You can also see one of the many water feature present on the course on the left. Thus, with an efficient loader (employee who assign seats) and lots of families, parks saw an immediate 50% gain of capacity while keeping the same running costs and staffing requirements.ĭarien Lake provided us with this great picture of the Intamin 9 seat raft. It went from 2 bucket seats to a bench seat technically capable of seating three people. It has the same diameter as the six-seat boat, and the seating area is where the big difference is. Called the “Speed Rapids,” a new kind of boat was created for it. In 1989, Intamin took the type of course created for White Water Canyon at Canada’s Wonderland and further improved on it. It speeds up the passenger loading as you don’t have to walk around the large center rail to the other side of the raft. Unfortunately, the water jets were deactivated after, and the park instead installed geysers in the wave pool area right before to soak riders.Īmazingly, in the late 2010s, the water tunnel was brought back combined with the two large geysers before, it is an incredible finish to the attraction.Īlso, another modification was to remove the center grab rail and replace it with individual fixed lap bars in front of each seat. What you see in this picture shot in 2001 was the original “water tunnel” feature, where at the end, in addition to water curtains on each side of the channel, you also had to contend with high powered water jets over your head. The ride instead relies on many waterfalls placed around the river and two excellent wave machines. In the picture above, this is the ride only serious rapids action. In addition to the station architecture, elaborate rockwork surrounds the river and even features a carved Tiger head that serves as the tunnel entrance. Garner-Holt created dozens of new effects and animatronics that were placed around the river, and you finally encounter the Big Foot, something you didn’t do in the original version.Īlso, in 1988, Walibi Belgium (Wavre, Belgium) opened the Radja River, an Intamin 12 seat river rapids themed to a rocky river in India. In this other picture from Flex, you can see one of the raft used on the ride.įor the 2019 season, the ride was renamed Calico River Rapids and given a new identity and theme. The Wild Water Wilderness area was created around the ride, and the orange track in the background was added later when the Pony Express roller coaster was installed over and around Bigfoot Rapids. You can see the forest the ride is set in. It was quite an accomplishment to fit the ride in, and it is a winding and twisted course.īigfoot Rapids featured a waterfall generated by an upper course, but as you can see, it was landscaped quite well. Knott’s Berry Farm (Buena Park, CA) found space in their landlocked property and installed Bigfoot Rapids in the southwest corner of their property in 1988. When the sponsorship ended after the 2006 season, the experience renamed as “Rumba Rapids.” The ride was repainted in bright colors, and effects themed to the sponsor’s characters added to the rapids ride. ![]() In 2002, the attraction was refurbished and renamed to Ribena Rumba Rapids, after its sponsor, Ribena. It featured six-seat rafts, and it was quite a popular ride in the park. The ride opened in 1987 and was called Thunder Rapids at the time. Thrillography provided us with this picture of Rumba Rapids at Thorpe Park (Chertsey, England). The boats were also changed at one point from the original six-seat rafts to the ones you see here, the nine-seat boats we will talk about later. In 1990, the area around was renamed Katanga Canyon, and the ride renamed to Congo River Rapids. ![]() The course was quite large and featured a long tunnel at one point in the ride. In 1986, Alton Towers (Staffordshire, England) opened the Grand Canyon Rapids in the Aqua Land area. To that end, Cedar Point installed changing rooms and lockers near the ride so that guests can ride Thunder Canyon and Snake River Falls (Shoot the Chute attraction) and then get changed. The course itself relies on many waterfalls to soak riders. What you see here is not the beginning of the journey, but the end. This Intamin 12 seat river rapids were the first in the world to feature the lift hill at the start of the ride, not the end. In 1986, Cedar Point (Sandusky, OH) opened Thunder Canyon at the end of the Frontier Trail. From 1986 to 1988, more parks installed River Rapids, adapting the ride each time to their needs.
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