WhiteWater creates custom attractions for two leading waterparks
by Joe Kleiman
Waterparks, like theme parks, prosper by investing in new attractions and finding the proper balance between thrill rides and kids’ attractions. This year, two of North America’s largest and most innovative waterparks added new experiences targeting younger guests. Both Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park Resort in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, and Schlitterbahn Waterpark & Resort in New Braunfels, Texas, worked closely with their long-term supplier WhiteWater to create custom attractions.
Reaching for the sky
Known as the “waterpark capital of the world,” Wisconsin Dells is home to dozens of small attractions and five major parks. One of the largest, Mt. Olympus, features a number of firsts for the attractions industry. A combination theme park and waterpark, Mt. Olympus is home to the world’s first multilevel go-kart track, the first modern wooden coaster to incorporate an inversion, and the Western Hemisphere’s first SlideWheel®.
Fotini Backhaus and Maria Laskaris are the third generation to run the family-owned resort, comprised of 1,500 hotel rooms and campsites, along with indoor and outdoor theme parks and waterparks. Fotini and Maria’s parents (and Mt. Olympus owners), Nick and Eva Laskaris, are at the forefront of the operation and help guide the development of new projects, including a new slide tower and children’s play area for 2024. “Our original concept was not to go tall – we just wanted to add more slides,” says Maria. “Then my father [Nick] went to the industry trade shows and he saw these new tower slides that were opening and that was it – we had to go tall.”
One such inspiration was the Daredevil’s Peak at Perfect Day at CocoCay, Royal Caribbean’s private island waterpark in the Caribbean, which stands at 135 feet. Now, five years later, Mt. Olympus’ newest attraction, The Rise of Icarus, stands three stories taller, at 165 feet, making it the tallest waterslide tower in North America.
The tower contains North America’s tallest waterslide, a WhiteWater enclosed High Speed AquaTube, which encircles the tower four times during its descent. Sixty feet below the tallest slide entrance are four other slides, three enclosed AquaTube slides that curve on their way down and an open Freefall slide.
The park pays tribute to the Laskaris family’s Greek heritage by theming new attractions to Greek mythology. The recently added SlideWheel is themed to the many snakes that made up Medusa’s hair. For the tower, the family turned to Icarus, the fabled son of Daedalus, who built wings of wax for the two to escape the prison of King Minos. Daedalus warned his son not to get too close to the sun, and when he did, Icarus’ wings melted and he plunged back to Earth.
“Our mother [Eva] picked the colors for the tower and the slides,” says Fotini. “It incorporates yellows and oranges towards the top to represent the sun and blues and greens towards the bottom for the ocean.”
“We had the support of the city and the community in bringing in the tower,” says Maria. “It’s so iconic and so tall that it can be seen for miles around.”
According to Doug Smith, WhiteWater’s Global Head of Sales, the tower was designed at WhiteWater. “We have ninety engineers on staff, whose expertise range from structural to electrical, so we’re able to design and build the structure in house, basing the design on local climate, including wind, other weather conditions and seismic concerns,” Smith says.
While the tower went up in a formerly grassy area, construction did necessitate the removal of a children’s play area, which the Laskaris family decided to rebuild. The island where Icarus’ body washed ashore is known as Icaria and so the new play area located at the base of the tower now sports this name. Icaria features eight slides for kids and families, and an AquaSplash spray pad covered in Life Floor, a slip-resistant and soft flooring for the entire area.
“It’s very important for us to see multigenerational families visit Mt. Olympus,” says Maria. “We get a lot of pleasure out of that.” The sentiment mirrors the multigenerational family management of the park that the Laskaris family has provided for decades.
From the supplier side, the stability and leadership provided by the family also makes their role easier. “We enjoy working with Mt. Olympus, and with Fotini and Maria, who are the new leadership generation coming in,” says Smith. “The entire family has been partners. They want the park to be the biggest and best in the market. The visibility of the park, including the roller coasters, the Trojan Horse, and now Icarus tower, have all proven very useful in marketing the park for them. Fotini and Maria were very smart in that in addition to the thrill slides, they pushed hard to add a larger kid’s area to expand their demographics.”
Preparing little ones for big rides
On the southern end of the U.S., Schlitterbahn has been a staple in New Braunfels, Texas, since it opened in 1979. In 2019, the park was acquired by Cedar Fair, which merged with Six Flags in 2024. The park is known for its innovation and clever implementation of rides. The commitment to ingenuity also applies to its kids areas.
For 2024, the park created a new children’s area themed to its mascot Schatze the dog and wanted something unique as its headliner. According to Chris Ozimek, Schlitterbahn New Braunfels’ Senior Manager, Brand Activation & Communications, “Rick Belhumeur, the Assistant General Manager at our Galveston waterpark, thought that it would be great to have a ride that would act like ‘training wheels’ for the bigger slides. We thought about it and decided to make that a key component of Schatze’s Storybrook Park.”
The new area is divided into four sections.
- Bow Wow Blaster is the “training wheels” attraction Belhumeur envisioned. It is the world’s first kids’ water coaster – a smaller, less intense version of the Master Blaster.
- Fairy Tail Trail is a re-theming of an existing area of the park. In the new version, classic fairy tale characters have been portrayed as Schatze’s canine friends (e.g., Little Red Riding Hound, Houndsel and Petzel, Rapawnzel and the Three Little Pugs).
- Schatze’s Paw’nd features three kid-sized waterslides, including one that seats four across, allowing family members big and small to slide down in unison.
- The Fur-Bidden Forest is home to a WhiteWater AquaPlay 550 structure called The Fur-Bidden Fort. The play area includes nearly 60 different water features.
The design team worked closely with Cedar Fair’s creative staff on the project. All of the creative decisions, including theming, color palette and style guide, involved Cedar Fair’s corporate offices, which approved decisions proposed by the Schlitterbahn team. “We wanted to pay homage to the original children’s aquatic areas that we were replacing,” says Ozimek. To do so, they refurbished Sir Hopsalot, a giant frog that kids can climb up the back of and then slide down his tongue. The team also created new versions of the park’s classic water-spouting mushrooms and holding the 1,200-gallon tipping bucket on top of the play structure are two fairies, similar to ones that formerly resided on the old Pollywog Pond attraction.
Kids rule
Bow Wow Blaster’s creation was a natural progression for WhiteWater. “I think the post-pandemic era was a turning point for how we approach attractions for younger guests,” says Smith. Children’s play areas were becoming prevalent at waterparks for many years, but the trend of finding more ways to share experiences together, particularly as families, really took off after COVID.” With that in mind, the next step was to take a page from the theme park playbook. “Like a kiddie roller coaster, Mini Blaster helps excite kids for a taste of the larger attractions and also provides a great opportunity for families to enjoy a slide together,” he says.
When creating a water coaster for younger guests, concerns were addressed over the lower weight load and distribution of riders on the two-person rafts. “WhiteWater has an R&D department that just focuses on slides,” explains Smith. “We’ve developed proprietary in-house software that allows us to create 3D ride simulations on a computer. Using this software, our engineers can modify the weight of the riders, the amount of water in the flume, and can even speed up the water coaster in certain sections or slow it down in others.” Bow Wow Blaster uses smaller drop hills and lifts than the conventional Master Blaster to reduce impact on riders. “It is such a unique ride,” shared Ozimek. “It is that perfect pint-sized blend of fun and thrill that is appealing to so many guests.”
Strength in partnership
For both projects at Mt. Olympus and Schlitterbahn, a lot of the success comes down to teamwork. “We’ve worked with Cedar Fair and Six Flags and Schlitterbahn for decades,” says Smith. “Each park in the chain is looking for something different, and they know their individual markets. By coming up with the Mini Blaster for Schlitterbahn, we helped them bring in something uniquely wonderful for that specific area – but I have a feeling it’s going to be popular everywhere.”
At Mt. Olympus, all the waterpark equipment comes exclusively from WhiteWater. “The team at WhiteWater is strongly committed to deep relationships,” shares Maria. “Because of that, we have a fantastic partnership with them. We love working with them on concepts and look forward to a strong future together.” •
Master Blaster comes home
Schlitterbahn is the birthplace of the Master Blaster, one of the first water coasters to shoot guests uphill with high pressure jets. The first one opened at Schlitterbahn’s New Braunfels, Texas, park in 1994 and Master Blasters can now be found around the world. According to WhiteWater’s Doug Smith, “Jeff Henry [son of Schlitterbahn founder Bob Henry] was inventing new waterpark attractions and manufacturing them through the company’s internal unit NBGS (short for New Braunfels General Store). WhiteWater licensed the right to manufacture and distribute Master Blaster. We’ve made improvements over the years and continued to be a licensee until the patents expired.”
