Gold medallist Rebecca Adlington OBE opens new water ride at Center Parcs Sherwood Forest

Two-time Olympic gold medallist swimming champion, Rebecca Adlington, helped unveil a new family water ride at Center Parcs Sherwood Forest with the help of children from the Sherwood Colliery Swimming Club this morning.

The ride is the fourth of its kind to be introduced to Center Parcs, with Elveden Forest, Woburn Forest and Longleat Forest unveiling new water rides and water play areas in their respective Subtropical Swimming Paradises in the last four years. The rides have been a big hit, with thousands of guests taking to rafts and gliding down the ride with family each day.

The Tropical Cyclone ride is just one part of a £15million investment project in Sherwood Forest’s Subtropical Swimming Paradise, which also includes new family and toddler water play areas, so there is something for all ages.

Martin Dalby, Center Parcs' CEO, said: “We’re absolutely delighted to be opening this unique and exhilarating family raft ride, Tropical Cyclone, at Sherwood Forest this spring, along with new family and toddler water play areas for guests of all ages to enjoy. Families will often spend a whole day in the Subtropical Swimming Paradise, enjoying the pools and slides, so it’s important for us to keep this feature fresh and interesting. I know our guests will love these exciting new features at our Nottinghamshire village this year!”

Rebecca Adlington OBE said: “It has been a pleasure to open this new ride at Center Parcs Sherwood Forest today and meet some of the children who now swim at the Sherwood Colliery Swimming Club, the club I used to swim for years ago. Building children’s confidence in the water is so important and this new ride and these new water play areas are fun for everyone from really young children, right up to young adults. I am sure guests will love the new features and enjoy them as much as we have this morning!”

The new features are as follows:

Tropical Cyclone

The colossal Tropical Cyclone is one of the largest interactive four-person raft rides in Europe. The unique ride features a cyclone with a spectacular diameter of 15 metres, which is the perfect canvas for the projections, lights and sounds displayed from the AV technology. Riders will be given the chance to choose from four themes before heading into the exhilarating ride.

Lasting an unforgettable 35 seconds and boasting a top speed of 40km/h, the ride offers 125 metres of twists, turns and sways with the giant cone drop tipping riders at an angle that gives a zero-gravity experience for a second before propelling them down the tube to a splash pool.

Venture Bay and Venture Harbour

There are also two new areas included in the Subtropical Swimming Paradise revamp – a family water play area and a toddler play area and pool. These new areas will see families whizzing down brightly lit tubes, spraying each other with spouts and having fun in the water together.