Cedar Fair is renovating two of their water parks at Cedar Point and Knott’s Berry Farm this year in addition to new attractions at Canada’s Wonderland and Michigan Adventure.

Michigan Adventure (Muskegon, MI) is renovating Half Pint Paradise, their kid’s area at Wildwater Adventure.  Featuring a new selection of seven new slides along with a new Splash Pad, this is one of the first major hybrid installations from Vortex Structures International, a manufacturer from Pointe-Claire, QC.  Vortex acquired in November 2015 Aquablue, a water slide designer and manufacturer based in Cornelius, NC.  They have been working on integrating those new products into their existing award winning line-up of Splash Pad and water play solutions.

So for Half Pint Paradise, a large new Splash Pad was designed to fit the new slides; the whole area integrated with the existing Beach Party water fortress attraction to provide a great experience for families in one area.

Michigan’s Adventure provided us with this great concept art of the new area.

Over at Canada’s Wonderland (Vaughan, ON), ever since the removal of the Wipeout body slides in 2004, the park had been missing an extreme experience at Splash Works.  This will finally change this year with the addition of Muskoka Plunge, a new 4 slide DrenalineDrop installation from Splashtacular.  This ride system features capsules where guests enter one of the 4 slides.  Then, the operator has the choice of randomly releasing a pod at a time or dropping all 4 at once.

Muskoka Plunge is the first ever installation of the DrenalineDrop ride in Canada.  Thank you to Canada’s Wonderland for providing us with this great concept art.

An interesting coincidence is the fact Muskoka Plunge was installed in the same area as the previous FreeFall slides that made their home at Splash Works.

Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH is transforming Soak City, their popular waterpark, into Cedar Point Shores.  Among new things, Crystal Rock Café will be introduced along with two bars.  An interesting touch is the fact the park asked a local micro-brewery, The Brew Kettle, to create a new signature beer for the park.  Named Shandy Shores, blood orange and mangos combine for the perfect summer beverage.

In addition to the new food & beverage, most of the existing attractions were repainted and renamed.  Examples are the popular Mat Racer slide Dragster H2O renamed Riptide Raceway and the Zoom Flume Family Raft Slide now called the Storm Surge.

Three new attractions are planned: two kids area similar in concept to Half Pint Paradise and a 6 slide custom tower from WhiteWater West Industries LTD.  Lakeside Landing is a new 12 slide area for kids and nearby will be Lemmy’s Lagoon, a Splashground with many features and ways to get wet.

The Slide Tower is home to two styles of attractions.  From the highest point six stories in the air, guests will board one of the four AquaLaunch capsule for Point Plummet.  They will then drop into an intense freefall and experience the WhiteWater signature AquaDrop experience.  On the same structure, off to the side at the five story level, guests will use tubes to experience Portside Plunge.  Those two inner-tube slides provide a family friendly alternative to the intense thrills of Point Plummet.

Knott’s Soak City is located in Buena Park, CA and across the street from Knott’s Berry Farm.  The facility opened in 1999 and always had to deal with a landlocked location.  This has always made new additions a challenge, but the park always has found ways around that.  For example, in 2005, they added a new Proslide Tornado called Pacific Spin on part of the parking near the main entrance.

This year, the park decided to go in a new direction by retiring Pacific Spin and adding two new attractions on the land it previously occupied along with more of the parking lot.

WhiteWater was again called in to supply the new attractions.  On the left, you have The Wedge, a new Family Raft Slide where capacity is the name of the game.  It will use large round 6 passenger rafts and provide a great new experience for families.

Knott’s provided us with this concept art of the two new slide towers.  On the left, you can see The Wedge.  Knott’s Soak City

On the right, a similar tower to the one opening at Cedar Point this year was installed and named Shore Break.  In addition to those two attractions, the whole park was renovated and repainted, breathing new life into the water park.

A look inside Soak City where you can see the nice new colors.  This photo appears courtesy of California Coaster Kings.

The four AquaLaunch capsules peeking between the trees.  A look inside Soak City where you can see the nice new colors.  This photo appears courtesy of California Coaster Kings.

The two dueling tube slides are the ones in white and blue.  A look inside Soak City where you can see the nice new colors.  This photo appears courtesy of California Coaster Kings.

Close-up view of Shore Break.  Notice that the orange tube is translucent and at the time this photo was shot, testing was underway.  A look inside Soak City where you can see the nice new colors.  This photo appears courtesy of California Coaster Kings.