News Runoff Rapids water slides at Blizzard Beach closed for refurbishment

raven

raven

Well-Known Member
Just got back from Blizzard Beach and these slides are starting to look like the current state River Country. The closed slides in the red slopes area have mildew and are faded. Upon accending the purple slopes you can see that trees, weeds and vines are flowing over the top of the slides and even down inside them at some points. The stairway leading up the backside of the hill is overgrown with trees as well.

Have they completely abandoned this area for good? No work seems to be happening.
 
Biff215

Biff215

Well-Known Member
raven said:
Just got back from Blizzard Beach and these slides are starting to look like the current state River Country. The closed slides in the red slopes area have mildew and are faded. Upon accending the purple slopes you can see that trees, weeds and vines are flowing over the top of the slides and even down inside them at some points. The stairway leading up the backside of the hill is overgrown with trees as well.

Have they completely abandoned this area for good? No work seems to be happening.
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Sure sounds like it. Such a shame when the park needs the capacity. Can't be saving a ton on labor, so must be a maintenance issue they don't want to address. I really hope they have plans for this area that are waiting for the annual refurbishment, but somehow I think that's unlikely.

Thanks for the update, I'll be there in about two weeks.
 
cheezbat

cheezbat

Well-Known Member
This is such a shame. I can't believe Disney would just leave it like this...especially when the competition down the road just built a massive new waterpark with better rides. If anything, they should be adding to Blizzard Beach and making it BETTER.
 
raven

raven

Well-Known Member
I didn't some digging and a lifeguard CM friend of mine work at Blizzard a few shifts a couple of years ago during the dry dock period (months of closures). He say he was told that found the mountain is very unstable and it's just a matter of time before things start to collapse. Now I don't think it will get that bad but I believed him about parts of it being unstable. Those slides on the Red Slope aren't built i to the hill but the pumps and plunking all run under it. Perhaps the issue got so bad that they just shut it down completely during that maintenance period. There is no sign of work happening on those slides or the pool, it's just closed.
 
J

jpeden

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
raven said:
I didn't some digging and a lifeguard CM friend of mine work at Blizzard a few shifts a couple of years ago during the dry dock period (months of closures). He say he was told that found the mountain is very unstable and it's just a matter of time before things start to collapse. Now I don't think it will get that bad but I believed him about parts of it being unstable. Those slides on the Red Slope aren't built i to the hill but the pumps and plunking all run under it. Perhaps the issue got so bad that they just shut it down completely during that maintenance period. There is no sign of work happening on those slides or the pool, it's just closed.
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They were still closed as of today. My wife and I went to TL and BB and honestly if we had gone to BB first, I don't know that I would have given TL a chance. It was kind of embarrassing after seeing how nice TL is. I don't love the huge drop slides so I was very disappointed to see the tube/body slides closed. It did look like they were abandoned and there was significant growth of vegetation around them.
 
cheezbat

cheezbat

Well-Known Member
raven said:
I didn't some digging and a lifeguard CM friend of mine work at Blizzard a few shifts a couple of years ago during the dry dock period (months of closures). He say he was told that found the mountain is very unstable and it's just a matter of time before things start to collapse. Now I don't think it will get that bad but I believed him about parts of it being unstable. Those slides on the Red Slope aren't built i to the hill but the pumps and plunking all run under it. Perhaps the issue got so bad that they just shut it down completely during that maintenance period. There is no sign of work happening on those slides or the pool, it's just closed.
Click to expand...
If this is the issue then Blizzard Beach should close immediately after the summer months and stay closed until this issue is resolved...and while they're at it they might as well add a few new attractions to boost capacity.
 
NeXuS1000

NeXuS1000

Well-Known Member
Whatever happened to the rumored Blizzard Beach expansion, with shots of ground work outside of the park perimeter? An optimistic guess could be that they are waiting for the expansion work to start before they do any work on these slides, maybe because they are planning a major overhaul partly due to the underlying issues mentioned...

Probably a way too optimistic guess, but Disney can't be that foolish to let one of their two easiest money-makers just deteriorate with Universal just entering the waterpark game?

EDIT: And the position of Runoff Rapids aligns well with the rumored expansion area, which might help the guess be a little less optimistic.

https://twitter.com/skylor/status/878745481601482754
 
Biff215

Biff215

Well-Known Member
raven said:
I didn't some digging and a lifeguard CM friend of mine work at Blizzard a few shifts a couple of years ago during the dry dock period (months of closures). He say he was told that found the mountain is very unstable and it's just a matter of time before things start to collapse. Now I don't think it will get that bad but I believed him about parts of it being unstable. Those slides on the Red Slope aren't built i to the hill but the pumps and plunking all run under it. Perhaps the issue got so bad that they just shut it down completely during that maintenance period. There is no sign of work happening on those slides or the pool, it's just closed.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info. As a former Blizzard CM this is very sad to hear. While Runoff is hardly a blockbuster attraction, it does add some variety and capacity.

Total guess, but I wonder if the pipes that are built into the mountain are leaking and creating the unstable situation. We discussed this issue a few years ago when Summit and Slush Gusher were having problems. Disney clearly designs and builds a great looking water park, but it does seem to make maintenance a lot more difficult.

Just hoping they're exploring a long term fix for this and/or expansion of the park.
 
THE Monorail Lime

THE Monorail Lime

Well-Known Member
So run off Rapids has been closed for a while now. I a recent photo the pool is drained and its walled off what's up with the slide is this were the new slide is being put?

Update: run off rapids apparently doesn't exist anymore...I asked someone and they said "run off what?" And a cast member I have seen before said "sadly run off will NEVER reopen its getting ready to be demolished!"
 
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cheezbat

cheezbat

Well-Known Member
If this is getting replaced with a new ride, they REALLY wasted time on this thing. Could've either ran the slides till the upcoming refurb, or started demolition and construction earlier.
 

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