is described as the seventh of its kind on American soil.  The ride's path will stretch 1,000 feet and riders will board and ground level, erasing the need for a climb up any stairs to a launch platform. 

A ride on Bootlegger's Run will last almost two minutes, which is significantly longer than a typical 20 second experience on a water slide, the park reports.  It is great to see another one of these rides being built, they seem to be extremely popular at existing locations.  Here's to seeing even more of them in the future!