When you think of record-breakers, Minnesota may not come immediately to mind. But maybe it should! After all, “The Land of 10,000 Lakes” is no stranger to going big. Sure, that would include the state’s trio of super-sized, roadside wonder birds: the world’s largest prairie chicken, floating loon, and crow. But more to the point, it also includes The Mall of America – a gargantuan shopping complex whose 5.6 million square feet of retail space rank it the largest in the Western hemisphere.
Opened in 1992, the Mall of America has been the subject of countless video essays, blogs, Travel Channel specials, and more. It’s already on roller coaster enthusiasts’ lists thanks to its Nickelodeon Universe amusement park that includes five roller coasters, a dark ride, and a aerial flat ride soon to be duplicated at Universal Epic Universe. But for fans of thematic design, the Mall of America is about join bucket lists in a big way…
That’s thanks to Mystery Cove – a recently announced indoor water park that’s daring to do something Disney hasn’t done in decades: to bring to life an entirely original story. Though we don’t know all the details of this announced project (believed to be due for a 2024 opening), today we’ll dig into some of the incredible world-building and design elements of this project to explore how its original, IP-free story looks like a home run…
The Power of Water
Anyone who closely watches the world of theme parks will tell you that when it comes to original ideas, most operators just don’t seem interested. It makes sense. After all, the 2010s and 2020s have seen an escalating “Content War,” with increasingly-gargantuan media companies racing to acquire blockbuster intellectual properties (IPs), with theme parks serving as a major battleground.
But there’s just something about water parks in particular that seems to get the creative juices flowing. Whether it’s giants like Disney’s Blizzard Beach & Typhoon Lagoon, SeaWorld’s Aquatica, and Universal’s Volcano Bay or regional outing like Schlitterbahn, Soak City, Hurricane Harbor, and Lost Island, water parks seem to be immune (or at least, resistant) to the corporate mandates for IP integration.
Given that the Mall of America already contains a “Nickelodeon Universe” theme park and that New Jersey’s similarly-sized American Dream mega-mall has both a “Nickelodeon Universe” and a “DreamWorks Water Park,” it probably would’ve been easy to make a few calls and start duplicating plans…
But thanks to the incredible team at Blooloop, we can get a peak into the thought process. Chris Grap – Vice President of Experiential at the Mall of America – told Blooloop:
“We wanted the freedom to set the stage for people to play and engage however they wanted. So, we looked at developing our own IP. As we set forth on that task, then we had the challenge of finding what that IP would be and what the entry point for that story is. For us, we began by looking at the past…
Everybody remembers Amelia Earhart and her team. But a lot of people don’t know about a woman named Evelyn Siddy, who was an aviator and a mechanic. She had a brother, Arthur Siddy, who was a naturalist and a botanist. The two of them set out in 1936 to break Howard Hughes’ record of traveling coast to coast.
What they didn’t count on was this crazy heat wave. It hit from the Midwest all the way through to New York. It’s literally still talked about to this day. This was a dreadful, hot, humid summer.
Communication was lost during their flight, and they were presumed to have perished. However, according to the story of Mystery Cove, the pair survived. In fact, they went on to thrive as they explored the enigmatic island. Over time, more lost souls arrived and came to call Mystery Cove their home. Each brought their own unique talents and culture to the growing community.”
Mixing the supernatural draw of Lost, the pluck and character of Gilligan’s Island, and the extensive lore of the Valley of the Unknown, Mystery Cove will invite guests to a tropical world created by chance. The idea is that both things and fellow explorers have washed up on the shores of Mystery Cove, creating a paradise of reinvention and re-use, all clad in the thematic designs of a WWII-set Indiana Jones pulp adventure.
Yes, for fans of the Lost Legend: The Adventurers Club or Disney’s legendary Society of Explorers and Adventurers, Mystery Cove will be a home away from home; an island that must be explored to be believed… Speaking of which, are you ready for a sampling of the stories and secrets that await in Mystery Cove? Read on…
The Legends of Mystery Cove
An aerial glimpse at Mystery Cove (above) might not inspire much wonder. It’s true that, in a glance, this new experience coming to the Mall of America is “just” an indoor waterpark, with all the traditional flourishes you’d expect: complexes of twisted slides, sand beaches along the lapping shores of a wave pool, family play complexes, a “lazy river”…
But Chris Grap told Blooloop, “As you go through Mystery Cove, it transitions as it would in a theme park. We really designed this as a theme park with water-based attractions. We didn’t want to be constrained to the idea of ‘This is just a water park, here’s the wet area, this is what you do’.” It seems that much of the park’s stylistic, theme-park-esque influence can be traced to freelance designer Rob Yeo, whose logo, concept art, and posters for the park are pervasive in setting the style, tone, and story of the park’s five outposts…
The Outposts
Let’s get the lay of the land. Guests will enter Mystery Cove through FORTUNE FALLS – a “serene and intriguing” village of makeshift structures no doubt serving as the park’s essential guest services: changing rooms, lost and found, first aid, and more.
But of course, the anchor of the park will no doubt be its double-wide wave pool, bisected down the center by the intriguing wreck of an iconic steamship. That ship, by the way, is the Il Corraggioso – trusted steamship of Captain Vesuvio… until, of course, it mysteriously ran aground in Mystery Cove.
Il Corraggioso serves as an icon and centerpiece for the park, and wraps into its story in numerous ways. For example, guests hopping into the park’s lazy river in Fortune Falls will find themselves drifting through gaping holes in the ship. On one pass-through, they’ll drift into the flooded boiler room of special effects. From the other direction, they’ll pass into a hidden Vault containing Vesuvio’s treasures, spilling into the waterway.
Meanwhile, from the park’s next outpost, THE COVE (the sandy beaches that surround the wave pools), guests may notice that it’s Vesuvio’s constant attempts to re-start his wrecked ship’s engines that kicks off the waves!
As the park’s central relaxation zone, The Cove is sure to be where most guests head in the morning to lay claim to sun chairs. But for those who want to rent a cabana for the day (a waterpark staple), The Cove will contain some incredible choices. After all, Mystery Cove’s cabanas will literally be the “homes” of the park’s denizens. Imagine renting out Evelyn Siddy’s garage as your cabana, or her brother Arthur’s plant-filled greenhouse…
In addition to the 52,000 square foot wave pools, The Cove will also contain a winding, makeshift boardwalk leading out between the waves to the Il Corraggioso. Why? Clearly having learned from the “Butterbeer Era,” Mystery Cove is intending to re-thinking waterpark dining from hot dogs and hamburgers to something more “in-universe,” beginning with Vesuvio’s Dive Bar – a signature tiki bar located right on the steamship itself.
The other three “outposts” of Mystery Cove lie around the Cove’s perimeter. The first from Fortune Falls is THE BIZARBORETUM – the “home outpost” of early arriver Arthur Siddy. This palm-encased family play area is meant to be a living laboratory where guests’ splashing and spraying is all a part of watering Arthur’s plant collection. (Some concept art suggests that a splashing family flat ride may be part of the park here, though it could be cut or reserved for a “Phase II” expansion.)
The next region is EUREKA REEF. An almost prescient play on the 1964 World’s Fair (which, of course, hasn’t happened yet in Mystery Cove’s timeline), this region is stylized as an “Atomic Age” of raised outlook towers and makeshift electrical conduits. Perhaps we’ll meet characters who time-traveled from the 1960s! The major slide complex here is meant to see guests travel through the inner workings of the island’s hydroelectric power generation.
And how could a lost island in the Bermuda Triangle manage to get thousands of waterslide tubes to tackle these slides? Luckily, Mystery Cove is the only known home of “tuberry trees,” whose unusual circular berries end up being very versatile! Not only can these rubbery-skinned berries be inflated to ten times their normal size – they can also be incorporated in sweet treats and signature drinks across the Cove! (Wink wink!)
The final region is PERIL PEAK – a massive complex of slides grafted onto the rocky slopes of a dormant volcano. In universe, we’ll learn that Peril Peak is presided over by a traveling circus (or “carpa”) family – La Carpa Fuentes – who, after being stranded in Mystery Cove, decided to set-up their acrobatic and circus equipment here.
And of course, with a developing economy, you can expect plenty of clever and inventive food options for the park… not just a main canteen serving as an island commissary and go-to dining hall, but unique, story-driven vendors and carts like the Fuentes family’s volcano-powered hot dog carts, or Eureka Reef’s “Tacomatic” food truck, seeming to press torillas, chop veggies, and deposit toppings automatically.
And by the way, with excitement ramping up, the team behind Mystery Cove is also designing Halloween and Christmas overlays right into Phase I of the park, meaning after-dark holiday period evenings at Mystery Cove are almost certain to be filled with new characters, new effects, new music, and a whole lot of clever storytelling…
The Adventure Begins…
No official opening date for Mystery Cove has been set aside from the rough idea of a 2024 target… But already, it’s clear that the Mall of America is going big with this project – both physically and narratively. At the end of the day, maybe it would’ve been easier to license a DreamWorks Water Park or a Nickelodeon Water Park… but we believe that when it’s all said and done, the work going into this incredible new experience will be worth it.
In the meantime, you can bet that we at Theme Park Tourist will keep Mystery Cove on our short list of major projects and updates to bring to you, as we can’t wait to visit this tropical paradise and explore the characters, settings, and stories it brings to life…
