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Will we ever see a comeback of water rides at dry parks?


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It's not just maintenance and upkeep, but also the cost of water. In many communities water is becoming more and more expensive and those rides pump through a lot of it.

The cost of water is nominal since it is continually recycled although some does has to be continually added.

 

Maybe in Georgia (which appears to be your area of expertise) but I can assure you that it is NOT nominal in many places in this country.

 

Don't forget the cost of pumping/filtering/maintaining that water once it is in the reservoir. It isn't cheap.

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Well since we saw Infinity Falls open at SeaWorld Orlando and the mackpower splash at Walibi Belgium like 2 years ago it definitely tells us that the end of water rides at dry parks isn’t totally over. I think when we see the log flumes and shoot the chute rides finally fade away for good except for the classic flumes like splash mountain, journey to Atlantis, Jurassic Park the ride, then maybe some interest will bring back a new generation of dry water rides with MackSplash/SuperSplash already having the latest invention. Heck they can bring back a very tall pilgrims plunge type of water ride back but try building the ride with great quality so hopefully it won’t have to close down so quickly like shoot the rapids did at Cedar Point. Shoot the rapids still surprises me only being their like 2 years. Maybe Intamin wasn’t the right company to create a water ride for cedar point. I still think that it’s their and wanted to ride it but oh well.

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Heck they can bring back a very tall pilgrims plunge type of water ride back but try building the ride with great quality so hopefully it won’t have to close down so quickly like shoot the rapids did at Cedar Point. Shoot the rapids still surprises me only being their like 2 years. Maybe Intamin wasn’t the right company to create a water ride for cedar point. I still think that it’s their and wanted to ride it but oh well.

There's a difference between a "bad quality" ride and a prototype. Anyone know how well the other Intamin water coasters are running?

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Well since the Mack powersplash and supersplash is pretty much overseas do you think the next step will be to bring this new water ride concept over to the U.S? Infinity Falls might be a start of new raft type styled water ride that we will see in other US parks. Because the flume water ride concept seems to be still popular. You think they will stick with the shoot the rapids styled flume ride even though it doesn’t exist anymore?

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  • 3 months later...
I understand their is an article over on screamscape that talks about why the theme park modern water ride has become an endangered species check it out over on blooloop.

 

https://blooloop.com/water-rides-theme-parks/

 

Lance Hart seems like a nice guy, but I can't stand his writing on Blooloop. It's pretty much always bad. Social media has an effect on killing water rides? Interesting logic jump. Seems like the more obvious possibility is that the rides removed are old.

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Some people fight me on this argument i make, but from my observations, far more guests hate getting wet than I've seen guests who like getting wet. Particularly when you have to wear street clothing and are not wearing a bathing suit. It just doesn't compute that you could have a steady diet of water rides when guests hate to get water on them.

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You live in Florida right?

 

Here are Splash Mountain’s wait times for the last 7 days:

 

10567776-B1C3-47A9-8E78-C76FC3A9A26F.thumb.jpeg.ec2d39a0bcd796a155a6e60d36db63f9.jpeg

 

... are we done here? It briefly pulled ahead of Flight of Passage a few times for longest queue at the resort and it’s capacity is ridiculous.

 

Your argument is likely just based on personal preference. Water rides (except those horrible splash boats) are extremely popular rides and maintain that popularity essentially forever.

 

You could also go down the street to SeaWorld where (most of the time) the coasters will all be walk-ons but Atlantis and Infinity Falls usually have a decent sized line. You could also go to Busch Tampa where Stanley Falls and Cheetah Hunt are the only reasons that we ever buy Quick Queue (the rapids generally have a a line too but I’m not about that life).

 

If it’s moderately warm out flume rides pretty much always have some of the longest lines at any park that has one (even ones with a turntable and pretty solid capacity).

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That article begins with the premise that water rides are being removed because they’re unpopular and anyone who’s been to an amusement park lately knows that’s ridiculous. They’re popular, they’re just expensive to run and maintain and they take up a lot of room.

 

If they were unpopular you would see pay-per-ride parks removing them too but for some reason that pretty much never happens (again... aside from stupid splash boats). Hell, those parks keep buying new ones... I wonder why that is.

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I think it just comes down to how good the ride is. When the original Arrow flumes opened, most parks didn't have the coaster collections that they do today. So a flume that was once one of the best rides in the park is now not quite as exciting.

 

Larger parks can keep water rides as headliners by going with more exciting layouts or better theming (see Splash Mountain, Ripsaw Falls, Popeye, Infinity Falls, Chiapas, Timber Mountain, etc). At smaller parks, your average water ride still stands out. Take Canobie for example. Their shoot the chutes got its own themed area and is one of the park's headliners. It's still incredibly popular 20 years later.

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Just another observation but since I've been going to parks with my kids more recently I've noticed that most, not all, but most water rides tend to have a little bit of a lower height restriction and it's pretty cool to the smaller kids to get to experience a "bigger" ride when they're that little. Personally I don't care to get soaked head to toe but the little ones love a log flume or a rapids ride so we have to hit them every time, even when it's 45 degrees and overcast at Dollywood, worth it.

 

Personally I don't think the removals have anything to do with popularity, it has to be a /safety/operational/and ultimately a financial issue.

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I think it just comes down to how good the ride is. When the original Arrow flumes opened, most parks didn't have the coaster collections that they do today. So a flume that was once one of the best rides in the park is now not quite as exciting.

 

I honestly don't even know if it matters, people just want to get wet. Lagoon's flume does absolutely nothing and it had the longest line in the park all day when we were there. The same went for Darien lake before they got rid of theirs (that one was awful). I'm actually having a hard time thinking of a regional park where the flume doesn't routinely have a long line. Even Dorney's flume usually gets a 5-10 minute line which (for Dorney) is pure insanity.

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That's true. If it's shorts weather, they'll have a line almost anywhere. I guess my point was more towards marketability. At a smaller park like Funtown USA or Story Land, they will have the flume prominently featured on brochures or commercials.

 

I actually liked Darien Lake's flume...

 

Fingers crossed that doesn't trigger that thread to migrate here.

 

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The only ones I can see are the Mack Power Splash rides like Pulsar at Walibi Belgium. They have a smaller footprint and look really appealing, and I could see more parks including them. Maybe a few parks will buy a water coaster. I don't see a huge wave of either of those though because most people go to waterparks to get soaked, and they would rather stay dry a dry parks or ride the already-existing water rides if there are any.

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So if they were going to even think of bringing back theme park water rides in dry parks the one creation that’s pretty popular right now is the Mack power splash? I am not sure if super splash is also popular as well this new type is overseas though in other countries correct? They are taking out all of the older water rides that need a lot of maintenance like the log flumes, shoot the chutes, etc. but I hope their is enough of a big fan base that can attract some more interest in a innovative new state of the art water coaster flume like the failed Shoot the Rapids at Cedar Point once again which had a ton of potential. I got really excited when I saw water rides were being taken to new heights by making them taller. Like pilgrims plunge at holiday world. How the elevator lift was designed so the boats can go up for the big drop. If they can invest in these water rides for the future do you think their is hope of a comeback? Safety comes first.

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