As the boats come near to the individual features special effects are activated. The pirate theme displays an erupting volcano, a castle where the flag is raised, palm trees falling over and explosions in the water.The cruiser theme has modern hotels, lighthouses and a port area. There are eight boats in each section and Pan worked closely with Tornado who designed the galleons and cruise ships. Overall the project took eighteen months from design to installation and Pan went to great pains to ensure everything worked properly in the water location. Paul Whittaker of Pan explained, “We even had an 18ft. diameter pool built inside the factory so we could extensively test every piece of animation. Pan has always been proud of the realiability record of all its equipment which requires little maintenance and that goes for operations in water as well.” The same could also be said for Pan’s engineers who had to install the attraction to open in Easter 2007. So it was necessary for them to work from a boat or actually in the water during the coldest part of the year. The Bluewater Shopping Centre is one of the largest in Europe with 27 million visitors every year, 330 stores and over 40 cafes and is a major visitor destination. It is likely that this new attraction will pay for itself in a matter of months. Paul Whittaker added, “Over the last few years we have undertaken a number of jobs for retailers mainly in the USA but the Bluewater project is a first for the UK.”

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