Ride buddies back by popular demand

ADVENTURE Park’s initiative that helps single parents and guardians juggle children and ride time is back for the busy school holiday period.

The initiative was a huge hit with the community when it launched last year and by popular demand, Adventure Park has increased its capacity to assist more parents and kids to enjoy their day out by adding a further four team members to their Ride Buddies initiative.

The Ride Buddies initiative involves specially selected team members on call at Adventure Park to ride with children on those waterslides and rides that require an adult to accompany them, when their parent or guardian is unable to.

Likewise, Ride Buddies can also wait with nonriding children while parents enjoy the ride with their child.

Karina White of Ocean Grove benefited from the initiative last year and said that the Ride Buddies made life so much easier for her and other parents.

“My five-year-old son wanted to go on the Crazy Coaster but I also had my two-year-old so was unable to go on it with him, so we used the Ride Buddies and they were so good with him. My son was so happy and he had the best ride with Bridget,” she said.

Bridget is one of 10 superstar Ride Buddies who will be available to help parents and kids in the park during their peak visitation period until January 28, 2019.

This will be Bridget’s second year in the role. Conceptualised by Adventure Park’s leadership team and general manager Paul McConachy, the Ride Buddies initiative is completely unique to the Geelong attraction, not currently seen at any competitor parks or attractions across Australia.

“We saw something similar at a park in Fiji and knew straight away it would be ideal for elevating our guest experience,” Mr McConachy said.

“Our Ride Buddies were in high demand last year, so we’ve enlisted four of our best team members to the 2018-19 Ride Buddies program, which means children no longer have to miss out if their parent is unable to ride.” Find out more by heading to adventurepark.com.au/ridebuddies.