Lenique has spent more than a decade seeing the water park industry from different perspectives, from frontline operations to helping operators get more from the technology behind their guest experience. Today, as part of Vantage’s Customer Success team, she works closely with operators across the region, bringing an understanding of how technology needs to perform in the realities of a busy park environment. Based in Dubai, her career in the industry began when she moved from South Africa to the UAE and joined Wild Wadi as a lifeguard.
We sat down with Lenique to talk about her journey from park operations to Customer Success, helping launch Vantage at Aquaventure, and why she’s excited about the possibilities that come from building a more complete picture of each guest.
Tell us a little about yourself.
I’m originally from South Africa and studied communication at Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth, which is quite different from what I do today!
In 2013, I decided I wanted to leave South Africa, travel, and experience something different. At the time, Jumeirah was recruiting directly from South Africa, so it gave me an opportunity to move to Dubai without having to organize everything myself. I arrived in Dubai as a lifeguard at Wild Wadi Waterpark, and that became my introduction to the water park industry.
How did you go from lifeguarding to working in technology?
While I was at Wild Wadi, I tried to expose myself to as many different parts of the operation as I could. I became a team leader and spent time working in training, marketing, and business development. It gave me a much broader understanding of how a water park works beyond what guests see when they visit. I also met a lot of people I would cross paths with again later in my career, which shows just how connected the attractions world can be.
I eventually moved into a completely different field and then took some time away from work after having my daughter. When I returned, I started working with Vantage, and that brought me back to attractions, this time on the technology side.
What was it like joining Vantage?
I started working with Vantage around 2021 as part of the team getting the product up and running at Atlantis’ water park Aquaventure World. Being in front of clients in the Middle East as the ‘boots on the ground’ meant everybody did a little bit of everything. We were essentially helping launch Vantage at the property from the ground up, so we were involved in installation, training, customer success, and supporting the operation as everything came together.
More recently I’ve been supporting the team working on Vantage at Meryal Waterpark in Qatar. It’s funny because when I started working there, I ran into people I’d previously worked with at Jumeirah! You move to another country and another park and somehow still see familiar faces.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Every day is a little different. Most of my time is spent on site at Aquaventure, with additional support for Meryal either remotely or through trips to Qatar. At Aquaventure, I’m regularly meeting with teams across admissions, IT, and operations, as well as testing new capabilities, supporting training, and being available when the team needs us. Right now, for example, we’re working on wait time signage, so that involves testing the technology, training teams, and making sure everything works properly in the real-world environment.
Being on site means I’m very close to both the people operating the technology and the guests actually using it, which gives me a unique perspective.
What’s the most rewarding part of your job?
Seeing guests interact with something you’ve spent so much time working on. I’ll be standing in the plaza and see someone link their wristband to the app, tag up before going on a ride, or interacting with the system. I remember being at the top of one of the rides while we were checking tag-ups and watching hotel guests realize that when they tapped their wristband, the screen welcomed them by name. Little details like that are fun to see in real-time.
Then, on the operator side, it’s equally rewarding when the team tells us we’ve made part of their job simpler. Seeing both sides of that experience is probably my favorite part of what I do.
What excites you most about where Vantage is heading?
For me, it’s the data and being able to build a much more complete picture of the guest. When you can understand how often a family visits, what they purchase, which attractions they enjoy, and how they spend their time across the venue, you’re capturing all of these small moments that together create a much more holistic guest profile. There’s so much an operator can do with that information. It can inform marketing, operations, finance, attraction improvements, and how you personalize the experience for individual guests.
How does your experience working inside a water park influence the way you approach Customer Success?
Being on site gives you a different perspective because you see how the technology fits into the day-to-day operation. You can watch how guests use it, see how the admissions team interacts with it, and hear directly from operations about what they need. That context helps you understand how even a small change can make a real difference to the people using the system every day. Having started my career as a lifeguard and worked across different areas of a water park, I know that each team has its own priorities and challenges. For me, Customer Success is about understanding those different perspectives and making sure the technology works for the people who rely on it.
What do you enjoy outside of work?
I’m a mom, so a lot of my life outside of work revolves around my kids! I love the beach and I read a lot. My Kindle is usually with me, so while everyone else is scrolling through their phones, I’m probably reading.
I also really enjoy traveling and taking my kids to experience new places. One of their favorite places to visit is actually Atlantis, so even when I’m not working, I sometimes end up back at the water park with them.
If you could instantly become an expert in something, what would it be?
I’d love to be able to be an expert in different languages. I love learning new words and phrases, but they are tough to learn, and living in a cultural hub like Dubai, it would be so cool to communicate with everyone in their own language or just be able to switch languages in a moment’s notice. It would also make traveling more interesting and easier!
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Thank you, Lenique, for sharing your journey with us! While every team member brings a different background and perspective, they all share the same goal: helping attractions deliver exceptional guest experiences through smarter, connected technology.
Meet the people behind Vantage at www.vantage.co/meet-our-team
