When Universal Orlando last month confirmed plans for its new Volcano Bay water park, many fans wondered if that would mean the end of Wet 'n Wild. Universal obtained control of the nation's first water park in 1998, and in 2013 bought the 50 acres of land under and around the park. Universal has been shuffling management at the park over the past year or so, and rumors of its closure have been flying as sources in and around Universal have tipped plans to convert the Wet 'n Wild property into budget-priced hotels or even into a third gate for the Universal Orlando Resort.
We don't know yet Wet 'n Wild's ultimate fate, but as of today, we can be certain that it won't be as Wet 'n Wild. Universal Orlando today confirmed that the water park will close December 31, 2016.
That gives Wet 'n Wild's local fans two more summers to enjoy the park. Wet 'n Wild opened in 1977 — a creation of SeaWorld founder George Millay. It is considered the nation's first water park, and even as imitators opened around the country and world, Wet 'n Wild remained the nation's most popular water park until the end of the 1990s, when Disney's Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach passed it. Wet 'n Wild drew about 1.3 million visitors last year, making it the nation's fourth most-popular water park, behind the two Disney parks and SeaWorld's Aquatica, according to the TEA/AECOM 2014 Theme Index report.
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I think that most people agree that Wet 'n Wild, as it stands now, isn't up to Universal's current theming standards. So the choice is either to upgrade it or replace it. (I think that everything inside the two UOR theme parks is facing the same consideration.)
Volcano Bay is the upgrade. I haven't heard anything I consider definitive on what the Wet 'n Wild property will become, but I know that Universal wants to add more hotel rooms at UOR, and its running out of room on land adjacent to the parks, so I'd be surprised if a hotel wasn't at least part of the WnW property plans.
Just think of how different that would be... Visitors from around the world will want to see this new, hot, exciting, (exiting - twitter joke for Robert) thrilling park...
Everyday Universal could pick a child to - Ignite the park after opening..
Also, I don't know where else Nintendo land will fit in their current two parks, unless they're planning on selling the MArvel rights back to Disney and turning that into Nintendo land.
That's about all that will come here. Not enough room for a third park. And to the poster above asking where Nintendo will go, it's going to replace KidZone in USF
There is however just enough space in the wet n wild property to build a third gate if google isn't lying to me. The wet n wild park, part of the lake, the parking lot and a bunch of other little plots of land in the area east of wet n wild south of the parking lot, all of which is owned by universal. You can put your boring hotels elsewhere ie buy out a little plot of land for a hotel since acquiring land for a hotel is so much easier than acquiring land for a theme park.
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