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 Review of River Battle @ Dollywood
0 Rating Posted by: nyeboy9 on 5/6/2008 11:34:00 PM
Spoilers, but theres not much to spoil. Please excuse any typos, grammar, and etc. Ive been studying for finals and needed a break.

All right, first review. Let me start off by saying that this has been the wettest ride I have ever been on that is not at a water park, but Im getting ahead of my self.

Once you go under the bridge of mystery mine, you walk another 200 yards or so to River Battle. I know that this ride is new and all, but it felt like the ride really didnt fit in with the area. I mean here you have the Mystery Mine coaster and right next to it you have a ride with little cartoon creatures that would make the Splash Mountain characters jealous.

Moving on, You walk around the ride, since the entrance is towards Tennessee Tornado and not Mystery Mine. All around the ride are water cannons where you turn a crank to make water shoot out. There are probably 10 cannons along the perimeter of the ride. Now if you are a first time visitor of the ride, you need to watch where you go. Sometimes the rafts get close to the sidewalk where the boats can hit you leaving you without a way to defend yourself. There are also &quot.holes&quot. to put your head in that says &quot.Look Here!&quot. or what not. Once again, if you dont know what is going on, you get it right in the face.

Than you go around the back of the ride to the entrance, which isnt really labeled. I stood on a bridge wondering where to go for a while before realizing on was standing on the EXIT ramp. So I finally get to the entrance. Now there are two lines, one for one to two people, another for three or more. I stupidly got in the one person line every time, and it was such a slow day that they just put me in Bay 1 every time. This lane only lets you shoot people and targets pointing inside the ride. If you get in Bay 2, you get to shoot at people on the land. So you get on the boat which is like a bench with four guns on each side. You open a gate to access the boat and put EVERYTHING YOU OWN in the small waterproof trunk on your side of the boat. If you dont put it in there, it will be soaked.

The ride departs and you move into the canal, for lack of a better term. You can start shooting at targets, which will either hit you, or someone else on your boat with water. You basically continue down the canal shooting at other boats and people. The rules are simple, shoot or be shot at. The ride ends with your boat going under a tunnel of water that is being shot out by fish.

OVERALL: What surprised me the most was the lack of safety anything. There are no seat belts, which honestly arent needed, but there are small kids that start running around the boat. There is a person watching over the ride, but all he can do is say something to you. He cant just swim out there and stop them. Another thing, the gates dont lock on the boat. There is absolutely nothing stopping you from getting up, opening the gate, and walking out right into the middle of the ride. Maybe they do lock, but a kid pulled on ours and it swung right open.
This is a fun attraction, and its never the same ride twice with all the targets and whatnot, but I feel like the ride just doesnt fit in at all with Dollywood. Ive said it once, and Ill say it again. You have Mystery Mine, Thunderhead, Timber Tower, Tennessee Tornado, and than cute plastic critters on River Battle. Overall, this is a very nice ride on a hot day and is actually pretty fun. I would only make the creatures less cartoony looking and make the entrance easier to find.
 
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