U.S. water park updates for summer 2009

Here’s a look at some of the new water parks, water park slides and water park attractions debuting this summer across the United States:

New Water Parks
* The 40-acre Schlitterbahn Vacation Village water park in Kansas City, Kan., features the world’s largest tidal wave river, an uphill Master Blaster water coaster and a hot tub with swim-up bar.

* The $30-million Wet ‘n’ Wild Phoenix water park in Arizona features dueling water coasters.

* The 80,000-square-foot Fort Mackenzie indoor water park at Great Wolf Lodge in Concord, N.C.

* The 30,000-square-foot Castle Rock Resort indoor water park in Branson, Mo.

New Water Slides
* UpSurge flume slide with vertical half-pipe at Alabama Adventure theme park in Bessemer, Ala.

* The $2-million Twister tower with two body slides and two inner-tube slides at Coney Island in Cincinnati.

* Curse of the Silverback bowl-style inner-tube ride at Water Safari in Old Forge, N.J.

* Alpine Pipeline two-person water slide at Mountain Creek water park in Vernon, N.J.

* Wahoo Racer head-first racer slide at Six Flags St. Louis’ Hurricane Harbor water park.

* Dr. Von Dark’s Tunnel of Terror thrill ride through the dark with visual effects at Splish Splash in Calverton, N.Y., and Wet ’n Wild Emerald Pointe in Greensboro, N.C.

* Three-slide Tunnel Twisters tower at Lake Compounce in Bristol, Conn.

* Wahee Cyclone tube slide at Wild Adventures water and theme park in Valdosta, Ga.

New Attractions
* The Shore wave pool and Intercoastal Waterway lazy river at the Boardwalk at Hersheypark in Hershey, Penn.

* Congo River Expedition rainforest river at Schlitterbahn water park  in New Braunfels, Texas.

* The Count’s Splash Castle water play attraction at Sesame Place in Langhorne, Penn.

Find the latest amusement and theme park news at the Los Angeles Times Funland blog: www.latimes.com/funland. Follow Funland on Twitter and Facebook.

— Brady MacDonald, Los Angeles Times staff writer

Photo: Wet ‘n Wild

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at 3:00 pm by Brady MacDonald and is filed under East Coast, Family & Kids, New York, Southern States, Summer, Texas, Theme Parks, Water Parks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.