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Movin' on up

Image: Wet 'n Wild

Once the original Wet N' Wild showed that it could turn a profit, Milay turned his eye towards expansion. In 1979, just two years after the park opened, construction work began at Wet 'n Wild on the Kamikaze super slide, a freefall body slide that was the first of its kind. Once this slide was completed, Wet 'n Wild was a bona fide hit, attracting more guests every year. 

Milay knew he was on to something, and quickly made plans to construct additional Wet 'n Wild locations across North America the same way he has expanded SeaWorld a decade earlier. Over the course of the next 20 years, Millay oversaw a massive rollout of Wet 'n Wild parks across the country that saw the addition of two locations in Texas, one in Nevada, and even international locations in Cancun, Mexico and Campinas, Brazil.

However, though Wet 'n Wild was expanding all over the world, the most popular Wet 'n Wild park remained the Orlando original. By the mid 1980s, the park was attracting over a million guests a year. And though that sounds like good news, overcrowding was becoming a real problem at Wet 'n wild Orlando. There were still fewer than ten slides at this park (in addition to the wave and kiddie pools) and guests were having to wait hours and hours in the hot Florida sun just to experience a few of Wet 'n Wild's early attractions. The guest experience was suffering, and it became clear that the park was in dire need of new attractions. Fortunately, Millay had a plan to dramatically increase capacity. 

A massive expansion comes to Wet 'n Wild just in time

Image: Wet 'N Wild

The biggest expansion in Wet 'n Wild history came on the 10th anniversary of the park's opening in 1987, which saw a $2.5 million investment in new thrill rides. While the park was continuing to draw families every year, Millay correctly hypothesized that young adults and teenagers were looking for something a little more exciting, as evidenced by the popularity of rides like Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain down the street at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. In order to cater to modern tastes, Wet 'n Wild opened 5 new attractions during this period of rapid expansion that were designed especially for thrill seekers:

  • The Hydra-Maniac: A 32-foot tower that featured two enclosed twisting tubes that slashed down to a pool below. 
  • Mach 5: A slide complex with five semi-enclosed slides, three of which were designed for mat rides and the other two for inner-tube rides.
  • Der Stuka: A six-story freefall body slide that sent riders down a 250-foot, almost completely vertical drop.
  • Blue Niagara: Two enclosed corkscrew slides that twisted around one another.
  • Raging Rapids: an inline tube slide that sent guests careening from side to side down a wide track. 

Image: Wet 'n Wild

This massive expansion was certainly a big gamble, but it paid off in a big way, boosting Wet 'n Wild's annual attendance to the biggest its ever been. The park even gained national attention in the late 1980s when it hosted MTV Summer Break Nights which featured band performances and were broadcast not only on MTV, but locally on Cablevision of Central Florida on Channel S-32.

Image: Wet 'n Wild

Although Wet 'n Wild didn't ever launch another full-scale expansion like it did in the mid- 1980s, The 1990s also brought a number of new slides and attractions to the park, including The Black Hole, and The Surge, which went on to become signature attractions in their own right and continued to make Wet 'n Wild Orlando the premiere destination for water park fans. 

George Millay gets out, and Universal takes over in Orlando

Image: Universal Studios Florida

The park's reputation only grew during the 1990s, especially as Universal Studios Resort opened down the street, bringing more guests than ever to the water park. However, the next big turning point for Wet 'n Wild happened in 1998, when founder George Millay sold off his interests in his parks more than 20 years after he had founded the original Wet N' Wild location in Orlando. The chain of parks was purchased by several different companies, but the Orlando location was bought (perhaps unsurprisingly) by Universal Studios Recreation Group, which leased the land on which it was located. Universal Studios Florida was in the process of transforming into Universal Orlando Resort (Islands of Adventure would open a year later in 1999), and adding a well-established and popular water park to the burgeoning resort's lineup seemed like a good idea that Universal executives seized on. 

Universal keeps on building

Image: Wet 'n Wild

Only two years after Universal purchased Wet 'n Wild, Universal Studios Recreation Group began making substantial improvements to the park, which began with an overhaul of the Kids Park children's area, which received a new beach theme. The following year, in 2001, the park began a multi-year alliance with Canadian water slide manufacturer, ProSlide Technology (which had previously brought The Surge to the park in 1994). This alliance proved fruitful, and brought four exciting new slides to the park in seven years:

  • The Storm (2001): A swirling body coaster that dropped riders from an elevated chute into a giant open bowl where guests spun in circles before splashing down into a small pool. 
  • The Blast (2003): An inner tube slide that sends riders along a series of "pipes" and slides as they are blasted by constant streams of water
  • Disco H2O (2005): A spinning ride that allows guests to rotate around a 70s inspired "aqua club" dome while onboard a four-person cloverleaf raft. 
  • Brain Wash (2008): A six-story raft ride that takes guests down a 53-foot vertical drop into a 65-foot domed funnel where they rotate side to side while light, sound, and video effects play on the walls above. 

Image: Wet 'n Wild

Though the loss of founder George Millay was certainly regrettable, Universal proved to be an excellent steward of this park, continuing to open new attractions periodically and grow the attendance at this park. Though Disney's Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon had increased local competition (and had actually overtaken Wet 'n Wild in terms of raw attendance by this time), Wet 'n Wild Orlando was still attracting well over a million guests a year under Universal's care. And it wasn't just new slides debuting at this park either. 

 
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Comments

This park could easily survive. Universal is being lazy in this respect, they are afraid that this old park will hurt the new one because they don't believe in the design of the new one. This is a case of one person with all the power forcing others in the Universal group to follow along.

I'm from Central Florida and went to Wet N Wild many times growing up. Enjoyed the lean times as well as the crazy times of the MTV Summer Nights while in High School. Going to be sad seeing it closed up.

Hum do we need 2 Water parks on top of 2 theme parks? Disney has 2 Water parks and 4 theme parks so blah excuse Universal. Hopefully you can atlest recycle some of the slide somehow rather then leave them to rot.

I am sure three waterparks in the Universal Area could work. They could make WetnWild the budget option of three. While Aquatica and Volcano bay are heavily themed WetnWild is the one with great rides teens will love more. So two parks catering families and one catering teens and young adults would certainly work.

So many memories here. Having patroned every water park in central Florida and the Tampa area, I found Wet n' Wilds lineup of attractions the most impressive. The addition of the attractions in the lake also helped make this park stand out in the crowd. The slides were intense and very fun. Disco H2O was especially a special mix of entertainment and thrills. I understand the decision to close this park. I hope Universal does indeed reincarnate or relocate the major slides and attractions at Wet n' Wild to Volcano Bay. Maybe a final trip is in order. Great article! Never knew the significance of the man behind the World's first water park!

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