From over-the-top water coasters to massive new expansions and themed areas, the water park landscape for the 2026 season is shaping up to be one of the most noteworthy years on record.
Much like the regional boom we've seen in the boutique theme park sector, many water parks are moving away from simple off-the-shelf slides in favor of massive, record-breaking installations that blur the lines between a waterslide and a high-speed themed attraction.
Ironically, however, the North American market, a region that is normally a hotbed of activity for new developments, is actually rather slow this year in terms of water parks adding single new attractions.
Instead, we are seeing new large-scale expansions with several attractions coming to some of the existing parks, along with a new water park or two expected to come online by the end of the year.
Many of the larger and more notable projects are opening across the globe in various international markets.
Ambition is the name of the game this year, though as any industry veteran knows, failure rarely comes cheap.
While we look forward to these massive global projects, they serve as a reminder that the cost of engineering excellence now routinely climbs into the multi-million-dollar range as they seek to impress and make their mark on the world.
Based on confirmed openings and industry announcements, these 11 are among the most significant new water park additions worldwide this year.
11.Superior Shores Waterpark, Valleyfair - Minnesota, USA
The existing water park at the Valleyfair theme park is being super-sized and renovated for the 2026 season, featuring 13 new slides and a complete rebranding of the water park experience.
This includes the Lighthouse Landing new speed-slide complex and Minnow Bay, featuring 8 kid-sized slides in a family-friendly lagoon setting. There are several new rides from WhiteWater.
The timing is also right for this expansion, as the former Cedar Fair/Six Flags theme park was just sold off to a new owner, Enchanted Parks, which is getting a mark on the property this summer for the first time.
Superior Shores is included with general park admission to Valleyfair.
10.Kalahari Wisconsin Dells expansion - Wisconsin, USA
Just when you thought the Kalahari group might be too busy looking to build new resorts, it decided to expand and improve the very first resort that started the chain in the Wisconsin Dells.
The $85 million expansion will add three major new waterslides, a retractable roof to let in the sun, and The Grotto (an adult swim-up bar) as part of a new 75,000-square-foot indoor water playground.
New attractions include the Lost Lagoon spa whirlpool, the Watering Hole with zero-depth entry and “tanning ledges”, with multi-passenger raft thrills coming from the Wild Wildebeest and Green Python slides, along with the four-lane Cheetah Mat Racers.
Featuring WhiteWater attractions, the new water park area at the Wisconsin Dells resort was designed and engineered by Martin Aquatic and is housed in a retractable-roof OpenAire enclosure.
9.Summit Canyon, Water World Colorado - Colorado, USA
The famous Colorado water park made headlines last summer when it confirmed that the park’s existing Calypso Cove area would be replaced by an entirely new themed land and attractions.
This was later revealed to be Summit Canyon, an area themed to the spirit of the great outdoors atmosphere of the state.
It will feature a number of new thrill attractions, new play spaces for families at the Creekside Crossing obstacle course, or test your skills at the Puddle Dunker water basketball hoops, while smaller children can explore and play in Critter Cove.
At the summit of it all is Lookout Tower, which serves as the launch pad for four all-new thrill slides from ProSlide: the Runoff Rapids tube slide, Marmot Mayhem (2-person tube slide), Columbine Cascade (high-speed body slide), or try Aspen Falls by climbing into the area’s only drop-capsule slide before dropping you down a waterfall.
The park is also taking the time to add a slew of modern amenities that the park was in need of, such as Emerald Lake, where beverages for adults and kids are served in a relaxing atmosphere by the pool or to your lounge chair.
8.Coral Bay, PortAventura’s Caribe Aquatic Park - Spain
PortAventura World is expanding with two new attractions to open this summer including Coral Bay at Caribe Aquatic Park
New for 2026 is Coral Bay: The Lost Legend, a new 6,000-square-meter themed family play area.
The large expansion to the existing water park will feature the new Cyclone family water coaster attraction, an adventurous aquatic obstacle course, the Crab tower with five new family water slides, and new food and beverage options.
The new waterslides have been designed and built by ProSlide and include popular creations like the CannonBOWL, FlyingSAUCER, Dueling PIPEline, HIVE and a TornadoWAVE.
7.New Kalahari Resort - Virginia, USA
This brand-new $900 million resort from the Kalahari family has been in the making for several years now and will feature a 175,000-square-foot indoor water park adventure area, the largest in Virginia.
It will be home to over 50 attractions of every size and adventure level, including rides from WhiteWater.
Like the other popular Kalahari Resorts, the fun doesn’t just stop in the water park, as the resort will also feature a bowling alley, go-karts, a small collection of flat rides, laser tag, a ropes course, an XD theater and an indoor themed mini-golf course.
Look for this new resort to open in November 2026.
6.Gigante Nações (Gigantic Nations), Thermas dos Laranjais - Brazil
Brazil’s most visited water park continues its aggressive expansion with a new 2026 flagship attraction, Gigantic Nations. The 33-meter-tall slide tower branches off to offer two major new and different raft slide attractions.
The red, white and green side features both high g-spiral helix elements, water-coaster style hills and a bowl-style element, while the yellow and green side features some dramatic plunges into half-pipe walls and spiral disc elements, and a coaster plunge of its own.
5.Sun World Vung Tau - Vietnam
WhiteWater provided a range of signature experiences at Sun World Vũng Tàu
Image courtesy of WhiteWater
A brand-new Sun World-branded water park opened in the Ho Chi Minh City area just in time for the Lunar New Year celebration in February.
The new 15-hectare water park features 20 top-tier, high-profile new attractions, including a water coaster, a 10-lane mat racer, a double wave pool and more, all located just mere feet away from the beach and a nearby entertainment resort complex.
WhiteWater provided a number of rides, such as Mystic Ocean Voyage, the first Mini Blaster in Asia; Serpent’s Aquarium, Asia’s first Wall Runner; and Mekong Water Battle, the tallest and largest AquaForms 20 in the world,
4.Dragonfly Tower, Land of Legends Waterpark - Turkey
The Waterfly expansion at the Land of Legends Waterpark is home to the 52 metre high Dragonfly Tower
Image courtesy of Creative Studio Berlin
The existing water park will receive a massive footprint expansion for the 2026 season with Waterfly, adding 14 new water slides designed to thrill all age groups.
This includes the massive Dragonfly Tower, one of the tallest in Europe, which serves as the launch point for six major new attraction experiences.
These are Dragonfly Jet (water coaster), Sunset Drop (body slide), Triple Twister (3 unique mat racers), Skimmer Race (body slides), Golden Wing Spiral (very tall and fast spiral body slide) and Emerald Blur (trapdoor slide).
Creative Studio Berlin developed the new Waterfly expansion at The Land of Legends theme park, and all water slides and attractions have been developed in collaboration with WhiteWater.
3.Great Tides Waterpark - Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas
Great Tides Waterpark offers the 170-foot Tidal Tower, as well as Cliffside Cove, The Great Slide, Fearless Falls, Splash Cay, and the Wandering River Image courtesy of Norwegian Cruise LineSet to open in September 2026, look for this all-new water park to come online from Norwegian Cruise Lines, built at Great Stirrup Cay, a 270-acre private island stop in the Berry Islands, approximately 125 miles east of the coast of Florida.
The island stopover for the NCL originally opened as Pleasure Island in 1990 and has been used as your typical private beach-style day-to-play ever since.
The exclusive tropical resort stop for the cruise passengers features white sand beaches, a massive lagoon pool, and various dining and recreational facilities.
However, the latest expansion adds a large, exclusive water park on the island that will feature a number of impressive attractions, served by the newly opened two-ship ocean-pier dock, which replaced the need for tender boats when it opened at the end of 2025.
In the center of the water park will be the massive Tidal Tower that will serve as a towering launch point for a number of the most thrilling attractions.
This includes the Breakwater Blasters, a dual-launch water coaster that propels guests through a series of high-powered water jets, taking them through drops and gravity-defying hill climbs in a race to the finish, and Whitewater Dash, a pair of side-by-side speed slides that drop from the 170-ft tower structure.
Other attractions include the Rapid Mat Racers (a head-first multi-lane mat-slide experience), Cliffside Cove (offering a man-made cliff diving experience from platforms 10 to 15 feet in height), and The Great Slide (a unique new body slide that will allow groups of four to slide down simultaneously without a raft)
Guests can also experience Fearless Falls (a pair of high-velocity drop slides) and Wandering River (an 800-foot-long swift-river experience that will include a unique special effects tunnel).
Martin Aquatic partnered with NCL to master plan the guest experience for Great Tides Waterpark, and WhiteWater is supplying all the slides and play structures on the island. CONDUCTR is the creative consultant behind the redevelopment of Great Stirrup Cay.
2.Lost City Expansion, Yas Waterworld - Abu Dhabi
Yas Waterworld has been awarded the Guinness World Records title for the most waterslides in a water parkImage courtesy of Yas Waterworld
The latest expansion to The Lost City area of the park opened in April, adding eight more waterslides to the park, two diving platforms, a new pool lounge area, and increasing the number of park attractions to 70.
This area was originally intended to open last year, but a fire during the final phases of construction delayed it, leading to the project opening in two phases.
Yas Waterworld's new slides are by WhiteWater.
1.Aquarabia Qiddiya City - Saudi Arabia
As the first true water theme park in Saudi Arabia, Aquarabia is introducing several custom-engineered, world-record-breaking rides developed by WhiteWater, all carefully placed within a highly elaborate landscape of rocky spires and giant animal carvings looming overhead everywhere you look.
Highlight attractions include Junoon Drop - the world’s tallest and longest water coaster, featuring magnetic linear induction launch sections to propel the seven-passenger raft through the artificial mountain landscape, and Slithereel, the world’s longest SlideWheel, featuring a massive rotating tangle of enclosed waterslide tube that slowly and continuously rotates.
Despite the wheel's constant motion, the rafts inside move both forwards and back as the slide orientation twists around the riders. It doesn’t take long for riders to be completely disorientated, unaware of which way leads up or out as they move ever deeper into the wheel.
Speedy Jamezales is the world’s tallest AquaLoop body slide, sitting atop Camel Rock. Before taking the plunge, guests must climb into the capsule, sitting 88 feet (27 meters) in the air, and prepare for the trap-door plunge that will send them into the popular AquaLoop inversion, followed by a high-speed Flatline Loop.
Jamal Joom, the world’s longest and tallest Mat Blaster slide, is a six lane innovation that isn’t just your typical head-first mat racer, but it also blends in powered uphill blast sections for the racers to sustain their speed and momentum as they race through the interior of a mountain structure, each lane taking a unique path before they converge for a final rush to the finish line.
Surftopia Lagoon is a massive, state-of-the-art surfing park, integrated into the themed landscape of the water park, using the latest advanced wave-generation technology to offer customizable reef breaks for both professional and first-time surfers alike.
The highly anticipated Aquaticar attraction from Sub Sea Systems made its global debut at Aquarabia. Guests climb into an open but submersible car on dry land.
With a glass canopy placed over the riders, the car slowly enters the water and dives to the bottom of the pool, all while keeping the riders in an air-pocket within the canopy from the chest up, so they can enjoy the view of the depths 9-feet under without the need for a snorkel or scuba style breathing gear as the Aquaticar passes through the themed underwater landscape to explore the Legend of the Glowing Guardians.
WhiteWater supplied over 20 attractions, Falcon's Creative Group served as the master planner and attraction designer, and WTI was the aquatic design and engineering partner for Aquarabia
Whether these projects yield decades of payoff or costly disasters remains to be seen, but for water park fans, 2026 is shaping up to be a year in which the limits of immersive water attractions are pushed further than ever before.
As such, the 2026 class of new additions seem well focused on avoiding any pitfalls by utilizing the expertise of world-recognised vendors and designers like ProSlide and WhiteWater while being able to apply a nice layer of theming to the attractions that today’s audience craves.
