Water Park Superlatives

Wisconsin Dells has the largest concentration of water parks of any place in the world. If you’ve never been to an outdoor water park before, then why not start with the country’s largest, Noah’s Ark. At 70 acres, it’s considered the gold standard among outdoor water parks. The state’s largest indoor water park is the African-themed Kalahari resort, with its immensely popular indoor surf machine that uses 50,000 gallons of water per minute. The Wilderness Resort boasts the largest indoor/outdoor water park combination in the nation, so large in fact they’ve started referring to themselves as a "Territory."

Interview Recommendations

• Tim Gantz, co-owner of Noah’s Ark and a national expert on water park innovations
• Tom Lucke, owner of Wilderness Resort and one of the industry’s pioneers
• Todd Nelson, owner of Kalahari Resort, the man behind the growth of this property

Round-Up/Trend/Sidebar Story Ideas

• How to keep children of varying ages happy at a single water park location by checking out age-appropriate rides
• Checklist of what to bring along for an outdoor water park adventure

Water Park Great Rides You Must Try
Depending on your age, height and level of courage, here are the water rides that shouldn’t be missed:

1. Black Anaconda -- America’s longest water roller coaster, at Noah’s Ark Waterpark outdoor water park
2. The Point of No Return -- extreme body slide that is 10 stories up, 5 seconds down, at Noah’s Ark
3. Flowrider® -- indoor surf machine, at Kalahari Resort Waterparks indoor water park
4. The Flyan Myan -- world’s fastest indoor water roller coaster, at Chula Vista Resort
5. The Howlin’ Tornado -- a four-person tube funnel ride that drops you six stories before splashdown, at Great Wolf Lodge
6. Halley's Comet Racers -- four slides where you race headfirst through twists, turns and drops toward the finish line, at Glacier Canyon Lodge at the Wilderness
7. The Hurricane -- America’s tallest waterslide at 58 feet where you plummet through a dark tunnel before landing in a pool below, at Wilderness Hotel & Golf Resort

Interview Recommendations

• Romy Snyder, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Dells Visitor & Convention Bureau

Round-Up/Trend/Sidebar Story Ideas

• The most extreme of the extreme water rides
• Learning how to surf without an ocean anywhere in sight

Behind the Scenes at Water Park Conventions Where Owners Gather Ideas
Every autumn, local water park owners take annual pilgrimages to the World Waterpark Association Convention and the International Attraction and Amusement Park Association Convention to check out what’s new. Then they hurry back, ideas flowing (no pun intended) and immediately set to work to get everything in the pipeline for the summer season.

Interview Recommendations

• Mike Kaminski, owner of Chula Vista Resort with its themed indoor water park, the Lost Rios

Round-Up/Trend/Sidebar Story Ideas

• What will be the next hot water park innovation to take the industry by storm
• The technology behind operating water roller coasters and wave pools