Waldameer's Water World launches another expansion in 2026

AT: Jeffrey Seifert

jseifert@amusementtoday.com

ERIE, Pa. — This past June Waldameer’s Water World opened Presque Isle Plunge and Big Water Bend, a two-slide complex from ProSlide Technology of Ottawa, Ontario. The park also added a new endless river, Winding Waters.

The two slides were built as part of an expansive water park transformation project that cost over $12 million. It is the biggest investment in the park’s history, and it comes just a few years after the opening of RocketBlast, a $9 million ProSlide water coaster. That addition earned Waldameer a Golden Ticket Award for the Best New Water Park Ride of 2023. Just a few years prior, the water park debuted Rally Racer, a massive six-lane mat-racer also from ProSlide.

Both of the new-for-2026 slides utilize specially designed five-person cloverleaf-style rafts from Z-Pro, allowing guests to enjoy the excitement together, as well as giving a boost to the water park’s overall capacity. The rafts are conveniently brought to the top of the tower via a conveyor system that both slides share. The two slide-complex replaces a previous tower that held multiple slides including a pair of open-air body slides that had been at the park since 1987. One of those removed slides was also called Presque Isle Plunge. The two body slides were from Waterforms Inc., a fiberglass fabricator that supplied flumes and slides in the 1980s. Those two body slides were the first two waterslides at Water World when it opened in 1987. Two inner tube slides from 1989 were also removed to make way for the new attraction.

Presque Isle Plunge incorporates a TornadoWave 60. The ride begins with a tight helix through an enclosed tube punctuated with special lighting effects. Upon exiting the helix, the top opens up and thrill seekers plunge down a steep drop and into the tornado wave, where they experience a brief moment of weightlessness before diving back down from the wave wall and into the splash pool. ProSlide’s TornadoWave made its debut in 2011 and is famous for its engineered curved wall that has rafts following a predictable, sweeping, zero-G arch. It was awarded an IAAPA brass ring award for Best New Water Ride in 2014.

Big Water Bend is a next-generation ProSlide Mammoth family raft slide built alongside the new Presque Isle Plunge. It features a combination of enclosed tunnels and open flumes, sending riders through tight spirals and unexpected dips. Rider’s are surprised when near the end of the slide, the enclosed flume becomes a tight helix that is completely clear all the way around. The ProSlide Mammoth, introduced in 1990, has been one of ProSlide’s top-selling attractions. This newest generation takes advantage of dark and translucent sections to provide fun visuals as riders transverse the course.

Both slides have weight restrictions for the rafts, with a group scale simply displaying a go, or no-go situation. On Big Water Bend the maximum combined weight is 875 pounds. Presque Isle Plunge is a little more restrictive with a combined limit of 700 pounds, or an average of 140 pounds per rider. Obviously five full -grown adults are likely to be over the limit, but a family with a mix of adults and children should be fine.

For those seeking a more tranquil experience, Waldameer also opened Winding Waters, a slow-moving curvy, continuous river from Wet Engineering of Jacksonville, Fla. that includes a new beach entry making it more accessible to guests. Guests on inner tubes pass around and through multiple water features and even a squirting frog, all provided by Rain Drop Products from Ashland, Ohio. The new river replaces the original lazy river that opened with the park in 1987.

Steve Gorman, president and CEO of Water World told AT, “I feel that we have grown Water World into a first-class water park that is an important complement to Waldameer’s amusement attractions. Water World is the main reason that we have increased our season pass membership.

“In the past 12 years, we have invested $19 million into Water World. Our 2026 addition of $12 million replaces our lazy river and several original water slides. The two new ProSlide family raft slides increase rider capacity significantly and offer a new type of slide to our guests, both important reasons for selecting that design. We also knew from experience that ProSlide would deliver an exciting, quality product.”

Waldameer, one of the longest-running parks in the United States, dates back to 1896 when it opened as a popular picnic spot for the Erie Electric trolley line. The park added Water World in 1987 with two body slides, a lazy river and a children’s water play area.