Ocean Park bids farewell to 3 rides, consumers flock to premise to show love

As Ocean Park announced new plans to redevelop the venue, it also decided to retire some of its amusement rides. The news of the closure of some of these rides attracted many citizens to its premises. The Raging River water ride, the Mine Train roller coaster and the Abyss drop tower have been retired today after serving visitors of the park for more than 20 years.

Undeterred by the rain, visitors queued for up to three hours taking photos and videos to commemorate the rides.  Meanwhile, in another report from nowTV news channel, a visitor said she was looking forward to the new development plan announced by Ocean Park and hoped it will become better in the future. 

In late August, Ocean Park issued a pre-qualification invitation to solicit potential partners to co-develop the park through a build-operate-transfer model, kicking off the two-phase procurement process for the implementation of the future strategy of Ocean Park. This process begins with the current pre-qualification stage and will be followed by the tender stage in late 2021 or early 2022. The pre-qualification exercise will help pre-qualify respondents for the tender process, maintaining a manageable number of bidders while ensuring that they share Ocean Park’s vision on future development, conservation and education, as well as having the requisites to deliver the development proposals of the future strategy.

Ocean Park's new plan to redevelop the venue offers opportunities at three new zones within Ocean Park with site areas totalling approximately 376,000 square metres. These include the new free-entry retail, dining and entertainment zone in the lower park area, the Adventure Zone and Wellness Zone in the upper park areas.

According to Ocean Park, the lower park area will be transformed into a low-rise retail area with differentiated and experiential retail, dining and entertainment offerings, such as open spaces for activities, alfresco dining, indoor entertainment and events, and children’s play areas. It will be open to the public for free, complemented by Ocean Park’s existing conservation and education attractions that will be available on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Meanwhile, located in the upper area of Ocean Park, the Adventure Zone is to be built on the existing Adventure Land area which has a natural downhill slope that is suitable for many adventure-related attractions. Leveraging the topography and landscape, this zone will include outdoor attractions and activities that provide adventure experiences inspired by nature.

The Wellness Zone consists of two sites with the first one being the southern tip of the upper park which is currently occupied by thrill rides. The second one is the adjacent undeveloped area of Ocean Park on the west side of the new Water World. The Wellness Zone will provide authentic and immersive experiences that promote different dimensions of wellness and an avenue to escape from daily urban life.

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