trip down memory lane - River Country

[disneyholic family]

Recently, pictures were posted of River Country as it looks today - sad and creepy.

yesterday, i happened upon this picture of DS at River Country in better times.

this was during one of our many visits to River Country, which continued to be our favorite of the Disney waterparks right up to its closing....

by the way, DS is now married, so it gives you an idea of how long ago this was..

 

[disneyholic family]

and this is the thread on the camping at disney board with pictures of River Country as it looks today:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2344523

 

[disneyholic family]

i think this was the time DD, DS and I went to WDW on our own...
DH couldn't get away that time....if so, that was back in 1995...

DD is up on the platform, waiting her turn (in the pink swimsuit and goggles)..

my favorite 'ride' at RC was the tube slide, where you always got stuck in the middle and had to wait until someone else came along who would bump you out and on your way... and then they would be stuck until the next person came along...

the whole park was just lazy, easy going fun..

i wonder if it would be as much fun now with all the nutty crowds....

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

I remember going there (have seen the pictures posted on the other thread) - we also went to an island - Discovery Island I think it was called.

 

[T16GEM]

Thanks for posting - I really enjoyed looking at the pictures on the other thread.
It's a shame that the park has gone to that from such a lovely place.

 

[earthelves]

and this is the thread on the camping at disney board with pictures of River Country as it looks today:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2344523

Very interesting

One has to wonder if there are any more "Gems" hidden away at Disney

Thanks for posting

 

[Dimplenose]

We went to Discovery Island in 1998 - it was our favourite part of our first ever trip to WDW. We didn't manage a visit to River Country that time - "Never mind, we'll visit it on our next trip ..." Well our next trip was in 2002 so the closest we ever got to River Country was using the loos when went to the Backyard Barbecue in 1998.

 

[disneyholic family]

We went to Discovery Island in 1998 - it was our favourite part of our first ever trip to WDW. We didn't manage a visit to River Country that time - "Never mind, we'll visit it on our next trip ..." Well our next trip was in 2002 so the closest we ever got to River Country was using the loos when went to the Backyard Barbecue in 1998.

we only went to Discovery Island once, probably the same trip as the picture above...
it was lovely...

by the way, here is a link to old video footage of river country someone posted on youtube - the music's a wee bit much, but it's interesting to see the video....i only have still shots from when we were there (and only a few of those, since most of the time i was swimming too)..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VArObNa-1SA

 

[Netty]

we never got to go to river country.
does anyone know the reason why it closed??

 

[disneyholic family]

we never got to go to river country.
does anyone know the reason why it closed??

probably because of the danger of swimming in natural still water in florida, due to high bacteria content ...

by the way, i checked and this picture of DS is definitely from our trip in 1995...

 

[torsie24]

probably because of the danger of swimming in natural still water in florida, due to high bacteria content ...

by the way, i checked and this picture of DS is definitely from our trip in 1995...

Yeah, I thought going in the lakes was a no-no. Makes me shuder if I see kids in the water at he Poly/GF. I got an ameoba from water in Peru and I was SO ill. If when we take kids we stay at one of the beach resorts, they will be in the pool only! (Maybe a bit OTT, but I have a big ameoba fear now!)

 

[disneyholic family]

Yeah, I thought going in the lakes was a no-no. Makes me shuder if I see kids in the water at he Poly/GF. I got an ameoba from water in Peru and I was SO ill. If when we take kids we stay at one of the beach resorts, they will be in the pool only! (Maybe a bit OTT, but I have a big ameoba fear now!)

yes, the amoeba - that's a definite danger in florida lakes..

although maybe it was also there was much less demand for River Country after TL and BB were built...maybe it wasn't worth the cost of maintaining it...

the last time we were there was right before it was closed....it wasn't crowded at all...
we went several times on our last trip there....we didn't know they were closing it...we always went there several times each trip...we go to all the waterparks a lot...
anyway, on that last trip they kept having a lot of trouble with whoop and holler hollow (the big body slide)...it seemed to have a major structural problem that would require a bit of investment to fix...
so maybe it just wasn't profitable enough to be kept open...

the crowds were really low that year, and they kept adding extra activities to try to draw more people to that waterpark - in an attempt to draw them away from the other parks (which were terribly crowded)....but people didn't come...so maybe that's why they closed it..
we were so sad when we realized it was closed forever...
we loved that ole swimming hole...

i showed DS this picture today - his response - "that place was so much fun!!"...

 

[Muscateer]

Wow this brings back memories of my first trip to Disney, we went to River Country and saw a small snake slithering over the pathway. We had a fun day there and met up with many Disney characters and enjoyed the wee boat trip to get there too. Must have been 1995 I think. How time flies.

 

[Tinks1984]

Great picture But check out the colour of that water

We only did RC once, I think it was back in either 1993 or 1995. I fondly remember the slide which you just 'dropped' off the end into the water, I thought that was fantastic!

We did Discovery Island too back then, I still have my rubber lizard which my Mum and Dad bought us from there. I can't bear to get rid of him

 

[T16GEM]

Have any of you seen the thread on the Resorts board about the Legendary Years part of POP Century? It's amazing, there are lots of pictures of it in its unfinished state and some guy posted a video on You Tube of him actually in the rooms and stuff - VERY CREEPY!

 

[jns]

thanks for the memories
I remeber DS playing on the beach with Goofy for ages building sand castles

River Country was our favourite water park too

 

[Tinks1984]

Have any of you seen the thread on the Resorts board about the Legendary Years part of POP Century? It's amazing, there are lots of pictures of it in its unfinished state and some guy posted a video on You Tube of him actually in the rooms and stuff - VERY CREEPY!

Yes, I've seen this thread, but can't find it at the moment.

If you type in on You Tube 'Pop Century Legendary Years', the video you talk about comes up. I do agree with you about it being quite creepy, goodness knows why, as it's just the 'shell' of a hotel, but there's something odd about him walking around there if you ask me. It's like a ghost town!

 

[disneyholic family]

here's a link to a youtube video of Discovery Island as it was....
nice of the people to upload their videos to youtube for the rest of us to enjoy..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WERBqrQfQS4&feature=related

 

[disneyholic family]

Have any of you seen the thread on the Resorts board about the Legendary Years part of POP Century? It's amazing, there are lots of pictures of it in its unfinished state and some guy posted a video on You Tube of him actually in the rooms and stuff - VERY CREEPY!

is this the thread?
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1391731&highlight=pop+century+legendary+years

interesting pictures...
also interesting, towards the bottom of the first page of the thread someone writes about river country...says that the water was actually not part of bay lake at all....that it was a man-made pool made to look like a swimming hole with sand on the bottom....

so it could be what i said, they closed it because no was going there towards the end...once BB and TL were built, they had a hard time getting people to go to RC.....one of the reasons we enjoyed it - a lot fewer people....which wasn't the case when it was first built....back then it was very crowded...
but in the last year especially, it was practically empty...

 

[T16GEM]

is this the thread?
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1391731&highlight=pop+century+legendary+years

interesting pictures...
also interesting, towards the bottom of the first page of the thread someone writes about river country...says that the water was actually not part of bay lake at all....that it was a man-made pool made to look like a swimming hole with sand on the bottom....

so it could be what i said, they closed it because no was going there towards the end...once BB and TL were built, they had a hard time getting people to go to RC.....one of the reasons we enjoyed it - a lot fewer people....which wasn't the case when it was first built....back then it was very crowded...
but in the last year especially, it was practically empty...

Yes that's the one! A very interesting read- I am up to page 12 or something now!

I noticed that post about the water not being part of the lake, from what I understood it was still kind of lake water but filtered or something?