Doha’s only water theme park has lined up some
real soaking in for Eid celebration. By Anand Holla
At Aqua Park on Salwa Road, Qatar’s fiery summer heat – pardon the cliché for the sake of rhyme – beats a hasty retreat. As the country’s only water theme park dips into Eid al-Fitr celebrations with a pirate-themed event scheduled for five consecutive days, starting from the first day of Eid, you may want to enjoy a chill outing with your family or friends.
To get a sense of the atmosphere and frolic at Aqua Park – a 50,000 sq m property located around 15km from the Industrial Area roundabout – Community took a swig of the action over the weekend. Grown-ups were seen jumping and squealing like kids, while the kids got to be themselves as they had a ball at the children activity pool featuring multi-coloured slides, and at the African village that had animal-shaped slides and mushroom showers.
For those not in the mood for any of the dozen-odd water rides, there’s the option of lounging around in family pools and grabbing some juice and snacks too. One notch above that are the wave pools, which feature six different patterns and intensities of artificial waves with a constant flow of breaking waves for 10 minutes on a trot.
Another slow, relaxing attraction is the lazy river where once you plonk yourself on a tube, you can literally go with the flow on a 200m water circuit that also features a tiny tunnel and a tinier waterfall. Slide landing pools, which basically are long, winding, open and closed body slides, are terrific starter options for the bigger rides.
The real deal though is the set of three rides that exploit your adrenaline rush in varying and largely satisfying degrees. Boomerango is the biggest draw for its four-storey-high water slide that’s got more twists and turns than a thriller flick. Spiraling down inside the near-dark tube, the curves send you into a flurry of swift, Formula One-like turns until you emerge up a ramp, and then zip down again, to land into a pool with a big splash.
Space boat is almost as exhilarating but perhaps a little more fun. In this colourful ride, you experience an exciting drop from a 20m high tower through the tube that ends in a large bowl of water. The multi-lane slide is recommended for those keen on challenging others to a race.
The four-lane water slide features three enjoyable bumps along the way, which you can leverage smartly to gain more speed and steer into the finish line.
The Aqua Park’s claim that it offers something for every kind of thrill-seeker seems like a valid one. In fact, it would be hard to not have a good time once one enters the amusement park. The only hitch is the lack of a system in place to get the big water floats transported up onto the three and four-storey high starting points of the rides. That’s because trudging all the way back up for every ride becomes somewhat tedious after a couple of rounds.
For five days, starting from Eid, the park will hold even more activities from 3pm to 9.30pm. Children can take a shot at water ball racing, an activity where they can climb into a large inflatable plastic sphere that they can steer across the water between bars and cones, or test their throwing skills in a ‘Pirates Battle’ game, where they must get the balls inside the canon holes of the pirate ship to win.
Other attractions include wet sponge throwing, face painting, and a large bouncy castle.
In his statement on the event, Aqua Park Qatar’s General Manager, Mohamed Firdaus Raj, said, “Every once in a while, we find different ways to be inclusive of the public by organising special events that cater to our guests’ wants and needs. We wanted to welcome the hot temperatures with open arms by organising this fun and unique way for families to cool off and enjoy our park’s attractions while spending some time together.”
A total of 160,000 people visited Aqua Park in 2013. This year, they are expecting a crowd of 170,000.
