Wet'n'Wild Water World is a large water park situated in Oxenford

Oxenford, Queensland

Oxenford is a suburb on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. At the 2006 Census, Oxenford had a population of 9,007.The suburb is bordered to the north by the Coomera River; the Pacific Motorway forms the eastern boundary. The western edge of the suburb is also bordered by the Coomera River,...

, Gold Coast

Gold Coast, Queensland

Gold Coast is a coastal city of Australia located in South East Queensland, 94km south of the state capital Brisbane. With a population approximately 540,000 in 2010, it is the second most populous city in the state, the sixth most populous city in the country, and also the most populous...

, owned by Warner Village Theme Parks

Warner Village Theme Parks

Village Roadshow Theme Parks is a collection of divisions of Village Roadshow Limited which operate theme parks and attractions in Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America. Village Roadshow Theme Parks is made up local Australian theme parks as well as Village Roadshow Theme Parks...

. In 2009, the park received 1,095,000 visitors ranking it first in Australia and eighth in the world. Wet'n'Wild Water World is located adjacent to Warner Bros. Movie World

Warner Bros. Movie World

Warner Bros. Movie World is a popular movie related theme park on the Gold Coast in Australia. It is owned and operated by Village Roadshow since the take over from Time Warner and is the only movie related park in Australia...

, a movie-related park also owned by Warner Village Theme Parks. The park remains open all year with all of the pools and slides heated during the winter months.

History

Wet'n'Wild Water World opened on 30 September 1984 as Cade's County Waterpark. The Herringe group of companies developed the park at a cost of A$

Australian dollar

The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...

18 million. The name was later changed to Cade's County Wet'n'Wild, then simply Wet'n'Wild in 1987 after a licensing agreement was reached with the Six Flags chain of water parks in the USA.

Attraction history

• 1986: Giant Wave Pool opened.
• 1997: Super 8 Aqua Racer opened.
• 1999: Calypso Beach opened.
• 2000: Mammoth Falls opened featuring Mammoth Plunge and Mammoth River
• 2002: Whirlpool opened
• 2005: Double Screamer closed. Mammoth Plunge was closed and moved to Sea World
  Sea World
  Sea World is a marine mammal park, oceanarium, and theme park located on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. It includes rides, animal exhibits and other attractions, and promotes conservation through education and through the rescue and rehabilitation of sick, injured or orphaned wildlife. The...
  
   with a replacement Mammoth River opening. The revamped Buccaneer Bay opened in September.
• 2006: Extreme H₂O Zone opened in stages. Mach 5 opened first featuring the Jet Streams and Sidewinders. This was followed shortly by Blackhole and then finally Tornado in September.
• 2007: Whitewater Flumes closed. Surfrider and River Rapids opened.
• 2008: Kamikaze opened.
• 2010: Speedcoaster and Twister closed. AquaLoop
  AquaLoop
  An AquaLoop is a type of body water slide where single riders are dropped down a near vertical slide and into an inclined loop.-History:Austrian manufacturer Aquarena developed the world's first mass-produced looping water slide, known as the AquaLoop. The slide is currently licensed and...
  
  and Flowrider opened in September.
• 2011: In early March, the SkyCoaster
  Skycoaster
  Skycoaster, most commonly also named Ripcord or Xtreme SkyFlyer , is an amusement park ride, produced and managed by Skycoaster, Inc....
  
  opened. The Zip Lines are scheduled to open later in the year.

Attractions

Extreme H₂O Zone

The Extreme H₂O Zone first opened at the back of the park for during 2006 with three rides with staggered openings. It features the latest cutting-edge attractions including a funnel slide, enclosed and open tube slides and a large body slide complex.

• Kamikaze is a unique wet and dry attraction and the first of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere
  Southern Hemisphere
  The Southern Hemisphere is the part of Earth that lies south of the equator. The word hemisphere literally means 'half ball' or "half sphere"...
  
  . The Kamikaze is two U-shaped half pipe slides which are wet through a water channel to reduce friction. Riders are seated in two-person, inwards facing tubes and are launched down a steep slope before coming back up the other side, and so continue in a boomerang-like fashion until they run out of speed and momentum. The Kamikaze opened in late September 2008. The ride is a Waterfun Products Sidewinder.
• Tornado is a four person clover-leaf funnel slide. The Tornado dips down and then goes into a turn before speeding down a steep drop into the funnel below, reaching speeds of up to 40 km/h. The Tornado was designed and built by a Canadian waterslide manufacturer, ProSlide
  ProSlide
  ProSlide Technology is a Canadian manufacturer of water rides and water park resorts. They manufacture both traditional slides and innovative rides such as water coasters with conveyor belts, funnel-shaped Tornado slides, and Bowl slides...
  
   and opened at the park as the third attraction in the Extreme H₂O Zone in 2006.
• Blackhole is two enclosed tube slides twisting and turning around each other. Riders are immersed in complete darkness as they traverse down the slide reaching high speeds. The Blackhole was acquired second hand from a defunct waterpark in Brazil
  Brazil
  Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
  
   and opened at the park as the second attraction in the Extreme H₂O Zone in 2006.
• Mach 5 is a large water slide complex. As the name suggests, the attraction is divided up amongst five different slides. The Sidewinders are two open flume slides which twist down to the bottom around the outside of the complex. The Jetstreams are three high speed body slides. The central slide is a freefall to the splashdown area below, similar to the Summit Plummet at Disney's Blizzard Beach
  Disney's Blizzard Beach
  Blizzard Beach is a water park located at the Walt Disney World Resort.The park opened on April 1, 1995 and was the third Walt Disney World water park. The theme of the park is the "Disney legend" of a freak snowstorm in the area, leading to the construction of Florida's first ski resort...
  
  . The outer two are similar, but traverse down the slope in a snake-like fashion. The Mach 5 was acquired second hand from a defunct waterpark in Brazil and opened at the park the first attraction in the Extreme H₂O Zone in 2006.

Other Rides

• AquaLoop
  AquaLoop
  An AquaLoop is a type of body water slide where single riders are dropped down a near vertical slide and into an inclined loop.-History:Austrian manufacturer Aquarena developed the world's first mass-produced looping water slide, known as the AquaLoop. The slide is currently licensed and...
  
  is a collection of four looping body slides featuring a trap door release with 2.5G acceleration. Riders reach a top speed of 60 kilometres per hour (37.3 mph). The AquaLoop is the first ride of its type in Australia.
• Buccaneer Bay is a pirate themed children's play area. The area is divided into two sections. One section is an Aqua Play structure featuring water sides and activities while the other is a series of shallow pools. The original Buccaneer Bay featured shallow pools, small climbing structures and water guns. It closed mid Autumn 2005. During construction a smaller, temporary children's area (named Kokomo Cove) opened instead of Whirlpool Hot Springs for the Winter season. The current Buccaneer Bay opened in September 2005.
• Calypso Beach is a large lazy river
  Lazy river
  A lazy river is a water ride found in many amusement parks or water parks. They are also found at some resorts and recreation centers. It usually consists of shallow pool that flows similarly to a river....
  
   attraction. Riders sit in one person tubes as the gentle current pulls them along the course. Calypso Beach was installed at the park in 1999.
• Flowrider is a Wave Loch
  Wave Loch
  Wave Loch Inc. is a water ride manufacturing company responsible for such water rides as the FlowBarrel and FlowRider in addition to Wave House franchises. The company also founded the increasingly popular board sport flowboarding.-History:...
  
   FlowRider located next to the Giant Wave Pool.
• Giant Wave Pool is a three million litre wave pool
  Wave pool
  A wave pool is a swimming pool in which there are artificially generated, reasonably large waves, similar to the ocean's. Wave pools are often a major feature of water parks...
  
   attraction with a consistent one-metre swell. The Giant Wave Pool is one of Wet'n'Wild Water World's first attractions and opened in 1984 along with the rest of the park. The Giant Wave Pool also features 'Dive-in Movies' which every Saturday night during the summer season, where guests can view movies from a tube dinghy in the water or deck chair on the shore.
• Mammoth Falls opened in 2000 and are two six person raft slides built by Australian Waterslides and Leisure. The tower featured two different slides - one featured a series of inline drops to the finish (known as Mammoth Plunge) while the other featured several corners (known as Mammoth River). In 2005 the Mammoth Plunge slide was moved to Sea World
  Sea World
  Sea World is a marine mammal park, oceanarium, and theme park located on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. It includes rides, animal exhibits and other attractions, and promotes conservation through education and through the rescue and rehabilitation of sick, injured or orphaned wildlife. The...
  
   and changed its name to The Plunge. After the Mammoth Plunge slide was moved, the Mammoth River attraction was mirrored. Mammoth Falls now two slides with identical layouts.
• River Rapids are four high speed body slides which opened in 2007 and are located on Whitewater Mountain. Whitewater Mountain originally housed the Whitewater Flumes which slowly deteriorated since 1984 when the park opened. The River Rapids are two fully enclosed water slides and two open air flumes.
• SkyCoaster
  Skycoaster
  Skycoaster, most commonly also named Ripcord or Xtreme SkyFlyer , is an amusement park ride, produced and managed by Skycoaster, Inc....
  
  is an upcharge located near the front of the park by Mammoth Falls. Riders are raised to a height of 50 metres (164 ft) before plunging at 60 kilometres per hour (37.3 mph) and swinging out across the Giant Wave Pool.
• Super 8 Aqua Racer, as the name suggests, is an eight lane timed mat racer slide. Riders reach speeds of up to 40 km/h as they race headfirst down an 86-metre long track. With the help of sensors at the finish line, each slider receives their placing to an accuracy of 1/1000 of a second.
• Surfrider
  Surfrider
  Surfrider is a roller coaster at Wet'n'Wild Water World located at Oxenford, Gold Coast, Australia. The ride was originally planned to be installed at Sea World, a theme park also owned by Warner Village Theme Parks. The car is in the shape of a surfboard and is launched to either side of the...
  
  - is an Intamin designed "Half-Pipe" roller coaster. The car is in the shape of a surfboard and is launched to either side of the half-pipe using an LIM-powered mechanism. Several water features are included to simulate riding a wave. The ride opened in September 2007.
• Whirlpool Hot Springs. During the winter months the upper level of the original Whirlpool attraction has the water drained and covers removed to expose 10 x 20 person hot spas heated at 36 degrees Celsius. In the 2009/2010 summer season, it appears the attraction remained as the Whirlpool Hot Springs. It is unknown whether the original summer attraction, Whirlpool, will return.
• Zip Line, currently under construction, this attraction will be a zip line travelling from the top of White Water Mountain to the Giant Wave Pool travelling over 200 metres (656.2 ft).

Previous rides

• Double Screamer was originally named Rampage, the Double Screamer was the first all fibreglass slide in the world. It was closed and removed in 2005 due to safety concerns on similar rides overseas where riders suffered serious injuries. It was also removed to make way for an expanded Buccaneer Bay which now stands in its place.
• Mammoth Plunge was built in 2000, the Mammoth Plunge Slide was donated to Sea World in 2005 where it now operates. It was replaced with a mirror of the adjacent Mammoth River slide.
• Speedcoaster saw guests plummet down an enclosed snake-like drop before a steep freefall to the splashdown zone. Originally named 'Speed Slide' when the park first opened, the attraction has since been refurbished and modified. This ride was closed to make way for the addition of AquaLoop in 2010. This ride was moved to Big Splash
  Big Splash (waterpark)
  Big Splash is a waterpark in Canberra, Australia. It is located in the suburb of Macquarie and is the only waterpark in Canberra. It originally opened with a 50 Metre Pool with a kids pool at the end of it in the late 1960's....
  
   in Canberra, Australia.
• Speed Slide was a pair of high speed body slides that existed where the Speedcoaster once stood, and where the AquaLoop now stands. The slides were also home to a stunt show which saw performers ride the slide standing up and on boards.
• Terror Canyon 1 & 2 was closed down in 2008 pending demolition, extended maintenance or re-development. In 2009, the park confirmed that the Terror Canyon location could be used for future attractions. In 2010, the rides were removed from the park map with the queue and station being used for the zip lines.
• Twister was an attraction featuring two body slides. These slides wrap around each other forming a twisted pattern from the outside. This ride was closed to make way for the addition of AquaLoop in 2010. This ride was moved to Big Splash
  Big Splash (waterpark)
  Big Splash is a waterpark in Canberra, Australia. It is located in the suburb of Macquarie and is the only waterpark in Canberra. It originally opened with a 50 Metre Pool with a kids pool at the end of it in the late 1960's....
  
   in Canberra, Australia.
• Whirlpool was located at the same location of Whirlpool Hot Springs. The attraction was only open in the summer months as a gentle one person per tube ride revolving in a circular pattern. In the 2009/2010 summer season, it appears the attraction remained as the Whirlpool Hot Springs. It is unknown whether Whirlpool will return.
• WhiteWater Flumes were 4 body flume slides opened with the park in 1984, refurbished in the 1990s, and removed in 2007. It featured slides named Cascade, Bombora, Riptide and Pipeline.

Food, beverage and merchandise

There are several food outlets placed throughout the park, each one specialising in different styles of fast food:

• Bombora Burger Bar
• Snack Shack
• Oasis Ice Cream Parlour
• Go Frozen" Frozen Coke Bar
• Wraps 'n' Rolls
• Natural Selections
• Clocktower Coffee
• Calypso Bar
• Dominos 2 Go (Opened as a franchise on 12 September 2009)

There are two of merchandise stores placed towards the front of the park.

• Surf Store
• Quiksilver

External links