Aquatica..........a history.
Florida Guide > Other Parks
Aquatica is the sister park to Seaworld and was conceived during the time that The Busch Corporationowned this park.
The first we heard of this exciting new water park was in 2006 when the first details were revealed to the public.
Building was started and continued right through to early 2008 when they had soft openings til march and the park opened officially in april of that year.
They decided that the theme was going to be based on the South Pacific and that gave the designers lots of inspiration to make the park visually stunning.
It was to be sited on 100 acres that Seaworld already owned opposite its own park.
The thing that sets this water park apat from its rival Disney parks was that they planned to incorporate live dolphins into one of its flumes.
These were to be twin water slides that encased you in a see through tube that literally dumps you into a tank of dolphins.
The dolphins they decided on were Commmerson Dolphins which are only 5 feet long. These are only found in the Indian Ocean and South America.
The dolphins used at Aquatica were born in captivity and there are only 24 Commerson Dolphins in captivity in the world.
Commersons are one of the smallest etaceans and in some respects look a little like a porpoise. They have black dorsal fins and head and a white body and display typical friendly dolphin behavious. It is worth the entrance fee just to catch sight of these delightful creatures.
They have also addressed one of the most annoying aspects of parks and that is finding your way around.
They created several little characters that point you in the right direction.
KATA is the symbol for Kookaburra which is an area with lots of slides.
IHV takes you to all the thrill rides.
WAEWAE' S section is the interactive water play area.
PAPA shows you where the beach and cabana is.
MOTO pops up wherever there is food and drink
ROA is the Rapids area.
From the day it opened this park was an immediate success and in its first year just under a million people visited.
It is already the 8th most popular water park in the world and considering how many parks there are in the Orlando area alone that is some achievement.
The first time we went to Florida there was only Magic Kingdom, Seaworld and Wet and Wild. Now there are 6 major theme parks and 4 major water parks to choose from and more in the pipeline. It does make you wonder at just how the theme park area will look in 20 years hence?
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