Indoor water parks have begun to emerge as major players in the water park industry. Today there’s well over 100 indoor water parks around the world, and with many more in development, there is a strong global demand for them. And why shouldn’t there be? Indoor water parks are exciting and unique attractions that differentiate themselves from outdoor parks by providing year-round entertainment.
Beyond being nearly impervious to weather conditions, indoor water parks have the ability to take theming to increasingly inventive levels. Indoor parks have the opportunity to control every aspect of their environment, creating limitless options for memorable guest experiences.
Europa-Park’s Rulantica
One park pushing the indoor water park industry to the next level is Europa-Park’s Rulantica: the sprawling, Scandinavian-themed indoor water park located in Rust, Germany.
Europa-Park opened Rulantica in 2019, envisioning an underwater adventure for children and adults of all ages. The park is a breathtaking 11,200 m2 oasis featuring family and thrill rides—seven of which are ProSlide® water rides.
ProSlide® worked in tandem with the Mack family to create a unique and engaging attraction that would leave a lasting impression on its guests. Many of ProSlide’s signature attractions are seamlessly integrated into the immersive environment and combined with the stunning architecture to create a truly transformational indoor water park (which we’ll explore a bit later).
Attraction design for indoor water parks
With indoor water parks, space will always be at a premium due to the constraints imposed by the building envelope. The fixed interior space is a great opportunity to create rides with dynamic visual appeal that break boundaries … literally. One common strategy to maximize the useable real estate indoors is to design attractions to have flumes and features located outside the building envelope; attractions start indoors, continue outside through enclosed flumes and features, and finish in pools inside the building. What we don’t want to overlook by utilizing this strategy is the excitement and action created by iconic features and its impact on the guest experience.
For that reason, ProSlide custom designs attractions (like the TornadoWAVE 60) to have these visually impactful features located inside the building, ensuring guests can see the action and hear the thrills. Rulantica employed this strategy in order to save interior space for pools, rivers and restaurants. Designers located portions of attractions outdoors, while integrating key features into the immersive indoor environment.
Let’s take a look at some of the key ProSlide attractions that contribute to making Rulantica a best-in-class indoor water park.
- Competitive racing Dueling PIPEline
- ProSlide’s Dueling PIPEline™ allows guests to race their friends and family down the ride from start to finish. Along the ride are ProSlide’s innovative RallyPOINTS™ (pictured) with low separator walls. These dueling zones allow racers the ability to see and hear each other as they race down to the finish. This unique speed slide is one of the fundamental building blocks to any successful water park, keeping the excitement level sky high
- Gravity-Defying TornadoWAVE® 60
- ProSlide’s® towering TornadoWAVE® 60 is striking on its own, boasting the only true arched wall in the industry. Rulantica made an eye-catching attraction even more stunning by adding the sea-serpent Svalgur, poking its head out along the way. This ride was custom designed to place the TornadoWAVE 60 feature indoors, making the excitement visible to guests throughout the park. Riders seated in a 4 person raft enter near-vertical, zero-G moments and gather speed while dropping into the arch from above. Experiencing long hang times, rafts are specifically designed to sweep across the width of the wall while keeping riders suspended in the air before descending into a controlled out-run.
- ProSlide TWISTER Dropslides
- ProSlide’s® TWISTER® is a timeless classic that has undergone a resurgence lately, with installations at Universal’s Volcano Bay, Jeju Shinwha, Columbus Zoo, and now Rulantica. Their compact footprint, visual appeal, and exciting finish makes them a must-have addition to any indoor park.
