Popeye & Blutos bilge rat barges, do not skip.

[Dmto4]

When staying onsite, we always take one day and hit all the water rides over, and over, and over again, right after lunch. It’s great, especially with the front of the line passes! After a few hours we go back to the hotel and either swim, or just change into dry clothes. We love all those rides, but do agree, the barges are especially fun!

 

[heidijanesmith]

One thought about wearing ponchos and rain gear on these rides. I have nice expensive poncho's and my butt still gets wet. No matter how I try to sit on the poncho, tuck it or maneuver it, but butt still gets wet.

I bought from frogtogg rain gear, inexpensive but works fantastic. I cut the pants into shorts and the sleeves on the jacket to short sleeves. There is a hood and very, very light weight. The shorts keep my butt dry and the rain jacket takes care of everything else.

We put these in a backpack everyday at the parks, that way we are covered no matter what the weather gives us.

 

[SCSabresfan]

We love all of the water rides. We usually rent a $10 all-day locker at the front of the park for the day we decide to ride the water rides. We bring a set of "quick dry" clothes (with extra shoes/sandals) and leave them in the locker until we are ready to ride the water rides. Then, its just a quick change and leave all our other belongings in the locker. The only thing we bring with us is our express pass lanyards. We have seen others try to use ponchos with no success. We never have used ponchos because it spoils the whole experience. After we ride the water rides 5-10 times each, we head back to the lockers and change back into dry clothes.

 

[Gatrcruzer]

We have done this ride with ponchos, and it did not help. As a previous poster stated, more like jumping into a pool with your shoes on, so imagine jumping into a pool with a poncho on. You definitely have to plan to be soaked and be okay with that, or plan accordingly. We have brought a change of clothes or just plan on leaving afterward. Personally, I'm not a fan of the wet rides - getting old - so we usually skip it.

 

[Husker Mike]

We decided to return to IOA after pool time in our swimsuits to ride the barges and Ripsaw Falls. Turned out to be a smart plan.

 

[jdrum3]

There is no substitute for your first time riding Bilge Rat Barges or Velocicoaster. You will come away with about the same look, just a lot wetter on one.

 

[kbelle8995]

You will absolutely get wet. It's fun. They soak you. On a hot day it's almost like nothing else

 

[Husker Mike]

We decided to return to IOA after pool time in our swimsuits to ride the barges and Ripsaw Falls. Turned out to be a smart plan.

The next day, my daughter insisted that she didn't want to walk alllllll the way back to the hotel and back (and wear a swimsuit to an amusement park, even if under other clothes). We did the barges, and confirmed that unless you are going to spend the $5 for the dryers... WEAR A SWIMSUIT. We had clothes hanging everywhere in the hotel room, and some of them still seemed kind of damp two days later.