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Small Footprint, Big Significance: Studio City Water Park
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Long known for its fancy casinos, Macau realized within the past decade that it must diversify its tourism scene to attract new crowds. With the ambition of becoming the leisure hub of China’s 72-million strong Greater Bay Area, the city began adding shows, attractions, and family-friendly hotels. But the offering that truly stands out with fun for everyone is Studio City Water Park – Macau’s first stand-alone water park, with all the water slides and aquatic play structures supplied by WhiteWater.
For developers looking to inject fresh entertainment options into a region, take inspiration from how Melco Resorts & Entertainment created a must-see destination to attract visitors looking for extraordinary experiences beyond gaming.
Against the backdrop of the famous 8-shaped ‘Golden Reel,’ the outdoor part of the water park opened in 2021 to award-winning acclaim. Situated on the rooftop of the casino, the designers conquered special technical considerations and limited space to offer an excellent mix of aquatic attractions. Kids’ slides, body slides, inner tube rides, and family raft rides – a total of 12 – as well as an AquaPlay structure provide a wide range of thrills for guests of all ages.
Naturally, the water park’s look and feel needed to align with Studio City’s theme of glitz and glam. Two of the slides have proprietary metallic paint finishes, one gold and one silver. Decorated with golden orbs, the AquaPlay 1750 is also themed to reflect wealth and opulence and is topped by an 1,800-liter golden tipping bucket along with more than 60 interactive play features.
Following the success of the outdoor water park, the indoor part opened in 2023 to great media fanfare as part of Studio City’s overall phase 2 expansion. With space at a premium, several water slides are designed to protrude outside the building. These of course, must match the bold aesthetic of the Art Deco complex designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. The result is a surreal, iconic picture of water slides with custom metallic finishes in elegant, warm hues not found anywhere else in the world.
Inside, the water park immerses guests in a story of space travel through meticulous theming, special fiberglass veils, and sci-fi-like attractions, including 12 water slides and an AquaPlay 1050 structure. For example, ‘Blackhole Slingshot’ is the world’s first indoor AquaSphere + Rattler Fusion. ‘Escape Pod’ is a Flatline Loop with an AquaLaunch capsule. And ‘Lightspeed Shuttle’ is the world’s first Infinity Master Blaster, a high-thrill water coaster that has a continuous loop slide path.
With reviews averaging 4.6 stars on klook.com, a popular regional travel site, Studio City Water Park is already proving to be an enticing reason for families to come to Macau now and well into the future.
Visit www.whitewaterwest.com to start exploring your water park ambitions.
We have an integrated approach not only to waterparks, but also to amusement and theme parks, resorts, hotels, cruise ships, and other family-friendly facilities. We believe in creating immersive experiences for guests. That is why we have designers and architects to design parks, which are both practical and which can be highly themed to reflect the venue’s story.
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