PortAventura expands water park with Europe's highest free fall slide
PortAventura theme park in Salou, Spain, has re-opened its Costa Caribe Aquatic Park for the 2013 season with a new addition, King Khajuna - a 12-storey high toboggan of 333.7 ft (31m) with a 55-degree descent at a speed of six metres per second.
The aquatic park expansion, which is part of PortAventura's 70m euro (£59.9m, UD$90.3m) development strategy to become the best European family holiday destination, cost 11.6m euro (£10m, UD$15.6m). It includes an additional 14,000sq m (150,695 sq ft) of new facilities suitable for a variety of ages.
The re-opening of the 50,000sq m (538,196sq ft) water park kicked off the 2013 season and included a display from Spain?s national ladies synchronised swimming team. Sychronised swimmer Paula Klamburg was the first to try out King Khajuna and said it was, "an indescribable sensation".
The aquatic park now incorporates 16 attractions and slides, 8,500sq m (91,493sq ft) of water, and 5,000sq m (53,820sq ft) of green areas with more than 50 species of plants and palms of the Caribbean and a new snack bar.
Next to King Khajuna is the new Ciclón Tropical, a 215ft (20m) high multi bump slide with two steep drops.
In another part of the park is Rapid Race, a new a six-lane toboggan for both children and adults. Visitors lie on a mat and splash down a range of steep falls.
Central to the redevelopment is Sesamo Beach children's swimming pool, which has two depths of 50 cm and 30 cm, for younger children. Its main feature is the Galeon Pirata pirate ship filled with Sesame Street characters, and four water slides. Nearby in the lower depth pool, there is a Splash Pad play area with interactive with water jets.
Connected to the children's swimming pool is a deeper pool with various depth levels and a waterfall. This area has been designed for swimming and also for relaxation with shallow water beds with bubbling water effects.