River Country Pictures

[dreamfinder]

I've heard people say it was a fun place. I've never been there, what was it like?

It was literally an old fashioned swimming hole. Pretty much anything that you would do at a lake in the country, they had set up there. Swings, ladders, etc. Take the tween play areas at the other water parks, do it in wood and rope, and you have River Country. It was alot of fun for the kids. Great place to play. Not be told what to do, or see how fast you could go on a slide, but to play. The 2 or 3 tube slides they had were very low key. It was much more free form than the current water parks. It was really hard to get to though.

 

[csaguy]

water

Where does the water for Splash Mountain come from? It doesn't smell "treated".

 

[Master Yoda]

Where does the water for Splash Mountain come from? It doesn't smell "treated".

If I am not mistaken all water attractions are required to have the water at swimming pool quality. The Smell in splash comes more from the inevitable mildew when you combine tons of water and a rather unventilated series of rooms.

 

[ClemsonTigger]

The water attractions are fed with a separate water system - as the water is chemically treated with dye to be darker, etc.

Thanks....beat me to it.

 

[ClemsonTigger]

Where does the water for Splash Mountain come from? It doesn't smell "treated".

Treating water doesn't have to use chlorine which is the smell we equate with "pool water". There is essentially a giant swimming pool behind splash that contains the water treatment facility.

 

[PhilharMagician]

RC was used for peak crowd control during it's last few years of operation, unfortunately it was finally closed by the huge drop in attendance after 9/11/01. It was not till 2005 when it was made official that it would never reopen. The pools now partially filled with mud and the vegitation is overgrown. If you go to Mickey's Backyard BBQ you will enter part of the old park but you will not see the pool area. The restrooms used for the BBQ are the old RC locker/changing/restrooms and they need to have a little TLC at this point, make that a lot of TLC.

 

[WaltsApprentice]

Yea. I guess that sign would be a bit of a downer. (Although very effective!)

Hey but it would go great with the theming of that crappy idea turning the animal protected (now) and former Discovery Island into Pirate Island! :ROFLOL:You could say its the evil lake of Davey Jones...go in it and you will get stuck on his ghost ship for years!! Wait... guest may like that??

 

[hauntdmansion79]

If I am not mistaken all water attractions are required to have the water at swimming pool quality. The Smell in splash comes more from the inevitable mildew when you combine tons of water and a rather unventilated series of rooms.

Thank God for that "inevitable mildew" because it produces the best, most recognizable smell in all of Walt Disney World. When I get my first sniff of that mildew water smell, I'm home.

 

[Master Yoda]

Thank God for that "inevitable mildew" because it produces the best, most recognizable smell in all of Walt Disney World. When I get my first sniff of that mildew water smell, I'm home.

My mom has a real bonafide bomb shelter at her house with that same smell. I think Disney every time I walk in it.

 

[hauntdmansion79]

Can people swim off the beach at the Grand Floridian? What about paddle boats and stuff like that, do they have those anymore? Isn't it the same water?

I remember River Country really well. I used to go there in the 80's, when it was Disney's only water park and one of THE places to go. Current day pictures brings back memories and makes me really sad. I remember convincing my Mom to go down that steep slide that drops off into the main pool and my Mom wanting to go back down the stairs once she reached the top, but the stairs were so crowded, she decided to get it over with and go down the slide. The whole pool area heard her scream bloody murder and she still talks about that water slide to this day. In fact she brought it up on Christmas Eve this year, complaining about how she lost her bathing suite once she hit the water.

I also remember Discovery Island. I remember buying a wooden gun in Frontierland and then taking the boat over to Discovery Island and seeing tons of cool birds. I also remember seeing the ship-wrecked boat, the one Michael Eisner stood by when he introduced Swiss Family Robinson on TV, and thinking I was seeing a real life movie set. That ship is still there if you look at a satelite arial shot. You can hardly see it anymore but it's on the South side of the island.

Just going down memory lane, thanks for listening.

 

[hauntdmansion79]

My mom has a real bonafide bomb shelter at her house with that same smell. I think Disney every time I walk in it.

Awesome! Every once in a while when I turn on my car's A/C for the first time of the season, it blows out a puff of Disney World water smell and I practically spaz out. I've been know to shove my nose right in the vent to get a hit of Disney to help with my withdrawel symptoms.


P.S. - Your Mom has a bomb shelter? How cool is that. How far underground is it? You must have had so much fun with that when you were a kid.

 

[Master Yoda]

Can people swim off the beach at the Grand Floridian? What about paddle boats and stuff like that, do they have those anymore? Isn't it the same water?

No they can not. Regarding the boats it is the same water but different conditions. The amoeba that causes all the problems is called naegleria fowleri. The conditions out in open water are very poor for this amoeba but are perfect close to shore. It is actually present in the sediment and not the water. It does not get into the water until the sediment is churned up by someone walking through it etc. You also have to get this little sucker into your nasal membranes to contract the infection and the water temperature has to be above 80 degrees. Infections are pretty rare (24 confirmed cases since 1989) but last year there were 3 cases in and around Orlando that were fatal.

Awesome! Every once in a while when I turn on my car's A/C for the first time of the season, it blows out a puff of Disney World water smell and I practically spaz out. I've been know to shove my nose right in the vent to get a hit of Disney to help with my withdrawel symptoms.


P.S. - Your Mom has a bomb shelter? How cool is that. How far underground is it? You must have had so much fun with that when you were a kid.

It is mostly above ground. It only drops about 2 or 3 feet below grade. Any deeper in Florida and you hit water. The walls are made of CMUs stacked 3' thick with every cell filled with concrete and re-bar. Unfortunately due to lack of decent ventilation the humidity level in it stays around 100%. Bare metal will develop surface rust almost overnight. Me and my friends set up an old desk and some chairs in there for playing AD&D in Jr high and high school but that is about the extent of its usefulness. However, if a hurricane or a tornado touch down in my moms neighborhood that bomb shelter will be the place to be.

 

[ClemsonTigger]

Thank God for that "inevitable mildew" because it produces the best, most recognizable smell in all of Walt Disney World. When I get my first sniff of that mildew water smell, I'm home.

Do you mean it's better than monorail smell? :lookaroun

My mom has a real bonafide bomb shelter at her house with that same smell. I think Disney every time I walk in it.

And what are you doing "playing" in the bomb shelter...:lookaroun

 

[RiversideBunny]

Awesome! Every once in a while when I turn on my car's A/C for the first time of the season, it blows out a puff of Disney World water smell and I practically spaz out. I've been know to shove my nose right in the vent to get a hit of Disney to help with my withdrawel symptoms.....

Aren't you guys bordering on whacko? We avoid riding Splash Mountain early in the day because, if you get that water on you, then you walk around the park all day smelling like 'eau de sewer' and people think you haven't had a shower or something.

 

[Master Yoda]

And what are you doing "playing" in the bomb shelter...:lookaroun

Guaranteeing that I stayed celibate for as long as possible.(see above post)

 

[Master Yoda]

Aren't you guys bordering on whacko? We avoid riding Splash Mountain early in the day because, if you get that water on you, then you walk around the park all day smelling like 'eau de sewer' and people think you haven't had a shower or something.

You have been around this site for more than a year now you should know that many of us crossed that wacko border a long time ago.:lol:

 

[Keyda]

You are talking about trying to purify billions of gallons of water in both a natural and man made lake. It is simply not possible.

Definitely not impossible. I am in the process of designing the world's largest Water Treatment and UV facility (cleaning water to NYC (all boroughs) and westchester county. It is a billion dollar project but definitely not impossible. And that is for drinking water. (Side note I am also working on the tunnel system that will deliver the water to Brooklyn and Staten Island)

Also from the research I have done on the "bacteria" in the water it is not anything dangerous to humans. The organism basically mass produces and blocks out sunlight and kills anything living on the bottom of the lakes. It is not dangerous just turns the water the really black/navy color we see today.

 

[hauntdmansion79]

Aren't you guys bordering on whacko? We avoid riding Splash Mountain early in the day because, if you get that water on you, then you walk around the park all day smelling like 'eau de sewer' and people think you haven't had a shower or something.

Bordering on whacko? Nope, already passed that a long time ago. You'll find a lot of us whockos around here. We'll get excited about even the most infinitesimal Disney World assocations. The other day I talked to a hotel located in Orlando and got excited just thinking that the person on the other side of the line was a few miles away from Disney World. I've come to grips with my obsession.

 

[Master Yoda]

Definitely not impossible. I am in the process of designing the world's largest Water Treatment and UV facility (cleaning water to NYC (all boroughs) and westchester county. It is a billion dollar project but definitely not impossible. And that is for drinking water. (Side note I am also working on the tunnel system that will deliver the water to Brooklyn and Staten Island)

Also from the research I have done on the "bacteria" in the water it is not anything dangerous to humans. The organism basically mass produces and blocks out sunlight and kills anything living on the bottom of the lakes. It is not dangerous just turns the water the really black/navy color we see today.

I guess to be a little clearer "impossible" in WDW lakes or at least not economically viable. The bacteria is not super dangerous to humans however the amoeba in question (naegleria fowleri) is quite harmful.

 

[ClemsonTigger]

Definitely not impossible. I am in the process of designing the world's largest Water Treatment and UV facility (cleaning water to NYC (all boroughs) and westchester county. It is a billion dollar project but definitely not impossible. And that is for drinking water. (Side note I am also working on the tunnel system that will deliver the water to Brooklyn and Staten Island)

Also from the research I have done on the "bacteria" in the water it is not anything dangerous to humans. The organism basically mass produces and blocks out sunlight and kills anything living on the bottom of the lakes. It is not dangerous just turns the water the really black/navy color we see today.

You're right, it's not impossible, but there is a desire to maintain relatively natural bioscape and many of the water systems are part of a much larger water management system for Orange county. Water can be cleaned and maintained, but not with fish in it, not using natural lake bottom and on. The number of birds this area supports allows for periodic spikes of coliforms that can potentially cause a problem, similarly Vibrio as is the case with any natural environment including oceanfront. There just isn't the value or desire to achieve that. Again, it's consider sufficient to have the many pools and water parks for swimming needs. The primary pathogen identified as was said before is an amoeba, not bacterium.