Family, travel, mom blog | Theme Park Mom (Leigh Caldwell)

Aquatica officials are promising the thrill of the half-pipe in a family waterslide now under construction at the Orlando water park.

On the Omaka Rocka, riders will speed down flumes and wind up in funnels, where they will rock back and forth, feeling the near-weightless sensation that skateboarders and snowboarders feel in a half-pipe.

Artist’s renderings of Omaka Rocka show that park guests will ride the waterslide on tubes.

This is the first major ride added to Aquatica since its opening for the 2008 season.

Photo by Terwilliger911

One of Theme Park Mom’s tenets is that you plan for getting wet at a theme park by wearing lightweight clothing, bringing a change of clothes or a bathing suit, etc. But what if you could get your family dry almost as quickly as they got wet?

Enter the U.K.-company Haystack Dryers. The dryers are on display at an Orlando convention for amusement park operators this week. They use infra-red lamps to dry you and your clothing in minutes after that wet ride. The company says the theme-park version will dry a family of five.

A number of theme parks in Europe provide the dryers. There’s often a charge of about $2 to use them. Unless it’s a very hot day, I’d gladly pay $2 to get my family dry. How about you?

The dryers were installed at Dollywood earlier this fall. Theme Park Mom hopes this trend sweeps the U.S.!