Fully Animated: Nickelodeon Lost Lagoon

Not Round Pants
The SpongeBob Splash Adventure, a customized version of WhiteWater West’s AquaPlay RainFortress, features a theme described as “Indiana-Jones-meets-SpongeBob,” to complement the lost rain forest feel. The designers strayed slightly from the normal tipping bucket design. Rather than only spilling over when full, the bucket also can be triggered on demand with a manual release. This comes in handy for the daily Great Slime Deluge, when green slime is released from the bucket. The attraction also includes geysers, water cannons and waterfalls. Leading up to SpongeBob Splash are the Wonder Steps (top), where visitors can climb among waterfalls.

All Kinds of Character
The combination of cartoon characters and real, lush forest is meant to draw children and adults. The site is located in an area of mature rain forest, rock hills and ruins that had been lost for more than two decades. To keep with the theme of adventure among the ruins, natural-colored stone theming permeates the entire park.

Lost Terrain
Proprietors and designers wanted to retain as much of the existing jungle and canyon-like landscape as possible, so they designed and built the attractions with minimal destruction of the trees and greenery.

Natural Challenge
For a dreamy experience, water slides are woven throughout the trees and virtually become part of the landscape. By incorporating the natural topography as part of the water slides, the team could reduce the amount of steel towers needed for support and make the feature seem more at one with the geography. The topography showed a height differential of 111 feet, turning access and construction into something of a challenge. The thick vegetation and undulating topography also made it difficult to properly survey the area and obtain precise site information. Despite this, the slide path engineers were able to develop water slides that hugged the existing terrain.

Come One, Come All
Completed earlier this year for $21 million, this 10-acre addition to the popular Sunway Lagoon theme park complex is charged with boosting attendance by 30 percent among tourists and locals alike.

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