Aquatica: More events set, Kid Cove to open in spring
A revamped children’s area at Aquatica, SeaWorld’s water park, will be renamed Turi’s Kid Cove when it opens this spring.
“This area was previously known as Kata’s Kookaburra Cove,” said Brad Gilmour, president of Aquatica, during a behindthe-walls preview Thursday. “This year, soon we will be opening up Turi’s Kid Cove featuring Tamariki Twirl. And so, we’re going to be adding our 51st slide to the park.”
Tamariki Twirl will be a mini version of KareKare Curl, which opened in 2019.
“The child and parent — or child and whoever is accompanying the child — can experience this kind of undulating slide experience,” Gilmour said.
“We’re also enhancing all of our play elements and expanding the pool to just give it a brand-new look. Some of the existing slides will stay, but they’ve a brand-new look to them as well,” he said.
A precise opening date has not been announced. Turi’s Kid Cove, located near Ihu’s Breakaway Falls drop slide, remains behind bright blue construction walls. There are still mounds of dirt and exposed pipes at the site, and Tamariki Twirl is not in place.
Kid Cove will come on the heels of the opening of RipTide Race in 2021 and the debut of Reef Plunge, a slide that goes through the Commerson’s dolphin habitat, in 2022.
Last year, the company says, was the largest capital investment in Aquatica history for guest upgrades. It added more than 1,000 new seats plus premium loungers at KareKare Curl, renovated Banana Beach Cookout restaurant and added new food locations.
This year, Aquatica is celebrating its 15th birthday. The attraction, near International Drive and the BeachLine Expressway, plans an expansion of its special events, including the new Aloha to Summer event on Saturdays and Sunday in May, and Fiesta Aquatica on weekends from mid-September through mid-October.
Aloha to Summer “will be part of the normal day experience, but we’ll convert the park experience with additional live music, entertainment, adjust the cuisine at some of our restaurants, just to kind of give our guests that feeling that summer is on its way,” Gilmour said.
“In the past, we had historically done an event in the summertime and layered it in maybe on the weekends or after hours,” he said. “This year, we’re going to have many more simultaneously throughout the year.”
June will include its Noche de San Juan event. Beach Nights, which include movies on a giant screen at the park’s wave pool, will return in the fall and into January 2024.
The 2023 calendar resembles the nearly constant festival lineup
of SeaWorld Orlando.
“It just gives our pass members and guests reasons to continuously visit Aquatica,” Gilmour said.
“We try to make sure that we have an event that plays to all of our guests, so we’ve got something for everybody.”
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