Design Time
The evolution of the cruise ship water park.
The evolution of cruising’s wet-and-wild water parks.
WHEN I WAS A CHILD CRUISING WITH MY
parents, shipboard pool decks weren’t very interesting. For one thing, the pools themselves were disappointingly small, dwarfed by rows of deck chairs — usually claimed before lunch by die-hard sunbathers — and sometimes a hot tub or two.
These days, no self-respecting megaship would think of offering such an unexciting pool area. In fact, Lido Decks have been transformed into true water parks with splash zones, surfing simulators, giant movie screens, and, most impressively, waterslides that rival anything you can experience at land-based resorts.
Constant Considerations
There are challenges to designing shipboard pool decks that aren’t factors on land, particularly that water is heavy and that vertical space is limited. This means that pool areas can’t sprawl. But they can dazzle.
“Designing for a cruise ship requires us to think differently about deck space, waterslides, and steel joints because of the ships constant movement, the weight of the attractions, and the dry dock time required for installation,” said Andrew Mowatt, executive vice president, business development, for White-Water, a Vancouver-based company that designs many of the waterparks currently at sea, including on Carnival Cruise Line, Norwegian Cruise Line, and Disney Cruise Line.
Carnival is generally credited for having started the big-slide trend aboard Festivale in the late 1970s, although the slide was very simple by today’s standards. Fast forward two decades, and Norwegian, Disney, MSC Cruises, and Royal Caribbean International joined Carnival as key players in the transformation of pool areas from ho hum to fabulous.
On Carnival, for example, Twister slides have been installed fleetwide, ranging from
115 to 312 feet in length, and twin 235-foot-long Speedway Splash racing slides are highlights on Carnival Sunshine. Adrenaline junkies can test their mettle on the Green Thunder on
Carnival Spirit, Carnival Pride, and Carnival Legend, which features a floor that drops out beneath cruisers propelling them to rush down the slide. The upcoming Carnival Vista will feature the line’s longest waterslide ever — the 455-foot-long Kaleid- O-Slide, which is a tube slide that riders navigate by raft.
“Building a waterpark that floats is no easy task,” said Caroline Lombardi, Carnival’s director of youth, family, and outer decks. “There are many considerations that influence our slide design — wind, ship movement, vibrations, salt water exposure,” she said. “We involve a huge team of experts: nautical engineers, architects, fiberglass and steel specialists, and maintenance specialists. Even the captain gets involved.
“We also consider the vantage point from which the experience starts,” Lombardi added. “What will the guest see as he/she climbs the stair tower and how can we leverage panoramic ocean views to create a ride experience that our guests will always remember?”
Design Developments
Because cruise passengers don’t want to spend an eternity waiting in line for their turn, innovative designers have come up with multiple and even side-by-side slides, as well as some with steeper pitches, creating a speedy, high-adrenaline experience.
The Aqua Park on Norwegian Escape, for example, features four multistory waterslides including the Aqua Racer, Norwegian’s first tandem waterslide at sea, and Free Fall, which basically plunges riders downward feet first.
“When it come to the design of waterparks and waterslides, innovation is paramount,” said Simon Murray, entertainment director for newbuild planning and implementation for Norwegian.
“The Aqua Racer is a new slide featuring a clear acrylic section that actually goes over the side of the vessel for the thrill element, and it also allows people to go in the slide together.”
The trend toward greater thrills, such as the increasing number of slides that shoot riders out over the edge of the ship, has to be balanced against safety, Murray added.
“Ideas are carefully vetted from a safety perspective and then you have the challenge of putting these initiatives onto a cruise ship in testing conditions that you do not have to deal with at a land-based resort.”
Disney has morphed the waterslide concept into a water coaster at sea with the 765-foot Aqua-Duck on Disney Fantasy and Disney Dream, which whisks cruisers in a two-person raft along an acrylic tube combining the experience of a flume, rapids, and a big-finish splashdown.
On Disney Magic, the three-story Aqua-Dunk body slide kicks off with a jolt when the floor drops out from the starting point and cruisers are launched 212 feet through a clear tube that, at one point, curves out over the edge of the ship.
As to the design process, Disney makes the most of the whimsy attached to its brand by offering a backstory that has Huey, Dewey, and Louie (Donald Duck’s nephews) involved in creating the slides and rejecting early prototypes for such issues as being too long or too bouncy. When thinking about the approach to designing water features, Peter Ricci from Walt Disney Imagineering said, “Our goal as Imagineers is to create immersive environments that make emotional connections with our guests.”
On the Horizon
MSC Cruises made a splash in 2013 with the unveiling of Vertigo, a 394-foot one-person slide on MSC Preziosa, which jumped on the trend of whisking riders over the edge of the ship. MSC
Seaside, set to debut in 2017, goes even further with one of the biggest waterparks at sea. Standout features will include five waterslides as well as an experience called Slide-boarding, which acts as both a waterslide and a video game in one ride. Cruisers race down a 367-foot slide on a raft with a built-in game controller trying to match colors on the console buttons to colored strobe lights along the ride.
MSC Seaside also will feature high-speed, 525-foot-long Aqua-Tubes, which allow guests to race against each other along a winding route that partially extends over the side of the ship.
Until recently, Royal Caribbean was better known for its Flow-Rider surfing simulators than for waterslides. But when Harmony of
the Seas debuts in May 2016 it will boast The Ultimate Abyss: side-by-side twisting slides that will drop 100 feet from the Aqua-Theater to Deck 6. The new ship will also feature The Perfect Storm, a trio of spiraling waterslides, one of which swirls cruisers around in a champagne bowl before the splash down.
But waterslides and splashy pool decks offer more than thrills for cruisers. They also offer eye-appeal and ambience, and, lucky for us, today’s designers take that aspect of the process very seriously.
Innovative designers have come up with multiple and side-by-side slides, as well as some with steeper pitches, creating a speedy, high-adrenaline experience.