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Park Hoppin
Octopus’s Garden With Paul Ruben
I’d like to be under the sea In an octopus’s garden in the shade...
“O
ctopus’s Garden” is a song written and sung by Ringo Starr from the Beatles’ 1969 album Abbey Road. Following October’s World Waterpark Association Trade Show, I was inspired to get
wet by park hoppin’ the waterparks of Orlando. My first two stops were at SeaWorld’s Aquatica and Universal’s Volcano Bay
waterparks. My favorite attraction at each park was the fast and turbulent lazy rivers. But here’s my problem. I like to be in the water, not on the water. If you sit on the big tubes to float on the river you barely get your butt wet. A good solution would be to have a thin tube or an under-inflated tube to float on. Volcano Bay provided life jackets, and these worked well, even better if there had been one my size. My next stop, SeaWorld’s Discovery Cove, had life jackets and better yet,
provided vinyl covered foam noodles by Texas Rec, about 55 inches (1.4 m) long. They provided just the right amount of buoyancy as I floated around their river. But I still longed to be in the octopus’s garden, or at least under water. Again,
Discovery Cove had the answer with Sea Venture. Sea Venture is the park’s name for Sea Trek by Jim Mayfield’s Sub Sea Systems. It’s a guided underwater walking tour of their Grand Reef. I wore a dive helmet and felt right at home under the sea, pictured here with my fishy friends. Needless to say, I later had one for dinner, washed down with one or more adult beverages. But I digress. After climbing down a ladder to set foot on the reef floor I came
eye-to-eye with sharks through an eight foot (2.4 m) tall, 21 foot (6 m) long panoramic window. During the journey, I had one-on-one experiences with unique animals, schools of fish and velvety rays. The adventure ended with schools of fish feeding around me with the massive open reef as the backdrop. It was my very own octopus’s garden, but with no octopi. As much as I enjoyed Sea Trek, during the trade show I learned Sub Sea
Systems has something even more intriguing ready to roll out. It’s called Aquaticar. Imagine you’re at a waterpark, approaching an attraction where futuristic vehicles are ascending out of a lagoon. Guests are unloading from the vehicles, while new riders climb in, two at a time. You take a seat and a clear canopy pivots into position over your head and shoulders. Your vehicle moves onto a gently sloping ramp and descends into a flourishing underwater environment. For the next few minutes you are transported into another world moving past a colorful reef, an abandoned shipwreck, darting fish, and perhaps even an octopus’s garden. This is the Aquaticar experience. If you build it I will come.
4
January 2018
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