Saudi Arabia's highly anticipated Aquarabia water park in Qiddiya City is set to open to the public on 23 April.
Spanning 250,000 square metres, it will be the largest water theme park in the Middle East, featuring 22 unique rides and experiences, 24 food and beverage outlets, and seven retail stores.
During the blooloop Festival of Innovation 2026, we spoke with Olivia Wyrick, then serving as senior director of water park operations and aquatics at Aquarabia, to gain a deeper understanding of the master planning, technological advancements, and operational strategies behind this colossal project.
Master planning “an oasis in the desert”
Olivia Wyrick, former senior director of water park operations and aquatics at Aquarabia
Olivia Wyrick has been working in the water park industry since 1988 and worked on the Aquarabia project for five years before leaving in March 2026. In addition to shaping the park's operational structure and teams, she contributed to the design and development of its facilities and attractions.
Creating a theme park on the scale of Aquarabia requires a deep understanding of the local environment.
Falcon’s Creative Group collaborated closely with Aquarabia and Qiddiya to deliver the water park’s master planning, attraction design, and experiential framework. The resulting design features eight distinct zones, each inspired by Saudi Arabia’s native wildlife and dramatic landscapes.
The park is nestled within the Tuwaiq Mountains, a geographical feature that strongly influenced the creative direction. The rockwork and theming have been executed with extraordinary precision, so the artificial structures seamlessly blend into the natural terrain.
For Wyrick, this harmonious integration marks a triumph in modern park design.
"It was a lot of creativity and thought, looking at the landscape and saying, ‘What can we do that isn't going to disrupt it, but really bring in a wow factor'.
“The location in the Tuwaiq Mountains is beautiful. When you look at the water park, and you look at the early days of the design, and you think, ‘Wow, this is impressive. How are we going to do this?’ And you look at what's actually built now, I think we far superseded any expectations.
“The companies that we worked with to deliver that theming were amazing. We've had a lot of people come and visit, and they ask, ‘Is this actually from the mountain?’ That's how great the theming is."
Wyrick notes that this level of immersive environmental respect is groundbreaking for the industry, particularly when compared to the early days of water parks.
“We've respected the surroundings that we have, and the team has done an exceptional job in making the whole water park blend in.”
Blending adventure with aquatics
The traditional water park model, characterised primarily by slides, wave pools, and lazy rivers, has been completely reimagined at Aquarabia. The park pushes these traditional boundaries by integrating extreme sports and dry-adventure elements.
Wyrick believes that this hybrid model is what truly sets the destination apart on the global stage:
"We've done something no one else has by bringing in these elements of adventure and sport. We've got a surf lagoon and a whole adventure park with white water rafting, kayaking, canyoneering, and deep solo rock climbing.
“So, we're offering more than what a lot of people are going to expect when they come to a water theme park. Guests will get a little bit of everything. They're going to be on the lazy river one minute, learn how to surf the next minute, and go jump awesome cliffs the next minute."
“It's going to be a great experience for everyone, and it really shows the innovation and where the water park industry has gone over the past few years."
When asked about the wider attractions sector, she predicts a shift towards this integrated, multidisciplinary approach.
"I think water parks are going to start adding in more of these adventure elements, because the more diversity that you can offer and the more experiences that families and friends can have together, that's a winner.
“Surf parks are taking off everywhere, and there's a following and a community. But also, by bringing together adventure sports and water parks, you're expanding the pool of guests who will visit your park.
“It’s about being able to create communities and repeat visitation and spark interest in young kids, too. When kids come and visit our water parks, and they see stuff like this, that's our future generation, not only of guests, but of designers, builders, and marketers.”
Catching the wave with Endless Surf
A major anchor of this adventurous new lineup is the state-of-the-art Endless Surf lagoon. This addition aims not only to provide thrills on the day but also to cultivate a long-term surfing culture within Saudi Arabia.
Wyrick is excited about the technology's inclusive nature and its potential for community building:
"The wave technology and what we're going to be able to offer to guests is amazing. They have a wave catered for beginners and for those who have been surfing for years and years.
“People who have never surfed before can come learn how to surf in a safe and welcoming environment, and within a couple of sessions, days, weeks, months, years, they could be representing Saudi Arabia at the National Championships, or they could go back to their home country and become surfers.”
WhiteWater's Endless Surf at Aquarabia
“Bringing a surf park into a water park is one thing, but working with really good technology is really going to put surfing on the map here.”
The ambition to nurture local talent is a core objective for the Aquarabia team. By offering activities such as surfing, white-water rafting, and canyoneering, the park intends to engage both domestic families and international tourists while fostering dedicated athletic communities.
“The cool thing we're going to be able to do is start developing a surfing community, and start to build grassroots programmes, school programmes, competition teams.
"That, to me, is what we're about: bringing these sports and activities, not only to Saudi Arabia, but to the region, and watching people fall in love and progress.”
Record-breaking attractions and something for everyone
Aquarabia partnered closely with leading waterpark manufacturer WhiteWater to create a destination featuring four record-breaking attractions. Junoon Drop in Camel Rock, for example, is over 42 metres high and marks the tallest and longest Family Master Blaster on the planet.
One of the innovations resulting from this partnership is a concerted effort to accommodate guests who wish to enjoy the thrills of a water park without being soaked.
"We've done some work with WhiteWater on creating some new tube concepts that allow people to ride a water slide without really getting wet,” says Wyrick.
“It's cool, and it's never been done before, but it allows people to experience water slides in a different way. It allows people who may have come for dinner to pop in and ride a slide before they go home, without having to get a swimsuit.
"So, we've made ourselves open to different experiences for people, and we're looking forward to being able to have anyone and everyone that walks through our doors have an experience, no matter what."
Diving under the surface with Aquaticar
One of the most eagerly anticipated attractions at Aquarabia is Aquaticar: Legend of the Glowing Guardian, billed as the world's first underwater theme park ride.
Engineered by Sub Sea Systems, Inc., a firm specialising in immersive, hands-on aquatic encounters, the attraction promises a fully submerged dark ride experience.
“Working with Sub Sea Systems on this has been a great experience,” says Wyrick.
“I don't want to give too much away, because we want people to come and experience it, but it's a futuristic-looking car that you can get into and completely submerge underwater, so you become fully immersed in this whole underwater experience and story that we've created.”
Aquaticar: Legend of the Glowing Guardian at Aquarabia
The cars themselves are two-seaters, making them well-suited to a memorable shared experience, and bubble technology is used to move the vehicles around.
“We have this communication system within the car that, as you're going around the track and you're seeing everything, you're also hearing this story play.
"Our entertainment director has done such a great job of putting this story together and bringing to life the elements that make Aquaticar what it is.
“It's also been great from a safety point of view, working with them and developing safety standards. They've put a lot of time, effort, and love into this.
"We're really excited to be the first to offer Aquaticar at the park; it's an awesome experience that you can't get anywhere else."
Elevating the guest journey at Aquarabia
In an environment as vast and multifaceted as Aquarabia, ensuring a smooth guest journey is key. Through intensive crowd modelling and operational foresight, the team has meticulously planned the park's walkways, shading, and queue lines.
By involving operations experts early in the design process, the team transformed typically mundane aspects of park design, such as queuing, into memorable experiences. This is best exemplified by the Camel Rock ride tower.
Concept art for Camel Rock
"We've been working with some really good industry companies that have helped us look at what's the best way to do guest walkways, queuing, and shading, and also bringing in all operators early enough to apply the experience and knowledge we have from operating parks.
“That’s to make sure that when it comes to guests and how they move through the park, and how their experiences interact in different areas of the park, that's going to be satisfying for guests.
“One of the awesome things about our main tower, Camel Rock, we've got three main attractions coming out of that tower. The queuing alone in that tower, they did it so well that as you move through it, you are going to have moments of wow.
“A lot of times, when it comes to queuing, it's simple, straight up the tower. This is one of the things we've really innovated on: how do you make that queue interactive, a little distracting from how much time you're spending in it, and what people are going to see shows just how majestic our surroundings are.
"It gives you a little bit of a sneak peek into what else is going on around us in Qiddiya as well.”
Food & drink experiences
The attractions industry increasingly relies on high-quality food and beverage offerings to drive per capita spending and enhance overall guest satisfaction.
With 24 distinct F&B outlets integrated into the park, Aquarabia aims to move beyond standard theme park fare by tapping into the local culinary scene.
Ascent is a restaurant uniquely positioned at the pinnacle of the park's central tower. “The views from there are amazing," Wyrick says.
"Our culinary and F&B team have come up with some amazing food concepts. We're going to give our guests something they probably haven't experienced before. People are going to come back for the food as well. Our team have tapped into the local culinary scene and flavours.
“We're definitely going to have some Instagrammable moments when it comes to not only our rides and our park, but our F&B as well.”
View of some of Aquarabia's rides, with Camel Rock in background
To complement the active thrills and robust dining options, Aquarabia’s layout was deliberately designed to encourage passive enjoyment and longer dwell times.
The park embraces the spectacle of its adventure sports, allowing guests who may not wish to participate to still be entertained by watching others.
This spectator appeal creates a lively, immersive atmosphere throughout the park.
"It's one thing to come in, ride everything, maybe grab a cheeseburger, and within, you know, five hours you're out. But here we've created something where you can go and watch stuff.
“When we were commissioning our whitewater rafting channel, we actually started having our management meetings out there along the channel, purely because of the ambience and the environment that it created.
“The way that we've designed the park, it does allow guests to walk around and check out things, to see things as they're happening, and sit down and really take it all in."
Coupled with robust retail offerings, this design philosophy ensures all guests remain engaged throughout the day.
The pursuit of perfection
Developing a mega-park of this magnitude amid the unprecedented operational disruptions of a global pandemic was no small feat.
However, Wyrick says that the most significant hurdle was maintaining an uncompromising standard of quality. By integrating operational insights early in the development phase, the team refined the master plan, preventing minor oversights from affecting the final guest experience.
"There are always challenges in construction, but when I look back now over the past four years, for me, my biggest challenge was perfection. We want to make sure that we get everything right for the guests and for our colleagues.
“But we've been blessed to have really good people working on this project with us, from our development delivery team, creative team, and having operators in early enough that we were able to catch any challenges.”
WhiteWater's aquatic play at Aquarabia
The continuous evolution of Qiddiya City, heavily tied to Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, means Aquarabia is just one piece of a much larger puzzle.
“Everything they're doing towards the 2030 vision is amazing. It's the city built for play, no matter what interests you in life, whether it's gaming, the arts, sport, thrills, Qiddiya is going to have it."
As Aquarabia prepares to launch, it will join its high-profile neighbour, the recently opened Six Flags Qiddiya City, adding to the region's status as a premier global entertainment destination.
After years of meticulous planning, intricate theming, and aquatic engineering, the team at Aquarabia is eager to finally welcome guests to the Middle East's largest water park.
