Kentucky Kingdom - Part 1 of 2

I made a promise to post a review of Kentucky Kingdom's Hurricane Bay water park a long time ago, so I apologize for it being so belated... in fact, I'm positive that Kentucky Kingdom's season will have finally ended while I'm still typing up and proofing this review. Oh well, better late than never... I guess?

We'll get to a review of the water park in the second part (a separate post). I'd like to talk about the whole park (and the dry-side of the park) in general here.

Wet'n'Wild Las Vegas to Acquire First Slideboarding Technology Slide

Very recently, WhiteWater West announced that their newest sliding technology, Slideboarding, will be installed at Wet'n'Wild Las Vegas water park near Las Vegas, Nevada.

We're excited to announce that we have sold the 1st Slideboarding waterslide to @wetnwildlv for the 2015 season!
— WhiteWater West (@WhiteWaterWest) September 23, 2014

If you've never heard of Slideboarding, here's an excerpt from WhiteWater on the technology:

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Slideboarding is a waterslide that integrates gaming, skill, edge, and competitive sports into an experience that will define waterparks of the future. Slideboarding builds on the thrills of waterpark fun and adds in gaming in the same way we love to play today. It’s a waterslide that uses a state-of-the art ride vehicle with an S3 embedded game controller that when combined creates what we call a Slideboard. It uses a smart gaming system that knows who you are and tracks your progress/scores over your run down the waterslide as well as multiple runs thereafter.

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Basically, it's to combine video games with a water slide. It practically adds a whole new form of experience for a slide, bringing them from being less passive as attractions. Following the announcement, WhiteWater also released a video of people sampling it on another slide that was possibly retrofitted to include the new technology.

• View the Slideboarding video on the official WhiteWater West YouTube page
• View more info about Slideboarding here on the WhiteWater West webpage

2014 Golden Ticket Awards

Amusement Today held their annual Golden Ticket Awards ceremony last night at SeaWorld San Diego. The Golden Ticket Awards, in case you didn't know, is an annual awards show for the best parks and rides nominated by chosen "amusement park experts" located around the world. Think of it like the Oscar Academy Awards, but for amusement parks! Categories include best amusement park, best water park, best steel/wooden coaster, best new ride of 2014 (amusement/water park), and more.

Here are the winners in the water park categories:

• Best Water Park: Schlitterbahn Waterpark Resort, New Braunfels, Texas
• Best Waterpark Ride: Wildebeest at Splashin’ Safari, Santa Claus, Ind.
• Best New Ride of 2014 - Water Park: Verrückt, Schlitterbahn Kansas City, Kansas City, Mo.
• Best Indoor Waterpark: Schlitterbahn Galveston Island, Galveston, Texas

Kings Dominion's 2015 WaterWorks Expansion

Cedar Fair made an announcement a while back about upcoming attractions for a few of their parks. Among those was the expansion of WaterWorks, the 20-acre water park that is part of Kings Dominion and free with paid admission to the amusement-side.

Photo Source

In the expansion, the park will introduce new cabanas available for rent, a new slash zone for families, and most notably a new 65 foot tall water slide complex housing 6 water slides, built by WhiteWater West. Three of those slides are on the upper level Paradise Plunge, and are trap-door tunnel speed slides that wind and bend around each other after an initial drop capsule launch that start riders at high speeds. The next three slides utilize inner-tubes, and range from two called Thunder Falls having multiple large drops, to a third named Aqua Blast having Constrictor™ elements along the 449 foot long slide.

Splash Island will double the options available at WaterWorks for the younger ones, adding new slides and water geysers for children to play with.

The expansion is planned to be finished and ready for visitors by spring of 2015. To read more about this project, you can visit this link to the official WaterWorks 2015 expansion press release.

(Any photographs or images used belong to their respective owners, and were borrowed from the source(s) linked.)