Orlando Wet 'n Wild Closing

[History Buff]

Wet 'n Wild Orlando: Universal Orlando to Close Water Park in 2016
Park officials announced Wednesday that Wet 'n Wild Orlando would permanently close Dec. 31, 2016. The park has been in business since March 1977.

With bigger brands in the area opening bigger, newer, more advanced parks, it looks like this old staple is closing its gates.

[Swoosh]

Universal is opening a new water park on site, that's why

[History Buff]

The question is, will they move some of the attractions across the street for Volcano Bay?

[Coaster]

^I believe that is a high possibility, HB.

[shavethewhales]

Somehow I don't think Universal is going to buy up any second hand slides.

I've been hearing about Wet 'n Wild for ages. Seems like the end of an era, even though it was never really that appealing.

[Swoosh]

Is it really second hand if you already own them?

[History Buff]

That's the idea.  Maybe some slides will fit inside that big volcano they plan to build.  No one would know if you put your old stuff in the dark.

[runner1960]

I just do not see a first tier park re purposing old rides like some others do. They are competing against the best i the business and need to up the game to compete. Here is a interesting article in the Orlando Sentinel about the attendance figure.
Basically Disney's 2 parks lead the pack with about 2 million each followed by Aquatica with 1.6 Million , then Wet and Wild last at 1.3.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/os-water-park-wars-20150306-story.html

[chittlins]

The Funspot place down there owns some more land and the plan on starting a small waterpark within 18 months.

[shavethewhales]

Ah, I had completely missed that Universal bought out this park. That makes a lot more sense.

They'll still build everything from scratch though, given the competition.