Congo Falls

Entrance sign, with lift hill and loading station partially visible in the background.

### Replaced:

*Monkey Island* (1974 - 1987)

***Congo Falls*** (previously known as ***Amazon Falls***) is a shoot-the-chute water ride located in the Action Zone of Kings Island. It is one of three water rides in the main park, along with *White Water Canyon* and *Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown!*. Unlike the other rides though, *Congo Falls* is guaranteed to get riders soaked, with the other rides being more likely to get riders mildly wet. The ride originally opened as *Amazon Falls*, but the name was changed in 1999 to fit with the Action Zone theme. This change was made to promote their 1995 movie *Congo*.

## History

Two years after *White Water Canyon* opened in 1985, the decision was made to make another water ride in the Adventure Village section of the park, now known as Action Zone. In 1988, *Amazon Falls* opened, and was notable for allowing guests to get soaked a second time by standing on the bridge at the exit, resulting in the splash caused by the ride boat reaching the bridge and further drenching guests.

In 1999, the Adventure Village section was reformatted and renamed to the Paramount Action Zone, with the company name later being dropped after Cedar Fair acquired the park. To go along with the overall area theme of rides based on Paramount films, *Amazon Falls* became *Congo Falls*, to reflect on the 1995 film *Congo*. Cedar Fair has not changed the name of the ride to remove any themes to the film, though this could be because there wasn't much of a theme to begin with, and the ride is still a generic shoot-the-chute ride.

## Theme and Ride Experience

### Theme

There isn’t much of a theme to the ride, but warning signs in the queue line and the loading station hint that the ride is themed around an African river safari. The boats don’t seem to reflect on this too much, as they resemble basic wooden boats, with a pile of rocks in the front to emphasize the effect of the drop.

### Ride Experience

Once the riders are seated, the ride begins by traveling up the lift hill. As the boat ascends the lift hill, riders can see a brief view of the parking lot. Once at the top of the lift hill, the boat turns around and approached the main drop, which has two sloped inclines. The resulting splash is the highlight of the ride, drenching all riders, as well as guests standing on the exit bridge of the ride. The boats slowly make their way back to the loading station, but two fountains burst and spray water at the riders for one last attempt to get wet.

## Trivia

* It's worth noting that this is the only ride that had a Paramount film theme that hasn't been renamed since Cedar Fair took over operations.
* Unlike the other water rides in the main park, *Congo Falls* is guaranteed to get riders completely soaked.
* *Congo Falls*, along with *Top Gun* (later renamed *Flight Deck*, then *The Bat*) and *King Cobra*, was one of the only rides that was not affected by the renovations of converting Adventure Village to Action Zone, save for its name change.
* The first stretch of queue line is used for the sled hill queue line during Winterfest, it also goes though the Drop Tower queue line.