Rivercountry returning?

[ClemsonTigger]

I've read a ton of these threads which discuss swimming in Bay Lake and Seven Seas Lagoon, but I've never heard anyone mention the watersports that still take place.

At least in the case of waterskiing, people enter the water to begin and end their activity, so what gives? :veryconfu

How is it that it is OK to this day to be able to waterski in the lakes?

Currently there is water skiing, parasailing, personal water craft and fishing. The risk is stirring up the mud and having it come in contact with your nasal or oral mucosa. I guess they have determined that a start from a dock or the back of a boat in deeper water with a life vest on (keeping your head out of the water) reduces the risk to nill.

 

[theRIOT]

There is also the case of the parking lot to River Country.
There were not enough handicaped parking spaces. It wasn't ADA compliant. They would have needed to rebuild the lot expanding it into where the Tri-Circle D Ranch is.
They simply wern't going to gut the ranch for parking.

It also goes along with part of what happened at the Treehouse Villas

I was told this by my trainer my first week working for the mouse at Disney University.
So take it for what it's worth.

irv out.

 

[SGT623]

And..many parts and supplies from the park were sold on ebay by mousesurplus last year.

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

I'm not surprised if sooner or later we see a DVC Resort or a new resort...Still It's fun to imagine what they can do

 

[imagineer boy]

I really wish they could just fix it up and expand it, then reopen it. They could add alot more cool features like some more water slides and things like that.

 

[lamarvenoy]

Those last pics that were floating around showing its current state were nasty. Clearly, it WILL NOT be opened again. It reminds me of the old 20K subs rotting away.

 

[uglybug2005]

It should also be noted that the Danskin Women's Tri-athalon and the IronMan Tri-athalon both include swimming across a portion of Seven Seas Lagoon. The changes to lake swimming availability, again, were not due to anyone at WDW worrying that lake water on property was particularly dangerous, but rather compliance with a state-wide law.

 

[bcampione]

A neat fact for you all with the Seven Seas Lagoon rests with the Polynesian. When the resort was built, SSL had a wave machine placed infront where the dock and pool and beach are today. They were going to create waves large enough to surf.

Unfortunately, the waves, when tried, were so forcefull, they were tearing up the beach. So, Disney had to stop using it. The pumphouse for it is still located on the island in SSL located closest to the resort.

Just an interesting fact for ya!:wave:

 

[dolbyman]

swimming in the lakes ?

erm ..
what about: aligators,snakes,spiders,taxmen.... that florida crittery would keep me far away from the water :veryconfu

 

[bgraham34]

River Country was the first water park i was ever in. Fond memories i have.

 

[wild01ride]

Currently there is water skiing, parasailing, personal water craft and fishing. The risk is stirring up the mud and having it come in contact with your nasal or oral mucosa. I guess they have determined that a start from a dock or the back of a boat in deeper water with a life vest on (keeping your head out of the water) reduces the risk to nill.

OK, I tried to see the other side of this one, but c'mon. My guess is that it is not the professional waterski types that are coming here to water ski. If you've ever learned how to water ski before, that learning, at least for most people, involves a spill or so. Not to mention, there are even "good" waterskiiers who take the occassional spill for one reason or another.
Even more, the vacation planning DVD shows our beloved Dave bailing into the water more than once - head and all. I think that it's safe to say that there is a VERY good chance that the majority of people who are waterskiing will be dunking their heads for some reason or another!

 

[ChrisTUK]

Heres an aerial shot of River Country in its current state :

http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=28.411324~-81.564759&style=o&lvl=2&scene=3930025

It looks as though they just closed the park and forgot all about it, the slides etc. are all still there.

 

[Iakona]

OK, I tried to see the other side of this one, but c'mon. My guess is that it is not the professional waterski types that are coming here to water ski. If you've ever learned how to water ski before, that learning, at least for most people, involves a spill or so. Not to mention, there are even "good" waterskiiers who take the occassional spill for one reason or another.
Even more, the vacation planning DVD shows our beloved Dave bailing into the water more than once - head and all. I think that it's safe to say that there is a VERY good chance that the majority of people who are waterskiing will be dunking their heads for some reason or another!

I think the key is :

The risk is stirring up the mud and having it come in contact with your nasal or oral mucosa. I guess they have determined that a start from a dock or the back of a boat in deeper water with a life vest on (keeping your head out of the water) reduces the risk to nill.

 

[prberk]

Well, I for one am glad that they still allow at least the watersports. I would love to swim in the lakes again. Something seems to rob childhood when you are not able to do that, especially in a place like Walt Disney World. I mean, for goodness sakes, can you think of all the risks of swimming in the beach, yet how many people would throw a righteous fit if they disallowed it at Daytona?

But if we can't swim in the lakes, at least we can splash around in the boats and ski... and dream that we own a boat and have a vacation home on a lake somewhere! (Something I just could not afford for real, but a rare blessing that Walt Disney World brings, part of its allure to me.)

I really hope that never completely goes away. It would be a shame.

Paul

 

[Heatherbell]

swimming in the lakes ?

erm ..
what about: aligators,snakes,spiders,taxmen.... that florida crittery would keep me far away from the water :veryconfu

I was just thinking the same thing...definately keeps me out of lakes. Any lakes.

 

[THECARISMINE]

Hey I still swaer I felt a fish or some thing swim into my leg . and that water was like always slimy not that I did not love the place it was still nasty but the pain from that bump on the slide is still a fond memory of mine lol and I always see an aligator in MK every so many years. last year there where 2 of them near splash montian in the lake. I remember the year it closed it was definitly the slimier then the year before and I'm like allergic to pretty much everything I it was the one time I got back to the hotel all ichyI needed to take like a hour showers before I left the hotel agian to go to downdown the next year was when we found out it was closed hmmmmmmm:lookaroun

 

[George]

I was just thinking the same thing...definately keeps me out of lakes. Any lakes.

Actually, if you want a good time go swimming in Wakulla Springs (located near the panhandle, not far from Tallahassee). You can sometimes see gators across the way whilst you swim (if I remember right, there is some netting or something underwater that separates you from them). Being a native Floridian I had no problem swimming there, but my wife from Wisconsin wasn't so into the whole springs thing thanx to the alligators.

 

[Sledge]

The reason for the closure is the FL Lake Water Act, which prohibits swimming in lakes that are not spring-fed. The closure was not a result of pollution/bacteria levels in Bay Lake (Bay Lake is not more polluted now, in fact it was cleaned when WDW bought the property because it was too polluted then to meet Disney standards), rather it was a result of new guidelines brought about over a concern about bacteria levels in lakes across FL in general. Because RC essentially ran using water from the lake, and runoff went directly into the lake (preventing chlorination due to pollution concerns) over the edge of a rubber bladder rather than an actual wall. Making RC into a self-contained system (like BB and TL) would require completely rebuilding it. That's too expensive for something with such a low capacity, and you can bet that wetlands construction restrictions also make it pretty much impossible (Disney can't buck the EPA).
Nobody said "Bay Lake is too dirty to swim in" they said "Lakes that aren't spring-fed may be dangerous from a bacterial standpoint, so you can't swim in any of them if the average temperature is over 80* degrees."
*I don't recall the actual temp, but it's around there.

Bingo.

 

[wild01ride]

I think the key is:

The risk is stirring up the mud and having it come in contact with your nasal or oral mucosa. I guess they have determined that a start from a dock or the back of a boat in deeper water with a life vest on (keeping your head out of the water) reduces the risk to nill.

But my point is that there's a darn good chance of stirred up mud/water coming in contact with your "nasal or oral mucosa" and/or your head going in the water.

Nevertheless, judging from the aerial shot, that water is definitely sticky and icky.

 

[tink81]

Hey I still swaer I felt a fish or some thing swim into my leg . and that water was like always slimy not that I did not love the place it was still nasty but the pain from that bump on the slide is still a fond memory of mine lol and I always see an aligator in MK every so many years. last year there where 2 of them near splash montian in the lake. I remember the year it closed it was definitly the slimier then the year before and I'm like allergic to pretty much everything I it was the one time I got back to the hotel all ichyI needed to take like a hour showers before I left the hotel agian to go to downdown the next year was when we found out it was closed hmmmmmmm:lookaroun

huh? Alligators in Magic Kingodom? What lake near Splash Mountain?

Does anyone else feel like they are taking CraZy pills??!!!