WaterWorks Transforms into Soak City for 2015
- Thread starter Zachary
- Start date
I did some poking around the site mwhinva shared (awesome find!) and noticed some interesting things...
First off, the slide features here looks remarkably like Kings Dominion's "Freestylin'" inner tube slide. The color, inner tube, and slide layout is indeed identical to Freestylin'. This makes me wonder if Freestylin', which stands with Baja Bends as the only slide remaining from the Hurricane Reef days, will be given a snazzy new paint scheme. This would not surprise me, because Freestylin's bland beige paint scheme was looking very tired. However, this next tidbit complicates my suspicions...
This slide is undoubtedly KD's Zoom Flume slide. I did some looking and found that no other White Water West raft slide has that color scheme or layout, so this is certainly KD's slide. This complicates my hypothesis about Freestylin', though, because Zoom Flume is one of the best looking slides in the water park. It would seem like a bizarre move to have one of the park's newest, best-looking slides refreshed. But who knows?
So what do you think this means? Will both slides be refreshed? Or are they just using random pictures of KD's waterslides on their site? Or will just one of them be refreshed? It seems so bizarre. It's also weird that the site is displaying the "before" pictures of their slides, because that doesn't really do the best job of displaying their work.... but that's a different point.
This does look like a promising company, though. Their slide resurfacing process apparently makes the ride much faster. Also, it should make the slides seamless, meaning it should get rid of the "thud thud thud thud" feeling that body slides are notorious for.
First off, the slide features here looks remarkably like Kings Dominion's "Freestylin'" inner tube slide. The color, inner tube, and slide layout is indeed identical to Freestylin'. This makes me wonder if Freestylin', which stands with Baja Bends as the only slide remaining from the Hurricane Reef days, will be given a snazzy new paint scheme. This would not surprise me, because Freestylin's bland beige paint scheme was looking very tired. However, this next tidbit complicates my suspicions...
This slide is undoubtedly KD's Zoom Flume slide. I did some looking and found that no other White Water West raft slide has that color scheme or layout, so this is certainly KD's slide. This complicates my hypothesis about Freestylin', though, because Zoom Flume is one of the best looking slides in the water park. It would seem like a bizarre move to have one of the park's newest, best-looking slides refreshed. But who knows?
So what do you think this means? Will both slides be refreshed? Or are they just using random pictures of KD's waterslides on their site? Or will just one of them be refreshed? It seems so bizarre. It's also weird that the site is displaying the "before" pictures of their slides, because that doesn't really do the best job of displaying their work.... but that's a different point.
This does look like a promising company, though. Their slide resurfacing process apparently makes the ride much faster. Also, it should make the slides seamless, meaning it should get rid of the "thud thud thud thud" feeling that body slides are notorious for.
Joe said:I did some poking around the site mwhinva shared (awesome find!) and noticed some interesting things...
First off, the slide features here looks remarkably like Kings Dominion's "Freestylin'" inner tube slide. The color, inner tube, and slide layout is indeed identical to Freestylin'. This makes me wonder if Freestylin', which stands with Baja Bends as the only slide remaining from the Hurricane Reef days, will be given a snazzy new paint scheme. This would not surprise me, because Freestylin's bland beige paint scheme was looking very tired. However, this next tidbit complicates my suspicions...
This slide is undoubtedly KD's Zoom Flume slide. I did some looking and found that no other White Water West raft slide has that color scheme or layout, so this is certainly KD's slide. This complicates my hypothesis about Freestylin', though, because Zoom Flume is one of the best looking slides in the water park. It would seem like a bizarre move to have one of the park's newest, best-looking slides refreshed. But who knows?
So what do you think this means? Will both slides be refreshed? Or are they just using random pictures of KD's waterslides on their site? Or will just one of them be refreshed? It seems so bizarre. It's also weird that the site is displaying the "before" pictures of their slides, because that doesn't really do the best job of displaying their work.... but that's a different point.
This does look like a promising company, though. Their slide resurfacing process apparently makes the ride much faster. Also, it should make the slides seamless, meaning it should get rid of the "thud thud thud thud" feeling that body slides are notorious for.
After reading your post, Joe, I got to thinking that these photos could be used for marketing purposes as well.
But, I find it strange, that a company in the Chicago region, would come all the way to VA for "stock photos" to use to market their services. Makes you wonder if Kings Dominion and this company made a deal for them to come refinish certain slides in Soak City and, in return, they could post whatever stock photos KD has of the water park on their web site.
Again, this is just conjecture on my part; but, "Zoom Flume" could be redone this year. I would not think it is due to the condition of the slide surface; but, there are a couple places that have serious leaks at the joints. This company's process is supposed to make the slide "seamless". So, it could be possible to have this company come in and refurbish "Zoom Flume" to stop the joint leaks.
For those who a curious about what the finished product will look and feel like; you only have to look at "Hurricane Heights" twin at Dorney Park. "Snake Pit" was installed at Dorney for 2014. Here is a nice YouTube video of their slide complex in action.
I hope they put rubber pebble-flex flooring on all the slide towers while they're doing all these improvements. Standing on the hot concrete surface while waiting for Pipeline Peak and Zoom Flume was absolutely miserable over the summer. Everyone in line was hopping from foot to foot, and I had legitimate burns on my feet after the day I spent in WaterWorks. This would definitely be a good time to take a play out of WCUSA's playbook and add some squishy floor surfacing.
Hurricane Heights is going up quickly!
[facebook=https://www.facebook.com/kingsdominionva/photos/a.180141141874.131348.32237381874/10152635677581875/?type=1&theater]
[facebook=https://www.facebook.com/kingsdominionva/photos/a.180141141874.131348.32237381874/10152635677581875/?type=1&theater]
Note the stripped, part-translucent slide in the background!
GUYS!!
According to the 2015 Pass Holder Guide, Friday, May 22 will be an exclusive Pass Member Preview Day for the newly expanded Soak City!
According to the 2015 Pass Holder Guide, Friday, May 22 will be an exclusive Pass Member Preview Day for the newly expanded Soak City!
Nosing through some Facebook sites and looked at KDFanSite's news feed. They had a small grouping of 3 photos from Preview Day.
Enlarged the photos and saw that the Tornado Funnel is getting some attention. Large green lift crane had a passenger basket extended over the fence and queue line into the interior of the funnel. Looks like the upper 3rd of the funnel is CLEAN (down to about 1/3 of the upper orange section).
Looks like quite a bit of construction materials in the plaza as well. I assume for the bathhouse renovation?
Enlarged the photos and saw that the Tornado Funnel is getting some attention. Large green lift crane had a passenger basket extended over the fence and queue line into the interior of the funnel. Looks like the upper 3rd of the funnel is CLEAN (down to about 1/3 of the upper orange section).
Looks like quite a bit of construction materials in the plaza as well. I assume for the bathhouse renovation?
With the Eiffel Tower closed due to the weather, it was difficult to get a good view of Soak City, and I had to resort to other methods to get pictures.
Here's the best overview shot I could get of the front half of Soak City. You can see a bit of the new Splash Island, the semi-clean Tornado, and the freshly-painted Baja Bends. Sadly, Freestlyin' did not get painted.
I took this shot of Tornado from Victoria's:
RIP the WaterWorks sign. This is all that has happened to the water park entrance so far.
While riding Rebel Yell, I noticed that slide pieces for Hurricane Heights are sprawled throughout literally the entire back half of Soak City... it was quite the sight!
Also, while riding Grizzly, I caught a glimpse of Shoot the Curl's trough sitting in the boneyard. Waaa waaaa.
Here's the best overview shot I could get of the front half of Soak City. You can see a bit of the new Splash Island, the semi-clean Tornado, and the freshly-painted Baja Bends. Sadly, Freestlyin' did not get painted.
I took this shot of Tornado from Victoria's:
RIP the WaterWorks sign. This is all that has happened to the water park entrance so far.
While riding Rebel Yell, I noticed that slide pieces for Hurricane Heights are sprawled throughout literally the entire back half of Soak City... it was quite the sight!
Also, while riding Grizzly, I caught a glimpse of Shoot the Curl's trough sitting in the boneyard. Waaa waaaa.
Photo from the Kings Dominion Web Cam. Appears 2 out of the 3 tube slides are 95% complete. The 3rd tube slide looks to be 70-75% complete. The launch tube body slides have made some progress. One of those looks to be about 50% done; the 2nd slide, about 30% complete, and the 3rd slide appears not to have been started.
Also, I noticed the new concrete pad on the north side of Tidal Wave Bay. I assume that is for the new VIP cabanas. Looks like they have some sort of large structure being built at the northern side of the wave pool as well.
Look forward to the info and photos from the Soak City construction tour.
Also, I noticed the new concrete pad on the north side of Tidal Wave Bay. I assume that is for the new VIP cabanas. Looks like they have some sort of large structure being built at the northern side of the wave pool as well.
Look forward to the info and photos from the Soak City construction tour.
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Am I the only one who misses when all these slide complexes were built with the big wood beams instead of metal?
James said:
You're not alone at all in that. I love the classic wooden slide structures. There is something far more raw and authentic feeling about them that I really miss when I look at newer slide towers.