DreamWorks Water Park
DreamWorks Water Park is an indoor water park within the American Dream shopping and entertainment complex, at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States. The park opened on October 1, 2020. The water park includes 1 water slides and 15 attractions, and covers . History. The American Dream shopping mall was first proposed as Meadowlands Mills in 1994. The mall, later renamed Meadowlands Xanadu, was nearly complete in 2009 when construction stopped due to a lack of funding. In 2011, the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority formalized an agreement with Triple Five Group , which assumed ownership of the mall and renamed it "American Dream". The revised mall plans included an amusement park and a water park. DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg announced in July 2012 that some of the amusement attractions would be themed upon DreamWorks productions. In September 2016, Triple Five announced that the indoor amusement park space would be occupied by Nickelodeon Universe, and that DreamWorks Animation would work in partnership to develop the water park. Triple Five stated in June 2018 that the water park would open in the end of 2019. By November 2018, the mall's vice president  of Communications announced that the water park would open in September 2019. However, by that date, DreamWorks Water Park's opening had been delayed to November 27, 2019. In October 2019, surfers began testing the wave pool. Six days before the scheduled opening, Triple Five announced that they were postponing the water park opening again due to undisclosed reasons. On February 25, 2020, the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs announced that 18 of the 27 rides at the park had been inspected and approved for opening. Of the other nine, four had completed engineering review and were ready for  inspection, and the last five rides were still in engineering review. On February 27, 2020, DreamWorks Water Park announced an opening date of March 19, 2020. However, due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Jersey, its opening was delayed once again. On September 3, 2020, American Dream announced the new opening date for the waterpark, which opened along with the rest of the mall on October 1, 2020. On October 1, 2020, DreamWorks Water Park officially opened. Attractions. DreamWorks Water Park occupies six stories adjacent to Nickelodeon Universe American Dream. According to the mall's organizers, DreamWorks  Water Park is the largest indoor water park in the United States, at . There are 1 water slides and about 15 attractions themed toward specific DreamWorks franchises. Specific areas include an area themed around Shrek's Soggy Swamp, a "Kung Fu Panda"-themed children's play area called the Kung Fu Panda Zone, and a "Madagascar"-themed tower called Madagascar Rain Forest with 15 water slides. All of the park's water slides were exclusively developed by ProSlide Technology, a Canadian company. A lazy river runs through some Shrek themed Scenery. Inside is a , indoor wave pool. DreamWorks Water Park also contains  a set of dueling slides, the world's second-tallest body slides, starting from a height of and featuring a free fall. Another attraction is a "hydro-magnetic roller coaster called Toothless Trickling Torpedo " and a Proslide KrakenRACER mat racer slide called Dragon Racers. Dragon Racers and Toothless Trickeling Torpedo are the only rides in DreamWorks Waterpark that are themed towards the "How to Train Your Dragon" franchise. The park includes a six-story funnel slide and an eight-lane racing slide. There are also 31 luxury cabanas within DreamWorks Water Park. These were built to plans by interior designer  Jonathan Adler, a native New Jerseyan. Themed decorations include balloons of Shrek and Donkey from the "Shrek" movie franchise, and Alex and Marty from the "Madagascar" movie franchise.. Characters such as Shrek, Puss In Boots, Alex the Lion, King Julien, the Penguins of Madagascar, Po, and Poppy and Branch from "Trolls", make daily appearances at the water park.