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Future of the Congo River Rapids

Do u think they really worried that if they turn all the effects back on Guests will start standing up or switching seats again?
Could also be the reason Drayton turned there pumps off at the end of the ride.
 
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Themeparksandy1981 said:
Do u think they really worried that if they turn all the effects back on Guests will start standing up or switching seats again?
Could also be the reason Drayton turned to pumps off at the end of the ride.
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I think that’s the worry, yes. People often stood up to avoid the waterfalls, avoid the water cannons… to avoid anything of that ilk, basically!

I’d wager that that’s the reason why most, if not all, UK rapids rides now have their wetness-inducing effects turned off. Rumba at Thorpe still has its waterfall and its main wave machine, but unlike Towers’ and Drayton’s, those are supposedly essential to safe operation, so can’t be turned off. Rumba’s waterfall also isn’t nearly as forceful as Congo’s was and doesn’t actually get you wet.
 
Matt N said:
Rumba’s waterfall also isn’t nearly as forceful as Congo’s was and doesn’t actually get you wet.
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Neither did Congo's really. The most I ever got was spray or the odd random few drops. The force of the volume of water falling opposite each other meant the boats very rarely - if ever - got too close to one side or the other. Bit like the water tunnel in Poseidon's Fury at Universal - that sprays water round the circular walls & celling and the most you get is spray or the odd drop - like the waterfalls, you expect to get drenched but actually stay quite dry (11 mins in):

 
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The problem is that guests expect to get wet and so they stand up, switch seats and behave in a manner that increases the risk of them falling out.

I’m not sure they are ever going to get past this issue, which is very sad for the fate of the rapids going forward.
 
AT86 said:
The problem is that guests expect to get wet and so they stand up, switch seats and behave in a manner that increases the risk of them falling out.

I’m not sure they are ever going to get past this issue, which is very sad for the fate of the rapids going forward.
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High sided boats with seatbelts would be a possible option, but generally only rapids with steep drops have them.
Can't add seatbelts to the existing boats as too hard to evacuate if it capsizes.
 
jon81uk said:
High sided boats with seatbelts would be a possible option, but generally only rapids with steep drops have them.
Can't add seatbelts to the existing boats as too hard to evacuate if it capsizes.
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Isn't the reason they don't have belts is because although one never has capsized to my knowledge, these boats are smaller so more likely to capsize whereas the ones in America with belts are much bigger and almost if not impossible to capsize?
 
Steve74 said:
Isn't the reason they don't have belts is because although one never has capsized to my knowledge, these boats are smaller so more likely to capsize whereas the ones in America with belts are much bigger and almost if not impossible to capsize?
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I believe that is correct! Seatbelts would hinder escape in the event of a capsize.
 
Steve74 said:
Isn't the reason they don't have belts is because although one never has capsized to my knowledge, these boats are smaller so more likely to capsize whereas the ones in America with belts are much bigger and almost if not impossible to capsize?
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Yep that’s what I was trying to mean by harder to evacuate if they capsize. The higher sided boats are less likely too and if they do will have more space.
 
There has been talk about these new speakers, and their very close positioning to each other in the audio topic, I didn’t want to derail that topic so thought it better to pop it in here instead.

Here is the Towers St video showing what I am referring to.


From: https://twitter.com/towersstreet/status/1632702039221256195?s=46&t=zG_i8R9vX93ZZU0RljfzWA


It feels like overkill to have this many speakers along the ride if they are for ride music only, I therefore suspect the primary reason for installing these is for H&S reasons - so that PA announcements can be played, and clearly heard by guests at all points along the ride to keep people from standing up.

Could this finally be as part of an attempt to reintroduce some of the lost features such as waterfalls and wave machines?

If you remember during the 2021/22 closed season the waterfalls were covered in substantial scaffolding, something was going on (otherwise why bother?), however come the 2022 season they were still switched off.

An interesting tidbit is that new HSE guidance for rapids rides was released in Dec 2021 (so literally during the exact time the park was working on the waterfalls), could that have derailed the plans to bring these back into use? At the least the legal people within Merlin would want time to work through this to see what, if anything had changed, causing a delay to any existing plans they had at the time.

Guidance here if anyone is interested:

Managing health and safety on river rapids rides

This guidance is aimed at controllers of river rapid rides and amusement park owners and will help them operate river rapid rides safely.
www.hse.gov.uk www.hse.gov.uk

I know it’s potentially wishful thinking, but could these new speakers (along with perhaps other features that aren’t as visible to guests) be the risk mitigation measures that finally get the ride back to its former glory again?

I guess we will find out in a couple of weeks.
 
It's really simple. H&S overkill.

You won't drown by being soaked or splashed. So don't be stupid and stand-up, sit down use common sense and everyone is happy.

I mean there is a seat surely you think 'oh that's there.for a reason, I'll sit'

It's a sign of society I guess.
 
Jb85 said:
It's really simple. H&S overkill.

You won't drown by being soaked or splashed. So don't be stupid and stand-up, sit down use common sense and everyone is happy.

I mean there is a seat surely you think 'oh that's there.for a reason, I'll sit'

It's a sign of society I guess.
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I guess more specifically it’s a sign of society not accepting risk to the level it has before.

If you look at pretty much any video of the rapids in action, right back to the 80s you will see people standing up, especially near the waterfall section. So I don’t think it’s really a case of people’s behaviour changing. An incident of someone falling in and coming to harm was probably statistically overdue.

Instead the level of risk deemed acceptable has reduced.
 
Jb85 said:
So don't be stupid and stand-up, sit down use common sense and everyone is happy.
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Unfortuantly people leave their common sense at home when visiting a theme park, which was why the incident at Drayton Manor occured. Common sense is you might fall in when stood up in a boat, people know this when on a river. Guest in a theme park logic is that the ride is perfectly safe and I won't come to any harm because its a theme park and nothing will go wrong.
 
AT86 said:
I guess more specifically it’s a sign of society not accepting risk to the level it has before.

If you look at pretty much any video of the rapids in action, right back to the 80s you will see people standing up, especially near the waterfall section. So I don’t think it’s really a case of people’s behaviour changing. An incident of someone falling in and coming to harm was probably statistically overdue.

Instead the level of risk deemed acceptable has reduced.
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Your probably right. We're a very risk adverse nation these days. Over the top personally
 
Unfortunately, this is what happens when guests enter a theme park and want to ride something, especially a water ride:

squidward-throw-away.gif


At least the additional speakers COULD be a sign that more effects are on the way. It'd be nice to see those waterfalls running again.
 
AT86 said:
There has been talk about these new speakers, and their very close positioning to each other in the audio topic, I didn’t want to derail that topic so thought it better to pop it in here instead.

Here is the Towers St video showing what I am referring to.


From: https://twitter.com/towersstreet/status/1632702039221256195?s=46&t=zG_i8R9vX93ZZU0RljfzWA


It feels like overkill to have this many speakers along the ride if they are for ride music only, I therefore suspect the primary reason for installing these is for H&S reasons - so that PA announcements can be played, and clearly heard by guests at all points along the ride to keep people from standing up.

Could this finally be as part of an attempt to reintroduce some of the lost features such as waterfalls and wave machines?

If you remember during the 2021/22 closed season the waterfalls were covered in substantial scaffolding, something was going on (otherwise why bother?), however come the 2022 season they were still switched off.

An interesting tidbit is that new HSE guidance for rapids rides was released in Dec 2021 (so literally during the exact time the park was working on the waterfalls), could that have derailed the plans to bring these back into use? At the least the legal people within Merlin would want time to work through this to see what, if anything had changed, causing a delay to any existing plans they had at the time.

Guidance here if anyone is interested:

Managing health and safety on river rapids rides

This guidance is aimed at controllers of river rapid rides and amusement park owners and will help them operate river rapid rides safely.
www.hse.gov.uk www.hse.gov.uk

I know it’s potentially wishful thinking, but could these new speakers (along with perhaps other features that aren’t as visible to guests) be the risk mitigation measures that finally get the ride back to its former glory again?

I guess we will find out in a couple of weeks.
Click to expand...

It is nice to see wee changes to the ride but it might have been better if they disguised the speakers to blend in better like rock covers or such. If we do see the ride working with even some of the effects working then I'll eat some of the new F&B offerings at the park...




On second thoughts, maybe no.
 
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