The River Rapids Ride has to be improved.

[lynch34]

Its awful. My kids like it but they just want to get drenched on a hot day. Way too short.

 

[DavidNYC]

The one at Universal (Popeye) is so much better. My biggest annoyance with the ride in addition to it's shortness is almost any possibility of getting wet is because of artificial effect splashes and not due to the rapids (and it's pretty much just one big splash if I remember). Popeye has a good number of areas and different ways plus being a decent length ride.

 

[Klayfish]

It is probably the lamest of all the river rafting rides I've ever ridden since they became a thing 30 or so years ago (and many far better ones at other parks have long since disappeared).


Special effects won't save a lame rafting ride. It needs to be longer with more rapids and falls. As others noted, Grizzly River Rapids as DCA is a fantastic ride and it doesn't have any special effects. It's just a great, fun ride.

Just down the road from WDW at US is Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges, which is a great one as well...but no one gets off of that dry or even damp...it's designed to soak and soak and soak again.

You want to hate it because it's too short and doesn't take you on a 3 hour tour...a 3 hour tour works for me. Keeps the line shorter and those of us who like it can get on it quicker. I don't think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread and should go down in the Water Ride Hall of Fame. If they ever decided to close it and rebuild it in the model of a 15 minute ride with 5 drops and huge rapids, I'll be one of the first in line to ride it. But it is what it is right now. Given the choice to ride it or do nothing on a hot summer day after walking around AK, which is a hot park, I'm gettin' on and praying to get wet.

Oh, and if they turned it into a massive ride like that, think of how many people would complain about getting wet. I've read many threads here where people complain endlessly about getting wet on Kali in its' existing short form. Imagine turning into a ride where you get wet over and over...

 

[tsme]

I really like the ride.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

You want to hate it because it's too short and doesn't take you on a 3 hour tour...a 3 hour tour works for me. Keeps the line shorter and those of us who like it can get on it quicker.

I agree with others - it's a pretty lame.

And if it were longer there would be more rafts in the queue too so perhaps shorter lines as capacity would be expanded. Although it might be more popular also. We rarely ride it because it just isn't worth the wait.

 

[Klayfish]

I agree with others - it's a pretty lame.

We rarely ride it because it just isn't worth the wait.

Maybe a lot of others are thinking the same thing. We made 6 trips to Disney over the past 12 months during our AP. We were quite surprise how often the line was short, as in under 15 minutes. There were a few spikes where we saw the line hit 40-50 minutes, but many, many times it was not quite a walk on, but I don't think we waited more than 10 minutes. A few years ago, I remember the line staying long all day.

 

[DVCcurious]

I think the theme needs to be more in-your-face. Lots of people I've talked to don't get the deforestation connection. You're supposed to get off the ride and say "cutting down trees is bad".

KRR is our future if we don't work together to stop Climate Change. That message needs to be more prevalent.

 

[labattblue]

I think the theme needs to be more in-your-face. Lots of people I've talked to don't get the deforestation connection. You're supposed to get off the ride and say "cutting down trees is bad".

KRR is our future if we don't work together to stop Climate Change. That message needs to be more prevalent.

Does it really matter what the attraction "back story" is? It doesn't change the fact that KRR is way to short, boring to some, and not worth getting soaked to go on for others.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I think the theme needs to be more in-your-face. Lots of people I've talked to don't get the deforestation connection. You're supposed to get off the ride and say "cutting down trees is bad".

KRR is our future if we don't work together to stop Climate Change. That message needs to be more prevalent.

I just find it depressing. It's not the landscape I want on an amusement ride. The poaching story on the Safari has been greatly reduced, if not almost entirely removed. Changing the scenes would be nice for KRR too IMO - it was a nice try at education, probably just not the spot for it.

 

[Boski]

I like Roman Rapids in Williamsburg.

 

[Accident]

I like kali a lot more in the dark.. the lighting does highlight the roughness of the water some more and it's a little more exciting around who is really going to get wet in it.

Also as with any disney ride, the less you wait, the more you enjoy it but agree it's not really a rapids ride but at least it's family friendly for the little ones to get a taste of that style ride.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I agree! I so had the "that was it?!" feeling when it was over. We just skip it now. If we want a better water ride we go to Teamboat Springs at BB. I think Disney figured out another way to take more money from me!!!

 

[Keyser]

Yes, definitely a disappointment as far as rafting rides. Too short, not that interesting of scenery (I get the backstory, but it doesn't come through in the ride - and I'm mostly sick of getting preached to repeatedly at Animal Kingdom), uneven expectations of water splashing. I'm actually OK if I know it's a "we will get soaked" ride (like Popeye's - that's a fun ride, and you know you'll ) or a "you'll probably get a little wet but not soaked" (closer to Splash Mountain), but the current ride is kind of in the middle. This last trip, none of our family got little more than a short squirt of water from the people shooting from the bridge (we actually wore water shoes so that we wouldn't have wet tennis shoes on all day). On another trip some years back, I got soaked. I'd just like some consistency. I think Disney could have done a lot better with this ride. Maybe once Avatarland is open, they'll look at renovating Kali...

Teamboat springs at Blizzard Beach really was a lot of fun, but it's hard to compare a water park ride (where you need a swimsuit) to a theme park ride (where you can presumably ride in more normal clothes.

 

[mister morrow]

at least the queue is nice

 

[FortForever]

I've been on it exactly once. Wasn't worth getting soaked over. It's one of the rides I skip.

 

[bpadair32]

I enjoy it. Would I enjoy it more if it was longer and more "thrilling", probably. But I do still like it in its current form.

 

[CounselorX]

I hardly ride it simply because you have to absolutely burn to death in line, and get scorched by infernal sun beams while going up the conveyor belt in the raft, in order to just spend a few minutes of enjoyment on the ride.

 

[Jobie]

I agree. It was very disappointing to me the first time I rode it. It is really too short. There is great potential for this ride, especially with the teeming, but I think they dropped the ball on it.

I would rather ride Popeye at Universal. It is longer and more fun.

 

[MinnieSweetheart]

I have found almost all "rapids" rides at any theme park not very "wild". The most exciting part is wondering who will get soaked.

None of them are worth the long waits they have (since it takes so long to load/unload the boats).

It's always ME!! I've stopped enjoying those rides. I'm dreading the point where our children ask us to go on it...

 

[ChimCher-ee]

I just find it depressing. It's not the landscape I want on an amusement ride. The poaching story on the Safari has been greatly reduced, if not almost entirely removed. Changing the scenes would be nice for KRR too IMO - it was a nice try at education, probably just not the spot for it.

This! We FPd it several years ago, expecting something phenomenal, given the wait times and the hype. We got off feeling so sad and depressed that we've never gone on it again. I thought we were the only ones ...