The company hasn’t released too many details about the park it is building in Virginia other than that it would include a large wave pool, a surfing simulator, and a zone in which young children will be able to frolic. However, I’ve been to Kalahari’s locations in Wisconsin Dells, Sandusky, Ohio, and the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania (there is also a resort in Round Rock, Texas), and I’ve got a good sense of what is likely on the way. When I say the indoor water parks are humongous, that doesn’t begin to describe them. Imagine a cavernous space that’s bigger than most big-box stores, but considerably taller. Then imagine it crammed with virtually every kind of water slide and attraction found at large, outdoor water parks.

In addition to what will likely be a FlowRider surfing experience, I expect guests at the Virginia park will be able to get soaked aboard an uphill water coaster, a funnel ride, a family raft ride, a bowl slide, a lazy river, a speed slide with a trap-door launch chamber, a multi-lane, mat racing slide, an interactive play zone with a tipping bucket, and a boatload of other ways to get wet. I’m also guessing the indoor water park will offer a large indoor-to-outdoor whirlpool spa that will allow guests to venture outside, even when the wintertime temperatures in Virginia drop well below freezing. One of the coolest (pun intended) experiences I ever had was when I meandered outdoors and chilled in the Kalahari’s luxuriously warm, bubbling spa under the Pocono Mountains’ night sky as light snow was falling. Ahh!

What makes indoor water parks unique and especially enticing to folks living in cooler climates is that they can don a bathing suit year round and go barreling down slides in a climate-controlled environment. In warmer weather however, guests at the Virginia resort will also be able to enjoy the slides, pool, and other attractions at the resort’s more conventional outdoor water park. At 10 acres, the outdoor park should boast a fair amount of attractions in its own right.

Share

Most indoor water parks include arcades. But Kalahari takes it to the next level. As at its other locations, the D.C.-area resort will include Tom Foolery’s, an indoor theme park. Sure, there will be video games and redemption games–the company says there will be a whopping 250 token-takers–but the company also revealed that there would be bowling, laser tag, mini golf, a ropes course, a climbing structure, and a zip line. Using the other resorts as a guide, the park will likely include a few flat rides as well. (The Wisconsin location even offers a small roller coaster.) So in addition to racing down slides in the dead of winter, folks will probably be able to enjoy some amusement park thrills as well.

At 150,000 square feet, the Kalahari’s convention and meeting facility will be able to welcome large groups and host major functions. The company seems to have hit on a winning formula. Its huge indoor water parks are a unique amenity that make the resorts an attractive place for companies and organizations to host events. Attendees surely feel compelled to bring their families, thereby filling the hotel’s rooms.

Share Arthur's About Theme Parks

And the resort’s restaurants. Guests at the newest Kalahari will be able to chow down at the chain’s signature eatery, Double Cut Steak House. For a hotel restaurant, I was especially impressed with the food and dining experience at the Pennsylvania location’s Double Cut. Likewise, the Virginia resort will offer Sortino’s Italian Kitchen, another Kalahari staple that served appetizing fare during my stay in the Poconos. Rounding out the full-service restaurants will be B-Lux Grill & Bar, which will feature burgers and shakes, and the Tex-Mex-focused Cinco Niños.

The first Kalahari Resort opened in 2000 in Wisconsin Dells, the self-described water park capital of the world. The company was founded by and remains under the ownership and operation of Todd Nelson and his family. The indoor water park phenomenon first took hold in the Midwest vacation town, and the Kalahari shares the stage with other mega-sized indoor water parks, such as the Wilderness Resort, the Chula Vista, and Great Wolf Lodge.

The Nelson’s original Wisconsin Dells property is undergoing an $85-million expansion that will add 75,000 square feet to the existing 125,000-square-foot indoor water park. The addition will be glass enclosed and include a retractable roof that can be opened during warmer weather. The Kalahari will introduce new attractions including raft slides, a spa pool, a kiddie slide pool, and an adult swim-up bar.

Have you been to a Kalahari Resort? How about other indoor water park resorts?

Leave a comment

Recently, Royal Caribbean revealed that it is building Perfect Day Mexico, a private destination on the country’s Caribbean coast in Mahahual. The 200-acre retreat, which is scheduled to open in fall 2027, will include an impressive collection of water park slides and attractions, some of which will give the cruise line major bragging rights.

Dominating the skyline at Perfect Day Mexico will be Jaguar’s Peak, a colorful tower stacked with ten water slides. At a height of 170 feet, it will be the tallest water slide tower in North America.

“It’s going to be about a two-minute ride to the bottom,” says Alexandra Del Valle, project manager for Royal Caribbean, describing the slide at the apex of the tower. “There will be boosters throughout, so it’s going to speed you up,” she adds.

When it opened Perfect Day at CocoCay, its first water park-packed destination in 2019 (and the inspiration for the Mexican getaway), Royal Caribbean deemed the Bahamian island’s 135-foot Daredevil’s Tower as the tallest in North America. It’s since been eclipsed by the 142-foot-tall Thrillagascar and Jungle Jammer slides at DreamWorks Water Park in New Jersey’s American Dream retail, dining, and entertainment center and the 145-foot-tall The Rise of Icarus that opened last year at Mt. Olympus Water and Theme Park in Wisconsin Dells. They all fall far short of Icon Tower at Meryal, the water park that opened last year in Qatar. That beast reaches a staggering 260 feet into the air. Still, Jaguar’s Peak will be quite a sight and should offer some wild rides.

“We’re giving guests more of what we know they want,” says Emily Rodriguez, manager of thrills and attractions for Royal Caribbean. (How’s that for a title?) “Perfect Day Mexico is going to offer the perfect blend of thrill and chill.”

Share

On the more chill side, the water park will offer the longest lazy river in the world. If folks get parched floating around on their inner tubes, there will be three swim-up bars strategically placed along the more-than-one-mile route. Guests will be able to ply the entire river, which the cruise line says will take one hour to complete, or opt to take a detour into an inner loop that will deliver some “crazy” gotcha elements to complement the otherwise lazy vibe. Spectators alongside the river will be able to target hapless inner tubers with water cannons. (This thing is sounding less and lazy, isn’t it?)

Perfect Day Mexico will include five slide towers in its Loco Waterpark. One of them will feature HydroLaunch slides that will end above the splash pool and angle up, thereby catapulting guests into the air before they plunge into the water. There will also be two of the world’s tallest family raft slides, one of which will send its six-passenger rafts hurtling up a half pipe ramp for some free-floating G-forces. Younger visitors will be able to head to Splashaway Bay, which will offer pint-sized slides and a large interactive water play structure. Instead of a tipping bucket, kiddos will be able to get doused by a huge tipping sombrero.

The Mexican outpost is being designed by Legacy Entertainment. The complex will include seven thematic neighborhoods. In addition to the water park features, there will be other things to do, including the tethered hot air balloon, Up, Up, & Away. There will also be beaches and pools, some of which will be targeted to families, while others, such as El Hideaway beach, will be reserved for adults. Perfect Day will offer 12 eateries and 24 bars–because if there’s one thing cruise ship passengers love more than record-breaking water slides, it’s eating and drinking.

Have you been to Perfect Day at CocoCay? What are your thoughts about the growing trend of cruise lines incorporating themed attractions?

Leave a comment

Okana Resort & Indoor Waterpark in Oklahoma

Okana Resort in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma welcomed its first guests in late February 2025. With 100,000 square feet of fun, the resort’s Splash represents the region’s largest indoor water park. Among its attractions are Wild Rapids, an uphill water coaster; Whipslash, a large water slide with a half pipe element that sends its two-passenger rafts racing backwards; and Tidal Twist, a family raft ride that includes mini funnel elements that sends passengers soaring up and down its walls.

In addition to the indoor water park, the new resort offers Okana Beach, a 4.5-acre outdoor park with a sandy beach and attractions such as The Drop Off, an enclosed-tube water slide that ends a few feet above a splash pool and unceremoniously plops riders into the water. When it opens Memorial Day, the outdoor park will also feature Zip & Dip. Passengers will careen down a zip line and then let go for a plunge into a pool. That’s the first time I’ve heard of such a wacky hybrid experience. After braving the slides, guests will be able to imbibe at the Okasis, a swim-up bar.

Rounding out the attractions, the resort has Okanarama, an 80-game arcade, and sports simulators that give guests the opportunity to virtually golf, hit a baseball, and other activities. Owned and operated by the Chickasaw Nation, the $400 million Okana includes an 11-story, 405-room hotel. There is a full-service spa as well as 13 dining locations.

Share

Three new Great Wolf Lodge Resorts

The industry’s largest indoor water park chain, Great Wolf Lodge, recently opened two more resorts with another soon on the way. In August 2024, it turned on the water in Webster, Texas, near Houston, with a 92,000-square-foot indoor water park, a 532-room hotel, bowling lanes, a ropes course, a virtual reality experience, and other features. Great Wolf gears its resorts to families and generally tones down the thrills.

Share Arthur's About Theme Parks

The chain’s first property in the Sunshine State opened in September 2024 in Naples, Florida. It is comparable in size and amenities to the Texas resort. Like the Houston Great Wolf and other locations, it offers MagiQuest, an interactive game experience that issues participants a “magic wand” and sends them on an adventure throughout the lodge where they can unlock treasure chests, activate hidden crystals, and discover other secrets embedded in the hallways. Other activities at the Florida resort include gem mining and indoor mini golf.

The 23rd Great Wolf Lodge is slated to open May 23, 2025 in Mashantucket, Connecticut. It will be part of the massive Foxwoods Resort Casino, which is owned and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation. The newest Great Wolf will also share similarities in size and scope to the Texas property. Water parks attractions will include Rapid Racer, a two-slide attraction that will pit passengers against each other and include water jets to propel their rafts uphill. It will also feature Pequot Plunge, a funnel ride.

Kalahari Resort in Virginia

Great Wolf may have the most number of locations, but the rival Kalahari Resort chain (both opened their first locations in Wisconsin Dells) boasts some of the largest indoor water parks. It will be opening its fifth mega-resort in Spotsylvania County, Virginia in 2026. At 175,000 square feet, its water park will be nearly double the size of the Great Wolf Lodge properties. While Kalahari hasn’t announced details, its other parks include marquee, high-thrill attractions such as speed slides with trap-door launch chambers. The new resort will also offer a 900-room, all-suite hotel, an outdoor water park, the indoor Tom Foolerys family entertainment center, and a massive convention center.

Have you been to an indoor water park resort? Might you visit any of the new resorts?

Leave a comment

3 (out of 5)

It’s the first thing you see as your Royal Caribbean cruise ship approaches Perfect Day at CocoCay: the ominous Daredevil’s Tower. Rising 135 feet into the air, the sight of it is enough to get pulses racing. But pulses really start to race when visitors climb to the top of the tower and contemplate taking the plunge on Daredevil’s Peak, the tallest water slide on the tower, and one of the tallest water slides in the world.

Could you take the plunge? Only you could answer that. Some of you may be hardened thrill warriors–the proverbial daredevils for whom the attraction is named–and wouldn’t think twice about giving it a whirl. But many of you may have questions you would want answered before committing to such an extreme ride. Questions like: Just how thrilling is Daredevil’s Peak? What does it feel like descending the tower? Will I lose my bathing suit?

Read more

I’ve already written about Aquaticar, the first-of-its-kind ride in which passengers in submersible vehicles will navigate underwater with nothing but a dome covering the upper half of their bodies. (If that description has you bewildered–and your reaction is totally understandable–read my take on the attraction to get a sense of just how revolutionary, not to mention curiously compelling, the ride will be.) But that’s just the start of AquArabia’s lineup of wild ways to get wet.

Junoon Drop will send riders in large, circular rafts along a 1,690-foot course that will include a 138-foot drop. That will give Qiddiya bragging rights for the world’s tallest and second-longest water coaster. To put the stats in perspective, Tsunami Surge at Six Flags Hurricane Harbor near Chicago, which is the current record holder for tallest water coaster, stands at 86 feet. Junoon Drop will be 60% taller. Since the Six Flags ride hits a top speed of 28 mph, I’d have to imagine that the AquArabia coaster will really cruise along. At 1,763 feet, Holiday World in Indiana boasts that its Mammoth takes the longest water coaster crown. (Apparently in error, Qiddiya contends that Junoon Drop will be the world’s longest water coaster.)

At 86 feet, Qiddiya is asserting that Speedy Jamezales will offer the longest drop of any body slide. Based on images of the attraction (see above), it doesn’t appear that the slide will be especially tall. The Rise of Icarus, which is opening this year at Mt. Olympus in Wisconsin Dells, will be 145 feet tall, which will make it the tallest body slide in the U.S. But that’s nothing compared to Icon Tower at Meryal, the 260-foot-tall water slide that recently opened in Qatar. Perhaps neither of those slides include straight drops as long as 86 feet, but rather wind around their towers. Still, I’m confused by Qiddiya’s world-record claim. Thrillagascar and Jungle Jammer, the dual speed slides at DreamWorks Water Park at the American Dream in New Jersey, feature 142-foot drops. Even the drops on Ko'okiri Body Plunge at Universal Orlando's Volcano Bay and Summit Plummet at Walt Disney World's Blizzard Beach exceed 86 feet at 125 feet and 120 feet, respectively. Qiddiya, you’ve got some splainin’ to do.

Share

Other notable attractions will include Slithereel, the longest slide wheel in the world according to the Saudi park. (What’s a slide wheel, you ask? Check out Medusa’s Slidewheel to learn about one of water parkdom’s quirkiest rides.) At a height of 72 feet and a length of 761 feet, Jamal Joom will take the record as the tallest and longest mat racing slide, declares Qiddiya.

AquArabia will offer eight themed lands, including Camel Rock, which will feature the namesake animal carved into one of the dramatic cliffs that punctuate the park along with thrilling rides such as the multi-slide tower, Camel Racers. In all there will be 22 slides and attractions, including the world’s largest water play structure (according to Qiddiya), a huge wave pool, and a shoot-the-chutes splashdown ride.

Share Arthur's About Theme Parks

It will also include attractions not typically found at water parks. For example, adventure seekers can head to Herding Grounds and engage in activities such as rock climbing and cliff diving. The land will also offer Raft Republic, an actual white water rafting experience, not the simulated version found aboard river rapids rides at theme parks. Arabian Peak will be for adults only and provide a quiet respite away from the tumult. And befitting the culture, AquArabia will offer a land that is exclusively for women and children.

Qiddiya will also feature an upscale Six Flags park, which is expected to open in 2025 as well. It will be packed with cutting-edge rides such as Falcon’s Flight, the world’s longest, tallest, and fastest coaster. Future plans call for Dragon Ball, a single-IP theme park devoted to the titular Japanese manga, anime TV series, and line of video games. Qiddiya says that there will eventually be 12 branded theme parks on the property. Among other offerings at the 128-square-mile resort complex will be a sports stadium, hotels, a racetrack, golf courses, retail shops, dining, and a city core with housing as well as commercial and industrial space.

AquArabia should be quite the water park. Do you think folks from around the world will make the trek to Saudi Arabia to experience it along with the Six Flags park and the resort’s other features, as the Kingdom hopes?

Leave a comment

They don’t call Wisconsin Dells the water park capital of the world for nothing. It’s the place where the indoor water park was born in the 1990s, and there are now a bunch of them throughout the vacation resort. There are also outdoor water parks. Mt. Olympus, which occupies a prominent spot along the Dells’ strip, has both an indoor and outdoor water park (and an indoor and outdoor theme park to boot). This season, the Greek mythology-themed park will also lay claim to the country’s tallest water slide.

Called The Rise of Icarus (great name!), it will stand 145 feet tall and offer intrepid guests the chance to climb all the way up and slide all the way down. There will actually be five slides on the new tower. They will all be body slides, so there won’t be a need to lug tubes up the gazillions of stairs (thankfully). Four of them will be located on a platform at the tower’s 60-foot level. Three of those will be enclosed, winding slides, while one of them will be a straight-drop speed slide with an open flume. The slide at the top will also be enclosed and wind around the tower. That’ll be the record-breaker.

“This brings thrills to the next level,” says Fofo Backhaus, director of marketing for Mt. Olympus and a member of the family that owns and operates the resort. (I’m not sure, but I don’t think she intended the pun.) “We’re always trying to bring something new and exciting to the Dells. We know The Rise of Icarus will make a statement.”

Mt. Olympus made quite a statement a couple of years ago when it introduced Medusa’s Slidewheel, a crazy contraption that spins a gaggle of intertwined water slide tubes around and sends passengers in circular rafts on a discombobulated ride. In a town that offers virtually every kind of wacky water park slide that’s ever been created, attractions such as The Rise of Icarus and Medusa’s Slidewheel certainly stand out.

Share

The park will also introduce Icaria Splash ‘n Slide, a children’s activity area with 10 slides. Raging from 4 feet to 12 feet in height, they will be considerably smaller than the ones on the record-breaking tower and geared to younger visitors.

With the additions, “we will have slides for small kids all the way to this extreme 145-foot slide for real daredevils,” says Jason Hammond, the park’s safety director.

But just how much of a daredevil would you have to be to tackle the slide at the tippy top of The Rise of Icarus? Let’s try to put it into context.

Speaking of daredevils, I braved Daredevil’s Peak, the water slide tower at Perfect Day at CocoCay, Royal Caribbean’s private Bahamian island for its cruise ship passengers. At the time it opened in 2019, the 135-foot-high attraction was billed as North America’s tallest water slide. Like The Rise of Icarus, Daredevil’s Peak features a series of slides, one of which is located at the top. And like the new ride coming to Wisconsin, the enclosed body slide at the apex of the tower winds around on its journey to ground level. I actually found two launch chamber slides located on the tower’s 75-foot level, which both have sheer drops, more thrilling than the 135-foot-tall slide. Yes, there were thrills, but because the angle of descent wasn’t all that steep, it didn’t yield a particularly fast ride. The Royal Caribbean attraction felt like a fairly typical body slide, just longer.

Share Arthur's About Theme Parks

In 2020, DreamWorks Water Park at the American Dream mega-complex in New Jersey eclipsed Daredevil’s Peak with the 142-foot-tall Thrillagascar and Jungle Jammer slides. Nestled in the rafters of the cavernous indoor building, the straight shot speed slides include launch capsules and amp up the thrills to yowsa! level. While they may be shorter, the 125-foot-tall launch capsule slides at Universal Orlando Resort's Volcano Bay water park really pack a punch and are likely more thrilling than what’s on tap in Wisconsin Dells. Similarly, the 120-foot-tall Summit Plummet speed slide at Disney World’s Blizzard Beach pours on the thrills.

Looking beyond North American water parks, there are some real doozies out there. The tallest water slide in the world, at 167 feet, has long been Insano at Beach Park in Fortaleza, Brazil. But it’s been overtaken–and it’s not even close–by Icon Tower at Meryal, the water park that recently opened in Qatar. The slide on the top of that beast is 260 feet tall. Yikes!

Still, The Rise of Icarus at Mt. Olympus will be quite spectacular. And it’ll be a challenge just to give it a go.

“It’s going to be a tough hike up 270 steps to the top,” Hammond notes. He adds that there will be water fountains along the way as well as oxygen and other medical supplies should folks need assistance on the 15-story climb. It seems the park will be taking more precautions than the mythical, doomed Icarus, for whom the attraction is named.

What is the most thrilling water park ride you have experienced? Have you been to Wisconsin Dells?

Leave a comment

Our journeys first took us to Wisconsin Dells, the self-proclaimed “water park capital of the world.” It’s where the indoor water park revolution began and took off at places such as the Kalahari Resort and the Wilderness Lodge. As the concept took hold in the Midwest U.S. and spread throughout the country and beyond, I continued to visit and write about the sprawling resorts. More recently, the indoor water park trend has abated a bit, but there are still new resorts opening and under development as well as expansions planned for existing locations. Don your Speedos and nose plugs as we take a look at a few projects.

The Wilderness has a second location, Wilderness at the Smokies in Sevierville, Tennessee, which recently made improvements to its Wild WaterDome indoor waterpark. The $40 million expansion, which increased the size of the park from 40,000 to 80,000 square feet, includes the new Ridge Runner water coaster. It propels passengers in rafts both down and uphill at speeds up to 29 mph. Ridge Runner is the first to feature Reverse AquaLucent, which creates colorful effects in its enclosed tube sections.

Colorful effects don’t begin to describe the park’s second major addition, Kaleidoscope Kavern Lazy River. Passengers in tubes float through an immersive multimedia tunnel that is bathed in trippy projections, lighting, and audio. According to Pete Tennis, Wilderness at the Smokies’ managing director, the attraction’s designers took inspiration from the natural beauty of the Smoky Mountains and incorporated some of the region’s nature sounds.

Share

Among the scenes that guests can experience are “the sight of dancing fireflies, the changing seasons, the sound of water, chromatic currents, the evolving cycle of life, and my personal favorite, Aurora + Aqua Borealis, where the worlds of water and sky collide as if you are dreaming,” Tennis says.

Kaleidoscope Kavern was created in collaboration with Moment Factory. The Montreal-based company also developed Astra Lumina, a widely inventive and captivating multimedia walk through the woods at Anakeesta, the mountaintop adventure park in nearby Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

In addition to Wild WaterDome, Wilderness at the Smokies offers an outdoor water park as well as a 25,000-square-foot indoor family entertainment center that includes a suspended roller coaster, a motion simulator ride, laser tag, a ropes course, an arcade, and other things to do.

Share Arthur's About Theme Parks

Great Wolf Lodge, which also opened one of the first major indoor water park resorts in Wisconsin Dells, is another pioneer. Great Wolf Resorts has since developed more than 20 locations across the U.S. and Canada and is the industry’s largest operator. It too recently debuted a 40,000-square-foot expansion of a water park at its Pocono Mountains resort in Pennsylvania. New water slides include one with a launch capsule and one that features side-by-side mat-racing.

The chain has new locations set to open this year. Great Wolf Lodge Gulf Coast Texas near Houston will offer a 95,000 square-foot indoor water park, a 58,000-square-foot family entertainment center, and 532 suites. Great Wolf Lodge South Florida in Naples will feature a 100,000-square-foot indoor water park, a 62,000-square-foot family entertainment center, and 500 suites. The company is also building a resort adjacent to the Foxwoods Casino Resort in Mashantucket, Connecticut that is set to open in 2025.

Have you been to an indoor water park resort? Have you gone to one in the winter? Would you like to see an attraction like Kaleidoscope Kavern Lazy River at a park near you?

Leave a comment

Imagine this: The ride vehicle that you and a park pal are sitting in leaves the loading station, slowly moves forward down a ramp…and proceeds to head underwater. We’re not talking about a simulated experience like Shanghai Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean Battle for the Sunken Treasure. We’re talking about an actual, honest-to-goodness, you’re-gonna-get-wet, fully submersed ride. Sounds crazy, right?

Well, imagine no more. Aquaticar, the world’s first underwater attraction, is set to debut next year at Qiddiya Water Theme Park, part of the massive Qiddiya entertainment district taking shape near Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.

You’re probably thinking: Say what now? Here’s the deal.

You know that physics experiment you probably did as a kid in which you placed a drinking glass upside down into a pot of water and found that the inside of the glass remained dry? It happened because the air in the glass displaced the water. That’s the basic concept behind the breakthrough attraction.

Passengers sit under an acrylic, see-through canopy that is pumped with a continuous supply of air. That enables them to breathe underwater without the need for any additional equipment and keeps their upper body dry. A flow of air, what the Aquaticar’s developers call a “Bubble Engine,” also powers the vehicles. A carpet of air bubbles turns rotors that enable the cars to amble along at a moderate pace.

Riders can steer the vehicles, but only within the confines of a fiberglass track, not unlike Disneyland’s Autopia or the antique car rides found at many parks. Registers placed at strategic locations in the track feed the cars’ air supplies and Bubble Engines. It’s an ingenious system.

Share

Using effects and themed set elements, the ride, which is designed to last about 10 minutes, could take guests on a journey to a distant planet, to the lost city of Atlantis, or any number of other whimsical places. The storyline for the Qiddiya attraction has not been revealed.

“I think the experience will be out-of-this-world unbelievable,” says Hannah de Bie, VP of marketing and a member of the family behind Sub Sea Systems, the California-based company that created Aquaticar. In fact, it is so unbelievable, unexpected, and unprecedented, she says that Qiddiya and other parks that offer Aquaticar attractions will want to educate their visitors. “They’ll need to explain what it is and let people know that they will actually be submersed. Most people haven’t dreamed about going underwater–certainly not like this.”

Share Arthur's About Theme Parks

Sub Sea Systems offers other water-based experiences, including the Sea Trek helmet diving system found at SeaWorld Orlando’s Discovery Cove and other locations, and DIVR+, a virtual reality snorkeling experience that uses the natural buoyancy of water to convincingly send guests on otherworldly jaunts. The company’s latest innovation is Kaimana (Hawaiian for “power of the sea”), an underwater arena that will invite guests to don Sea Trek helmets and compete in a target-shooting game as well as an aqua maze.

Qiddiya will also include a Six Flags park filled with one-of-a-kind, cutting-edge rides such as Falcon’s Flight, the world’s longest, tallest, and fastest coaster. I’m hoping to check out the new parks and dive into these wild attractions when they open next year.

What do you think about Aquaticar? What kinds of themed environments would you want to experience in a ride like this?

Leave a comment

Imagine taking an elevator 79.5 meters (that’s over 260 feet for us metric system-challenged Americans) up a narrow tower, walking a gangplank of sorts to a water slide that cantilevers off the tower at the dizzying height, entering a launch capsule, and waiting for the pulse-pounding countdown that will open a trap door and release you into an almost sheer initial drop. If you book passage to Doha in Qatar, you won’t have to imagine this crazy scenario. When Meryal, a new water park on the man-made Qetaifan Island North in the capital city, opens soon, you’ll be able to experience it for yourself–if you dare.

When I first heard about this project and saw renderings of Icon Tower, I thought it was some kind of Photoshopped trickery, forged Internet meme, or a lost episode of “Phineas and Ferb.” Surely, it couldn’t be real. Turns out, it’s real.

“We took a concept that was already insane to the next level,” says Mike Rigby, an executive VP with WhiteWater, the water park developer working on Meryal. He explains that the Qetaifan Projects folks already had the absurdly high tower in mind. It was up to WhiteWater to outfit it with water slides. “It’s a wild and wacky idea,” Rigby adds. “Even after we submitted a bid and agreed on it, I thought surely this is not possible.”

Let’s put the wild and wacky Icon Tower in context. I’ve been on Ko'okiri Body Plunge, one of three water slides atop Krakatau Volcano, the centerpiece at Universal Orlando’s Volcano Bay. It ranks among the most thrilling experiences I’ve had on any ride, including roller coasters–and I’ve been on some doozies. It just may be the most thrilling experience. The Florida slide stands at 125 feet, or 38 meters. Currently, the tallest water slide in the world, Insano located at Beach Park in Fortaleza, Brazil, is 51 meters. At about 80 meters, the Icon Tower slide will be nearly 56% higher than that (and more than twice as tall as the one at Universal Orlando).

“It’s an 11 out of 10 on the thrill scale. It’s the ultimate test of bravery.”

“I can categorically say that I will never go on that slide,” Rigby says. Keep in mind, this guy helped develop it. “It’s an 11 out of 10 on the thrill scale. It’s the ultimate test of bravery.”

With approximately 500 total meters of slide wrapping around the tower, Rigby estimates it will take more than one minute to complete the journey to the ground. That’s a long time time to be freaked out in an enclosed water slide.

In addition to claiming the record for the world’s tallest water slide, Meryal will also be able to boast the most number of slides on a tower. Among Icon Tower’s 11 additional slides will be another body slide at the 79.5-meter level. That one will forego the cantilevered platform and launch capsule and be slightly less intimidating. While the two slides at the top will continue all the way to the ground, other slides will make pit stops on the way down. Some will start at the second level on the tower and drop sliders off at the fourth level. From there, they can choose between two slides that will take them to the base of the tower. A third set of slides will start at level three and go down to level five where guests will transfer and have another couple of slides from which to choose that will proceed to the ground level.

The tower will include a mix of body and tube slides, including some family raft rides that will accommodate three or four people. There will also be two of WhiteWater’s enormous Abyss funnel slides. Rigby explains that one of the funnels will be enclosed and affixed to the tower at about 50 meters in the air. Visitors who don’t want to tackle the slides could nonetheless take an elevator to the top of the structure and enjoy the 360-degree views from an observation deck.

The distinctive, imposing tower, with its jumble of slides, is supposed to suggest an oil derrick, according to Mustafa El Cherkawi, construction manager for Qetaifan Island North. “It reflects the heritage and culture of Qatar. It’s an engineering masterpiece,” he says.

The tower is on its own mini island adjacent to Qetaifan Island North and accessible via a connecting causeway. As impressive as Icon Tower is, it is only one part of the 160,000-square-meter (about 40 acres) Meryal water park. There will be dozens of other slides and attractions, making it one of the largest water parks in the world.

“It’s the most ambitious project we’ve ever seen,” notes WhiteWater’s Rigby. Throughout its more than 40-year history, the water park design and manufacturing company has worked on over 5,000 parks and attractions around the world.

One of Meryal’s other highlights will be its Master Blaster water coaster. Using water jets, it will propel passengers on rafts for a racing experience on two side-by-side flumes that will extend out into the ocean. Riders will feel as if they will be skimming the water and cruising at high speed. After dark, tracing lights on the flumes will follow the vehicles.

Another standout attraction will be its SlideWheel, one of only a few in the world. It features a tangle of slides packed onto a rotating wheel. El Cherkawi calls it the “washing machine slide.” He also says that another dark ride-like edutainment attraction will send passengers into a cave where they will experience scenes about the history of oil and gas and the development of Qatar. It will incorporate “Oily,” a character who will provide narration.

Meryal will also include the usual water park suspects such as a wave pool, a mat racing slide, a meandering lazy river, an interactive play structure, slides and attractions for young children, and virtually everything else WhiteWater has ever designed. Interestingly, because of Qatar’s high heat and humidity in the summer, the water in the pools will be cooled to keep it from rising above 28 degrees celsius.

The park will include amusement rides as well, such as a log flume and a spinning roller coaster from Intamin. According to El Cherkawi, the coaster’s seats will look like gas cylinders. A train will make a loop around the park to help transport guests to different areas and minimize walking in the blistering heat. There will also be a tram to shuttle visitors to Icon Tower’s mini island.

Meryal will be the focal point of Qetaifan Island North. The mixed-use mega entertainment complex will also include a five-star luxury resort, a residential community with beach villas, a dining and shopping plaza, a beach club, and a mosque.

Its developers are hoping to open Meryal as well as many of the project’s other features in time for Qatar’s World Cup. The first FIFA soccer championship tournament to be held in the Arab world, it is scheduled to begin on November 20.

Subscribe now

Have you been on any extremely tall water slides? Are you intimidated by the 79.5-meter water slide planned for Meryal’s Icon Tower? What do you make of the ambitious water park?

Leave a comment

You could mark the occasion by heading to your local water park. Or you could celebrate in style by visiting Wisconsin Dells, the self-proclaimed water park capital of the world. It’s the birthplace of the indoor water park and home to a bunch of parks, both indoor and outdoor. One of the tourist mecca’s major resorts, Mt. Olympus, offers both an outdoor and indoor water park (as well as outdoor and indoor theme parks), and recently introduced Medusa’s Slidewheel, one of the wackiest, most unique rides ever developed.

So, what is it? Think of a Ferris wheel, except instead of seats or gondolas spinning around, there is a gaggle of large, intertwined water slide tubing. As the wheel rotates, passengers on circular rafts inside the turning mishmash of tubes slosh back and forth, scale the walls as they experience pops of airtime, drop with force from one section to the next, and generally get all discombobulated.

“It’s definitely a one-of-a-kind water slide experience,” says Fofo Backhaus, director of marketing for Mt. Olympus and a member of the family that owns and operates the resort. “You have no idea what’s going on or what will happen next.” She notes that it is the third ride of its kind in the world and the first in the U.S., which is a point of pride for the resort.

Depending on the weight of the guests, up to four passengers can pile into the rafts, and the attraction can accommodate three rafts at once. They enter at the midpoint of the wheel, which stands 80 feet tall and spans 100 feet across. Translucent sections of tube allow some outside light in, which create geometric patterns and splashes of color. Adding to the disorienting, multi-sensory experience, passengers can hear the muffled screams of riders in other parts of the twisting, turning contraption. When the rafts exit the wheel for the last part of the two-minute ride, they navigate an opaque section of tube for a lights-out finale.

As with many signature attractions at indoor water parks, riders start and end their rides inside the climate-controlled building. But most of the structure, including the rotating wheel, is outside. The plan is to operate Medusa’s Slidewheel year round. Because the slide tubes are enclosed, passengers are protected from the elements. The jury’s out whether the mechanism will be able to rotate on crazy-cold days during Wisconsin’s often bone-chilling winters, however.

“We’ll find out,” Jason Hammond, the park resort’s director of safety, says with a laugh, adding that as one of the first installations of the prototype attraction, Medusa’s Slidewheel is something of a guinea pig.

As perplexing as the ride is for passengers to experience, it’s quite a sight to watch from the outside. It’s difficult to envision what’s happening inside the tubes as the twisted jumble of slide sections revolve and passengers scream and squeal. Hammond says you might think riders would feel as if they are spinning, but that’s not the case. It’s really more of a back-and-forth motion, punctuated by sudden drops. After it opened, Hammond sat outside the park and carefully studied the attraction in action; after an hour, he was able to figure out the convoluted route that passengers take as they make their way through the rotating, hulking ride.

Medusa’s Slidewheel is part of a 22,500-square-foot expansion of the indoor water park at Mt. Olympus. It brings the the total size up to 65,000 square feet. The expansion also includes a new pool and splash zone. The rest of the indoor park, which opened in 1999, is being remodeled and will reopen in the fall.

Guests staying at the resort, which offers 1,600 rooms along with cabins and camping sites at a campground, receive free admission to all four parks. Visitors can purchase day passes, which also include access to all parks. The outdoor theme park features an impressive collection of go-kart tracks as well as four well-regarded wooden roller coasters. Hades 360 reaches a top speed of 70 mph, boasts an 800-foot-long underground tunnel–the world’s longest–and includes a corkscrew inversion, which is unusual for a wooden coaster.

If you want to get a better sense of the Slidewheel design and concept, here is a video from the ride manufacturer.

What do you make of Medusa’s Slidewheel? What’s the wackiest water park attraction you have experienced? Have you been to Mt. Olympus? How about the other water parks in Wisconsin Dells?

Leave a comment

Arthur's About Theme Parks is a reader-supported, ad-free publication. To receive new posts and support quality journalism, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Free subscriptions are also available. If you enjoy About Theme Parks, please share it.

Soaky Mountain (what a great name!), a water park that opened in 2020 in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains in Sevierville, Tennessee, recently expanded with what appears to be a singularly thrilling attraction. The Edge offers a dual-track water coaster for side-by-side racing. For its finale, it includes a “Boomerango” element that sends the rafts racing up a nearly vertical wall that resembles a halfpipe skateboard ramp.

After climbing a 70-foot tower, guests board two-passenger rafts. Two rafts are dispatched at the same time and immediately plunge down a drop followed by an uphill section that is powered by surging water jets known as “Master Blaster” technology by the ride manufacturer. The rafts then enter enclosed, opaque tunnels that include colorful, almost psychedelic “AquaLucent” rings of light through which riders pass. That’s followed by a two-story drop and another Master Blaster surge up into a second tunnel with equally freaky rectangular bands of multi-colored light.

A final blast of water sends the rafts racing up the Boomerango wall where they come to a halt and deliver a momentary pop of negative-G weightlessness. They then scoot down the wall, scale a small hill, and coast a straightaway into a pool to end the race. A scoreboard informs the passengers which team nabbed the best time.

“When you hit the Boomerango wall with its translucent top, it really looks like you’re going to go over the edge,” says David Andrews Jr., general manager of Soaky Mountain. The tricked out water coaster lives up to its name in another way. “The whole ride really hangs off the edge of Soaky Mountain,” he adds.

From above, the twin Boomerango elements look like giant water skis. The ride’s orange and turquoise color scheme will remind folks of a certain age of the defunct Howard Johnson’s chain of restaurants. The Edge is the only water coaster of its kind.

The new ride is the young park’s second water coaster. Visitors can also brave Avalaunch, which is a first-of-its-kind attraction as well. In addition to its uphill water coaster blasts and “FlyingSaucer” elements that include compound curves to send its rafts racing in different directions, Avalaunch features a “TornadoWave” finale that, like The Edge, delivers free-floating negative Gs.

The full-featured, 50-acre Soaky Mountain made its debut in June 2020, soon after the first wave of pandemic restrictions were eased. It was challenging on a number of fronts, Andrews notes. For example, the park had to restrict the number of guests it admitted to allow for social distancing.

Soaky Mountain is part of the Wilderness Resorts and Waterparks group that operates an enormous indoor water park resort in Wisconsin Dells as well as a second one, Wilderness at the Smokies, which is located across the street from the outdoor water park in Sevierville.

You can see some highlights of The Edge water coaster in this video from Soaky Mountain. No, there isn’t anything wrong with your speakers. The clip does not include audio.

Would you want to give The Edge a whirl? What are your favorite water park rides?

Leave a comment

Share Arthur's About Theme Parks