In an investor-facing press release published this morning, SeaWorld Parks let Water Country USA’s 2020 secret out of the bag: Water Country USA’s family raft ride, Aquazoid, is going under the knife.
As we’ve been reporting on for a while now, odd things have been happening around Aquazoid—which is easily one of Water Country’s most iconic and beloved attractions. The slide was closed most of last season and at one point it was even removed from the park’s website entirely. We got our first, concrete, sharable evidence that something major was happening last month when we snapped photos of the slide’s tower missing entirely.
We’ve had a pretty solid idea as per what this project has entailed for a little while now (and have tried to hint at it a few times), but thanks to this morning’s “announcement,” we now feel comfortable sharing what we know.
According to this morning’s investor report, Water Country USA will debut “Aquazoid Supercharged” for the 2020 season. In the words of whomever is writing up investor press releases for SEAS, Aquazoid Supercharged will offer a “new water slide experience” which “will take guests in rafts through 59 fully enclosed color changing rings with dynamic sound spread over 219 feet of slide, providing a new thrill each time you ride.“
That description already sounds really great to us—adding exciting, new effects to an already fantastic ride is always a good thing—but there’s more to the project than a new name, new lights, and new audio features. From what we understand from sources familiar with the matter, sections of Aquazoid’s slide are being entirely replaced to facilitate these new effects. Additionally, Aquazoid’s aging wooden slide tower has been completely demolished to make way for an all-new steel one (like Colossal Curl’s) for this upcoming season.
These are major alterations that aren’t only adding exciting new elements to an iconic Water Country USA attraction, but also ensuring that said attraction can continue to operate for years to come. This is precisely the type of project we love to see Busch Gardens Williamsburg investing in and we couldn’t be happier that this project was greenlit.
We have some questions about the name (specifically how “Supercharged” will tie into Aquazoid’s Godzilla-parody theme) and the general marketing strategy being employed here (why Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s marketing team continues to be silent on this project). Overall though, we are thrilled with Aquazoid Supercharged and we’ll do our best to bring you all opening day coverage of the attraction this spring!
To stay up to date on all things Busch Gardens Williamsburg & Water Country USA, follow us on Twitter and Instagram and like BGWFans on Facebook! Additionally, if you want to be the first to know whenever anything breaks, consider joining the ParkFans forum! Sometimes you even get to see things other people don’t—like this very early indicator of what exactly was going on with Aquazoid from back in early January!
yessssss!!! Lights, Sounds !!! hopefully, Godzilla like roars !!