Custom bowl ride supplied by ProSlide
Disco H2O grooves into Wet 'n Wild OrlandoGary Slade Amusement Today
It was only a matter of time before someone in the amusement industry recognized the value of creating a ride around the popular disco music of the 1970's.
That someone was Michael D. Black, executive vice president and general manager of Wet 'n Wild Orlando, who took an off-the-shelf ride from ProSlide and created a unique one-of-a-kind themed experience that has park visitors ready to dance their way through the Florida waterpark. It's called Disco H2O.
"When ProSlide first started talking to us about a new ride, they were showing us their popular Tornado slide, but it just wasn't what we were looking for," Black told Amusement Today. "We told Rick Hunter (ProSlide) that we wanted something unique. That's when he showed us photos of the BehemothBowl they had recently opened at a waterpark in California. We then went to the park, rode it, and immediately knew it had potential for what we were trying to do, something very unique and different from anything else in Central Florida."
"As we continued our discussions, we then put the idea in place of enclosing the entire bowl (the Calif. bowl is open) and making it dark. That's when discussions began on how to theme it on the inside." he said.
After tossing around ideas centered around the galaxy, stars and constellations, the theming idea was not getting off the ground. That's when Black saw the real light, as in the mirror ball light found in Discos. Once the idea had been bounced off his three children, the "cool idea dad" was about to get its platform shoes.
The ride's tweaking over the Calif. version, began with just that, the platform. Custom-designed to a higher loading area, the park elevated an existing tower, also used by the Surge, to create an extra thrills on the ride and in the bowl. The Surge, a ProSlide Mammoth River was also retrofitted with a new drop at the beginning due to the loading tower platform being raised an extra eight feet, to the new tower height of 68 feet.
With the added height, the Wet 'n Wild version features a longer entry tunnel (183 feet) that created a much steeper drop (46 feet) giving the ride much more speed inside the bowl. For added interaction to guests on the outside, the bowl was placed above the Surge's landing pool.
The ride uses the popular 4-passenger CloverLeaf tubes from Calif.-based Sevylor, Inc. It can accommodate about 400 passengers per hour. The ride was also designed to make use of the same conveyor system as the Surge, which also uses the CloverLeaf tubes.
To make the inside sound and look like a real disco, the Wet 'n Wild engineering team installed more than 100 LED light cubes, three disco balls, numerous spot lights and 30 speakers, seven of which are in the bowl itself. A lighted vertical Disco H2O sign is found on top of the bowl's center exit point. John Seeker's Dallas, Texas-based Turnstile Inc. handled all of the park's marketing and advertising for the new ride. They also created the music soundtrack.
"We did a one and one-half hour music mix on tape for the ride in a Dallas studio. It includes 43 of the hottest disco tunes and features the sweet spot of each song," Seeker told AT. "We're very happy with the music."
With almost two full rotations inside the bowl, riders have plenty of time to enjoy the $225,000 of Disco theming and music spent to enhance the ride. Riders then take one small final dip through a tunnel and a water curtain before spalshing into the four-foot landing pool.
"We are very happy with the end result and our guests have really embraced it." Black told AT. "You know you have a winner on your hands when you can't get your lifeguards to quit riding the ride!"
Disco H2O opened on April 19. And for the record, Black's three children approved the final product.