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Paultons Park: General Discussion

Jb85 said:
For me this wouldn’t be a great move. Vertical rapid just look naff. And the brochure images back this up somewhat.

A nicely themed rapids is what is required, but would they have the space on that plot?
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Depends if they theme the edges as it were.

Which given Paultons last few attempts I'd imagine they'd try giving that a go. Get some rock work going on and it'll look much better.
 
Skyscraper said:
This sounds exciting, but my worry is that any good theming will be overshadowed by the countless "risk of drowning" signs that the HSE will almost certainly force them to install.
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Not sure why good theming would cause people to stand up. Unless you mean squirty things rather than theming.
 
jon81uk said:
Not sure why good theming would cause people to stand up. Unless you mean squirty things rather than theming.
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No I'm pretty sure that all new rapids rides will require adequate signage as per the HSE's post-Drayton guidance. Too much signage wouldn't bode well with Paulton's level of themeing.
 
Relife said:
I've not heard of Hafema before, what other rapids do they do? Either way it's a great fit for the park, they really need a decent water ride.
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River Quest at Phantasialand is probably their best known. Also the rides at Etnaland, TusenFryd, Bagatelle, Bobbejaanland and umm, many others.
 
Jb85 said:
For me this wouldn’t be a great move. Vertical rapid just look naff. And the brochure images back this up somewhat.

A nicely themed rapids is what is required, but would they have the space on that plot?
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I think it depends on the model and the theme. If we’re talking those Reverchon travelling models like WMSP has, then yes I agree with you. They can look really naff if they’re left bare. Paultons already has one naff, travelling water ride and it doesn’t need another.

Hafema’s mini raft falls into this category I’d say, though I don’t think it’d take too much dressing to make one look half decent. You can encase it in rockwork to create a bit of a mountain for instance.

If you’re talking a fully-fledged model from Hafema, ala River Quest, then it’s going to probably need a lot of surrounding structure. There’s much more concrete and walls involved than supports. The actual rapids channel is much closer to what you see on traditional rapids than a travelling setup.

RQ did look like a multi-story carpark from some angles for many years. It’s not as bare now, though still not a thing of great beauty. Again though, I think it depends what you do. You could clad the outer structure various ways the theme it. If it’s going up against the edge of a guest area like this seems to be, you also eliminate the need to 360° theme the outer shell like River Quest does, so you can sink that time, effort and money into creating a really substantial front facade.

The main advantage you have with the RQ layout though is the opportunity to almost dark ride theme it. The ground and first floor of River Quest are mostly covered/“indoors”. You could easily 360 theme the on-ride perspective. For example, I think you could create quite an immersive jungle with a treetop canopy overhead.

There’s ample possibilities with a vertical model, I just don’t think we’ve seen a park fully take advantage of it yet.

I’m still more inclined to lean towards a mini model though, based on that suggested footprint and assumed budget, but they may well surprise us.
 
Skyscraper said:
This sounds exciting, but my worry is that any good theming will be overshadowed by the countless "risk of drowning" signs that the HSE will almost certainly force them to install.
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jon81uk said:
Not sure why good theming would cause people to stand up. Unless you mean squirty things rather than theming.
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Skyscraper said:
No I'm pretty sure that all new rapids rides will require adequate signage as per the HSE's post-Drayton guidance. Too much signage wouldn't bode well with Paulton's level of themeing.
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The guidance is there to manage the risks of someone entering the water, there are pots of ways to manage that. Adequate signage just means not inadequate signage! It doesn't have to be overly intrusive of theme damaging

These boats look to be lower floored and higher sided than any other model in the UK, that alone should help a lot.
 
Relife said:
Interesting the rapids is not in the new development area, maybe they are planning something big there.
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I wonder if they worried about installing anything big in this area after the problems the locals had that they installed Cobra and Edge without planning permission.
I do agree this is a large water ride as if it was a traveling version it would have opened for 2023.
 
Nosferatu said:
Any expansion to the park's lineup is welcome in my books. I can see this rapids being similar in size to the rapids at TusenFryd, which I believe is also from Hafema.
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What’s nice about those rapids is there is almost no reliance on dripping or splashing things. Just a reasonably good rapids with a couple of fairly big drops. The spiral to the dragon is very cool.
 
jon81uk said:
What’s nice about those rapids is there is almost no reliance on dripping or splashing things. Just a reasonably good rapids with a couple of fairly big drops. The spiral to the dragon is very cool.
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I actually think that type of rapids could be more befitting of the modern UK industry than an effect-driven rapids. I feel like water from a drop isn’t something that people would stand up to avoid in the same way as, say, water from a waterfall or water cannon.
 
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