All aboard the orgy slide! :ack:
By the same token, I'd say Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach fall under "water theme parks." They just never branded themselves that.
Not sure if this was brought up earlier, but as far as theming goes, I'd say Atlantis in the Bahamas is the best "water theme park" as far as mixing impeccable theming with genuinely thrilling water attractions.
I've been to Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach, and Atlantis, and Atlantis was the most spectacular by a pretty wide margin, although the Summit Plummet was a pretty neat "bucket list" slide to check off and leave it at that.
At Atlantis, the majority of the water park is centered around the enormous mile-long lazy river, which has tranquil sections and rapids sections through caves and such. Want to go on a water slide? Just paddle your tube over to the "freeway offramp" where a conveyor will take you (still riding on the tube) up to the top of the slide tower. Once in the tower, just paddle to the slide you want and have fun. The slides end right back into the lazy river again.
It's a system that keeps everyone moving and comfortable. We did have to wait in "line" in the canal to get onto the conveyor, but since you're just sitting there in your tube, it wasn't a big deal. The river also has pacing sections were conveyors spanning the whole river lift all riders up and over walkways. The operators controlled the speed of these conveyors to help space out groups of tubes. No other water park I've been to has perfected the lazy river concept quite like Atlantis, so I really hope VB adopts even just some of these features for their park.
As far as clear tubes go, the showcase water slide down the side of a Mayan-like temple through the shark tank is pretty neat, but since it's a high speed slide, the clear section is just a blip, and you can't see anything. It might as well be a black tube the whole way down. They do have an intertube slide that fills up the whole inside of that temple, and has a clear tube parallel to the high speed slide. However, on the intertube slide, the current is barely moving through the clear section, so you get a full 360 degree view of the sharks swimming around you as you float along in the tube. It's a spectacular effect, and one I think could be used at VB for a show scene with AAs, screens, lighting, and water effects. Having a fully enclosed tube ensures nobody jumps off the slide into the scene.