Center Parcs Challenge, Design a Water Ride

When I saw this challenge I thought how can you do that? Then when talking to the family ideas started to spring from everyone. As a family we have been using Center Parcs for 25 Years when they opened, every year we go as a large family group to have a winter fun break, this year we will be their for winter Wonderland.

We talked through the changes we have seen and the introduction of the big water ride at Sherwood and now the new ride at Elvedon, one thing stuck in my mind was that they are not easy to get to if you do not have good mobility, at Sherwood there are lots of stairs to climb before you get to the ride, which means not everyone can use it. The other thing that we all notice is that they do not blend that well with the forest, that does not mean we do not love them, just simply something we thought about for our design.

In our family group we have 5 males and 5 females covering all ages, so a lot of different needs! The boys all wanted super fast scary rides, the girls wanted a bit of that but also a bit of adventure, we came up with lists of things we would like to see which we felt could be blended into a forest setting but also using the subtropical theme too. On the list we had Pirates, ships, rapids, palm trees, monkeys, sand, treasure, and for me a starry night tunnel.

Our first draft was drawn onto a sheet of paper, with what looks like lots of scribbles all over it as we all added ideas, next step the clever computer husband sat at the computer turning our vision into something that brought our ideas to life. Our finished product is below.

 

We have numbered things that we felt would explain our ride better.

1 Staged platform area which is disabled accessible this the beginning of the ride.

2 Palm trees enforcing the subtropical theme.

3 A jungle theme was the request of the younger members that want Monkey, Snakes and crocodiles, we would not like real one’s though.

4 Small rapids which descend into the starry night tunnel.

5 Starry night tunnel is for me, I want to float through looking at the stars with sounds of the ocean.

6 The boys think they will be a sleep by now so we wake them up with a steep drop into the white water rapids.

7 See us travel along the White water Canyon with lots of rocks and boulders

8 On this turn the water slows to just choppy, and the theme turns more to the Caribean as we approach Pirate Island Lagoon with sand, and treasure chests and you are greeted to land by pirates.

The little boats now move onto the conveyor that takes them back to the beginning and people leave by the ramps at the side of the island.

We had hours of fun with this, we think it is a ride for a family not the real thrill seekers, but we would love it.

2 thoughts on “Center Parcs Challenge, Design a Water Ride

  1. I love it, that’s so well thought out with something for everyone. Like you, my favourite bit is the starry night tunnel, my girls would love the Amazon part with the (not real) animals and I’m sure my little man would love being greeted by pirates at the end. When can we ride? 🙂

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