Wet 'n Wild Orlando was the flagship

water park A water park (also waterpark, water world, or aquapark) is an amusement park that features water play areas such as swimming pools, water slides, splash pads, water playgrounds, and lazy rivers, as well as areas for floating, bathing, swimming ...

of Wet 'n Wild owned by

NBC Universal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that is a subsidiary of Comcast and headquartered at 30 ...

, located on International Drive in

Orlando, Florida Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...

. It was founded in 1977 by

SeaWorld SeaWorld is an American theme park chain with headquarters in Orlando, Florida. It is a proprietor of marine mammal parks, oceanariums, animal theme parks, and rehabilitation centers owned by United Parks & Resorts. The parks host shows st ...

creator George Millay. It closed on January 1, 2017.

History

Development and ownership

While developing SeaWorld, George Millay realized the need for a water park, later recalling "being in Florida, with all its heat and hot sun, you naturally think about cooling off in water". In the mid-1970s, he directed his time and money towards the project. The idea stemmed from the

splash pad A splash pad or spray pool is a recreation area, often in a public park, for water play that has little or no standing water. This is said to eliminate the need for lifeguards or other supervision, as there is little risk of drowning. Typically ...

Ontario Place Ontario Place was an entertainment venue, event venue, and park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The venue is located on three artificial landscaped islands just off-shore in Lake Ontario, south of Exhibition Place, and southwest of Downtown Toron ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

and the

wave pool A wave pool is a swimming pool in which there are artificially generated, large waves, similar to those of the ocean. Wave pools are often a major feature of water parks, both indoors and outdoors, as well as some leisure centres. History Th ...

at Point Mallard Park in

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

. His desire was to combine these two elements and build upon it in order to achieve a good

return on investment Return on investment (ROI) or return on costs (ROC) is the ratio between net income (over a period) and investment (costs resulting from an investment of some resources at a point in time). A high ROI means the investment's gains compare favorab ...

. Due to his prior success with SeaWorld, he was able to form a team of investors to fund the project. The park opened in

on March 13, 1977. Although it opened to rain and suffered a $600,000 loss in its first year of operation, Millay kept it open. He later claimed it "started making money the second year and never looked back". The success of the park spawned several other Wet 'n Wild-branded parks across the Americas. In 1998, Millay sold off his interests in his parks. The Orlando location was purchased by Universal Studios Recreation Group, who continued to lease the land on which it is located. In mid-2013, Universal purchased the of land for $30.9 million.

Expansion and later years

In 1998, the Hydra Fighter was added to the park. Riders were able to control their suspended gondola through the use of high-powered water guns. In 2000, the park renovated their Kids Park children's area. The original aviation theme was converted into a sandcastle theme. The renovation saw three ProSlide Technology "Kidz" slides added as well as a castle with a tipping bucket which dumped of water every three-and-a-half minutes. With the exception of the three slides, it was manufactured entirely by Integrity Attractions. In 2001, the park began a multi-year expansion plan with Canadian manufacturer ProSlide Technology. It added The Storm, a pair of ProBowls, in 2001; The Blast, an inline tube slide, in 2003; Disco H2O, an enclosed Behemoth Bowl, in 2005; and Brain Wash, an enclosed

Tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...

, in 2008. In 2011, the Kids Park was demolished and was replaced by Blastaway Beach, a larger children's water play area that opened in 2012, also themed around sandcastles. In 2014, the Bubba Tub was removed and replaced with the Aqua Drag Racer, a four-lane race slide. On June 17, 2015, it was confirmed that the park would close on December 31, 2016, to be replaced by a new water park, Universal Volcano Bay, which opened across the site on May 25, 2017. The park permanently closed on January 1, 2017, and was demolished in early 2017. The former site of Wet N' Wild is currently occupied by Universal's Endless Summer Resort which opened in June 2019.

Attendance

The park was the most-attended water park in the United States until 1999, when

Walt Disney World Resort The Walt Disney World Resort is an entertainment resort complex located about southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States. Opened on October 1, 1971, the resort is operated by Disney Experiences, a division of the Walt Disney Company. ...

's Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach surpassed it. At the time, it was averaging around 1.3 million visitors for several years.

Attractions

Final attractions

Former attractions

In popular culture

The park was featured on Travel Channel's Extreme Waterparks and was also the setting for the music video for " Se a vida é", by the

Pet Shop Boys Pet Shop Boys are an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1981. Consisting of vocalist Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe, they have sold more than 100 million records worldwide and were listed as the most successful duo in UK music h ...

. The park was featured for Puerto Rican band Menudo for their video Nao Se Reprima in Portuguese.

References

External links

* * (archive) * {{Theme Parks of Florida 1977 establishments in Florida Universal Orlando Universal Destinations & Experiences Water parks in Florida Amusement parks opened in 1977 Amusement parks closed in 2017 2017 disestablishments in Florida Defunct amusement parks in Florida