Friday 18th February 2011
Spread across an area of 110,000 square metres, the polar- themed water park features world's largest man- made water fall and the largest rain dance pool apart from a raft of unique attractions including 50 exhilarating water slides and rides.
Managed by Polo RAK Amusement, a joint venture between India's Polo Amusement Group, RAK Properties PJSC and RAK Investment Authority, the $100m Ice Land Water Park marks the first phase of the 125 acre WOW RAK Theme Park, a multi-part family entertainment destination scheduled for completion in 2012.
Ice Land Water Park is the first phase of WOW RAK, which is working to become the complete family entertainment getaway. The second phase includes a shopping mall designed to offer a rich entertainment experience which includes multiplex theatres, “four dimensional” theatre, and an ice-skating rink. The Planet Earth amusement park, which is to include five themed zones (cosmos, oceanic, Amazon, mountain and desert) each featuring a signature ride besides other attractions.
Ice Land Water Park is themed as a new home-land of penguins, visitors encounter an icy, wintry landscape as they make their entry through the man-made mountain guarding the park entrance. Misty water sprays fills the air from the 100,000 gallons of water splashing down every minute from the 120- metre high Penguin Falls. Visitors will have the company of 1500 artificial penguins dotting the polar- themed landscape as they check out various water attractions, including an Olympic- sized swimming pool, a 600- metre long Lazy River that winds its way through exciting caverns and a regular- size aqua soccer field with soft turf and rain showers.
Balwant Singh Chawla, Managing Director, Polo RAK Amusement LLC, said that the project has been implemented as per international standards set by the World Water Parks Association. The entire park has been carpeted with synthetic turf to prevent accidental slips and falls and around 120 trained life guards would be stationed across the park to ensure visitor safety. He added that the 15000 cubic metres of water that fills the park's pools would be circulated every two hours using advanced filtration system to maintain highest water quality standards. There are a lot of water parks in the world but theme water parks are very few, he also commented.
Ice Land Water Park is equipped with a full set of in-house utilities, including 4 megawatt power generation, a water desalination plant capable of producing 525,000 gallons a day and water filtration systems to maintain the 4 million gallons of pool water, to ensure uninterrupted enjoyment to the visitors.
Other attractions of the water park include Coral Reef, which offers real-life snorkeling experience in a manmade coral reef complete with live fish; and the Tundra Baths, forerunners of the modern-day spas and Jacuzzis that carry with them a legacy of therapeutic powers of hydro massage. There is also the Kids Cove, a dedicated play area for the toddlers with shallow waters, 12 miniature slides and a sand pit.
6,000 guests can boogie down at Penguin Bay in the 2,800-square-metre rain dance pool, an outdoor disco showers guests with water.
Designed to accommodate up to 10,000 visitors, the Ice Land Water Park also provides a complete range of food and beverage choices to visitors, including food court outlets, buffet and ala carte dining options and platter foods.
Executives are optimistic that Ice Land, one hour from Dubai and just 30 minutes from Umm al Qaiwain’s Dreamland Aqua Park, will attract tourists in the thousands from around the world.
You’ll find Iceland Water Park on the E11, opening times currently are 11:00 am to 8:00 pm Sunday to Wednesday and 11:00 am to 9:00 pm Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The park promises be open 365 days with extended times during peak holiday seasons.
