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Future of the Congo River Rapids

Yeah that's why I put the s in brackets 😂
Definitely interesting - I can't see it being a mistake because they've never made such a colossal mistake as this since they've been turned off?

I mean, maybe if they accidentally switched one waterfall on for the day and then realised it at the end of the day (don't see how on earth that would happen as surely someone would notice it as they walked past or gone on/off their break - plus i'm pretty sure it lasted for a couple of days at least?), but for there to be a brand new announcement coinciding with it too would certainly make it seem intentional.

I think @Skyscraper might be onto something about them just testing it for the summer season maybe, just seems odd to me that they were turned on and then back off again so quickly.
 
The day the waterfall on the right side tested the ride didn’t actually open and then was closed for 7 days after that, i wonder if the 2 are linked
 
All I think that's happened here is that both sides were meant to be turned on from opening day, one side failed, they're having problems with parts/repairs and have realised it's not a quick fix so have removed the audio so as not to confuse people.
 
Relife said:
It really can't be difficult to fix a water feature. It's just getting silly at this point, but hey it's Merlin
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No you're right it probably isn't. But with a limited amount of engineers - and probably less than they should have - all busy making sure coasters are up and running every day and fixing other more urgent problems, they've got to prioritise jobs.

I'm pretty certain the waterfall system isn't like your average shower where you could call in a local plumber to fix it in an hour! Towers has only been open just over 5 weeks and with their poor availability record so far for their rides (thankfully it appears to be getting better), I'd rather the tech team be sorting that out over waterfalls that - yes of course - should be working. But considering they haven't been on for the last 4 or 5 years, a few more weeks isn't going to hurt!
 
Matt N said:
I find it interesting that they call it Congo River Adventure rather than Congo River Rapids… is that a typo or a minor mid-season name change?
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I think that's interesting too; given Merlin's track record, it's probably a typo.
DistortAMG said:
Further up the page it says Congo River Rapids. Maybe it is confused of it's gender.
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Someone's changed their avatar. It looks nice. 😀
 
Maybe they tested to see how wet the boats looked after been round the circuit with 1 waterfall working and they decided there’s no way guests will stay seated if both sides were working again. After the Drayton Manor accident all uk parks have been extra cautious on their water rides and cause 1 guest stood up on the rapids at Drayton Manor this season by the jets of water they gone back to the single use instead.
 
I don't even know what the excuse is with the rapids anymore. Just give them an overhaul and get them back to Thier best, towers needs a decent water ride.
 
I’m yet to ride these this year I didn’t ride them in April, but I’m going with a friend next weekend who likes them so probably will then.

I actually genuinely prefer Battle Galleons 😬
 
RIPCorky said:
They demolished the wrong one to be fair....
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You may be onto something here. What if Wickerman was built on the site of CRR and The Flume got a heavy refurb?

Wickerman theme obviously wouldn’t work, neither would the name, but a woodie in Katanga Canyon would’ve certainly worked and I feel investing in The Flume, which was a great family ride, could have worked.

Out of interest, does anyone have any throughput figures on the flume? I seem to remember that peak days meant sharing a log if you were 2 couples but I only ever remember having a private log.
 
s_g_k said:
You may be onto something here. What if Wickerman was built on the site of CRR and The Flume got a heavy refurb?

Wickerman theme obviously wouldn’t work, neither would the name, but a woodie in Katanga Canyon would’ve certainly worked and I feel investing in The Flume, which was a great family ride, could have worked.

Out of interest, does anyone have any throughput figures on the flume? I seem to remember that peak days meant sharing a log if you were 2 couples but I only ever remember having a private log.
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The fiberglass of the Flume was closing in on the end of it's life. If you get 50 years out of that material in those conditions, you've done extremely well. Which would be 9 years from now. It doesn't last that long, relatively speaking, compared to other materials, especially in the elements and in a damp environment. The whole trough would need replacing at some point as it was all fiberglass. Which is almost as good as replacing the whole attraction, as most of the attraction consisted of the fiberglass trough.

At least with the rapids the trough is completely concrete, it will last much, much longer. There were huge health and safety issues too, which is what forced the closure of both the Flume and Loggers leap, Merlin did not want to spend the money to bring them up to code which was required by the H&S executive, I think anyway. Something to do with a review of attractions post Smiler crash.

The issues were more deep seated than the H&S updates to rapids some years later, although they were pretty substantial too, essentially requiring paid staff along the circuit, massively increasing running costs.

Even so, if they had the H&S issues and H&S executive updates with both the flume and the rapids at the same time, essentially forcing them to choose one or the other, I still think the flume would have got the chop, due to aforementioned reasons of all the trough being not far off needing a total replacement. The plastic in the fiberglass gets so brittle over time, it just breaks and shears with no force.

But anyway, I feel, when working properly, the river rapids are a far superior ride. I would much rather these have an extensive refurbishment than a replacement.
 
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