Shoot the Rapids: "The boats didn't fit the flumes"

The POV certainly makes it look absolutely boring. Hopefully it is a little better when you actually ride it (although I won't hold my breath).

I'm not that into getting soaked either so this is only a "sometimes" ride. I'm sure others will absolutely love it, the kids especially will love getting dumped on while in the front seat. Just don't ask me to sit there.

I don't remember my last run on a traditional log flume taking me to the brink of ecstasy, either. We're expecting this flume to do more than meander through water with two drops, because.....?

Carrie M. said:
We're expecting this flume to do more than meander through water with two drops, because.....?

Because we couldn't complain otherwise?

Carrie M. said:
I don't remember my last run on a traditional log flume taking me to the brink of ecstasy, either.

Wasn't that ride with me and Diana? If so, I'm a little hurt.

My biggest problem with Pilgrim's Plunge was the boring trek to the lift. But, then, to be honest, most log flumes are just boats floating thru a boring course with 2 drops. The super flumes like at Hershey are the fun ones. This looks like a normal but larger capacity log ride.

Dorney's got the coolest flume ever. RAAAAAAMP!

Yeah, I liked Dorney's and the themers like IoA's. But your regular run of the mill flume is trough, drop, trough, drop, station. Dunno why people thought this would be anything improved on that when it's the same thing.

The theming is definitely more than I expected. At the same time, it still does seem like a lot of meandering between the lifts. I think the difference is that for many flumes the 'meandering' happens 50ft. in the air rather than simply around the overflow pool.

Jeff said:

Wasn't that ride with me and Diana? If so, I'm a little hurt.

Must've been someone else... ;)

It's a relatively small layout, but I appreciate Log Jammer at Kennywood, especially for its "up" section. Haven't seen one like it anywhere else.

My favorite traditional log flume, is the pair at Six Flags St. Louis.

Carrie M. said:
I don't remember my last run on a traditional log flume taking me to the brink of ecstasy, either. We're expecting this flume to do more than meander through water with two drops, because.....?

Knott's flume will almost take you to that ecstasy if you let it. As for me I was only left with a skid mark due to the unexpected drop in the dark.

~Rob

Pagoda Gift Shop said:
The theming is definitely more than I expected. At the same time, it still does seem like a lot of meandering between the lifts. I think the difference is that for many flumes the 'meandering' happens 50ft. in the air rather than simply around the overflow pool.

For the record, the original STR did a hell of lot of meandering just above ground level before accending the main lift.

Ensign Smith said:
It's a relatively small layout, but I appreciate Log Jammer at Kennywood, especially for its "up" section. Haven't seen one like it anywhere else.

Don't both Splash Mountains (Disneyland and Magic Kingdom) feature a down-then-up hill? Still, Log Jammer was doing it before either of those and it is a neat moment on the ride nonetheless.

Tim

Mmmmmmmm...Knott's Flume goodness...

Those "uphill" sections are far more common than one would think. Kennywood's flume has it. Busch Tampa has it. Family Kingdom in Myrtle Beach has it. The aforementioned Splash Mtns. I believe the flume at Carowinds had it when it opened but was later removed (before the entire flume was removed for the B&M). I'm sure I can come up with others...

That's right -- forgot about the 'ups' on the SMs. I don't believe I rode the flume on my single visit to Busch Tampa, some years ago.

As Jason said, the dual flume at STSL is quite pleasant.

Does the coaster section of the Miler flume at Enchanted Forest count?

From some of the comments I have read, it sounds like the new Shoot the Rapids has more in common with the original Shoot the Rapids than most of us might expect! Including the water being dumped into the boat.

Shoot the Rapids is not a bad ride. It's just that I would have liked to see more to it. The canyon section, with the waterfalls, leading up to the action scene, is very well done. They went to a lot of effort to conceal the pond over on the island, and I expected that they had some surprises in mind over there, but there wasn't anything there to speak of. That kind of surprised me. I figured that for a ground-level flume they could have done something more like the Americana flume, for example. Or they could have done something more Splash Mountain-like by coming off the first lift into a smaller drop, for a much faster ride through a higher, longer channel.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Dudley also has up and down section (train) and again after the main drop.

Its ok to meander but there should be at least a section where you get some zip going. I think back to the flumes I rode as a child, Canobie Lake's Flume, Santa's Village Yule Log (Jefferson, NH) and while they had no "above ground" sections that people rave about (I dont care either way) they both had significant portions where the log would really pick up speed to the point where you started riding the wheels because the water was moving too fast through those sections to fill the flume above the float height. To me thats what makes a good non mountain theme flume (which lets face it are the best flumes by far.)