Disney's River Country

**Disney's River Country** was a water theme park located at the Walt Disney World resort.

## History

Positioned on the shore of Bay Lake, near Discovery Island, the park featured a rustic wilderness theme, complete with rocks and man-made boulders. It was described as an "old-fashioned swimming hole" with "a twist of Huckleberry Finn." The original working title was "Pop's Willow Grove."

The park was featured in a musical number from the 1977 Wonderful World of Disney episode "The Mouseketeers at Walt Disney World", which included a song titled "River Country" and featured the then-current Mouseketeer lineup from the late 70s incarnation of The Mickey Mouse Club enjoying its attractions.

The park featured a sandy bottom and unique water filtering system using confluent water from adjacent Bay Lake, which was dammed off creating a natural-looking artificial lagoon. The park's water was at a higher level than the lake's, which was an effort to prevent lake water from going into the park.

There were several deaths that took place at River Country. One death was from the amoeba in the water. Two were from drowning in the Bay Cove. Because the water was filtered from Bay Lake, it was not transparent like pool water. Lifeguards did not see the drowning boys for several minutes. The deaths did not impact the park closure years later.

### Closure

In 1989, Disney opened a second water park, Typhoon Lagoon. It had much more parking, many more slides, newer amenities and was much larger. In 1995, Disney opened a third water park, Blizzard Beach, which was also much bigger than River Country.

The park closed on November 2, 2001, with the expectation that it would reopen in spring of 2002. On April 11, 2002, the Orlando Sentinel reported that “Walt Disney World’s first water park, River Country, has closed and may not reopen." Disney World spokesman Bill Warren stated that River Country could be reopened if ‘there’s enough guest demand.’”

In 2005, Disney officially announced that River Country would be closed permanently. For seventeen years River Country sat abandoned, rotting and eventually reclaimed by nature. The water park was fenced off with signs up reading "Sorry River Country is closed". The park was a popular site amongst urban explorers who climbed over the green fence, or even walked in through the backstage driveway.

On August 25, 2014, Disney announced that they would drain and fill in Upstream Plunge, the 330,000 gallon pool. There were no immediate plans to tear down any other part of the park.

### Planned Hotel

On March 5, 2018, Disney filed permits for a new mystery development labeled "Project 89" to be built along Bay Lake and over the former River Country site. A week later, it was rumoured that "Project 89" will most likely be another themed Hotel Resort or DVC timeshare property.

The resort hotel was confirmed on May 31, 2018 and most remaining structures at the park, including the remnants of the Upstream Plunge pool, were demolished on April 20, 2019 to make way for development of the new hotel. Disney later officially announced that the new deluxe resort would be nature-themed and called "Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge". The new resort is slated to have 900 hotel rooms and is set to open in 2022. The new hotel will also feature several Disney characters for each of the rooms including "Bambi", "The Fox and the Hound","Brother Bear" and "Pocahontas" among others. A lakeside restaurant featuring the characters from "The Princess and the Frog" is also slated to open along with the new resort in 2022.

## List of Attractions

Attractions included:

* **Upstream Plunge** - A lung shaped clean-water pool.
* **Slippery Slide Falls** - Two water slides that emptied into Upstream Plunge.
* **Kiddie Cove** - A kids zone with two large water slides and a cove. This area was targeted toward preteens.
* **Barrel Bridge** - A bumpy bridge with barrels under it, similar to the one at Tom Sawyer Island.
* **White Water Rapids** - A 330-foot (100 m) long inner tube river.
* **Bay Cove** - A half-acre (2,000 m²) sand-bottom lake which featured a tire swing, boom swing, rope climb and T-bar drop.
* **Whoop 'n' Holler Hollow** - Two water slides, 260 ft (79 m) and 160 ft (49 m) long, that emptied into Bay Cove.
* **Bay Bridge**
* **Indian Springs** - A very small splash zone with fountains spraying kids. This area was mainly designed for guests under age 8.
* **Cypress Point Nature Trail** - A trail among trees beside Bay Lake.
* **Pony Rides**
* **Mercury WaterMouse Rental**