The 2025 summer season is nearly at an end. So, this seemed like a good time to look back and review the best new waterslides and water park attractions introduced in 2025.
As things have been trending over the past few years, some of the most interesting projects are not always stationary. Each year, I find that more and more water park-style additions are being incorporated into some of the world’s newest and biggest cruise ships’ experiences as well.
So before we get to the regular parks, let’s take a quick look at three major new additions that were added to these giant floating theme parks this year.
New cruising experiences
Royal Caribbean’s Star of the Seas
This is Royal Caribbean’s newest Icon Class vessel, which launched into service for the first time this month. The big attraction on this latest ship is a little something called Category 6, which Royal Caribbean promoted as being the largest water park at sea.
Category 6 features six record-breaking waterslides, including one that is supposed to be the “tallest at sea”. It also boasts the first open free-fall waterslide. If that wasn’t enough, the current itineraries guests get to enjoy on the Star of the Seas all include a stop at the private island resort, Perfect Day at CocoCay. This features an extra charge water park that has even more waterslides to enjoy.
However, the first Icon Class vessel, Icon the Seas, has been in the headlines this past week. This is due to an incident involving the Frightening Bolt slide, the tallest drop slide at sea.
As found in many land-based water parks, this is a waterslide that starts by loading riders into a Drop Pod. When the trap door under your feet releases, you fall straight down briefly before curving out into a more typical enclosed body slide.
Unfortunately, a clear section of the side installed right where it catches the falling slider actually broke and fell to the deck below. The guest kept on sliding, though the reports do mention that some injuries did happen when the slide broke. As such, I would imagine that the copy of the Frightening Bolt on the Star of the Seas may be closed for further inspection for a time.
MSC World America
Not to be left out by the water park at sea concept, the MSC World America, which launched earlier this year, includes a multi-level fun district called The Harbour. This features an aquapark with several slides as well as a splash pad.
The Harbour also includes a couple of dry thrill attractions. For instance, the Cliffhanger swing ride. This literally swings guests out over the edge of the ship and back. There is also a very tall spiral dry slide called Jaw Drop.
Norwegian Aqua
Perhaps the most impressive innovation at sea this year comes from Norwegian Cruise Line’s Aqua Slidecoaster concept from wiegand.waterrides. This debuted on the Norwegian Aqua in 2025.
Guests are carefully loaded onto rafts with a high-backed seat, lined up inside two side-by-side slide troughs. The rafts slowly move forward on a conveyor belt and are loaded into the bottom of a large incline. Between the two slides lies a unique device attached to what looks like roller coaster track.
Arms attached to either side of this mini-coaster car on the rails slide forward behind your raft. They then quite literally launch you forward, pushing both rafts at the same time up the launch hill and into a pair of fully enclosed slide tubes. Each has a slightly unique layout. So, it’s the perfect reason to go back and try it again on the other side.
This would be a great addition to a land-based park. The fact that they built something this unique as a featured attraction on a new cruise ship is very exciting. A second edition of this fun new concept will also be on the new Norwegian Luna, launching 2026.
Other new cruise water park attractions to come
The cruise industry just can’t stop itself either. Several major new plans are also already in the works, set to open over the next two years.
This includes the first water park on a private island stop (Great Stirrup Cay) for Norwegian Cruise Line. Designed to compete with Royal Caribbean’s Perfect Day CocoCay water park, Great Tides Waterpark will feature 19 waterslides. Eight of them will be attached to a 170-foot-tall tower.
Other attractions include something Norwegian is calling a “dynamic river” as well as some faux “cliffside jumps” guests can enjoy in the safety of the waterpark environment.
Of course, Royal Caribbean isn’t going to sit on its laurels. Plans are already in motion to open a second private water park at an all-new international destination called Perfect Day Mexico.
The focus of this new exclusive cruise stop will be Loco Waterpark, created in partnership with Legacy Entertainment. This will feature more than 30 waterslides and a wave pool. There is also the iconic Jaguar’s Peak slide tower. This is set to become the tallest waterslide tower in all of North and South America.
Look for Perfect Day Mexico to begin accepting Royal Caribbean cruise guests sometime in 2027.
Best new water park attractions for 2025
With the sea-based concepts out of the way, lets break down the top 13 new land-based water park attractions for 2025.
1 Expansion at Yas Waterworld – Yas Island, Abu Dhabi
Delayed slightly by a construction-related fire, the popular cutting-edge water park in the United Arab Emirates, home to rides from WhiteWater and ProSlide, opened a grand new expansion. In total the expansion was to have added over a dozen new attractions, including what is said to be the nation’s tallest water slide.
I believe the damage from the fire has now split the expansion into two phases, with the first having opened this summer, and the second phase that will rebuild and open the section that had the most damage to open in the coming months.
All said and done, this expansion will increase the park’s overall size and capacity by an additional 20%.
2 Great Wolf Lodge Mashantucket – Connecticut, USA
The long-anticipated new Great Wolf Lodge indoor water park resort, located as part of the massive Foxwoods casino resort, finally opened in May after being under construction for the past two years.
The newest Great Wolf Lodge resort features 549 guest rooms and a huge water park with 13 water slides, a lazy river, various water play structures and a massive wave pool. Suppliers include ProSlide.
Like other Great Wolf Lodges, the resort also includes a few dry attractions as well, such as a built-in MagiQuest interactive game, the Ten Paw Alley bowling lanes, a large arcade, Howl in One mini-golf and the Howlers Peak Ropes Course.
3 New rides for Soaky Mountain Waterpark & Wilderness at the Smokies – Tennessee, USA
A couple of new attractions opened at this unique combo attraction.
The Wildness at the Smokies waterpark resort opened a newly upgraded version of their popular Washout Mountain water fortress attraction from ProSlide at the very end of 2024, while the public accessible Soaky Mountain Waterpark next door opened the brand new Rafter’s Rage family tube slide in mid-2025.
This new slide concept from WhiteWater features 6-passenger rafts able to reach speeds of 19mph while taking on carefully crafted arcing turns, “that rafts will laterally accelerate over sideways”, creating a unique “drifting” style experience on a waterslide for the first time.
4 Dream Space Water Park – Chongqing, China
An all-new water park opened this year, said to be the largest in the region, featuring an impressive 40 new water slides.
The interesting thing about this park is that when it was first announced, and when construction first began, this park was to be the first Six Flags Hurricane Harbor park in China, as part of the greater Six Flags Chongqing resort project.
While the Six Flags park never materialised, the water park did finally open this past June, although I’m not sure if all of it was completed. Ride suppliers include WhiteWater.
5 Bavarian Blast at Bavarian Inn – Michigan, USA
Developed by Aquatic Development Group with rides from WhiteWater, this new attraction is now the largest indoor water park and family fun center in Michigan, spanning an impressive 170,000 square feet.
This $90 million facility is bigger than your average Costco Warehouse location. It features a wave pool that offers adjustable wave sizes, a 300-foot action river, Michigan’s only adult swim-up bar, 20 private cabanas and 16 thrilling waterslides.
6 Aqualantis Waterpark at Regnum Carya Golf & Spa Resort – Antalya, Turkey
This resort destination collaborated with WhiteWater to add 13 new water slides this year, most of which are attached to two large slide tower structures.
The new additions ranged from body slides, tube slides and even large family raft slides, as well an assortment of new slides for smaller guests.
7 RiverRacers & more kids’ rides at Soak City at Kings Island – Ohio, USA
The park added RiverRacers this season, a dual-racing water coaster from WhiteWater, said to be the first of its kind in Ohio. It features a water jet propulsion system behind the side-by-side racing that ends with a gravity-defying finale drop.
Soak City also sent some love to the smaller guests with an expanded kids play area featuring seven new slides into a new area called Splash River Junction.
8 Volcanic Wedgeee at Wet ‘n Wild Hawaii – Hawaii, USA
The water park in the middle of the tropical Hawaiian paradise of Oahu opened a brand-new waterslide this season called Volcanic Wedgeee, from WhiteWater.
Guests slide through a “volcano” from a 65 foot slide tower, passing through flashing lights and the volcanic rumbling sound effects all the way to the bottom.
9 Splash Island at Hurricane Harbor – Texas, USA
A major new water fortress attraction was added to the popular Texas water park, featuring a 1,000-gallon dumping bucket and seven new small family slides attached to the structure.
If that wasn’t enough, six additional micro-slides were added in a nearby kiddie area for the park’s smallest guests to enjoy.
10 Okana Resort and Waterpark – Oklahoma, USA
An all-new competitor has entered the indoor water park resort competition, this time in Oklahoma City, which welcomed the new Okana Resort & Indoor Waterpark in Spring 2025.
Built at a smaller scale than what you might see from the industry giants like Great Wolf or Kalahari, the resort also features a large outdoor beach pool, several outdoor slides and water play areas, a wellness spa for the adults, sports simulator bays as well as a variety of bars and restaurants.
Suppliers include Aquatic Development Group and ProSlide.
11 SuperSplash USA – Missouri, USA
The former Big Surf water park in Missouri underwent several million dollars in renovations and reopened in 2025 as SuperSplash USA.
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It features a new mat racer slide named Parriot’s Plunge, the Adventure Island water sprayground for the kiddies, 8-Person Royal Cabanas to rent and a shady adults only retreat area called Key Largo Landing where the grown ups can enjoy an refreshing adult beverage, chill in a hammock for a spell or catch a little sports on a big screen.
12 Wildwater Kingdom at Dorney Park – Pennsylvania, USA
The popular water park upgraded two of the park’s oldest slides this season, Lightning Falls and Cascade. Each now features new WhiteWater AquaLucent tube sections, creating striking visual effects for the sliders.
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13 Thermos dos Laranjais – Olimpia, Brazil
This one is only ranked here because it has not yet been completed, but the project looks extremely impressive. A striking new slide tower, Nações, features two separate multi-person raft slides that will run through a number of WhiteWater’s most impressive features.
The attraction itself is named in tribute to the park’s founder who was of Italian heritage. As such, the two slides will be named Italy and Brazil, each slide proudly featuring the color of each national flag.
The Italy side will feature tail spins, mega drops and end with a giant Galaxy Bowl element. The Brazil side will an Orbiter element, some Master Blaster water coaster style hills and end with an impressive Anaconda element.
Image credit Marco Aurelio Esparz, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
There is much more to look forward to around the world in 2026, as well as even more projects that have yet to be announced. Stay tuned!
