However, this was not to materialise and instead the ride maintained an interesting contrast with its pirate neighbour. Some expected the arrival of Mutiny Bay in 2008 to include a further redesign of this popular ride. The Flume lake also became home to a fleet of remote-controlled ducks to keep non-riders occupied whilst their friends went for a soaking. The ride now sported a funky fresh new soundtrack as well as several new features, including a pair of power showers as the ride headed back to the station and what can only be described as the rubber duck from your nightmares living in the tunnel. Gone was the wood, the logs and any memory of the dinosaurs and in their place stood bathtubs, power-showers, and rubber ducks! In a sponsorship deal with Imperial Leather, the ride appeared with its new theme: 'Bathtime With Attitude'!

The culmination of this worked resulted in the 2004 opening of 'The Flume: Unplugged'. It was time for a new look, and at the end of 2003 the ride closed, ready for a long overdue overhaul. At the same time, a prehistoric family moved into the tunnel section of the ride.īy the early 2000s, the Log Flume was starting to look rather tired and the wooden cladding was starting to look rather too rustic. In 1984 the Log Flume received some new guests as dinosaurs were added throughout the woodland section of the ride, having been displaced from Dinosaur Land which had closed the previous season to make way for the Black Hole. By 1983 the ride had also started to transition to the more traditional name of The Log Flume. The Park Railway originally bordered the attraction on two sides, which meant access the ride was via a railway bridge over the tracks, but the popularity of the flume meant that by 1982 the Park Railway had been shortened to open up the ride area to the rest of the Ingestre Centre. The flume was one of the first attractions in the park to have an on-ride photo and during the ride each log would stop briefly at the top of the last lift hill where one of the ride's attendants waited in a small cabin and would present a ticket to guests on the log to be exchanged for a photo taken during the final drop. On opening, the ride went by the name of the Wild Water Flume and its 2600ft waterway meandered from the station into the woods at the outer limits of the Gardens, where guests could enjoy views of the Park Railway and Temple Lake whilst taking on three drops and two tunnels during the five-minute ride. For its second season, the park was ready to embark on its first large-scale engineering project - to create the longest flume ride in the world.Ī five-and-a-half acre field to the East of the Ingestre Centre was transformed into a purpose-built reservoir to provide the ride's water supply, whist at the edge of the new lake a large turntable structure housed the white geometric station. In the Summer of 1980 the transformation of Alton Towers into an amusement park was already proving popular, but John Broome knew further investment was needed to keep guests coming back.

Water flume ride