KCRag Forum

In that documented linked above- they have a detail ledger of expenses in the expansion of the water park that includes a "vacation village".

Today's feature article on Grantland is about Schlitterbahn / Verrückt.

So has this place ever really caught on? I look at it in Google Maps and it seems so forlorn and barren. Even the pictures. Not anything like the wooded more relaxing feel of Oceans of Fun.

Highlander wrote:So has this place ever really caught on? I look at it in Google Maps and it seems so forlorn and barren. Even the pictures. Not anything like the wooded more relaxing feel of Oceans of Fun.

I prefer Schlitterbahn over OOF - free parking, you can take a cooler with food and water in with you (so no $20 lunch required), no innertube rental, can float from one ride to the next, less white-trashing and you can load money on to your wrist band so no carrying around wet bills. Sure, it's more 'barren' than OOF, but you can save $40-$50 each visit compared to OOF.

You can always put a cooler in your trunk and have a picnic lunch in the parking lot. That's what we always did when I was a kid. Slightly less convenient than bringing it in, admittedly, but vastly cheaper than paying inflated park prices for a shitty cheeseburger.

But with season tickets for WOF/OOF, now just one park, and a season dining plan, two meals each day each visit it works out pretty good. The season pass also gets you free parking.

flyingember wrote:Expect one death per decade at the extreme end.

The thing I don't understand on all of this is why the hell did Verrückt have velcro straps?

If this affects attendence, I could see Schlitterbahn just closing this facility.
Probably have it taken over by the City and market it as some nice City Owned Aquatic Park.

AllThingsKC wrote:

flyingember wrote:Expect one death per decade at the extreme end.

It's super sad and I don't wish it on any family.

I can't say what I was thinking then but I bet I was thinking just how unlikely a death would happen over a decade, that even one per decade is not going to happen.
The annual death rate at ALL amusement parks is like 3 per year and a lot are caused by people going into restricted areas. This is an industry that does safety very well.

I hope they release the report to the public.

flyingember wrote:

AllThingsKC wrote:

flyingember wrote:Expect one death per decade at the extreme end.

It's super sad and I don't wish it on any family.

I can't say what I was thinking then but I bet I was thinking just how unlikely a death would happen over a decade, that even one per decade is not going to happen.
The annual death rate at ALL amusement parks is like 3 per year and a lot are caused by people going into restricted areas. This is an industry that does safety very well.

I hope they release the report to the public.

Absolutely tragic. I have a son a year younger than the deceased. This situation has, once again, reminded me that, regardless what I think or take for granted as being "safe", there is inherent risk in everything we do.

brewcrew1000 wrote:The thing I don't understand on all of this is why the hell did Verrückt have velcro straps?

Because anyone with half a brain knows that you're screwed with ANY straps when a raft goes flying off the track and into the netting/cross bars. No amount of straps, or type, will stop you from being decapitated. The straps aren't the problem, the raft flying off the ride is.

I thought the Velcro straps came undone and he flew out. There are other reports of other peoples straps coming undone and they were having to hold on so they wouldn't fall out of the ride.

This ride would never fly off if they never added the 2nd hill which I thought all the problems were coming from, all they needed to do was make it the worlds tallest for the awe factor then just make the one huge hill and make it level off until you slowed down.

Or a lower 2nd hill stretched out more. As was said though they wanted to make it as a roller coaster but learned the two are different animals.

Had they gone more roller coaster it would be safer and could be even more extreme. Instead of being true rafts I can see some something still floating. Use a low friction side contact wheel array mounted inside a track. Mount the raft to the wheels in a way so it can move up and down, sort of like how an independent suspension on a car can have tires move independently of the body so the car stays level, in this case the raft can bounce a little. But because it's mounted to the side it can't pick up off the track past a determined distance unless the mount breaks.

And if the model works and is safe it would be possible to do really thrilling water roller coasters. Could use water jets to add speed, ride through water falls and such.

flyingember wrote:Had they gone more roller coaster it would be safer and could be even more extreme. Instead of being true rafts I can see some something still floating. Use a low friction side contact mount inside a track and mount it to the bearings so the car can float up and down on this mount within certain tolerances.

This way it's still floating on water but there's way more control over vehicle movement. The bearings would of course slow the car down some but not enough to be a huge impact to the thrill.

Yeah, i like this idea but the cost would probably be much higher. The raft thing just seems like a way to cut costs. Jurassic Park the ride at Universal Hollywood is very similar to what you described

Not exactly. that's a roller coaster + water and I'm thinking more like a floating car where the wheels are mounted inside a track.

I did make that more clear to be fair.

flyingember wrote:Not exactly. that's a roller coaster + water and I'm thinking more like a floating car where the wheels are mounted inside a track.

I did make that more clear to be fair.

LOL

Is it just me, but did anyone else see like black duckt tape on their raft before?

ldai_phs wrote:Is it just me, but did anyone else see like black duckt tape on their raft before?

Seems like I did notice something like that around the outer edges of the raft. I also remember seeing a portion of gray colored foam around the edges that seemed to be eroded quite a bit. But, that was just what I observed during a quick look at a raft during a local news station's coverage.

Petition to shut the ride down
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/688/451/ ... aterslide/