Category: Rides

Joey Hayes shared these photos of the Raging River’s new load area today in the Facebook group.

The load and unload area for the two rafts now have air gates. According to desertions posted in the group, the unload gates open to let folks out, then the other gates open to let folks in. I’m still not sure if this is different than how things worked in past years, before the gates.

As previously mentioned, new foot switches are also installed that workers have to stand in for the rafts to deploy. Joey provided a photo of those, as well.

And, here is a look at what used to be a waterfall. I know some parks adjust the water level of their wet rides based on temperature, but it seems if this was working, the park would certainly have it on when the temperatures are as hot as they have been lately (90s!).

I rarely ride water rides due to not wanting to be wet and soggy walking through a theme park, but I expect I’ll have to give the River another shot – especially with the waterfalls being off 🙂

Thanks, Joey, for the report and allowing use of your photos.

Yesterday, Facebook group member Toni Smith and Christian Gerald Evans reported that the Raging River has finally opened for the season – just in time for the hot summer days ahead.

Dee and Anna Lipscomb posted a few photos showing that new air gets have been installed in the loading area. Earlier reports say new foot switches were installed that will require multiple workers to stand on them to deploy a raft, bringing this ride up to date with more modern redundant safety systems.

Some earlier comments pointed out that there used to be some additional waterfalls that hadn’t worked in awhile, so hopefully someone familiar with the ride can go on it and give us a rundown of what’s new and changed.

Update: Christian reports they are still loading just one raft at at time. Some had hoped that the updated system might allow them to load two rafts simultaneously.

Until then … line up early! It’s going to be a hot weekend!