Manufactured by Hopkins
Installed in 1997

Parties of up to eight will be soaked to various extremes after riding Thunder Rapids, because as the raft spins around, different people are singled out to receive the most incoming water as they plunge down the rapids. The raft lightly bounces off the side wall, causing it to spin away while directing one or two people to be in precarious positions of facing backwards as the raft approaches a sloping rapid. Those one or two people will get soaked while the rest of the party gets a good laugh. There are no better seats in which to avoid the water, as the nature of those who get splashed is completely random, but a secret to keeping your feet dry is to lift them from the bottom of the raft’s floor each time the raft hits a rapid. As the raft takes in water, your feet are suspended but dry. Each raft’s floor has a drain that quickly disperses the incoming water back outside to the 120,000 gallon water supply. Thunder Rapids operates on 455,000 watts of electricity. It’s one of the few park rides that forces smaller parties to sit together. It’s such a fun experience that halfway through the ride you’ve already bonded with complete strangers. Later, when you see them somewhere else inside the park, you can compare how wet your clothes are or whose clothes are drying faster.