Welcome to my latest development. This park represents a marked departure from my usual park in that Marina Towers is surrounded by water and it has lots of duned sand.



It is the first park where I am seriously considering using alpine weather when the park is nearer completion. I always build in desert weather because in other weather the view is really impeded whenever it rains or gets very cloudy. A further contrast to my previous parks Marina Towers will only have one animal enclosure, built for the benefit of guests who enjoy horseback riding. In addition to horses the enclosure will also have zebras and gazelles for the children. Additionally the dolphin and orca shows will be placed directly into the lake rather than being put in an area that’s been specially excavated for them.



Built in a shallow sea on a man-made island this facility is a health resort, spa, convention centre and amusement park all rolled into one. A family park, Marina Towers may see Dad working out in the gym for an hour or two each day, Mom spending a few days a week in the spa and the kiddies amusing themselves either with or without their parents in the pleasure park. When the resort is completed, guests will stay for various durations ranging from a few days to a month or more. In addition to the spa, gym and convention centre Marina Towers contains one, two and three bedroomed multi-bathroomed suites in either single or duplex layouts. We anticipate that our longer term guests will prefer staying in our self-contained units.



Right now the developers have completed construction on the main building and have put in the pool so we can start attracting guests. Although the guests currently eat at restaurants inside the building we will soon be placing the food court in addition to roof-top restaurant. We may also put a pool with the restaurant on the roof of the main building.



Although this is another flat park we foresee it will eventually have a few gentle mesa-like contours with various areas of the park being on slightly different levels. A number of years ago our ride designers designed a couple of tall steelies that have gotten no further than virtual testing on the drawing board which because of their height we’ve been reluctant to actually build in any of our other parks, but with the sixty-storey hotel in this park those tall rides will integrate beautifully and the park developers are already scouting areas where they can go. The Park Design Committee envisage the following rides as slated for inclusion in the park: Rowing Boats, Bumper Boats, Windsurfer, Canoes, Jet Skis, Crazy Caterpillar, Dodgems, Fliptastic, Insect House, Parachute Drop, Reptile and Amphibian House, Roto Drop, Turbo Bikes, Sky Sling, our reliable stand-by meandering Woodie, perhaps another steelie or two, and a few flat rides including a carousel-type ride. It is anticipated that Mag-Lev and/or Gondoletta may be placed in this park as a shuttles.

At this point in time it’s so early in park development we haven’t yet sown any grass seed or installed the waterfall in the pool although the pool fountain plumbing tests successfully. Because of the newness of Marina Towers our guest length of stay is currently only a day or two.



Here is an image of an island the developers were first considering for Marina Towers Park and Resort.





After razing the existing stark uncultivated landscape and coming close to actually beginning construction on Xhuma Island it was eventually determined that the main drawback of the location was its startling geographical steepness and its situation in inordinately deep water in the middle of the Pacific thousands of miles away from anywhere else – issues we believed could be overlooked with extensive landscaping and skilful resort development. While the ethos of the resort is that the guests should feel they’ve gotten away from it all, the developers decided that if the work crew, their families and visitors constantly felt that they had been exiled to some outpost then we needed to be concerned that the guests would certainly feel that way too. After deciding Xhuma Island was not quite the location for this resort the developers moved on to what was originally our second choice, the engineered island where the hotel & spa resort is now being built. Xhuma Island, now somewhat slightly developed, is back on the market and again available for sale. We would not be surprised if we took a loss on the sale.



This photo was taken at about the time our developers (some of them pictured) decided Xhuma Island was a no-go. The photographer tells me that because this was an area of the island where the base rock was twenty feet below the sand it took him thirty minutes to get over to where he took the photo, another half hour to return to his colleagues and a further hour for them all to get up to where they had parked the helicopter. Another reason we were unable to go ahead with Xhuma is because of the unpredictable and extreme weather. As you can see in the photo it’s around noon but the sky had turned black with clouds although, when this photo was taken it cleared up again in ten minutes without the usual heavy rain but with fifteen minutes of unpleasant wind.

In addition to its isolation being erroneously considered an asset, Xhuma Island was the original choice because it’s about 225x225 tiles. The second choice is currently 210x210 but with much of it being underwater plans are being considered to expand the size of this new resort.

looks nice! I gotta try to make a waterpark myself when I get my game back soon

WOW amazing!!!! I love the hotel tower! <3:
http://imageshack.us/a/img835/5434/marin...irst05.jpg

I really like the idea that it is "thousands of mile away from everything else" it creates a much more peaceful, idyllic and stress-free environment for the park guests. Your fountains also look quite spectacular. I think that the nice size of the pool complex also adds to the "splendidness" of the park and resort.

GREAT JOB!!!

Thanks for the comment, Dorney.

And thanks for the great input Miracle - and double thanks for inspiring me to include a story with a park.

I have additional ideas already with more developments coming soon – hopefully within the next few days. I’m chomping at the bit to get back at this park but, you know how it is ….. things to do, things to do …..

Since my last post additional consideration has been given to the layout of Marina Towers.

The contractors have recontoured some of the land and the builders have begun placing a few paths. The park designer has completed plans for the custom stalls and our buyers have been busy so now included with the food stalls are gift shops that will stock toys, t-shirts, souvenir trophies and there will be candy in the park too.

Our aim is to provide the same quality of food that is available in Concordia Gardens. However, in Marina Towers Park and Resort in addition to offering European and Asian food we now also include foods from the Pacific Rim on our menus. Whether in the food court or in one of our restaurants, if our guests want metropolitan or provincial cuisine they’ll find something they like at Marina Towers.

Our architects have finalized plans for the glass ceiling that will be built above the walkway in Concordia Gardens and we’ve decided to give those plans the go-ahead for use in Marina Towers. I am pleased to say it beautifully matches the existing glass domes.

There will only be one food court bar in Marina Towers Park, although liquor is served in all our lounges and in all the restaurants.

sounds good I like the idea of the glass roof

We’ve made further progress on Marina Towers Park and Resort. Below is an image of the food court with promenade and arcade. As you can see we’ve managed to get some of the service road built and our staff have been quite busy with preparations. The food court isn’t open to guests yet and it’s late in the day so except for the security guards, the food court staff and the temps are having a barbecue near the staff complex.



There are four distinct areas to the food court, one of those areas being the staff area to the right in the previous photo:

1. At the right in the following image is the promenade which travels directly alongside the food court. There are paths from the promenade between each of the glass domes leading down to the arcade. The image shows the view the guests will get when they leave the pool complex. Part of the gift shop can just be seen at the entrance to the arcade at the left.



2. Beneath each of the glass domes is a small garden and room for café or dining tables where the guests can enjoy meals or simply relax and take in the view. Our buyers and park designers haven’t quite yet agreed on the designs of the tables we’re going to order for the park.



3. In this next image you’ll see the arcade. Now covered with a new glass ceiling the arcade has become the highlight of this structure. Our management team have completely bygone pre-built stalls and have decided the custom look is the way for our park. In this image the photographer has just entered the arcade to capture this view:



4. T-shirts, souvenirs and toys will be available here at the other end of the arcade.

I’m pleased to report the food court is now opened for business and has been doing very well.

We’ve come to an agreement on two types of tables to use in the food court. Here’s an example of the café style table.



And we’re also using a formal style table with tablecloth. In this image is also shown one of the pathways from the promenade/dining area down to the arcade. At the bottom right of the image behind the glass is the wife of one of the guys in accounts who told us later she was wondering to just what ends we’d go in order to get a good shot.



Here I thought I’d take a look westwards along the promenade to see how the decorators and contractors have done. I see the plasterers and carpenters have excelled themselves in this area which was an enormous challenge from design to completion. I’m very pleased with what I see but I’m going to suggest we move elsewhere those palms to the south of the promenade and replace them with taller ones as these short ones currently block the view towards the sea from here.



Here we’ve entered the arcade. The stonemasons did a great job of getting our floor in on time. Again heading westwards, this first section is where there are only available sandwiches from the counter. The gourmet-style food is prepared elsewhere in the kitchens by chefs of various ethnicities, brought over to this area and then plated to customer order.



This is Marina Arcade Saloon where alcoholic beverages are available. One of the first challenges we anticipated is what’s pictured here. This young lady has asked the staff member behind the counter for a bag of cheesy popcorn but they’ve told her that at this counter her parents need to get it for her or if she would prefer not to wait for her parents she can continue down the arcade and get some at the candy shop. I liked the way they encouraged her towards the candy shop by mentioning there were also toys she could look at in that area.



We had the drinks section here set up and all ready but for a while we were worried about the supplier delays with the drinks and juices machines in addition to which it seemed an insurmountable odyssey coordinating the syrups and concentrates. All arrived at the eleventh hour but our staff stayed out here until dawn on opening day setting everything up. Thanks to our team we got them installed in time for the food court’s opening. They don’t know it but we’ve just increased their Christmas bonuses.



Next is where our international selection of cakes and sweet pastries are available. Of course the bakeries are located in the same area as the kitchens.



Luxury cocoas, freshly ground coffees and exotic & herbal teas are next.



Here’s one of my favourite areas, where the international frozen treats are. After evaluating staff performance, when the little tyke pictured was on his way I had a couple of scoops of Haagen Dasz Vanilla Swiss Almond. The photographer had a Caprizzi’s Key Lime Sorbet.



And available here is our array of traditional candies and sweets loved by grown-ups along with the newer ones the youngsters prefer. We’ve noticed the adults prefer the candy that’s counted or weighed while the youngsters prefer it already packaged. Another little tyke here is just completing a mad dash to the candy counter to get the same kind of treat his mate’s just shared with him.



We were by now looking forward to our swim, walked right past it and almost forgot to take a photo of the toy shop. Here can be found well-known brands in model sets, boxed and soft toys. Quality souvenir trophies are also available.



Finally, here at the end of the arcade is where T-shirts are on display. We are finding that so far T-Shirts are not very popular but we plan to keep them in stock as the teens seem to want them.



This is the view enjoyed daily by the staff in the T-shirts shop. This view is surpassed only by the views above the tenth floor in Marina Towers. Which reminds me we need to meet with the designers of the roof top restaurant and the coastline tea room.



And that’s it for the food arcade. Now we’re on our way to our swim. The photographer is standing in the sand here between the arcade and the promenade.



Once we were in the pool the first thing I did was to out to check out the waterfall which has now been tiled and is in working order.



The park designer and I personally selected this statue of Neptune from an antique shop in Naples. The bowl fountains on either side are Florentine and are over two hundred years in age. We had to get a conservationist to work in conjunction with the plumber to make sure they were set up right.



The photographer and I took a swim out to what’s already affectionately known as the ‘far end of the pool’ to get a feel for how the new entrance might look. We met up with some of the design staff who were already there evaluating the area. At this point in time our interest in an entrance from the towers directly into the pool appears viable. In this image our lifeguards look as imposing as the Sphinx would.



Our lifeguards make an especially important contribution to the safety of our guests. They’re trained professionals who when they’re not watching over the pool like hawks swim laps once an hour at various times in our pool to keep in shape. Observing them at work you would never know they are sociable and gregarious outside work hours. Here we stopped for a few minutes and had a brief word with our chief lifeguard.



We then needed to evaluate the water rides and took a turn in lazy river.



And then body slide.



It was such a great sunny day with gossamer clouds floating in a sapphire sky, and when underwater everything was so quiet.



Here we’re checking out the plants to confirm some concerns the gardeners are having.



It’s Friday afternoon and we’ve decided to quit early for the weekend. We relaxed in this area for maybe an hour with some drinks.



On our way out of the pool I took this candid shot of the photographer.



Unknown to us the photographer’s son who had just come off aqua slide had just landed behind him in the pool.

Woah - that's awesome!

Sweet, great update.