Its also really hard to guard at River Country due to the fact that the water is not clear. Guards have a hard time seeing in to the water to make sure no one is hurt or floundering. And although the water there is treated, its still part of the lake, and you don't ever want to go swimming inthe lake. There are signs up warning you of the dangers (although some people don't seem to pay attention to that).
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Water Parks: Umm...I don't think so!!
- Thread starter WDWGuy
- Start date
General Grizz
New Member
I was at Blizzard Beach yesterday...VERY crowded! The line for the Slusher Gusher was over thirty minutes at 10:30...I couldn't even think about Summit Plummet.
space42
Well-Known Member
River Country is NOT a part of Bay Lake. It is a seperate treated 'pool' with a spillway that spills into Bay Lake. You can see the spillway here.
http://www.disneypix.com/Recreation/River/2001a/River0505-02.htm
According to Disney, River Country is closed due to lower demand and they could open it again if the demand returns. This came from a PR person at Disney and was printed in one of the Orlando news papers about a year ago.
niteobsrvr
Well-Known Member
This is a pretty accurate description of how it works. Notice the mention of filtering. There is however no mention of treating although adding cholrine would not suprise me. That is still relatively different from treated water like comes out of home faucet.
Ok, just want to point out 2 things. 1. Just b/c a PR person says something does not make it entirely true. I am a PR person and I know this first hand. Part of the PR job is to carefully construct the messaging of a given situation to make it sound however the PR team wants it to sound to the public. and 2. the water that replenishes the "pools" of RC does come from Bay Lake. It may be filtered and cleaned, but it does come from there.
djmatthews
Well-Known Member
I have to agree with wdwcp98 - PR personel are employed to constantly paint a postive image of a company/product etc. They are not going to say bad stuff, and will often put a positive, but no so accrurate spin on the truth.
djmatthews
Well-Known Member
I remember on the Disney Future website there being speculation about another water park, I think it would be great, I love the water parks, I'm wondering if the people that have been tured away are going off-site to Water Mania and Wet'n'Wild?
OnWithTheShow
Member
I'm in waterparks so I will share what I know.
According to WP (waterpark) management River Country was closed for several reasons.
1. Capacity - Typhoon Lagoons capacity is 6500, Blizzard is around 8000, River Country was about 1500
2. Admission - Because of the fewer number of attractions at River Country the cost of admission was half as much (16.50 I believe) as the other parks. Why have guests go there when they can pay 31.75 at another water park.
3. Costs - Because of the low admission it was expensive to staff and supply the merchandise and food service locations and life guards.
4. Maintenance - Built in the 70's many elements of River Country were begining to crumble and would have required millions to repair. Slides were sinking, pipes corroding, and wooden elements were rotted out. Management would rather spend that money elsewhere.
5. Handicap accessibility - River Country was no where near any ADA standards.
You can read into this what you will but I believe it was closed for a combination of all of these reasons.
Management does acknowledge that they need to increase waterpark capacity during the peak summer season. While plans for a 3rd water park exist dont plan on them being implemented anytime soon. A large expansion for Typhoon has been planned out and is awaiting budget approval (we hoped for last year, but maybe this year). The expansion would allow Typhoon to equal the capacity of Blizzard. This would allow at least an addition 1500 people each day. Since Typhoon seldom capacity closes for more than an hour or two this 1500 should provide all the capacity needed to prevent guests from being turned away from both parks.
According to WP (waterpark) management River Country was closed for several reasons.
1. Capacity - Typhoon Lagoons capacity is 6500, Blizzard is around 8000, River Country was about 1500
2. Admission - Because of the fewer number of attractions at River Country the cost of admission was half as much (16.50 I believe) as the other parks. Why have guests go there when they can pay 31.75 at another water park.
3. Costs - Because of the low admission it was expensive to staff and supply the merchandise and food service locations and life guards.
4. Maintenance - Built in the 70's many elements of River Country were begining to crumble and would have required millions to repair. Slides were sinking, pipes corroding, and wooden elements were rotted out. Management would rather spend that money elsewhere.
5. Handicap accessibility - River Country was no where near any ADA standards.
You can read into this what you will but I believe it was closed for a combination of all of these reasons.
Management does acknowledge that they need to increase waterpark capacity during the peak summer season. While plans for a 3rd water park exist dont plan on them being implemented anytime soon. A large expansion for Typhoon has been planned out and is awaiting budget approval (we hoped for last year, but maybe this year). The expansion would allow Typhoon to equal the capacity of Blizzard. This would allow at least an addition 1500 people each day. Since Typhoon seldom capacity closes for more than an hour or two this 1500 should provide all the capacity needed to prevent guests from being turned away from both parks.
djmatthews
Well-Known Member
Thanks for that OnWithTheShow. I just hate to see things at WDW stood doing nothing e.g. RC, 20,000, Sky Way stations.... its such a waste!
EmeraldDolphin
New Member
...... if the water parks are closed because they're full, is this to WDW resort guests also, that arrive by WDW bus?? that would be a bummer...
I think the idea of a 3rd water park sounds good too! The Aztec theme sounds pretty cool...
I would never head off property to Wet n Wild or Watermania... I can do that at home in one of our local water parks...
I think the idea of a 3rd water park sounds good too! The Aztec theme sounds pretty cool...
I would never head off property to Wet n Wild or Watermania... I can do that at home in one of our local water parks...
OnWithTheShow
Member
There are two levels of closing for the water parks (I believe they are the same for the theme parks). Stage 1 is a closure to day guests. This means that guests that arrive by car without resort ID are turned away. Stage 2 is full closure, resort guests are turned away. The busses still run to take guests back to their resort but no longer pick up at the resorts. Typhoon seldom has a stage 2 closure, but the parking lot often fills (even the grass overflow lot) requiring security to turn away guests with cars). If you really want to go to a waterpark and they turn you away in your car you can try parking at Downtown Disney and hopping the bus to Typhoon but I can't be certain it will work. If you make it to the turnstiles you will get in.
