by FLIPDUDE » Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:21 pm
Hey everyone!
Those of you who have read a bunch of my posts on the site know how big of עrievance I have with most Israeli amusement parks (mostly because they're owned by the same company or they're too small to care about). One of the single exceptions to this rule is Yamit 2000 waterspark. It is a waterspark(that's what they insist on calling it) in the city of Holon that I have been visiting since I was a little kid, back when it had 3 magor slides. Now it has about 14 (Though it advertises it as 20 because one of them is a multi-lane slide...), and quite frankly I just keep loving the park more and more as time goes on. For three reasons:
1) It is one of the only parks in Israel that has rides that even come close to a global standard (and in some cases exceed it, seeing how the ride has a couple of unique things to it).
2) The wonderful service. I don't mean the ride ops, which are you regular underpaid chavs, I mean the gracious managment that listens to yo and takes care of problems. And even if they don't - they make it look like they are to make sure you enjoy your stay. LAst time we were there a slide was scratching my back, and as a general rule you're not allowed to slide with a shirt on - so I tod the manager, and he told the ride op let me wear the shirt on the slide. Also - a friend of mine forgot her swimsuit at home, so they got her a pair of swimming shorts from the lost and found so she can enjoy herself. Granted, it's a little gross but it beats the alternative of telling her "tough luck" and have her sit out all day. The absolute pinnacle of good service for me, though, was when I sent a long email full of notes and suggestions to the park manager, and he PERSONALLY CALLED me to comment on the email and, without me even prompting him, tell me all about his future plans for the park!!! (Among which was the area which is under construction int he photos below). Apparently he's also considering to put in over the next year or two (or three) a looping waterslide(though i am trying to convince him a proslide rocket is a better way to go), and a lazy river that has waves going around it. he also told me some more long term plans but those I'll keep to myself for now.
(Just for comparison to other Israeli parks - Luna Park el Aviv YELLED at me to get the heck away from the park while I was standing OUTSIDE of it, simply because they thought I MIGHT have a camera in my backpack, which I might use to photograph the new rollercoaster which was already significantly visible from the outside of the park)
3) It's open 364 days a year (with the exception of Yom Kippur, where nobody works or drives)
Well, enough ranting. to make a long story short:
I've been telling the park manager about how I Work as a cartoonist and would love to draw a park map if he ever needs one. So now that the new children's play area is under construction he agreed! His secretary sent me some aerial photos of the park, and invited me for a behind the scenes look at the construction taking place! The park is open year round but since its off-season, only a very small section of it was operational, so it was like walking through a closed park.
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- Off the bus and looking a the park! Whee! Always so exciting to see the slides tower off in the distance.
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- The park's trademark roof over the indoor section, which is the original part of the park.
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- The view from the entrance to the office and gym area over the indoor section. I remember the roof being different, though. more canvasy. Always gave this section of the park a beige hue.
The small bucket structure on the right is new since I was last here. In it's place there used to be a small artificial mountain with what can only be described as a steep slip n' slide on one of its sides. It was fun but it always hurt a bit to finish sliding down it.
At the right edge of the park is the cafeteria, which is hands down the bst cafeteria at any Israei park.
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- On our way down the park manager's secretary took me through a backdoor passageway for employees only tha goes through the spa area and out to the area overlooking the relatively new section of the park with the space bowl (my favorite ride in the park), family racing slides, and most unique of all -the banana jump slides. they're about 3ft long and end in a mid air vertical drop
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- This seemingly boring indoor section, which is the firstarea of the park, was the pinnacle of thrill for me when I was a little kid and came here with summer camp. approximately %85 ofall the kis at camp would be standing in line for that huge red slide at any given point in time. Its hard to tell form the picture, but that slide is the largest(diameter-wise) body slide I've ever seen.
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- The ONLY thing that could tear people away from the slide was this - the vortex. To date it's still a ver unique ride, only found in very few parks around the world. Basically, it's an elevated jaccuzi(where we would usually sit and splash water at people below), and around it's base is a narrow corridor going in a circle with heavy currents that basically carry you around weather you want it or not(like a powrful lazy river) As kids we'd either let the currents carry us or try to brave he strength to walk against the current. It's real simple but if I ever own a park you bet I'm getting myself one of these babis.
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- The corridor that leads to the indoor slide area. The park's first magor world-class expansion.
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- The indoor slides are great for people wanting to it the waterpark in the off-season, there's heating everywhere, and they dont have any outdoor open areas. They lso don't end in a pool, but in these narrow troughs that always create a huge splash.
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- As a mapmaker, I was trying to get shots that are more informative tan they a re pretty.
The indoor lside tower has 3 slides - Black hole, a black body slide with a little light show flashing around you as you go down. A very popular attraction that I'm personally not oto fond of
Amazonas - the only inner tube slide in the park. I don't know what it is with american parks and inner tube slides, but most Israeli parks only have one or two of them.
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- And my personal favorite- the... uuuh... green one.
It's a narrow radius body slide which is pretty steep and goes in a helix. None of thes slides are praticularly tall or long, but if I use my method for speed sliding on this one it pulls some G forces I'm used to only feeling on rollercoasters, and splashing so much water on my way down that I hve to hold my breath because I can't breathe.
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- The REALLY new slide tower. Well, the tower itself isn't new, it used to house two of the park's three original waterslides (one of which was borng, but the other one I was really sad to see go because it was really unique), but now it hosts two speed slides and two slalom slides. Which is a goo thing because I think that's EXACTLY what the park needed when it built them.
The speed slides dont have much of a slow-down area before they hit the pool. It's like being fired out of a cannon. Sometimes it even feels like you're skipping like a rock.
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- The park's new mascot next to some chilling construction workers.
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- It was really weird seeing this area with the pools drained. Made me want to climb into the slides and walk around.
More photos coming up in a bit!
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Last edited by
FLIPDUDE on Wed Mar 30, 2011 1:13 pm.
