DreamWorks Water Park

DreamWorks Water Park is an indoor water park within the American Dream shopping and entertainment complex, at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States. The park opened on October 1, 2020.[1] The water park includes 40 water slides and 15 attractions, and covers 8.5 acres (3.4 ha).

DreamWorks Water Park
LocationAmerican Dream Meadowlands
Coordinates40.807101°N 74.069175°W / 40.807101; -74.069175
ThemeDreamWorks Animation
OwnerTriple Five Group (under license from NBCUniversal)
General ManagerChristopher Mortensen
OpenedOctober 1, 2020
PoolsA single pool
Water slides40 water slides
Websiteamericandream.com/venue/dreamworks-water-park

History
Under construction, 2019

The American Dream shopping mall was first proposed as Meadowlands Mills in 1994.[2] The mall, later renamed Meadowlands Xanadu, was nearly complete in 2009 when construction stopped due to a lack of funding.[3] In 2011, the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority formalized an agreement with Triple Five Group, which assumed ownership of the mall and renamed it "American Dream". The revised mall plans included an amusement park and a water park.[4][5] DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg announced in July 2012 that some of the amusement attractions would be themed upon DreamWorks productions.[6] In September 2016, Triple Five announced that the indoor amusement park space would be occupied by Nickelodeon Universe, and that DreamWorks Animation would work in partnership to develop the water park.[7]

Triple Five stated in June 2018 that the water park would open in the end of 2019.[8] By November 2018, the mall's vice president of Communications announced that the water park would open in September 2019.[4] However, by that date, DreamWorks Water Park's opening had been delayed to November 27, 2019.[9][10] In October 2019, surfers began testing the 1.5-acre (0.61 ha) wave pool.[11] Six days before the scheduled opening, Triple Five announced that they were postponing the water park opening again due to undisclosed reasons.[12][13] On February 25, 2020, the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs announced that 18 of the 27 rides at the park had been inspected and approved for opening. Of the other nine, four had completed engineering review and were ready for inspection, and the last five rides were still in engineering review.[14]

On February 27, 2020, DreamWorks Water Park announced an opening date of March 19, 2020.[15] However, due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Jersey, its opening was delayed once again.[16][17] On September 3, 2020, American Dream announced the new opening day for the waterpark, which opened along with the rest of the mall on October 1, 2020.[18]

On October 1, 2020, Dreamworks Waterpark officially opened.[1]

Attractions

DreamWorks Water Park occupies six stories adjacent to Nickelodeon Universe American Dream.[19] According to the mall's organizers, DreamWorks Water Park is the largest indoor water park in the United States, at 8.5 acres (3.4 ha).[12][20][lower-alpha 1] There are 40 water slides and about 15 attractions themed toward specific DreamWorks franchises.[12][20][19] Specific areas include an area themed around Shrek's Soggy Swamp, a Kung Fu Panda-themed children's play area called the Kung Fu Panda Zone, and a Madagascar-themed tower called Madagascar Rain Forest with 15 water slides.[12][22] All of the park's water slides were exclusively developed by ProSlide Technology, a Canadian company.[23][24][25]

A lazy river runs through some Shrek themed Scenery.[12][22][4] Inside is a 1.5-acre (0.61 ha), 1,500,000-U.S.-gallon (5,700,000 L) indoor wave pool, the largest in the world.[4] DreamWorks Water Park also contains a set of dueling slides, the world's second-tallest body slides, starting from a height of 142 feet (43 m) and featuring a 50-foot (15 m) free fall.[4][23][24] Another attraction is a 1,600-foot-long (490 m) "hydro-magnetic roller coaster called Toothless Trickling Torpedo " and a Proslide KrakenRACER mat racer slide called Dragon Racers. Dragon Racers and Toothless Trickeling Torpedo are the only rides in DreamWorks Waterpark that are themed towards the How to Train Your Dragon franchise.[4][23][24][26] The park includes a six-story funnel slide[23][24] and an eight-lane racing slide.[24]

There are also 31 luxury cabanas within DreamWorks Water Park. These were built to plans by interior designer Jonathan Adler, a native New Jerseyan.[12][20][22] Themed decorations include balloons of Shrek and Donkey from the Shrek movie franchise, and Alex and Marty from the Madagascar movie franchise..[24] Characters such as Shrek, Puss In Boots, Alex the Lion, King Julien, the Penguins of Madagascar, Po, and Poppy and Branch from Trolls, make daily appearances at the water park.

Rides
  • Bubbly Lazy River
  • Far Far A Bay Wavepool
  • Forbidden Waters Hot Tubs
  • King Julien's Pineapple Jam Swim-Up Bar
  • Kung Fu Panda Temple Of Awesomeness Play Structure
  • Soakin' Surfari
  • The Penguins Frozen Fun Zone
  • Dragon And Dronkey's Flight
  • Dragon Racers
  • Lemur Leap
  • Speeding Frenzy (Turbo)
  • Swamp N' Splash
  • Tube It!
  • Penguins Plummet
  • Majunga Jump
  • Shrek's Sinkhole Slammer
  • Zany Zigzag
  • Zanier Zigzag
  • Toothless Trickling Torpedo
  • Thrillagascar
  • Jungle Jammer
  • Surfari Slider
  • The Carnivortex

Notes
  1. The DreamWorks Water Park is alternatively advertised as the largest in North America, including the United States.[13][21]

References
  1. NJ.com, Allison Pries | NJ Advance Media for (2020-10-01). "American Dream mega-mall reopens Thursday. What to know about stores, parking, water park". nj. Retrieved 2020-10-01.
  2. Hendry, Cheryl Ann. "Finding Nature in an Industrial Swamp: A Case Study of New Jersey's Hackensack Meadowlands", p. 196, Montana State University, 2017.
  3. Pristin, Terry (2009-05-19). "Xanadu, a New Jersey Mall, May Be Too Big to Fail". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  4. Katzban, Nicholas (November 12, 2018). "See the progress on the American Dream water park, now taking shape". NorthJersey.com. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  5. Henry, Samantha (May 3, 2011). "Xanadu mall project to get new name, big expansion". New Jersey Herald. Retrieved March 17, 2019.
  6. ""Shrek" Theme Park Planned at Stalled NJ Mall". NBC New York. July 11, 2012. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  7. "SpongeBob, Ninja Turtles sign on with American Dream". North Jersey. 2016-09-13. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  8. Pries, Allison (2018-06-19). "American Dream: The 16-year (and counting) journey of a mega-mall that might actually open kind of soon". nj. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  9. Pries, Allison (2019-09-20). "American Dream's theme park to open in October. For other attractions, you'll have to wait". nj. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  10. Pire, Taryn (November 27, 2018). "The Latest Developments of American Dream Meadowlands Have Us Beyond Psyched". New Jersey Family. Archived from the original on May 21, 2019. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  11. Pries, Allison (2019-11-07). "American Dream's indoor wave pool opens soon. Check out surfers testing it out". nj. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  12. Pries, Allison (2019-11-21). "DreamWorks Water Park at American Dream mall delays opening". nj. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  13. "Opening Of American Dream Mall Water Park Delayed". CBS New York – Breaking News, Sports, Weather, Traffic And The Best of NY. November 23, 2019. Retrieved November 28, 2019.
  14. NJ.com, Allison Pries | NJ Advance Media for (2020-02-25). "A bunch of rides at the water park coming to American Dream have passed inspection". nj. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  15. Pries, Allison (2020-02-27). "Water park, some stores at American Dream mall announce openings". nj. Retrieved 2020-02-27.
  16. "American Dream postpones DreamWorks Water Park opening". Blooloop. Retrieved 2020-04-06.
  17. Pries, Allison (2020-07-15). "American Dream mega-mall will reopen, owner says. Here's what it's planning". nj. Retrieved 2020-08-03.
  18. NJ.com, Allison Pries | NJ Advance Media for (2020-09-03). "American Dream announces reopening date, but it's far away". nj. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
  19. Fung, Esther. "Could a Ski Hill, a Theme Park and 40 Water Slides Save the American Mall?". WSJ. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  20. "Nickelodeon Just Opened the Largest Indoor Theme Park in the Western Hemisphere". Travel + Leisure. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  21. Porpora, Tracey (November 26, 2019). "Opening of DreamWorks Water Park at American Dream is delayed". silive. Retrieved November 28, 2019.
  22. "Phase Two: DreamWorks Waterpark at American Dream to open in a week". newjersey.news12.com. November 20, 2019. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  23. "American Dream mega-mall finally opening with Nickelodeon theme park and DreamWorks water park". Orange County Register. 2019-10-22. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  24. "Take A Virtual Tour Of American Dream's Water Park [Videos]". Mahwah, NJ Patch. 2018-11-23. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  25. "American Dream - ProSlide: World's Best Water Ride Designers". ProSlide. Retrieved 2020-03-05.
  26. "American Dream". American Dream. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
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