Orlando Hotel Opens “River Falls Waterpark” Designed by Martin Aquatic

An exciting new addition at the Orlando World Center Marriott opened just in time for the first Spring Break visitors to enjoy: the hotel’s River Falls Waterpark welcomed guests in March with an impressive new waterslide tower and winding lazy river and pool.

As the largest Marriott property in the world, the resort upped the ante on outdoor family-friendly attractions with River Falls Waterpark. While the resort has offered guests waterpark thrills for several years with its three existing body slides, the new tower of multi-person raft rides allows families to experience twists, turns, and drops together. Meanwhile, swimmers looking for a more relaxing pool day can drift gently along the new 575-foot-long lazy river under towering palms and past new lounge areas and rentable cabanas. Families with young children can enjoy the zero-entry portion of the river pool with small bubbling nozzles and taller spraying leaf elements.

The entire new poolscape was designed by world-class aquatic consultant, Martin Aquatic Design & Engineering, also headquartered in Orlando. Working with WhiteWater, Martin Aquatic brought the three slides together featuring exciting elements such as the enclosed spins of the Aquasphere, the open bowl of the Tailspin, and the big drop before the wall of the Boomerango.

Martin Aquatic joined the project in 2018, helping to re-imagine a renovation for the site of an under-utilized adult pool area. With the hotel’s changing demographics and the shift to bringing families along for traditional convention trips, Orlando World Center Marriott was seeking an exciting pool experience that could engage children and their parents.

“We worked together with the owner to realize the incredible opportunity for Orlando World Center Marriott: by introducing one-of-a-kind rides with vibrant colors and exciting drops and turns, it creates the demand for a waterpark attraction without families ever having to leave their hotel to go to one of Orlando’s many ticketed waterparks,” said Martin. “And what better way to spend a family vacation than at River Falls Waterpark on a multi-person raft ride where you can share the experience together.”

The property is owned by Host Hotels & Resorts, the nation’s largest lodging real estate investment trust with 80 properties in the Western Hemisphere. Host Hotels completed a renovation of Orlando World Center Marriott’s rooms in 2020 before looking at upgrades to the main pool area. In September of last year, the hotel unveiled renovations to its Falls Pool Oasis, also designed and engineered by Martin Aquatic.

The project to redesign the Falls Pool Oasis delivered a beach-styled “zero-entrance” for guests to wade in, as well as submerged sun shelves along the perimeter for in-water lounging. Martin Aquatic changed the shape of the pool not only to allow for more shallow sun shelves, but also to provide more surrounding deck seating as well as five rentable cabanas. Even the iconic waterfalls were re-designed, adding an elongated modernized stainless-steel spout. With the addition of the hotel’s nightly Laser Light Show, the redesigned Falls Pool Oasis has a new LED lighting system that can illuminate the water and change colors in time with the show, event DJs, and for special occasions and holidays.

For the River Falls Waterpark project, the Hardy Group served as the owner’s representative, DLR Group managed the building architecture, and the landscape design was provided by Innovations Design Group (IDG).

The water park is open daily to resort guests only. Coming this June, Orlando World Center Marriott will open an additional 60,000 square feet of meeting rooms, totaling more than 500,000 square feet of flexible convention space.