Mat Slide

The additions of the Caribe Aquatic Park

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Sesamo Aventura

In 2013, the water park received a massive expansion which finally enhanced the small-scale attraction to one of the best water parks in the country. The biggest addition to the park is the area Sesamo Beach, where the Sesame Street characters found a new home within Port Aventura World. The area features a small collection of slides at El Galéon Pirata.

Rapid Race

While Sesamo Beach mainly focuses on the needs of smaller kids, Rapid Race is a true family classic. The mat racer features a nice chute down the hills while racing against five other park guests.

Ciclon Tropical and King Khajuna

Ciclon Tropical and King Khajuna are the two large scale water slides of Port Aventura Caribe Aquatic Park. The two kamikaze slides sure take a punch and are an experience for the bravest of the park guest. While the yellow slide King Khajuna is intimidating due to its 30m alone, the ride down the red slide Ciclon Tropical should not be underestimated as it is the most intense one of the two slides. Both slides are awesome to experience at least once and they serve well as giant adverts for the water park.

Pictures Port Aventura Caribe Aquatic Park

Conclusion

Port Aventura Caribe Aquatic Park is probably Spain’s best water park. The high level of details combined with the awesome water slides by Proslide and WhiteWaterWest sure is something you should not miss when being at Port Aventura World; interestingly that’s something a lot of people do. Compared to the overcrowded theme parks Ferrari Land and Port Aventura Park next door, the water park was not that busy. One of the reasons for that is that Port Aventura Caribe Aquatic Park is always an upcharge attraction, being included only in the 3 days, 3 parks ticket bundle.

 

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Port Aventura Caribe Aquatic Park

Aqualandia (2020)

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Preface

I have been on vacation on the Spanish Costa Blanca for ages. I spent many vacations in my childhood in Torrevieja, after all my family had a small vacation apartment there. Almost always we drove 2400km down there by car and of course our car didn’t have air conditioning. These were exciting road trips including Uriah Heep and CCR, which became quite lively in the Pyrenees. Thereupon we had two weeks of vacation before the game repeated itself. It was a great time, but I didn’t visit many parks during my childhood spent in Spain.

Meanwhile I usually spend my vacations somewhere else. My family has exchanged the vacation apartment in Torrevieja for a nice house near Dénia and I have only been there once for Christmas. Actually I had planned to spend my vacations in Canada this year, but then came Corona. I hadn’t booked anything yet – it was supposed to be a road trip anyway. The stock markets collapsed and all countries were closed down temporarily. After a few months of lock-down some states opened their doors again and just in time for the summer vacations we were able to travel comfortably in Europe. Spontaneously, I joined my father, who, following the old tradition, drove to Spain by car with a colleague – only that I first flew to Madrid and later on I would join them by train.

So the vacation was spontaneous and the cost was quite human. Thanks to the vacation house we stayed mostly among ourselves. Moreover, we did not have to worry about Covid-19; because the Spanish is exemplary in this respect: everywhere, people wear masks and keep their distance from each other. Beaches are empty, cities are deserted and even the amusement and water parks are moderately visited at most. An unparalleled disaster, which even led the Mundomar-Aqualandia Group to decide not to open its Terra Mítica theme park in the first place.

However, Mundomar and the neighboring Aqualandia started into the season.

Aqualandia

Just like the Parque Warner theme park, the Aqualandia water park followed a strict hygiene concept. To be honest, I do not know to what extent it makes sense to disinfect swimming tires, which are in constant contact with chlorine anyway. It is also strange to disinfect your hands before each slide under observation of the staff, when the stuff is already washed down completely a few seconds later anyway. Well, at least here in the waterpark your hands don’t necessarily dry out – so it doesn’t bother me that much.

Since the water park was hardly visited even on weekends, there were no significant waiting times with few exceptions. Due to capacity constraints, the longest waiting times were due to the grouped admission at the multi-lane slide Pistas Blandas. The two tire slides Black Hole and Rápidos, which are located close to the entrance, were also relatively well attended. On the big Tornado slide Cyclon, on the other hand, the hurdle was mostly due to the fact that you were only allowed to slide in groups of four.

In addition to the classic body slides Zig-Zag, the water park convinces above all with its Splash and Big Bang slide towers. The mat slides, like all kamikaze slides, are incredibly fun, but also demand a lot from you. But if you like it even a bit more extreme, you can throw yourself to the ground in VertiGo 28 or 33m with the best view of the city of Benidorm.

Pictures Aqualandia

 

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Aqualandia

Wet and wild fun on the Gold Coast

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History of the water park Wet ‘n’ Wild

Wet ’n Wild is probably the best-known brand for water parks worldwide. The concept was developed by George Millay, who previously established the SeaWorld marine mammal parks. Over time, there were eight water parks sharing the same ideas with the most prominent one being in Orlando. Most of the parks were sold and there are currently just three parks left in operation. Wet ’n’ Wild on the other hand is a popular brand of water parks by Village Roadshow Theme Parks, who licenced the Wet ’n Wild name.

Wet ’n’ Wild Gold Coast originally started as Cade’s County by the Herringe Group of Companies in 1984. Back in the days it was a state-of-the-art water park and the biggest one of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere consisting of a wave pool, a kamikaze slide and a bunch of mat and body slides. Nowadays, it is pretty clear that Wet ’n’ Wild Gold Coast was heavily influenced by its namesake sharing most of the attractions once featured in Orlando.

Tour of the park

Surfrider

One attraction which is rather unique to the park is the Intamin half pipe roller coaster Surfrider. This LSM coaster features two revolving gondolas which are placed onto an oversized surfboard. Due to the small launches the ride more and more increases in height and the spinning just gets wilder and wilder. At the highest point you feel a great amount of airtime and, depending on your position, some very impressive views. This ride is fun and should not be missed when visiting the Gold Coast. But caution, the floor up to the ride’s platform can get very hot.

H2O Zone

Mach 5 and Black Hole

In the area behind the Surfrider, there were only two of the four slide towers operational. The most impressive of these was the Mach 5 slide tower, which just got demolished to be replaced by a similar tower featuring two water coasters, two raft slides and a bodyslide racer. The Mach 5 had two large scale mat slides and some rather impressive looking kamikaze slides. It was a shame that I could not give it a try, as I was nearly one year too late for that. The neighbouring Black Hole tower was currently scheduled for maintenance, so we had to give the nice-looking tube slides with all its tight curves and jumps a miss.

Tornado and Kamikaze

The two slide towers which were open on the day of our visit in the Extreme H2O Zone were the Tornado and Kamikaze slide towers. Where the Tornado provides its usual large scale funnel slide experience, the Kamikaze is a rather oddly named Boomerang slide. Both slides are basically sharing the same experience, yet the Kamikaze is slightly steeper and provides a longer time swinging up and down in the slide’s main element. Both slides are great fun!

Calypso Springs and Mammoth Falls

Past the closed Whirlpool Springs and the still closed lazy river Calypso Springs, we now head towards the front section of the park. To the left we find the large wave pool, a flow rider, a sky coaster and the Mammoth Falls water slides. The two family raft slides provides a rather tame experience with no real surprises along its serpentine style path.

River Rapids and Constrictor

To the right there is the kid’s area Wet ’n’ Wild Junior, as well as a large selection of water slides. On an artificial mountain you can find the four River Rapids bodyslides offering two enclosed turbo slides winding down a curvy path and two open slides featuring a series of tight curves and great jumps. The nearby raft slide Constrictor is the first installation of a constrictor slide by whitewater featuring very tight helices along its path. Unfortunately, it was the best visited slide at Wet ’n’ Wild Gold Coast and after some minutes not moving forward in the queue, we had to give it a miss.

Super 8 Aqua Racer and AquaLoop

A slide we sure did not wanted to miss is the mat racer Super 8 Aqua Racer. This kind of slide is always a great experience, and it did not disappoint! I even won the race 😊. Enthusiastic, I would have given the nearby AquaLoop slides a try, but they were not opened, even through their maintenance was scheduled to end on the day before.

Pictures Wet ‘n’ Wild

Conclusion Wet ‘n’ Wild

As the number of attractions was extremely limited during my visit, Village Roadshow Theme Parks once again did not provide a great experience. I seriously cannot understand how on earth you can not manage to open your attractions on time after a rather long maintenance period. If you cannot plan it well, then increase your timing or hire more people. This is simply not very professional.

Wet ’n’ Wild Gold Coast surely offers a great selection of water slides and their Surfrider roller coaster is great fun, yet I would have enjoyed the park far more, if all their slides would have been open. Combined with a visit to Sea World or the Warner Bros. Movie World, you can have a great day off – just make sure you don’t visit the parks during the low season.

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Click here for the next report of the Hell Yeah, Schabelteah! Tour

Hell Yeah, Schnabelteah Day 15 to 19 / Wet 'n' Wild Gold Coast