Fury of the Nile |
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Statistics: Manufacturer: Intamin AG (Switzerland) Model Type: Rapids Ride Ride Length: 1,800 feet Width: 18-40 feet Water Volume: 1,000,000 gallons Theoretical Capacity: 1,800 an Hour All Time Maximum Capacity: 1,777 an Hour Numbers of Rafts: 23 Riders per Raft: Six Water Speed: 3-10 feet per second Water Depth: 2-25 feet Duration: 4 1/2 - 5 minutes |
Guests take an exciting 1,800-foot journey in a six-person fiberglass raft down the nightly Nile river. Riders can get drenched from the cascading rapids, churning lagoons, and waterfalls. It's the perfect ride for a hot summer Kansas City day! Nile was manufactured by Intamin AG of Switzerland and was only their 10th installation of the rapids ride anywhere. In 1980 Intamin partnered with Astroworld in Houston Tx. to open its first rapids ride known there as Thunder River (the park closed permanently in 2005). After a few tweaks, the ride concept took off with installations at Six Flags Mid-America and Six Flags over Texas in 1983 just to name a few. The Nile would be the largest and longest rapids ride to date, and would be the first of its kind in the United States to feature a turntable loading system. The first park to ever incorporate such a feature was Efteling in the Netherlands which opened in 1983 (Pirana). Today, the turntable loading system is used on most rapids rides including those found at both Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando Resort.
The Nile was then and still is today powered by three, 250 Horsepower pumps, but has four, with the fourth serving as a backup. Originally, the pumps were up-lit at night! The pumps push the water up from the base of the ride to the loading station, and then it flows back downhill during the entire ride, pushing the six-seat rafts forward.
Another unique aspect of the Nile is its water storage system. Most rapids rides incorporate a separate pond or lake for holding the water when the ride is not in operation. Nile instead is designed to store the water in the ride itself, with no need for an "ugly lake" next door. This feature was designed by local firm Burns and McDonnell, and stores water in the 25 feet deep trench at the end of the ride (under the lift hill). Guests sometimes see Nile when it is not in operation with the lift hill area submerged in water and think something is wrong when it is simply operating as designed. Most of the ride is not anywhere near as deep though with the average trough depth ranging from 2-3 feet deep. Nile CAN be completely emptied if necessary and can be filled from either the nearby Buccaneer Bay or from city water.
Nile features 1,000,000 gallons of churning water and was built at an advertised cost of $3.5 million, which as often happens increased to $4 million by the time the attraction opened on May 26, 1984. Nile was Worlds of Fun’s largest expansion to date at the time covering 5-acres of undeveloped land, and required the moving of over 50,000 cubic yards of dirt, pouring of over 3,000 cubic yards of concrete, and "tons of sand, hundreds of limestone boulders and tropical foliage".
Nile opened with 23 six-seat rafts, that surprisingly weren't even originally designed to have seatbelts. According to Marketing Director at the time, Susan Mendenhall the decision on seatbelts was still being decided the week before opening. As one of the earliest riders of Fury of the Nile, I remember the ride as four to five minutes of pure excitement, with just a bit of suspense as you never knew when one of the ride's eight geysers would explode into the air, leaving you soaked. Then there was the tunnel itself, dark and forbidding, and home to what at least felt like the tallest, wettest waves on the ride.
Nile is also remembered for its 1984 accident, which occurred on June 19, 1984. Two boats collided causing one to tip over. Two riders were injured, with the most severe injury being a broken leg. After the accident minor changes were made to the ride, and it re-opened and has operated virtually without incident since.
Today, Nile still operates nearly 40 years later, but like many of its contemporaries, it's a shadow of its once exciting self. Few if any of the geysers still operate, and the overall ride just feels significantly tamed down. It still features a great deal of its original Egyptian theming, and hopefully will see some revitalization in the future.
Photos
YouTube Videos
Fury of the Nile 1984 Commercial