SWR’s Wave Jungle re-opens

Cement statues representing Easter Islands moais are among the added attraction at the Saipan World Resort’s waterpark, called Wave Jungle, which re-opened to the public last Tuesday after undergoing a massive facelift after Super Typhoon Yutu’s devastation last October. (Ferdie de la Torre)

Pool waves are now much higher and more moai statues, also known as Easter Island statues or heads, have been erected. These are just a few of the many attractions that have been installed at Saipan World Resort’s watery playground called the Wave Jungle, which had a soft re-opening last Tuesday after undergoing more than eight months of renovations to repair the damage wrought by Super Typhoon Yutu in October last year.

At this time, though, only some parts of the Wave Jungle are open to the public. Areas that have been re-opened are the wave pool, black hole slide, tube slide, kids’ pool, Amazon River, tanning pool, Castle pool, and the beach.

The Wave Jungle had been undergoing renovation after it sustained major damage during Super Typhoon Yutu’s devastation last Oct. 24 and 25. It was re-opened last July 5, but only re-opened to the public Tuesday.

By Aug. 26, Wave Jungle will be closed again to complete the renovations. The target grand opening is this October.

Jomar Danas, lifeguard senior supervisor, said yesterday that they consider it a soft-opening because not everything is fully open yet.

“We’re really focusing on renovating everything completely. We want to make our resort a brand-new resort,” said Danas in an interview.

Right now, the main attraction is the wave pool.

Before Yutu, the pool waves were low; during renovations, Saipan World Resort replaced some of the motors. “Now the waves are much higher,” said Danas.

The Wave Jungle’s Amazon River was also renovated because, according to Danas, the flooring was pretty dangerous due to some sharp edges.

Now, the flooring of the Amazon River, along with the rest of the pools, are now very smooth.

Danas said they also have a lot of Easter Island heads now, so guests who go to the waterpark will feel like they are in a Tiki resort—or a Maori-inspired resort.

“It used to be more of a jungle feeling. Now we’re like a little bit on the Tiki feeling,” he said.

The Wave Jungle buildings were also repainted.

There used to be a diving pool, but it has been retrofitted into an additional spa area.

“We have bigger spa now,” said Danas.

Saipan World Resort will again be closing the waterpark starting Aug. 26 as they will be fixing the master blaster slide and installing the kids’ pole attraction.

Yutu’s biggest damage to the waterpark was on the body slide as 90 percent of it broke up and flew into the ocean and the Amazon River. A portion of the master blaster slide or the yellow slide broke and flew into the Amazon River. The slide in the kids’ pool also broke up.

Danas said a lot of umbrellas and wooden structure were all damaged and a lot of the debris were in the water. That made it difficult to clean the Wave Jungle.