Guide to Thrill Island & Category 6 Waterpark on Icon of the Seas
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The Twister Waterslide is one of the fastest you’ll find at sea, or indeed on land. Speedway Splash, meanwhile, is a racing slide featuring awesome lighting effects. Then there’s the DrainPipe, which swirls riders round in circles at the end. There’s no better way to cool off on a hot day than with the PowerDrencher – a huge bucket of water which tips down from above.
Royal Caribbean’s slides, H2O Zone and Splashaway Bay
Cruise ship water parks are incredibly popular, so much so that almost every new family-focused cruise ship has one. With features such as swimming pools, splash areas, water slides, fountains and spray jets, there’s so much to keep kids of all ages busy. Splash zones are great because children in swimming nappies aren’t allowed in any pool or hot tub on any cruise ship for hygiene reasons. So, a toddler splash zone is an ideal way for little ones to cool off on a hot day. Read on to find out more about the best cruise ship water parks and slides.
Norwegian Epic
From an early age, children display an unmistakable fondness for splashing around in the water -- which is why cruise ship water parks have become fabulous features for the younger set. Royal Caribbean started adding water parks to select ships in 2006 with the H2O Zone, which first debuted on Freedom of the Seas. Ten years later, in 2016, the line changed up the design and launched Splashaway Bay on Harmony of the Seas; it's now been added to five more ships. While both interactive aquatic playgrounds share a few elements, they are more different than alike. The top-deck WaterWorks setup varies by ship, but includes a variety of sprayers, fountains, a giant dump bucket and water slides.
The Perfect Storm – Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas and Harmony of the Seas
MSC Preziosa boasts the Vertigo slide, a 120-metre-long tube slide which includes a transparent section which goes over the side of the ship. This is a fast one, with guests travelling at over 6 metres per second. You’ll also find a great kids waterpark on the deck below, with tipping buckets, climbing areas and small slides for little ones. Located inside the ship’s funnel surround it has a good amount of shade from the sun and features a shallow pool, fountains, spray nozzles, mini slides and a giant water bucket.
Making a Splash: Royal Caribbean’s Category 6 Waterpark
The name “Category 6” is a playful nod to the intensity of hurricanes, and the waterpark lives up to this with six record-breaking slides that promise to deliver a rush of adrenaline. Split between two different slide towers, this area offers a variety of fun family slides. Located four stories above the pool decks at the top of the ship, The Epic Plunge takes waterslide lovers on a 200-foot journey with or without an inner tube, before swirling you around. For example, the Flowrider on other ships has a 52″ minimum to ride. And waterslides on other Royal Caribbean ships see minimums of 48″ tall. Crown’s EdgeA completely new feature aboard Icon, you can think of Crown’s Edge as a ropes course that’s taken to a whole other level.
Guide to Thrill Island & Category 6 Waterpark on Icon of the Seas
Nearby are the Flowrider, Adrenaline Peak climbing wall, and Crown’s Edge attraction. Crown's Edge is a fear-inducing adventure course that's about 49 feet tall and 44 feet wide. It combines a ropes course, skywalk, and thrill ride into one jaw-dropping experience. This daring waterslide starts like any other waterslide but then propels you into a bowl where you’ll loop and spin before racing down into the pool below. Disney Cruises are always a good time for the young and young at heart and they have pools, slides and play areas designed for all ages. Choose a ship with Splashaway Bay if you've got older kids (say 8 to 15), as the slides and tipping bucket will be more interesting to them than running under a bright red and blue, mushroom-shaped water fountain.
Aqua Park (MSC Cruises)
However, the discounts we’ve seen aren’t that much (just a few dollars), so it seems worth it to book the entire day if you plan to visit. Before going any further, let’s first give you the lay of the land. As you arrive at CocoCay, you’ll see the entire island spread out before you. But there will be one feature that literally stands out above anything else. While we have everything to know about CocoCay here, we wanted to spend some time focusing on one of the biggest draws of island — Thrill Waterpark.
Carnival Cruises are synonymous with fun, and almost every ship in the Carnival fleet features the WaterWorks water park. Although the exact configuration varies by ship, you generally expect at least one big slide and a splash area. Although it’s not a water slide, the Ultimate Abyss on-board Harmony of the Seas deserves a mention. This is a huge slide which zooms riders down ten decks from the back of the ship. Many Royal Caribbean ships also feature the FlowRider surfing simulator which is very popular with teenagers.
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Truth be told, young kids (those under about six years old) won’t get a ton from the waterpark. The minimum height for slides is 40″… and that’s just for one slide. Thrill Waterpark is a separate section of CocoCay that’s a full-fledged waterpark complete with towering slides, a wave pool, obstacle course pool and more.
We noticed that the later the afternoon went on, the fewer people seemed to be in the park. During the mid-to-late afternoon you were able to hop from slide to slide without almost no waits at all. Just like the rest of CocoCay, you don’t have to go far if you need a restroom or want a fresh water shower. Thrill Waterpark has both men’s and women’s showers, and restrooms right by the lockers. So if you want to rinse off and change before you head back to the ship, then you can.
The Perfect Storm is a group of three water slides which are found on-board Liberty of the Seas, Harmony of the Seas, Symphony of the Seas and Adventure of the Seas, although it’s not the same three slides on each ship. Riders sit on ‘slideboards’, which have buttons on them to press in time to the flashing lights to score points. As if that wasn’t enough, there are a further two fast racing slides with clear sections over the side of the ship and an open spiral slide. One of the rules on the waterslides in the park is that no shoes are allowed. While we worried that the sand would feel hot, even in the middle of the afternoon it wasn’t too warm on our feet walking from place to place.
On Norwegian Breakaway, the lineup includes twin free-fall slides that drop passengers nearly straight down several stories; two side-by-side twisting racer slides; and a family-friendly slide with a more modest drop. One of the Carnival water parks, on the line's 5-year-old Carnival Horizon, even has Disney-style theming revolving around Dr. Seuss characters. But as early as 1978, at least one line was spicing up its Lido decks with a little waterslide fun — little being the operative word. That's the year Carnival added a single slide into the pool on its 728-passenger Festivale — a slide so small it's now hilarious to think it was touted as an attraction. Royal Caribbean also plans a record six waterslides on its next new ship, Icon of the Seas, which is scheduled to debut in January 2024. The newest of the primo slides Disney offers is onboard Disney Wish, where Aqua Mouse starts with a story on screens inside the beginning of the 760-foot two-seater tube ride.
Hurricane Hunter is a family raft slide that can seat four people per tube. That’s right; Royal Caribbean managed to pack a large-format waterslide on a cruise ship (technically two if you read below). Hurricane Hunter is a mostly enclosed tube and will send your family through 425 feet of twists and turns.
This thrill ride takes cruisers out over the edge of the ship on Disney Magic on a 20-foot curve after the floor falls away like a trap door and you begin your nearly 40-foot ascension to the top deck. A memorable splash finale occurs after you plummet 212 feet through a translucent tube. Put simply, you can think of Thrill Island as a full theme park aboard Icon of the Seas. Whereas on some cruise ships this area might house a pool or open space for lounge chairs, Royal Caribbean has turned it into a complete destination. Two MSC Cruises ships — MSC Seashore and MSC World Europa — even have virtual reality waterslides that involve riders wearing virtual reality headsets as part of the experience. You'll typically find the biggest Carnival water park complexes on the newest Carnival ships, such as Mardi Gras, Celebration and Carnival Venezia.
The Epic Plunge begins four stories above the pool deck and features a 200-feet long flume which you can choose to ride with or without a tube. At the end of the slide is a huge bowl which you’ll swirl round and round before exiting at the bottom. While the configuration of waterworks may vary, it is offered on the majority of its ships….and it’s not just for kids, either. On North America-based MSC Seaside, the Aqua Park has four waterslides and a children's play area with interactive water features. The waterslides include two massive, 525-foot-long dueling slides that extend over the sides of the ship. The top of the Aqua Park on MSC Seaside is also home to the liftoff point for a zip line that soars 344 feet across the top of the vessel.
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