Disneyland River Gets a Refill

Fans of Rivers of America at Disneyland noticed something missing these past few months: the river. But the water is returning as of Monday morning.

The 6 million gallon river was drained over a seven day period in January for maintenance and upgrades. Crews have been working for four months to replace boat tracks and add new features to the shoreline, the OC Register reported.

Among some of the items found in the empty river bed: half of a canoe from Davy Crockett's Explorer Canoe ride, hundreds of cell phones and walkie talkies, sunglasses, and of course, Mickey hats.

Much of the water was sent to a recycling facility where it was put in holding ponds, the OC Register reported.

"They are theoretically getting some of this water back,"  Mike Markus, general manager of the Orange County Water District, told the OC Register. "There’s a certain cycle to it. They drained it, we treated it, it became part of (the) groundwater basin and they are extracting it."

Water began flowing back into the attraction around 9am and will take about three or four days to refill, according to a park spokeswoman.

Many of the river attractions are scheduled to reopen around May 21 in time for the summer vacation season.

 

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