The Essential Guide to SeaWorld Orlando's Aquatica

Author: Ryan Wiseman

An amazing, state-of-the-art water park is taking shape in Orlando - SeaWorld Orlando's Aquatica - which will boast a unique blend of thrilling water rides, interactive animal encounters and white-sand beaches when it opens in the spring of 2008. Guests who visit SeaWorld's 59-acre Aquatica water park will discover a lush, South Seas Island-style landscape, complete with refreshing waterfalls and fountains, sparkling blue rivers, hidden grottos, intricate rock formations and colorful flowers.

Highlights of SeaWorld Orlando's Aquatica will include 36 thrilling waterslides, side-by-side wave pools (that operate independently or together), raft rides, more than 80,000 square feet of sandy beaches, and six rivers and lagoons. Aquatica's signature attraction will be a 300-foot-long waterslide, which will feature a clear tube that will plunge riders down a 42-foot drop and through a crystal-clear lagoon full of black-and-white Commerson's Dolphins (variously described as "baby Shamus").

Two rivers will wind their way through Aquatica - one that will provide a relaxing, lazy river ride past waterfalls, exotic birds and an undersea grotto full of colorful tropical fish and the other that will feature whitewater rapids full of sharp twists and turns. Aquatica also will offer eight-lane, slalom-style racing slides, which will provide guests with the perfect opportunity to race their family and friends.

In addition, Aquatica will boast one of the world's largest interactive water play areas, which will include a 60-foot-tall "rain fortress" and 15,000-square-foot pool, as well as several smaller slides and water cannons. Private cabanas and beachside waiter service also will be available for those guests who would simply like to relax on the white-sand beach.

Construction is already under way for SeaWorld Orlando's Aquatica, which will cost more than $50 million and open along International Drive - just South of Sea Harbor Drive and across the street from its sister theme parks, SeaWorld Orlando (the world's most popular marine adventure park) and Discovery Cove (an interactive water park). In fact, Aquatica will be the first theme park to open in Orlando since Discovery Cove in 2000.

"Aquatica will join Disney's Blizzard Beach, Disney's Typhoon Lagoon and Wet 'n Wild Water Park on International Drive as one of Central Florida's premier water parks," said Kyle Collins, Director of Interactive Marketing for HotelsCorp.com.

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SeaWorld Tip - members of the armed forces showing their ID can get free entry for themselves and their family.

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