What’s the wettest you’ve ever gotten on a non-water ride?

[Matt N]

Hi guys. We’re all used to getting wet on a water ride by this point. Whether it’s a log flume, rapids, water coaster or something else entirely, a pretty thorough drenching from a water ride is not uncommon. However, some rides that aren’t explicitly water rides employ water or water-based effects in some capacity, and sometimes, these can be surprisingly wet! With this in mind, I’d be interested to know; what’s the wettest you’ve ever gotten on a non-water ride? It probably sounds like a bizarrely specific question, but I was reminded of it when I watched Coaster Studios’ review of the Intamin 10 Inversion Coaster this evening and Taylor talked about the mist on Sik (this is a potential spoiler of one of my picks…).

I’ll get the ball rolling with my answers…

Personally, I have two picks for this thread. They are:

• Sik at Flamingo Land: You might not typically expect to get too wet on an Intamin 10 Inversion Coaster, and Sik is hardly the first coaster I’ve ridden with mist effects. However, the mist on Sik is turned up to a ridiculously high level way beyond that of the mist on any other misty coaster I’ve been on! You go through mist at three different points in Sik’s layout, and each time, it almost feels like you’re getting squirted with a face full of water! My hair was consistently soaking wet when I got off… based on my hair, I genuinely looked like I’d been for a good shower after each of my 3 rides on Sik!
• Fast & Furious: Supercharged at Universal Studios Florida: Universal are a fan of a good water squirt here and there on their numerous simulator rides. However, it felt to me like none used the water squirters quite as prolifically as Fast & Furious: Supercharged. I found the ride a bit of an overwhelming blur, if I’m being honest. However, it felt like every time Vin Diesel or whoever stars in F&F shot a gun, blew something up or did something on screen, the truck got sprayed with water! And not just mildly sprinkled, either; they felt like properly vigorous squirts of water! I certainly stepped off Fast & Furious: Supercharged having received a fair old spray, anyhow; I genuinely reckon it was as wet as some water rides I’ve been on!

But I’d be interested to know; what’s the wettest you’ve ever gotten on a non-water ride?

 

[RevolutionRuleZ]

Grand National, back row of a 4 car train many moons ago (when the back seat gave you a ride you knew youd had, not like todays much tamer 3 car equivalent) in a torrential downpour. It must have started lashing it down as we were in the station, the loop out of the station made it quite clear what we were in for as the driving rain pretty much soaked us even before the lift. By the time we were at the top it was on a par with Valhalla, so you can imagine what happened as we went around the layout. I stuck it as long as I could but I can remember deciding to close my eyes on the Canal Turn and just hope for the best.

On return to the station it was pretty apparent my knees down were fine, but everything else was soaked to the skin. We were laughing like mad in the exit, and immediately parted with another A ticket to have a second lap, what a ride.

 

[CanobieFan]

my one and only ride on Soaring Timbers at Canadas Wonderland sticks out to me... For some reason the ride had a minimum rider count to cycle (something like 8 or whatever) and i was at the park on a very slow, very rainy day. The workers wouldn't even load the ride without the minimum riders in the queue, so the handful of us camped out in the covered line area until enough people showed up... once on the ride and cycling, the first time the giant 'tub' rolled over..... alllll the rain water that had been pooling in the car spilled on top of us. I was so wet (and cold) at that point I just cut my losses and left the park, having already gotten the two credits I was at the park for, Yukon and Wonder Mountain

this

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

Impulse at Knoebels! It was pouring rain all day but I needed the cred.

 

[toofpikk]

Remember a particularly vicious ride on Goliath at walibi holland during a torrential downpour. That hurt.

Bucket challenge on black buccaneer as a member of the rides team that season. Everyone with a bucket got appropriately drenched.

 

[Hyde]

Oh this is easy (and will try to find the picture) - we rode Windseeker at Cedar Point in a complete hurricane gailforce, that drenched all involved only seconds into the ride's dispatch. This left the rest of the ride experience something to the effect of an old lake swing ride (see below):

It was perfect serendipity of the ride dispatching and the heavens opening up in equal timing. I did not dry out for three days after.

 

[Rob Coasters]

Rameses Revenge, Chessington World of Adventures. I remember marathoning this ride seven times in a row on two different occasions and one of my favourite parts of the ride was the water fountain splashing at the end of the ride. After some spectating in the queue and a few on-ride tests I had determined that the wettest seat was back row, 7th seat from the left. 16-17 year old me was so serious about this, that at one point I asked to swap seats so I could get back row, 7th seat from the left. But otherwise I was very, very successful in bagging this specific seat.

The fountains absolutely pummeled me, every single time. I remember a few rides where the fountains got me so intensively that I had to hold my breath as we went through them. That combined with me being on my favourite flat ride of all time... was pure bliss, and one of the all-time highlights of my coastering career.

I still sorely miss Rameses and the waste of space they replaced it with literally killed my love for Chessington, as silly as that sounds. The park simply hasn't felt the same since. The knowledge that we might not get a ride like that in the UK again is saddening, and while there still are Top Spins with fountains that interact with the riders (specifically Blast), Rameses was barely an hour and a half away from me. Alton Towers, you have several empty plots of land, make your move. Thorpe Park, you have Slammer's corpse and several rides on their last legs, make your move.

 

[toofpikk]

I remember marathoning this ride seven times in a row on two different occasions and one of my favourite parts of the ride was the water fountain splashing at the end of the ride. After some spectating in the queue and a few on-ride tests I had determined that the wettest seat was back row, 7th seat from the left. 16-17 year old me was so serious about this, that at one point I asked to swap seats so I could get back row, 7th seat from the left. But otherwise I was very, very successful in bagging this specific seat.

I gotta ask when this was - I was an attendant on Rammy for 3 seasons and got investigated one particularly hot summer for getting guests 'too wet'. It was the last ride of the day, we had a 3/4 full gondola and sent it round normally, then my op did a PA asking if people wanted to go round again - this time with the fountains on for the ENTIRE CYCLE. I'd say, out of 30 people, maybe 8 or 9 left. We sent the ride round again, and of course, pretty much everyone got appropriately soaked, but as the cycle was coming to an end the park manager, head engineer and rides manager came marching down the exit path to come and give us a bollocking. Not only had we got guests 'too wet' but also we sprayed water directly into the bottom half of the gondola which had exposed ride cabling in it (because they would never put the cover on during the seasons I worked). Of course we didn't know that something so stupid could happen on a ride with op-controlled fountains, but we also had a guest catch wind of our conversation as they were leaving who explained to the higher ups that we asked if people wanted to get drenched or not (thankfully, the ride was absolutely fine (or at least unaffected by our antics)).


I sorely missed working on Rammy during my other seasons at Chessington - it was a little bit of a bastion in the fact that it was really the only place on the park where you didn't have any small kids running around so you could get away with being a little more cheeky and playful with the guests. Sometimes you'd face the brunt of bad customers a little more, but generally it was one of the most fun rides to work on. The team for Rammy was never particularly big, being half a dozen ops and half a dozen attendants so you already felt special if you could actually work on the ride - being sent there on a hot summer afternoon was the break sheet everyone wanted.

 

[Rob Coasters]

I gotta ask when this was

I believe one visit was in August 2018 and the second visit was 1-2 weeks after the announcement that the ride was closing at the end of the 2019 season. But that's a great story on the ride, I agree that it was indeed relatively free of small children which made it quite nice to just exist around too, with the combined nature of the ride itself being an absolute visual spectacle (and not even having to rely on a useless statue for that). Would have loved to get that cycle with the fountains on the whole time!

 

[Tonkso]

Hah, October this year. The Autopia type thing at Ferrari land, all cars lost power and the rain started to pour.

Soaked.

 

[FistedColossus]

I gotta ask when this was - I was an attendant on Rammy for 3 seasons and got investigated one summer for getting guests 'too wet'. It was the last ride of the day, we had a 3/4 full gondola and sent it round normally, then my op did a PA asking if people wanted to go round again - this time with the fountains on for the ENTIRE CYCLE. I'd say, out of 30 people, maybe 8 or 9 left. We sent the ride round again, and of course, pretty much everyone got appropriately soaked, but as the cycle was coming to an end the park manager, head engineer and rides manager came marching down the exit path to come and give us a bollocking. Not only had we got guests 'too wet' but also we sprayed water directly into the bottom half of the gondola which had exposed ride cabling in it (because they would never put the cover on during the seasons I worked). Of course we didn't know that something so stupid could happen on a ride with op-controlled fountains, but we also had a guest catch wind of our conversation as they were leaving who explained to the higher ups that we asked if people wanted to get drenched or not (thankfully, the ride was absolutely fine).



I sorely missed working on Rammy during my other seasons at Chessington - it was a little bit of a bastion in the fact that it was really the only place on the park where you didn't have any small kids running around so you could get away with being a little more cheeky and playful with the guests. Sometimes you'd face the brunt of bad customers a little more, but generally it was one of the most fun rides to work on. The team for Rammy was never particularly big, being half a dozen ops and half a dozen attendants so you already felt special if you could actually work on the ride - being sent there on a hot summer afternoon was the break sheet everyone wanted.

Thank you for your service, sir. Rameses ops were always good fun back in the day and I've had some ridiculous back to back drenchings on there. Must admit though I did often wonder about that open panel and why it was never covered up. Seemed a bit strange that such a wet ride had that massive open hatch.

Taron ERT for me, 1 hour of double figure rides in torrential rain. Couldn't open my eyes and was soaked through but it was absolutely flying that day. Great fun.

 

[Howie]

My answer was gonna be Ripsaw, but the Rameses Revenge stories above are pretty much identical, ie - ride ops having a certain degree of creative freedom when it came to the fountain controls! I'm going back to the 90's though, opening year in particular.
I vividly remember this one occasion when, after a suitable drenching, the ride operator asked each row for a cheer. The front row were released, but the back row didn't cheer loudly enough so he didn't unlock the restraints and sent us round again, holding us face-first in the fountains even longer this time. Like someone said above, you literally had to hold your breath cos you were being blasted in the face with water!
Ahh, happy memories!
Like Rameses, I reckon someone pushed it too far one day and upset a manager, resulting in a certain amount of automation added to the fountains.

 

[Will]

Me and a few others got stuck on Slammer in the pouring rain back in 2012. I remember saying "I'm thinking of switching to a drier hobby. Maybe scuba diving!"

 

[Flash Shift]

I went to Oakwood in a very bad windy storm that put most of the park out of commission. Megafobia was the only major ride operating, and it was soaking. It also broke down at the brake run at one point very briefly. Between the excessive wind and how wet the wood was, I nearly fell over just on the walk back to the station.

 

[JoshC.]

I got pretty soaked on Hyperion at Energylandia on my first ride. Was on back row, outside seat. The fountains seemed to be mistimed and all the water came crashing down onto me.

Ride hosts had a good chuckle when the train cam back into the station.

Have a photo after I got off the ride. It doesn't quite show the extent of the wetness as I had dried off a bit by the time it was taken, but the different colours of the shorts shows it was pretty wet...

 

[LightningColossus46]

Don't ride Silver Bullet in the rain...the water drips from the track the entire light hill. You are somewhat exposed due to the train design. The moment you hit the brakes if you re in the first 4 rows will essentially become the ice bucket challenge on steroids.

 

[Nicky Borrill]

I got pretty soaked on Hyperion at Energylandia on my first ride. Was on back row, outside seat. The fountains seemed to be mistimed and all the water came crashing down onto me.

Ride hosts had a good chuckle when the train cam back into the station.

Have a photo after I got off the ride. It doesn't quite show the extent of the wetness as I had dried off a bit by the time it was taken, but the different colours of the shorts shows it was pretty wet...
View attachment 28973

I've ridden Hyperia well over 100 times, probably over 200... And I've never, ever gotten more than a misting off the splashdown effect. I don't know how you managed that but it's hilarious


Also, you look pretty damn wet in that picture, much wetter than I've ever seen anybody else look after riding... So if you're saying the picture doesn't do it justice.... Well then!

 

[The_bullgod]

I was fully soaked on that topspin ride at the Movieland Studios

 

[Projektion]

Off of the top of my head, the one that really stood out to me was pretty recent on Toutatis in November.

The weather forecast for the day was pretty miserable but luckily it managed to hold off for most of the day (keyword being most). Around mid afternoon, I go to ride Toutatis and there was a very slight drizzle but I didn't think anything of it. I use my fast pass to get straight on and because there was a single rider in the front row queue, I also get assignged to the front. I go to sit in the train, look down the drop out of the station and... "ah f***". In the short time after entering the ride, that slight drizzle had turned into a full on downpour. There was just a wall of rain outside the station. Then, to top it all off, when we came to the end of the ride there was a hold up in the station, so we ended up stacking on the brakes still stuck in the rain.

The only bit of me that was still dry was my lap and that was just because of the restraint.