River Country

[Orange Team]

River Country used to tops on my list - i always thought that their slides were pretty intense (especially that waterfall ones)! From when I passed by the area (via a boat on Bay Lake) in May, it doesn't look like a whole lot's going on there. Here's a pretty cool site with lots of River Country stuff:

http://www.lostepcot.com/rivercountry.html

Click on the links by the goofy icon for pictures

 

[CanadianGuy]

Uh no. Actually the water level for RC was higher than BL. It also had spillway that allowed water from RC to flow over into Bay Lake.
I think WDW (like many other companies) used 9/11 as a reason to make many business decisions they could otherwise not justify.

Actually .. the way I read this.. from the previous posters link.. the water for the slides (and probably more) originated from Bay Lake (filtered/treated or not)

Design

Water Circulation

To keep the water in River Country fresh, Imagineers built a giant flexible intake/filter tube which was placed at the mouth of River Country's Bay Cove, opening up into Bay Lake. The tube was filled with water and monitoring equipment to allow it to expand and contract to maintain the water level.

The water from Bay Lake would be pumped through this tube to the top of the water slides at a rate of 8,500 gallons per minute. The excess water in River Country would spill out over the "bladder," back into Bay Lake.

And given that new state rules concerning water parks went into effect. Pools and water activities must have their water originating from municipal water systems, not natural bodies of water.

The quoted item from the website referenced in the previous post is accurate, River Country would have required a very costly re-fit for the new municipal water supply on top of all the other work the park no doubt needed. Perhaps getting a municipal supply line with sufficient volume to that location on property was cost prohibitive?

Knox

 

[Ducky4Disney]

I never got to see RC and the idea of a rustic country swimming hole is very appealing. I can see the problem they had using lake water for supply, but why can't they just refit it so it doesn't use lake water? Disney Magic and all that, they surely can create something great for it. Maybe it is a matter of money, maybe a lack of demand, who knows.

D4D

ETA: Ok, I finally got the site to work and I saw the pics of RC. I can see now why it may be difficult to make the park work with a closed water system. I'l have to see some pics of it now to compare. I bet that was a fun place. If they ever open another water park, I hope they go with that theme, I would love it!

 

[KYMickey]

River Country would have required a very costly re-fit for the new municipal water supply on top of all the other work the park no doubt needed. Perhaps getting a municipal supply line with sufficient volume to that location on property was cost prohibitive?

Actually it wouldn't have required a very large water main because the water from the pool (instead of the lake) could've been pumped down the slides and thus recycled. All that would've been required would've been the filtration equipment like that used in the other water Parks. The bladder could still provide the separations from the lake with any excess water in the pool flowing over it into the lake much like a zero edge pool.

These modifications certainly would be much cheaper than building a new water park! I think Disney had other motives for closing River Country.

 

[CanadianGuy]

Actually it wouldn't have required a very large water main because the water from the pool (instead of the lake) could've been pumped down the slides and thus recycled. All that would've been required would've been the filtration equipment like that used in the other water Parks. The bladder could still provide the separations from the lake with any excess water in the pool flowing over it into the lake much like a zero edge pool.

These modifications certainly would be much cheaper than building a new water park! I think Disney had other motives for closing River Country.

You're presuming that the watermain which filled the pool wasn't originally sourced at Bay Lake and then filtered and treated prior to use in the pool. I don't know that one way or another. But the requirements for a municipal water line to fill a pool are VERY different from the requirements of a million plus gallon water park.

Add to that, I'm thinking that overflowing heavily clorinated water into Bay Lake would also be consider a no-no in today's environmentally conscious world. Who knows, for the most part, while the waters of Bay Lake and the Seven Seas Lagoon appear to be part of a free- flowing watershed, it is actually a closed system... and therefore doesn't 'renew' like other waterways would.

Regardless, maybe in fact Disney did have an ulterior motive in their decision making process, it wouldn't be the first time.

I think we all may be overthinking this. Disney opened two high capacity hundred million dollar or more waterparks not two or three miles away from River Country. RC would frequently close to capacity and frankly, capacity wasn't all that much to start with.

I suspect at the end of the day it was really more about economics of the labor costs and costs of maintaining and upgrading annually... vs the maximum possible ticket revenue that could be generated.

All these red herring issues may or may not have played a role ... but at the heart of ANY corporate decision ... you'll find dollars and cents.

Knox

 

[rebecca06261]

We were inside a portion of it. We took a Ferry boat over and it parked at a dock. We were met with teams of waiters carrying fruity drinks (both alcoholic and non alcoholic). We were led up a path that bent toward the right (there was a beach on our immediate right). We walked for a loooooooong way and were greeted with pirate banners hanging from a beam overhead. We ate dinner and had our meet and greet with Lee Arenberg inside what looked like it might have been a food court type area. They set up tables with the food and drinks all around and we had several tables of 8 or 10 for seating. There was a brown building that had bathrooms that we were facing. The performance by DeMarco was in the entrance to that building.

I'm sorry to say that I cannot pick out where we were from the map above. Having never been to River Country before I am at a disatvantage.

It was a great Special Event!

Suzi

After doing a little research, I would think that this was probably held at the picnic pavilion now used for Mickey's Backyard BBQ. According to a few sites that were linked to earlier in the thread, the picnic pavilion was listed as a River Country attraction.

 

[Walrus]

A little history:
River country was once a well enjoyed water park.

WDW opened River Country on June 20,1976.
It was closed in November 2001 because of problems with the water quality (it was reported that some of the Bay Lake water contaminated the water).
Our family went to River Country October of 1976 when it was brand new and
returned several times after that. It was a favorite of our family and our son age 25 still talks about how that was his favorite water park.
Because of the water issue I do not think they will ever restore River Country the way it was.
However River Country had a really nice themed pool with a water slide and I always wondered why Disney did not at least keep the pool open for FW guests.
Upstream Plunge Pool and Slippery Slides
At the back of this clear water pool are two steep slides that drop swimmers off in a free fall splashdown.
Here is a photo:

There was a pool as part of River Country.
Here is the photo from the above mentioned website:
http://waltdatedworld.bravepages.com/id220.htm

The pool is in the lower right corner of the photo.
River Country also had a sand bottom contained pool which was cleverly set up to make guests feel like they were swimming in "an OLE swimming hole."

River Country was 6 inches higher than Bay Lake and set up so that any overflow of water would spill into bay lake.
Here is another photo from:
http://waltdatedworld.bravepages.com/id220.htm

---------------------------------------------

Some recent photos of River Country :

What a shame!

Indeed, what a shame. I liked it better than the current 2 water parks

 

[Walrus]

Always preferred River Country to either BB or TL. Those pictures look just awful.

DITTO!

 

[poohbear2]

Those duel slides and the end of the river raft ride looks like a blast!!

 

[Guest-expert]

RC closed for 50% health reasons.....but the other 50% were that they were building pools at every resort and didn't need it anymore. Plain and simple economics.

 

[TinkerBelle2992]

I just came back from WDW and we rented a boat for the fireworks. Our captain took us all around Bay Lake telling stories and stuff.
He said they use River Country for lifeguard training. He said Walt Disney was the inventor of water parks and River Country was the first ever.
He also said when Disney closes something like that, they let nature tear it down. They just leave it there to weather away.

 

[_queenie_]

Disney was going through an interesting time in 2001. Not only was it after 9/11, but California Adventure and Tokyo Disneysea opened that year as well as the purchase of FOX Family. [now ABC Family] Maybe it all came down to money. As for the pictures, it's terrible to see such a fun place get so run down.

I definately believe that 2001 is when Disney began its downhill slope.

It's sad to see RC like that, really too bad they couldn't have salvaged it.

 

[Padrepride]

It's just terrible that Disney doesn't even bother to demolish the site. Or even do anything to maintain it.

 

[deej696]

I definately believe that 2001 is when Disney began its downhill slope.

It's sad to see RC like that, really too bad they couldn't have salvaged it.

Things were changing a few years even before 2001, but I agree that was the first year it seemed the parks were part of the slide. Two costly flops that year (DCA and Fox Family) plus the effect of 9/11 turned everything into dollars and cents. Granted that should be the focus of every business, but prior to that time Disney never seemed to cheat quality to save a few bucks. The restructure of DCA proves what that can cost down the road....

 

[_queenie_]

Things were changing a few years even before 2001, but I agree that was the first year it seemed the parks were part of the slide. Two costly flops that year (DCA and Fox Family) plus the effect of 9/11 turned everything into dollars and cents. Granted that should be the focus of every business, but prior to that time Disney never seemed to cheat quality to save a few bucks. The restructure of DCA proves what that can cost down the road....

Yup, at the very least the dip became visible to us in '01. ITA about the quality going down, it seemed like for the first time in Disney history money became the #1 priority above anyting else.