AquaLucent patterns enhance ride experiences by creating exciting visual effects
When Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure opened at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the rollercoaster garnered rave reviews from industry veterans who were used to riding ever bigger, taller, and scarier rides. They were thrilled to experience a ride that went above and beyond superlatives and theming, which, in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, is an incredible feat indeed.
Dubbed a “story coaster” by Universal Studios – emphasising the focus on the storyline and journey that riders take – this ride is not so much a rollercoaster as it is an experience. From the get-go, riders are drawn into the story within an intricate setting, immersive visuals, and thrilling twists and turns. It’s been lauded as the best ride in the entire park, and not because it’s the tallest or fastest, but the most immersive one of them all.
The success of Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure follows a trend in recent years, which is seeing the industry move towards not only adding theming and more narratives to their rides but also offering an additional dimension that enhances the experience riders get. In short, bigger, taller, and faster isn’t synonymous with “better” anymore. What makes a ride truly memorable is the unique experience that a guest had being on it.
How tech can add to the experience At WhiteWater, we’ve sought to think outside the box to create experiences that go beyond the thrill, so guests can look forward to an experience that they’ll remember for years to come.
With the leaps in technology in the past few decades, we’ve been able to create our latest product, Vantage, which benefits both the operator and park guests. It used to be that park operators would build rides that they think guests would enjoy, and guests would visit and pick the rides that looked most fun to them. Now, with Vantage, operators can actually see how well a ride is performing at any time, figure out exactly who enjoys them, and deploy their resources accordingly. This enables them to deliver more tailored, personalised experiences to their guests while using relevant data to make strategic decisions.
Guests, on the other hand, can create their own in-park experiences with customisable themes and playlists while on attractions, share memorable moments on social media instantly, earn points for park perks, locate their friends, find out which attractions have shorter queue lines, and much more. Vantage offers a rare win-win scenario for both operator and guest by creating an additional layer of immersion and interactivity for both parties.
Putting pretty to use AquaLucent has long been an integral part of our slides, but far from being just pretty it can also be designed to create an enhanced experience for guests. Because of the shapes and colours we can create with AquaLucent, it can be used in so many unique ways to alter a rider’s perception. One of our newest installations, Infinity Racers at Schlitterbahn Galveston Island – which is two AquaTube mat racers side-by-side – features vertical dashes of multi-coloured AquaLucent on one slide that, when riders go down, make them feel like they are travelling through space. On the other slide, we installed AquaLucent rings instead, making it seem as though riders are going through a portal into deep space. It’s a surreal experience that elevates the ride.
It’s all about interactivity With families and friends visiting parks to spend quality time with each other, we try to focus on interactivity. This is reflected in one of our rides, Raft Battle, on which guests can engage in epic water battles either with occupants of another raft or as spectators watching from the sidelines.
Slides can also be gamified, as can be seen in the newly installed Over/Under Slideboarding raft ride at Wuxi Sunac Water World at the Wuxi Resort in China.
A first-of-its-kind fusion waterslide, the Over/Under is the world’s first interactive multi-player gaming waterslide. Featuring WhiteWater’s first installations of Team Slideboarding and Double Exit Manta, the attraction challenges teams to work together in order to score enough points to be rewarded with a thrilling victory lap and avoid the shame of the losers’ exit.
The Selector raft ride at Guangzhou Sunac Water World allows guests to select unique slide paths and combinations. The ride gives guests control over which combinations of four paths they want to go down. Each path was designed to provide a different ride experience, encouraging repeat rides by enabling guests to experience each of the four combinations.
Groups of up to six riders vote on which path they want to try out because each path offers a different combination of thrilling, high-speed sections with more relaxed, less intense sections.
Looking beyond traditional superlatives is the way of the future – after all, one can only be the biggest, tallest, and longest for a short time before being eclipsed. Creating a memorable ride experience that someone treasures eternally, however, is something that stands the test of time.
Read more from this issue of Attractions Management magazine
View contents of Attractions Management 2019 issue 3
People profile: Tom Hennes
Tom Hennes discusses how he has transformed the Empire State Building's visitor experience
People profile: Dimitrios Pandermalis
The Acropolis Museum has just celebrated its 10-year anniversary. Its president, Dimitrios Pandermalis, talks about his plans to take the museum forward in the next decade and beyond
People profile: Gus Antorcha
SeaWorld's new CEO Gus Antorcha on the company's new direction as it starts to recover following several years of turmoil
Museums: A museum in motion
The Australian Centre for the Moving Image
is undergoing a AUS$40m renewal. CEO
Katrina Sedgwick talks about the plans
Tourism: The dark side
With locations like Chernobyl increasing
in popularity, Kath Hudson looks at the
dark side of the global tourism sector
Promotional feature: Whitewater
WhiteWater thinks outside the box to create memorable,
immersive experiences that go beyond the thrill
Rides: Monsters, myths and motorbikes
We take a look at some of the biggest ride
openings for visitor attractions worldwide,
including Universal’s new Hagrid coaster
Promotional feature: OurPeople
Home to the world-revered peppa pig world and welcoming more than one
million visitors every year, paultons park was voted Tripadvisor’s number
one UK amusement park for the fourth year running in 2019
AquaLucent patterns enhance ride experiences by creating exciting visual effects
When Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure opened at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the rollercoaster garnered rave reviews from industry veterans who were used to riding ever bigger, taller, and scarier rides. They were thrilled to experience a ride that went above and beyond superlatives and theming, which, in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, is an incredible feat indeed.
Dubbed a “story coaster” by Universal Studios – emphasising the focus on the storyline and journey that riders take – this ride is not so much a rollercoaster as it is an experience. From the get-go, riders are drawn into the story within an intricate setting, immersive visuals, and thrilling twists and turns. It’s been lauded as the best ride in the entire park, and not because it’s the tallest or fastest, but the most immersive one of them all.
The success of Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure follows a trend in recent years, which is seeing the industry move towards not only adding theming and more narratives to their rides but also offering an additional dimension that enhances the experience riders get. In short, bigger, taller, and faster isn’t synonymous with “better” anymore. What makes a ride truly memorable is the unique experience that a guest had being on it.
How tech can add to the experience At WhiteWater, we’ve sought to think outside the box to create experiences that go beyond the thrill, so guests can look forward to an experience that they’ll remember for years to come.
With the leaps in technology in the past few decades, we’ve been able to create our latest product, Vantage, which benefits both the operator and park guests. It used to be that park operators would build rides that they think guests would enjoy, and guests would visit and pick the rides that looked most fun to them. Now, with Vantage, operators can actually see how well a ride is performing at any time, figure out exactly who enjoys them, and deploy their resources accordingly. This enables them to deliver more tailored, personalised experiences to their guests while using relevant data to make strategic decisions.
Guests, on the other hand, can create their own in-park experiences with customisable themes and playlists while on attractions, share memorable moments on social media instantly, earn points for park perks, locate their friends, find out which attractions have shorter queue lines, and much more. Vantage offers a rare win-win scenario for both operator and guest by creating an additional layer of immersion and interactivity for both parties.
Putting pretty to use AquaLucent has long been an integral part of our slides, but far from being just pretty it can also be designed to create an enhanced experience for guests. Because of the shapes and colours we can create with AquaLucent, it can be used in so many unique ways to alter a rider’s perception. One of our newest installations, Infinity Racers at Schlitterbahn Galveston Island – which is two AquaTube mat racers side-by-side – features vertical dashes of multi-coloured AquaLucent on one slide that, when riders go down, make them feel like they are travelling through space. On the other slide, we installed AquaLucent rings instead, making it seem as though riders are going through a portal into deep space. It’s a surreal experience that elevates the ride.
It’s all about interactivity With families and friends visiting parks to spend quality time with each other, we try to focus on interactivity. This is reflected in one of our rides, Raft Battle, on which guests can engage in epic water battles either with occupants of another raft or as spectators watching from the sidelines.
Slides can also be gamified, as can be seen in the newly installed Over/Under Slideboarding raft ride at Wuxi Sunac Water World at the Wuxi Resort in China.
A first-of-its-kind fusion waterslide, the Over/Under is the world’s first interactive multi-player gaming waterslide. Featuring WhiteWater’s first installations of Team Slideboarding and Double Exit Manta, the attraction challenges teams to work together in order to score enough points to be rewarded with a thrilling victory lap and avoid the shame of the losers’ exit.
The Selector raft ride at Guangzhou Sunac Water World allows guests to select unique slide paths and combinations. The ride gives guests control over which combinations of four paths they want to go down. Each path was designed to provide a different ride experience, encouraging repeat rides by enabling guests to experience each of the four combinations.
Groups of up to six riders vote on which path they want to try out because each path offers a different combination of thrilling, high-speed sections with more relaxed, less intense sections.
Looking beyond traditional superlatives is the way of the future – after all, one can only be the biggest, tallest, and longest for a short time before being eclipsed. Creating a memorable ride experience that someone treasures eternally, however, is something that stands the test of time.
Read more from this issue of Attractions Management magazine
View contents of Attractions Management 2019 issue 3
People profile: Tom Hennes
Tom Hennes discusses how he has transformed the Empire State Building's visitor experience
People profile: Dimitrios Pandermalis
The Acropolis Museum has just celebrated its 10-year anniversary. Its president, Dimitrios Pandermalis, talks about his plans to take the museum forward in the next decade and beyond
People profile: Gus Antorcha
SeaWorld's new CEO Gus Antorcha on the company's new direction as it starts to recover following several years of turmoil
Museums: A museum in motion
The Australian Centre for the Moving Image
is undergoing a AUS$40m renewal. CEO
Katrina Sedgwick talks about the plans
Tourism: The dark side
With locations like Chernobyl increasing
in popularity, Kath Hudson looks at the
dark side of the global tourism sector
Promotional feature: Whitewater
WhiteWater thinks outside the box to create memorable,
immersive experiences that go beyond the thrill
Rides: Monsters, myths and motorbikes
We take a look at some of the biggest ride
openings for visitor attractions worldwide,
including Universal’s new Hagrid coaster
Promotional feature: OurPeople
Home to the world-revered peppa pig world and welcoming more than one
million visitors every year, paultons park was voted Tripadvisor’s number
one UK amusement park for the fourth year running in 2019
A US$50 million (£44.2 million, €51.2 million) transformation of Chicago's historic McCormick
Mansion has created a new destination that combines live magic, immersive theatre, dining and
private membership under one roof.
The Montana Historical Society has officially celebrated the opening of its new Montana
Heritage
Center, a US$107 million (£79 million, €92 million) destination that combines immersive
storytelling with cutting-edge audiovisual technology to bring the sta
San Antonio Zoo has reported a US$283 million economic impact for 2025, following a decade-
long transformation programme that has seen almost US$200 million invested into the Texas
attraction.
Plans for the AU$180 million redevelopment of Reef HQ Aquarium in Townsville, Australia, are
progressing, with the project set to transform the attraction into a global centre for reef
education and conservation.
Abu Dhabi-based investment firm Mubadala Capital has made a binding, fully financed
€1 billion
offer to acquire Pierre and Vacances SA, the European holiday resort operator behind the
continental European Center Parcs business.
Disney has reaffirmed its commitment to investing US$30 billion in its US parks and cruise
business by 2033, using new America250 celebrations to underline the role its attractions play
in supporting jobs, tourism and economic growth.
Expo 2030 Riyadh is being planned as a permanent visitor destination, with organisers
confirming the six-million-square-metre site will become a Global Village after the event closes.
The owner of one of Australia's best-known waterparks has acquired a major competitor,
creating a new attractions business spanning two of the country's largest visitor destinations.
The Toverland theme park in the Netherlands has announced a €98m expansion programme
that will add a resort, new attractions and staff facilities as it pursues plans to become a multi-
day destination.
Hotel de France, located on the British Isle of Jersey, has created a wellness retreat package
that includes a hot yoga session that will take place in Jersey Zoo’s butterfly sanctuary.
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