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Center Parcs Elveden Forest - £4 million world first water ride

CoasterCrazyChris

CoasterCrazyChris

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Center Parcs have just revealed today exactly what their new world first water ride will be - called 'Tropical Cyclone' it combines the 'bowl' and 'cyclone' together for the first time including a 45 degree drop with riders seated in a unique 4 clover shaped raft.

Full details and pictures here:
http://www.centerparcs.co.uk/discover/news/newsplash.jsp?uri=/discover/news/index.jsp

What staggers me is that this thing is costing £4 million!? :eek:

:)
 
Sounds absolutely insane! I do love the marketing style Center Parcs has gone for though although it goes right against their serene home holiday PR they tend to do. I wouldn't personally ride it but I must imagine the reactions of people falling down the drop being hilarious!

But what would be the throughput on this thing? How would the lifeguards know when to let another raft go through? :p
 
I'm guessing there'd be sensors after each element possibly? It's good to see another investment come out of the Euro Attractions Show from last year though, looks like London did rather well for IAAPA.

I'm not the most water confident person out there, but admittedly the slide looks insane - if you showed me a photo of this thing, I would immediately think North America as opposed to Suffolk! :p
 
It does look rather good. :) Might actually have to try and visit there when its built.

It looks liked a cross between Omaka Rocka and Tassie's Twisters at Aquatica in Florida.

I am a little surprised by the £4million price tag but I guess it depends what else they are having to build to go with it.
 
Adam said:
I'm guessing there'd be sensors after each element possibly? It's good to see another investment come out of the Euro Attractions Show from last year though, looks like London did rather well for IAAPA.
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If they are to use a sensor system I'd imagine it has to be at the very start and ends of the ride, unless there is some way of holding back the rafts between each of the main features.

For example, if the first section is clear and the top indicator says the next raft can go, it's still possible the other raft is blocked in the second element. So unless the first element can hold the raft back until the second gives the all clear there may be a colision. Obviously as the riders are in rafts it's not quite as severe as if they are body slides (Where one person hitting another person at speed can cause serious spine and head injuries)

I'd imagine there'll be a stop/go indicator towards the end of the second element, as well as CCTV fitted in the attraction, which the staff at the top can monitor to ensure it's all clear. This is quite common on some slides :)


As for the price, looking at pictures it'd appear they've done quite a lot of other building work around the ride. Waterpark installations and expansions can be quite pricey. Especially if they need to add new pumps, and update the existing infrastructure. I'd guess just the slide itself has cost around £2-3 million, and the rest has gone on making it work, building the tower, etc.
 
Here is a picture with some extra info about the ride.

tropical_cyclone_infographic.jpg



It says 720 people per hour. I am guessing that will be figured out with 4 people being in each raft. So that works out to 180 rafts per hour. 720/4=180
180/60(mins)= 3 rafts a min. Seems a bit unlikely. Unless my poor grip of maths is letting me down.
 
Its great to see the UK a proslide behemothbowl & TORNADO, both of which are fantastic attractions, should be made even better if they are in one ride!.

3 rafts per min on sounds about right on a slide of this size, on the behemothbowl & TORNADO i have been on a raft goes every 20 secs or so.

As for the cost these pro-slide attactions are expensive, but they are the B&M of the water park world and they make some great attractions and good to see some starting to open up in the uk (there is a small Tantrum (mini tornado in Scotland) a Tornado at one of the other cenre parks and the two new slides at Sand Castle in Blackpool.

We need some more proslide water rides, but most uk water parks just dont have the capital to invest in large scale new slides and many would go for for the much cheaper versions from some of the other manufactures. for example it was 2001 that wwater world in stoke added a new slide and they claim to be the UK's busiest water park in terms of attendance.
 
Jem - just to let you know I've split the trip planning posts into the trip planning forum other Other UK Parks :).

While I'm here, might as well say I think that new ride looks like it might kill me (not a fan of water parks - nearly died in Typhoon Lagoon and Port Aventura!!), but is a great investment for the group. Never thought I'd see a worlds first at any Centre Parcs!
 
Looks brilliant wouldn't expect such a company to have rides built would like to see Alton towers have center parcs styled cabins upon the resort really like the idea
 
So..... The slide has finally opened!

Centre Parcs have emailed me a video (which i've uploaded to YouTube), showing the timelapse construction and a POV of the £4 million installation by ProSlide.

http://youtu.be/qRk3_FLrO8c

I must say, the Tornado structure does look quite stunning. :)
 
Good to hear. My family visit Elveden quite often for the farm that's just around the corner, will try and stop by this next time I go, although do you have to be staying at Centre Parcs to use their pool?

Edit: That's Ellie Simmonds in that video. I though I recognised her. I'm surprised they didn't make more of her being there.
 
Generally yes unless you know a staff member or the Operations Director like my family does. Or you could visit a friend who is staying on site.
 
Tim said:
That's Ellie Simmonds in that video. I though I recognised her. I'm surprised they didn't make more of her being there.
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Yeah, I spotted her in the still at the start, and was surprised she didn't come up more! I'm assuming she's done some kind of opening for the ride. If so, it's a great idea! Someone famous who's still rather fresh in peoples minds :)
 
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