Unique water coaster (that’s more coaster than water) announced for 2026
A launched water coaster will open in 2026 at Freizeitpark Plohn in Germany from manufacturer Mack Rides. Would you ride this?
Multi-launch water coaster
Mack Rides will build a new water coaster for Freizeitpark Plohn in Lengenfield, Germany. The ride is expected to open in 2026, and will blend water ride canals with roller coaster tracks into one experience. Mack announced the attraction on Sept. 25, 2024 at IAAPA Expo Europe.
While the ride seems to be the first of its kind in some way, the parameters are unclear. Mack’s social media post hailed, “Exciting news! Freizeitpark Plohn will launch the world’s first water coaster in 2026.”
The upcoming ride is hardly the world’s first water coaster — Mack itself has has already built several of them, proudly displayed on a dedicated page of the manufacturer’s website (including Skatteøen at Djurs Sommerland in Denmark and Poseidon at Europa-Park in Germany). Journey to Atlantis at SeaWorld parks in America also comes to mind.
In any case, Freizeitpark Plohn’s website clarifies, calling the upcoming Mack ride “the world’s first water coaster with a MIL [multi linear induction] motor launch” as well as “the world’s first multi-launch water coaster.”
Image courtesy of Freizeitpark Plohn
What’s in a name?
The theme park industry is a bit inconsistent in its nomenclature pertaining to water attractions. Whereas Mack Rides calls the upcoming Freizeitpark Plohn attraction a water coaster, that term is often used to describe what more closely resembles a slide at a water park whose rafts are propelled along the slide path by jets or magnets.
Though many would consider Krakatau at Universal Volcano Bay in Orlando, Fla. to align with that definition of a water coaster, Universal calls the attraction an “aqua coaster.”
Earlier this year, SeaWorld San Antonio in Texas opened Catapult Falls, a ride the park hailed as “the world’s first launched flume coaster,” differing from the launch-less traditional log flume (like Tiana’s Bayou Adventure).
Come 2025, Wiegand.waterrides will introduce the world’s first “slide coaster” onboard the Norwegian Aqua cruise ship. The slide coaster will contain a mechanism called a catch car, which will guide the riders’ rafts along a lift hill and launch them into the remainder of the water slide path.
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