anybody remember disney's river country?

BillsFanGabe

BillsFanGabe

New Member
Original Poster
I'm a young huge Disney fan but I have never heard of disney's river country until I was searching for some Disney World stuff across the internet and I stumbled upon this, it was very interesting to learn about it. I have some links to some sites that provide info on it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney's_River_Country
http://www.mickey-mouse.com/wdwrivercountry.htm
http://modernruins.blogspot.com/2008/01/disneys-river-country.html
http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/guides/river/river.htm

But yeah I was wondering if I can get some feed back from anyone who visited it before? Was it a really cool waterpark? What was it like? I saw some current pics of it and its still there apparently, the ruins of it.
 
Chevross

Chevross

Active Member
I remember it vaguely. I always thought it was the the most fun of the three now two water parks. It actually used part of the lagoon and I think that was also its downfall.
 
AshaNeOmah

AshaNeOmah

Well-Known Member
You'll find a number of topics on it if you do a search. River Country was the early attempt at a water park. I remember going once or twice and found it very enjoyable. It was small but that was a large part of it's charm. As WDW aged, and Typhoon Lagoon and BB opened it was seen as redundant and never saw a guest again. Many people still miss it. I never go to the water parks so it doesn't effect me that much. I am bothered by the wasted development, though.
 
a2grafix

a2grafix

Well-Known Member
Yes, remember it somewhat vividly, even though me and my family and my cousin went to River Country in the late 1970s and early 1980s (between 1978-1981).

Yes, it was pre-Typhoon Lagoon, but it was quite cool. We took a boat from the Contemporary to River Country, sometimes making a side trip to Discovery Island to look at all the animals, birds, and "really old" huge turtles.

I loved the flumes and the slides that dropped you right into a waterfall into the deep end of one of the pools / lake. I also loved the inner tube ride. Funny thing, there was a reverse current midway through the inner tube ride and that if you didn't hit it correctly, it would shoot you back spinning until you tried again.
 
jen2009

jen2009

New Member
a2grafix said:
Yes, remember it somewhat vividly, even though me and my family and my cousin went to River Country in the late 1970s and early 1980s (between 1978-1981).

Yes, it was pre-Typhoon Lagoon, but it was quite cool. We took a boat from the Contemporary to River Country, sometimes making a side trip to Discovery Island to look at all the animals, birds, and "really old" huge turtles.

I loved the flumes and the slides that dropped you right into a waterfall into the deep end of one of the pools / lake. I also loved the inner tube ride. Funny thing, there was a reverse current midway through the inner tube ride and that if you didn't hit it correctly, it would shoot you back spinning until you tried again.
Click to expand...

Gosh I remeber the flumes and slides. It reminds me of what a previous poster said about Tom Sawyerish. I used to be ablt to see it when we left Fort Wilderness to go to the Magic Kingdom. I even remember what things looked like before the Grand Floridian was built.
 
yankspy

yankspy

Well-Known Member
I remember having fun on the zip line type thing that they had. I believe it was in the part that went into the lagoon.
 
cblodg

cblodg

Member
I do remember it. We went once and then like three years later it closed. Too bad because it was pretty fun and really family oriented.
 
D

dznygirl64

New Member
I used to go to River Country all the time.Back then that was all we had so useing the lake water was no big deal.Now when you think of useing Bay lake to swim in :hurl:.Sad to see it in its current state
 
marcriss

marcriss

Member
a2grafix said:
Yes, remember it somewhat vividly, even though me and my family and my cousin went to River Country in the late 1970s and early 1980s (between 1978-1981).

Yes, it was pre-Typhoon Lagoon, but it was quite cool. We took a boat from the Contemporary to River Country, sometimes making a side trip to Discovery Island to look at all the animals, birds, and "really old" huge turtles.

I loved the flumes and the slides that dropped you right into a waterfall into the deep end of one of the pools / lake. I also loved the inner tube ride. Funny thing, there was a reverse current midway through the inner tube ride and that if you didn't hit it correctly, it would shoot you back spinning until you tried again.
Click to expand...

We got stuck in that spot many times. You'd have to wait for someone big to come down and unclog you! We loved it there as kids. My parents still talk about how my brother and I got "lost" there. We weren't lost, we saw the slides and took off, never even heard our names over the loudspeaker we were having so much fun!
 
Master Yoda

Master Yoda

Pro Star Wars geek.
Premium Member
BillsFanGabe said:
How come it closed? Is it because TL and BB were built and they were much bigger?
Click to expand...
There is no one reason rather several factors among them being location, capacity, access, water quality and simple economics.

dznygirl64 said:
I used to go to River Country all the time.Back then that was all we had so useing the lake water was no big deal.Now when you think of useing Bay lake to swim in :hurl:.Sad to see it in its current state
Click to expand...
The lakes are pretty much the same as they were 30 years ago we just know quite a bit more about what is in them. You know what they say, ignorance is bliss.
 
F

figment88

New Member
We used to camp at FW and go to river country all the time. I can remember the inner tube ride(last hill was the best) and the zip line(was it more like a trapeze?) I was little and terrified of all the fish. the water was murky and smelly, but I had never been to anything like it before, so it was GREAT!!!!!!
 

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