On the hottest days of summer 2002, the wave pool at Six Flags New England’s Island Kingdom in Agawam, Mass., resembled a mosh pit, not a waterpark. There were long lines of kids waiting in the heat for a chance to ride one of the slides. The park was bursting at the seams. But in January 2003, the theme park’s PR department was told their waterpark was going to almost double in size, change its name, and reopen in just five months. The plan was to add nine new slides and a second wave pool, and to expand the deck space and add lounge chairs, a changing room, and more lockers. Construction was due to begin in February, but a harsh winter—with almost 200 percent more snow than the average season—held up the major digging until March. “They started clearing the snow in late February and preparing the area for all the digging,” says Mary Ann Stebbins, Six Flags New England’s public relations manager. But in spite of the snow and a rainy spring, the new Hurricane Harbor waterpark, which has been evolving since it opened in 1997, opened Memorial Day weekend on schedule. The park debuted its prototype slide, Tornado, a huge funnel-shaped slide that lies on its side. It is now the most popular ride at the waterpark, Stebbins says. The Dry Season The 60-year-old park, which is now Six Flags New England, was once a family park called Riverside the Great Escape. Owned and operated by Ed Carroll and his sons, the park needed extensive capital to modernize its rides and compete with neighboring parks and attractions. In 1995, Carroll approached Premiere Parks, an Oklahoma-based company that was in the business of buying up regional amusement parks. Premiere purchased Riverside in 1996, and spent four years and $40 million rebuilding and expanding it before the park could assume the Six Flags name. “The park really has gone through a renaissance,” says Ron Sevart, Six Flags New England’s vice president and general manager. “I had the opportunity to take a tour of the park the other day with one of Ed Carroll’s sons, and he hadn’t been to the park since 1997. He was shocked.” Part and parcel of the overhaul was the addition of yet another waterpark. In 1997, Premiere brought on the Aquatic Development Group, a Cohoes, N.Y., company that built an additional waterpark in the area that was once Lake Take-a-Dip. They named that park Island Kingdom as a tribute to the waterpark’s original incarnation. “The public responded quite nicely to that,” Sevart says. “We really pay attention to what our guests are wanting. They said they loved the waterpark, and they wanted more of it.” In answer to that request, Six Flags New England started a project to double the number of attractions and the amount of deck space in the waterpark. In the fall of 2002, Six Flags contacted the Aquatic Development Group again to help them develop concepts for a massive and rapid expansion with a more defined theme. The Hurricane’s Coming The Six Flags chain as a whole has undergone massive expansion throughout the world, focusing most recently on its waterparks. As of December 31, 2002, Six Flags operated 39 parks in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Mexico with an attendance of approximately 44.2 million during the year. Six Flags theme parks serve each of the 10 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S., and the company estimates that approximately two-thirds of the population throughout the continental United States lives within a 150-mile radius of one of its parks. Six Flags also has international locations in France, Belgium, Holland, Spain, and Germany. Once the plans were completed for New England’s new waterpark to be part of the Hurricane Harbor chain, ProSlide Technology from Ottawa, Canada, came on board to design and build the water slides. “We’ve had a long-standing relationship with Six Flags,” says Bruna Macri, marketing coordinator for ProSlide. “They were looking for something new and innovative and fresh, and they knew they would get that from us.” ProSlide has won 10 awards for ride innovation since 1991. ProSlide added nine new water slides, including six body slides, two raft rides, and the Tornado. The Tornado is an original design—only three have been installed since the product was developed in January—and the one at Six Flags New England is like none of the others. Riders on tubes start down the enclosed water tunnel and begin sluicing up and down the sides of a giant funnel before being deposited into a splash pool. ProSlide also installed two dark water rides that carry three to four passengers at once in the company’s patented cloverleaf tubes (the tubes received an award for Best New Product from IAAPA in 2002). “This gives the rider the opportunity to ride in a group setting, but the operator doesn’t require a conveyor for the vehicle,” says Macri. “Capacity is a big issue for an operator. You don’t want people standing in line for long periods of time. That gives a negative feeling to the visit.” The waterpark also got an aesthetic makeover. Aquatic Development Group incorporated an appropriate ocean theme to the design, which included lobsters and seashells etched into the concrete walkways. The company also changed the entrance location so customers really feel like something has changed. “They wanted their guests to have their first impression of it as being a new facility,” says Ken Ellis, Aquatic Development Group president. “When repeat customers go to where they’re used to going, they realize that they can’t get in that way because there’s a brand new, big waterslide right there.” Also added to the waterpark is a six-flume bodyslide, a children’s play area, and a beach area. An interactive wet deck with water spray devices lets kids and adults cool down and have a good time with no lines or height requirements. Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow As with any huge renovation, this project had its share of obstacles. “The decision to go ahead with the expansion came in late December, and as of December 21 we had only a concept plan for the project,” Ellis says. “We had to engineer the entire project and get it built and opened on Memorial Day—and Memorial Day was a week early this year.” To meet this aggressive timeline, the Aquatics Development Group staggered the different parts of the project. “As soon as we got the site engineering done, we started working on the site while we were finishing the pool engineering,” Ellis explains. “Then we concentrated on the building construction documents while we were working underground.” The group kept multiple crews and multiple project managers on the job to keep each area working simultaneously. These tactics helped Aquatics Development Group finish the project in time for the opening, but ProSlide met with similar obstacles. “It was one of the quickest jobs that we ever did,” Macri says. “We had to be very organized and structured on the job.” The snowfall was another major issue, Stebbins says. Snow kept dumping on the park from December straight through February, keeping the construction teams from making any real progress on the site. But the snow let up in early March enough for the crews to remove the bulk of the old snow and begin major construction to stay on track for the May 25 opening. Before the park could open, however, it needed to address major staffing issues. Safety, of course, is of utmost concern for a waterpark. Six Flags New England needed more lifeguards for the expanded park. “We use one of the premier training and auditing groups out there,” says Sevart. Waterpark employees undergo constant training, both before and after park hours. Here Comes the Rain Again The waterpark debuted on a rainy weekend. During most of June the New England area was hit with rain. “Luckily, the weather has now moved in the right direction for us,” says Sevart. “Our guests certainly want to come out and enjoy the park. Maybe they had to wait a little bit longer than they wanted to or than we wanted them to, but at the end of the day, the product is exciting enough to get them to come out.” Stebbins says now that the last few weeks have been sunny, the staff has had a chance to see the results of their work. “When weather has been cooperative people really love the new waterpark,” she says. “We’ve seen busy days every day that the sun has been shining.” Sevart and Stebbins both say that the transition from Island Kingdom to Hurricane Harbor, as well as the expansion, have been incredibly successful. “It’s done everything that we had hoped for in terms of improving the quality of the guest experience,” Sevart says. “It’s brought the area full circle. At first it was Lake Take-a-Dip, so for it to now be the largest waterpark in New England is really a wonderful use of the area.” Certainly better than a mosh pit.
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