I was at the announcement ceremony and did the tour of the construction site. Very impressive for a river rapids ride. I do like the landscaping/theming/scenery/etc quite a lot from whats been done so far. This will indeed be a huge hit with the park like Outlaw Run and Time Traveler were. I expect the lines will be pretty crazy and long for this thing like how Lost River was. lol The ride basically combines elements from the American Plunge, Waterboggan, and Lost River.
FULL ALBUM HEREVideos:
Construction Site Tour:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg-1JWZqrYcAnnouncement Ceremony:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x75e9Qa5X44On the SW corner by the Dockside Theater and White River Mercantile:
You might notice lots of rock work and several decently sized trees have been planted and even some waterfall elements have already been made operational for part of the ambience that this area will create. Huge kudos to the park management and construction crew on what I have seen so far.
And of course the new "Rivertown Smokehouse" and the ride loading station:
Further up towards The Barn Swing I checked out the canals and the pits that were already constructed but was told to overall stay outside the structures. Got lots of photos and video. Also chatted with some of the construction crew while out there, I asked about Lake Silver and was told by one of the foreman that the new lake size will be reduced by almost 75 percent from before but it will be about 25-30 feet deep when they get done with it and its refilled. I suggested they should put some Koi or some kind of fish back in it to entertain the kids while they wait in line as the queue line will be right next to the "new" lake as the load station will be in the center of where the old lake once was. lol
Also note the huge pits dug out for the canals, reservoir, and the drop tower structure which will be over 80 feet high and the pumps on this thing are insane, 200,000 gallons per hour per pump is what I was told. That's a crazy amount of water if you think about it, but I guess that's needed for what all this ride experience will entail. Standing down there in the bottom really gives you a sense of scale of this water ride. The ride's capacity will be upgraded from 6 to 8 persons along with a faster load/unload system and will last 5 and a half minutes over a half mile ride course equaling a much higher PPH than the old Lost River ever did.
Only negative/critique I could come up with is to the theme/backstory being tied to the cave as I guess I was a bit let down as I had originally envisioned with the cave teasers that this was gonna be a mountain type structure with the slide element dropping into the mouth of a fabricated cave (see the entrance to the real Marvel Cave to understand my thoughts here) for an extensive indoor segment similar to how the last 25% of Lost River's course was. But I guess with the areas combined investment being more than Time Traveler, that kind of design would probably be too cost prohibitive. One can dream, right? lol Don't take this the wrong way or that I am implying that this seems underwhelming, I still think this will be incredibly beautiful to see in person and a very fun and thrilling ride once it is all said and done next year.