Roman Rapids

[Mike541x]

Something similar to SDC's Mystic River Falls with a much better Roman theme would be a really cool replacement. I've always loved water rides as a kid before I had the courage for roller coasters, but even then Roman Rapids always fell flat to me. It just feels uninspiring compared to other rapids rides I've been on.

 

[Jonesta6]

I think the one thing that always fascinated me was the turntable station - it seems more of these rides like White Water Canyon at KD tend to use a belt system instead.

I'm not saying it's a great, or even good, river tube ride, but it certainly has some interesting things about it.

 

[Mattatee]

Looks like the first turntable was used on Pirana at Efteling in 1983. The first turntable in the US was in 1984; Fury of the Nile at Worlds of Fun and the other two Intiman River Rapids to open that year (Canada's Wonderland and SFGA) also had the turntables. All river rapids by Intamin used turntables until Darian Lake in 1989 opted to go with the belt system for their now defunct Grizzly Run.

In 1988, Hopkins Rides entered the rapids market with Rattlesnake River featuring a single boat length station. In 1990, Holiday World installed Raging Rapids in Boulder Canyon which was made by Hopkins Rides. From videos, this looks to be a straight station but uses the turntable technology compared to the belt system found on the original stations of Intamin. Also in 1990, Frontier City opened their rapids ride, Renegade Rapids which also uses a single boat station with a holding break. Silverwood's Thunder Canyon, manufactured by Hopkins uses a separate load and unload station, separated by a belt lift hill.

The Next Intamin to use a straight station appears to be Kentucky Kingdom's Raging Rapids River Ride built in 1999 followed by Grand Rapids at Michigans Adventure in 2006.

The latest generation of River rapids, Infinity falls at Seaworld Orlando by Intamin and Mystic River Falls at SDC by Ride Engineers Switzerland and Barr engineering have used a continuous moving slatted belt.

TL;DR - Intamin used a straight station using a series of belts prior to 1983/1984 and mostly a turntable station after that.

 

[Jonesta6]

That's good info, but the question is volume of rides with each system including how many are still operational and/or have any been changed (ie a turntable changed into something else during a renovation/upgrade)?

 

[mikes]

Roman Rapids is certainly not my favorite raft ride, but I would not want to see this style ride leave the park. An upgraded version would certainly be welcomed though.

 

[Mattatee]

That's good info, but the question is volume of rides with each system including how many are still operational and/or have any been changed (ie a turntable changed into something else during a renovation/upgrade)?

None of them have changed in renovations. Watching videos and finding of photos of every single US River Rapids is quite tedious and you can go correct me if im am wrong. But based on what i could find, you get 26 straight station rapids and 21 turntable rapids. A lot of small parks used Hopkins Rides which to date, has no turntable rapids. If you break it down to which are still operating, you get more turntables left in the US than straight stations as the turntables by Intamin are newer and are at bigger parks.

 

[warfelg]

I think something people really underestimate with turntable style load/unload is how much more efficient and easier they are to load/unload. I don’t have any data to back this up, but it’s my feeling rides like Roman Rapids and Coal Cracker have better wait times because they way the station works, as it’s easier for them to send out a empty boat based on how long it takes someone to get in/out. With a belt, the stations are so much smaller in terms of length without separate stations, if someone is slow, you just generally have to stop the belt.

 

[Jonesta6]

If there's a hold up on a turntable, the whole thing stops including the lift to it. If you hold up a belt, there may be fewer rafts in the station but otherwise everything stops.

 

[golfburner]

Roman Rapids open. From park instagram story.

 

[Thomas]

Nobody cares.