Cruise & Ferry Review - Autumn/Winter 2020

1 9 9 INTERV IEW Innovative onboard fun Rebecca Gibson asks Diego Reckmann how water slides and aqua parks from wiegand.waterrides are helping cruise brands to deliver immersive onboard entertainment B rightly coloured and exhilarating, the innovative water slides, spray parks, aqua parks and stainless-steel dry slides from German manufacturer wiegand.waterrides have been delighting guests on cruise ships for many years. “We’re proud to have provided our innovative water attractions to almost every cruise brand, including AIDA Cruises, Dream Cruises and Royal Caribbean International,” says Diego Reckmann, project manager at wiegand.waterrides. “We manufacture all the parts in-house to ensure we can provide products that are perfectly customised to customers’ specific individual requirements and meet all necessary safety requirements.” However, installing these water attractions can be challenging. “We’re often faced with tight project timelines and very limited space onboard the ships,” says Reckmann. “But, thanks to the skills, expertise and flexibility of our qualified staff, we’re renowned for always overcoming these obstacles to deliver high-quality installations on time and within budget. For example, we were able to install five slides in an incredibly short period of time during a revitalisation onboard Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas.” Noting that wiegand.waterrides is working on a growing number of ship refurbishment projects each year, Reckmann says that water slides and coasters are becoming increasingly popular with cruise guests. “Our water attractions provide cruise guests with quality experiences that take them on an emotional journey and enable them to create unforgettable memories,” he explains. “We’re using high-tech gadgets to make our water slides more immersive, and we’ll soon be adding new features to our slides to make them more breathtaking than ever. Our goal is to bring our interactive suspended coaster, or the all-new linear induction motor-powered Coaster Kart, onto ships in the very near future.” CFR “Our water attractions provide cruise guests with quality experiences” Water slides from wiegand.waterrides being air-lifted from the dock to be installed onboard cruise ships