Water Park of America
| Water Park of America | |
|---|---|
 North side of the park. Water slide tubes exit the slide tower and re-enter the building. | |
| Location | Bloomington, Minnesota, United States |
| Coordinates | 44°51′40″N 93°15′04″W / 44.861116°N 93.251020°W |
The Water Park of America is home to the tallest indoor water slide in the U.S.. It covers 70,000 square feet (6,500 m2) with a slide tower nearly ten stories high. It opened in May 2006. Located in Bloomington, Minnesota, it is a half mile from Mall of America and close to the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport.
The water park is attached to the Radisson hotel. Both the hotel and the water park are managed by Evolution Hospitality as of April 2015.
Water rides
The park has a slide tower, containing several water slides, and an open area at ground level that contains water rides.
The slide tower contains three body slides, two tube slides, and one family slide (this is the tallest slide, that starts at the tenth level of the building and ends at the bottom). Body slides are slides on which riders slide directly on their body, without an innertube.
Ground level
Below the slide tower is a wave pool, a lazy river, a swimming pool, a small pool with floating "logs" which children leap-frog across, a flow rider, two hot-tubs, and a children's area for smaller children.
The wave pool runs for ten minutes and then is turned off for five minutes to let the machine that produces the waves cool. The wave pool is a tapered pool that starts with a beach entry and that gets about five and a half feet deep. It is the beginning and end of the lazy river.
The lazy river is three-feet deep and makes a circuit around the outer perimeter of the park. The lazy river is ridden on a one-person or two-person innertube through “caves,” under bridges and waterfalls, past pools. The ride ends in the wave pool.
The swimming pool, also known as the "activity pool," is four feet deep. One end has four basketball hoops for games of water ball, the other end is for general swimming.
Next to the swimming pool is a smaller pool that has floating cross-sections of “logs” attached to the floor of the pool like lily pads. Suspended above the pool is a cargo net for children to hold onto as they jump from log to log.
The flow rider is a shallow but fast moving sheet of water, moving from 30–35 miles per hour, on which the rider can surf or "boogie-board". The flow rider is 3 inches (76 mm).
The park has two cave-pool themed hot tubs.
The children’s playground area contains a playground with stairs that lead to towers, cargo netting, and slides sitting in a few inches of warmer water. At the top of the playground is a wooden bucket that fills with water. Once full, it dumps water on anyone below, resulting in laughter and excitement from the children. The children’s playground has three water slides for small children but which older children and adults can use. The playground contains numerous other water toys and devices.
Life-vests
The water park also provides free life-vests for children. life preserver can be brought as long as it is a Coast Guard approved flotation device.
Northern Lights Arcade
The Northern Lights Arcade is located between the entrance to the water park and the main lobby of the hotel. It is an arcade primarily consisting of redemption games. It includes favorites such as Pac-Man, and Pinball as well as newer games like Initial D, Maximum Tune, and Pump It Up.
Controversy
Lawsuit
Shortly before opening day, the Mall of America filed a lawsuit against Water Park of America claiming trademark infringement. The Mall of America claims the water park name is too similar to the Mall of America name and could cause some to associate the two. The Water Park of America filed a counterclaim in the matter accusing the Mall of America of among other things knowing about Water Park of America's use of the name since the fall of 2003, encouraging the use of the name, and encouraging the Water Park of America to spend millions of dollars advertising and promoting the name up until March 2006. Water Park of America went on to claim that the reason Mall of America changed its position became clear in a press release in which the Mall of America announced it was going to build its own water park as part of Phase II. The parties have settled the dispute under confidential terms.
See also
- Incidents at independent amusement parks – list of significant accidents and injuries that have occurred at Water Park of America
- Indoor water park
- Water park