White Water Canyon Blasters

[FUN&ONLY!]

Does anyone know what happened to the White Water Canyon Blasters? They are missing, and while there is a sticker that says “coming soon” on a sign, they have been gone all summer.

[BeeastFarmer]

^I'm sure someone knows!

[Orion742]

5 minutes ago, FUN&ONLY! said:

Does anyone know what happened to the White Water Canyon Blasters? They are missing, and while there is a sticker that says “coming soon” on a sign, they have been gone all summer.

Is there a way that you could post a picture of the sign?

[BoddaH1994]

Last time I was back there the canon controllers were gone but the canons themselves were still there. There was no sign. The fact that there is an indication of them returning is a good thing! 

[FUN&ONLY!]

13 minutes ago, Orion742 said:

Is there a way that you could post a picture of the sign?

Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of the sign. I can describe where it is, though. In the queue, when the entrance and exit split off, the exit sign says Canyon Blasters. A red sticker that says “coming soon” is placed over the “Canyon Blasters” on the exit sign.

The canons do remain. However, the coin machine and the controllers are gone. In my mind, it makes sense to update the controllers as some of them have been broken for years. Also, Kings Island could install new controllers that accept credit card payments straight up instead of having to buy tokens.

[flightoffear1996]

The ones that area controlled by the operator are broken as well.  This is sad as its one of best spots to get soaked on this ride.

[tks944]

15 minutes ago, flightoffear1996 said:

The ones that area controlled by the operator are broken as well.  This is sad as its one of best spots to get soaked on this ride.

They were working last time I rode it a couple weeks ago.  The operator controlled ones. The public pay ones were not working.

[FUN&ONLY!]

59 minutes ago, flightoffear1996 said:

The ones that area controlled by the operator are broken as well.  This is sad as its one of best spots to get soaked on this ride.

The operator could never blast people from that area. Guests can only do that. The operator can only hit people from the area before it.

[RedSummit20]

53 minutes ago, FUN&ONLY! said:

The operator could never blast people from that area. Guests can only do that. The operator can only hit people from the area before it.

No the operator can hit people there. I use to work there lol 

[tks944]

28 minutes ago, RedSummit20 said:

No the operator can hit people there. I use to work there lol 

That has to be one of the best jobs at KI

[Captain Nemo]

1 minute ago, tks944 said:

That has to be one of the best jobs at KI

It was!

This is based off when I worked at the park 2005-2009. Tower 2 and 3 as they call it were some of the best positions in the park back when you had control over cannons. Once the pay stations were updated the option for the ride attendant and Tower 3 we're removed. However; once in a while maintenance would come unlock the controls for manual controls of EVERY CANNON. That was the best 15 minutes of my KI career I ever had. Plus I had never seen the lookout point so packed to just watch me absolutely obliterate each raft with water cannons. 

[goettablitz]

I worked White Water several times in 2002 and 2003 and can attest to the operator having control of 2 of the blasters across from the guest operated ones.  I was in the guest area last year and didn't notice any blasters going off that were not coin operated.  I wonder if Kings Island changed this at some point.

[DoomPlague]

A couple weeks ago, in the guest-controller section, the little girls in our raft were taunting the ride op to hit us and he went "Okay, 3-2-1 ..." then of course nothing happened. So I just assumed the ride ops had no control over those. Honestly I would love to just get hit by several times in that section like Captain Nemo mentioned.

It's kind of a bummer to not get hit with anything there, which was often the case even with the guest controls there, since the average person, presumably, only wants to hit people they know.

 

[FUN&ONLY!]

I didn’t now that the operator could control the blasters at Tower 3 at one point. Today, only the guests can fire those water cannons. I guess right now nobody can fire them.

It would be cool if Kings Island let the employees activate the blasters when guests aren’t actively paying to use them. That section is not very fun when nobody is firing the water cannons. The employees are generally better with aim, too. The guests often miss the boats completely.

[flightoffear1996]

Im sure they could automate that section as well and have them attached to sensors.  

[FUN&ONLY!]

27 minutes ago, flightoffear1996 said:

Im sure they could automate that section as well and have them attached to sensors.  

There is something fun about having a person blast you, though. People aren’t perfect. You never know if they are going to miss you or completely drench you. That is the fun of White Water Canyon. You never know if you are going to come off barely wet or soaked. Sensors would probably deliver a consistent, calculated blast of water, but that takes a lot of the fun out of it.

[terry wass]

just got back from a trip to KI an CP (platinum pass holder) . We (KI as my home park) need upgrades to our water rides. CP version of white water canyon has 4 waterfalls which gets everyone on the boat soaked. Their verion of Amazon falls also gets guests completely soaked. KI definetly needs some work. An easy start is a water fall of water in front of the tunnel. Replace the blasters with water falls. These rides are a little out of date and just needs some upgrade. 

[disco2000]

Cashless means coinless too LOL 

[Captain Nemo]

Who here is old enough to remember when the tunnels got you wet by spraying you?

To add to the discussion on the cannons, it would at this point make sense to give control back to the operators. Considering that the only ways on the ride to get wet are the waves the boat makes when the cannons don't work, and it's kind of a let down during the finale when none of the cannons go off. 

When I worked at WWC and was at Tower 3 (The finale) I would play a game with those looking out from the lookout point. At the controls we had the option to blast 2 cannons. One of which was better than the other. If I got a thumbs UP from guests I would give a high blast that would cover the entire boat, but if they gave me a thumbs down I would time it just right and hold the blast button for just a second to give a low blast which would absolutely DRENCH a single person on the boat. Most of the time people gave a thumbs down lol 

Here's a video on YouTube that shows one of the controlled cannons from Tower 3. At 12 second

https://youtu.be/whg76qUHSfM

Man that was the absolute best! If KI currently has those cannons disabled at Tower 3 I hope they read this topic and bring it back! In addition since the park is now cashless they should just make the guest cannons free. 

[FUN&ONLY!]

4 minutes ago, Captain Nemo said:

Who here is old enough to remember when the tunnels got you wet by spraying you?

To add to the discussion on the cannons, it would at this point make sense to give control back to the operators. Considering that the only ways on the ride to get wet are the waves the boat makes when the cannons don't work, and it's kind of a let down during the finale when none of the cannons go off. 

When I worked at WWC and was at Tower 3 (The finale) I would play a game with those looking out from the lookout point. At the controls we had the option to blast 2 cannons. One of which was better than the other. If I got a thumbs UP from guests I would give a high blast that would cover the entire boat, but if they gave me a thumbs down I would time it just right and hold the blast button for just a second to give a low blast which would absolutely DRENCH a single person on the boat. Most of the time people gave a thumbs down lol 

Man that was the absolute best! If KI currently has those cannons disabled at Tower 3 I hope they read this topic and bring it back! In addition since the park is now cashless they should just make the guest cannons free. 

The operators can still soak people from Tower 2, and that does get guests wet. I wish operators could still soak people from Tower 3.

[DoomPlague]

1 hour ago, terry wass said:

just got back from a trip to KI an CP (platinum pass holder) . We (KI as my home park) need upgrades to our water rides. CP version of white water canyon has 4 waterfalls which gets everyone on the boat soaked. Their verion of Amazon falls also gets guests completely soaked. KI definetly needs some work. An easy start is a water fall of water in front of the tunnel. Replace the blasters with water falls. These rides are a little out of date and just needs some upgrade. 

Keep in mind that they have no log flume anymore at CP. Snake River Falls is good but at least Congo Falls has that double down with a little airtime.

I would like to see upgrades to WWC but I still prefer it to Thunder Canyon. The waterfalls are great but that's all TC has. The boats are so big that they don't really spin and the rapids do absolutely nothing to them. My last ride on WWC, two of us weren't even on the side that hit that rapids yet we hit one set so hard that we got completely drenched from the splash.

[Heather D]

I asked a worker last month, and he said the company that serviced those blasters/coin machines went out of business. Since they couldn’t service them, they pulled the machines. I believe he said the wiring was still in place to the blasters however. Hopefully they found another company to run them. I was going to ask if anyone wanted to go into business just to get these working again!

[MDMC01]

That's a bummer the blasters are out of commission (for now). Last year, I had a blast (pun intended) using those to soak unsuspecting riders while waiting for the next showing of Busker Jam.

Also, I can certainly imagine the Tower operators job is a whole lot of fun! On July 3rd, @malem and I took advantage of the midnight close to ride White Water Canyon at night. It was just the two of us, and it was pretty mild until we got to the operator tower. As we passed by, I wondered if the person was asleep. They were NOT!!! All of a sudden, the geyser on my side rises up and gets me soaked, and then the left one hits us too. I was freaking out ("Bob Saget!!!" lol), and the right one hit us again. Except for me trying to process what just happened, the ride was pretty calm after that. We came off soaked, but it was so much fun!

[Return of the Rotag]

3 hours ago, Captain Nemo said:

Who here is old enough to remember when the tunnels got you wet by spraying you?

To add to the discussion on the cannons, it would at this point make sense to give control back to the operators. Considering that the only ways on the ride to get wet are the waves the boat makes when the cannons don't work, and it's kind of a let down during the finale when none of the cannons go off. 

When I worked at WWC and was at Tower 3 (The finale) I would play a game with those looking out from the lookout point. At the controls we had the option to blast 2 cannons. One of which was better than the other. If I got a thumbs UP from guests I would give a high blast that would cover the entire boat, but if they gave me a thumbs down I would time it just right and hold the blast button for just a second to give a low blast which would absolutely DRENCH a single person on the boat. Most of the time people gave a thumbs down lol 

Here's a video on YouTube that shows one of the controlled cannons from Tower 3. At 12 second

https://youtu.be/whg76qUHSfM

Man that was the absolute best! If KI currently has those cannons disabled at Tower 3 I hope they read this topic and bring it back! In addition since the park is now cashless they should just make the guest cannons free. 

ME! 

 

does anyone else remember when before the canons there were rubber hoses that would spray in every direction? my aunt called them snakes one time. 

rotag whos as old as white water canyon.

[miniracer]

My best memory of WWC was somewhere in the late 80s. I was watching from the overlook when a girl with exceptionally big 80s hair came by. The operator got on the mic first and just gave an evil laugh before absolutely drenching her. lol

[IndyGuy4KI]

Who remembers this entrance sign?

[brenthodge]

15 hours ago, MDMC01 said:

That's a bummer the blasters are out of commission (for now). Last year, I had a blast (pun intended) using those to soak unsuspecting riders while waiting for the next showing of Busker Jam.

Also, I can certainly imagine the Tower operators job is a whole lot of fun! On July 3rd, @malem and I took advantage of the midnight close to ride White Water Canyon at night. It was just the two of us, and it was pretty mild until we got to the operator tower. As we passed by, I wondered if the person was asleep. They were NOT!!! All of a sudden, the geyser on my side rises up and gets me soaked, and then the left one hits us too. I was freaking out ("Bob Saget!!!" lol), and the right one hit us again. Except for me trying to process what just happened, the ride was pretty calm after that. We came off soaked, but it was so much fun!

Love WWC at night. This darn quality closing show keeps my attention every night I’m there till close though. Now that I’ve seen it in ALL its laser, drone, correct firework shell glory, I can switch to mystic and WWC night rides. 

[smurfconemama13]

Who remembers this entrance sign?

Don’t miss that hike though but I also remember the “snakes” spraying from the walls, and the tunnels misting and/or spraying water as you went thru them.


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[Shaggy]

4 minutes ago, smurfconemama13 said:

Don’t miss that hike though but I also remember the “snakes” spraying from the walls, and the tunnels misting and/or spraying water as you went thru them.


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Im glad someone else remembers the "snakes"... essentially garden hoses gone crazy.  That was always a funny part to me.

[KIfan73]

I think that might be the most underrated ride at Kings Island.  The family members I was with "found" WWC when we went back in the early '90's.  I can still remember getting blasted with water.  I honestly didn't even notice it most visits, it used to be so hidden.  It was probably around 2008 or so before I rode it again. It's like you're in another world.  I used to really enjoy the long walk through the woods to get to it.  I usually don't ride it because I don't want to get soaked, but it is definitely something that you can say that "they don't make 'em like that anymore" about!