Located at the back of the park, Rumba Rapids at Thorpe Park was an Intamin Rapids Ride that originally opened as Thunder River in 1987. Up until its closure at the end of 2025, Rumba Rapids remained a popular family water ride and a staple attraction at the park, especially on a warm summer’s day. Learn about the history of this classic Thorpe Park ride in our special feature.
Rumba Rapids featured a rotating station platform which was located at the highest point of the ride, with the river channel having a gradient to it for the remainder of the layout. A lift hill then brought the boats back up to station level at the end. Under the lift hill, the ride’s main pumps were housed, pumping the water up from the low point to the high point. The gradient on the river channel provided the water with its flow and pace. Objects placed at the bottom of the trough created the rapids which would cause riders to get wet.
When the ride’s pumps were switched off at the end of the day or in an emergency, the water naturally flowed back to the end of the ride where it collected, leaving the majority of the river channel empty and drained until the pumps were turned back on. All Intamin River Rapids rides feature a connected lake at the end before the lift hill, with its main purpose being to help store the large amount of water that collected at the end of the layout once the main pumps were turned off. Rumba Rapids featured a large indoor waterfall and an open wave pool area where boats could pass each other.
Thunder River
Thunder River was the first Intamin River Rapids ride in the UK, closely followed by Congo River Rapids at Alton Towers. Featuring bright yellow boats, rockwork around the trough and an enclosed tunnel section, the original attraction was significantly more aggressive than Rumba Rapids with riders getting much wetter than they did on the second iteration of the attraction from 2002.
Ribena Rumba Rapids
When the retheme took place in 2002, the attraction reopened with a sponsorship from Ribena as part of the update. The entire ride saw a vibrant new colour scheme added and the ride system toned down somewhat to make it more of a family oriented experience. Whilst the layout of the attraction did not change between Thunder River and Ribena Rumba Rapids, the ride received brand new colourful boats which were not from the original manufacturer. The previous wave machines were replaced and additional water effects added to compensate for the reduced likelihood of the rapids soaking riders.
Rumba Rapids
Once the Ribena sponsorship ended at the end of the 2006 season, all branding relating to the drink was removed and some of the scenery painted over and not fully removed. The graphics on the sides of the boats were updated to be more generic with the word Thorpe Park printed on the side along with a sticker for the boat number.
Overhaul in 2017
Ten years after the removal of the Ribena sponsorship, Rumba Rapids saw a significant amount of work carried out on the appearance of the attraction. Inspired by the colour scheme of the original Thunder River, the queue was repainted in a more natural brown colour scheme. All the Ribena Berry theming had been removed from around the full length of the course, including the tunnel which now had new lighting. One of the most noticeable differences was the removal of many of the trees from around the layout, with the stumps of those on the final bend being given a charred effect to complement the volcano of Nemesis Inferno, nearby. The attraction was repainted back to its original Rumba Rapids colours for the 2023 season.
Boat Modifications in 2019
Following an incident on Splash Canyon at Drayton Manor in 2017, the theme park industry saw significant changes to the health and safety regulations of rapids rides. As part of a trial in 2018, one boat was modified to include a higher backrest, the addition of a central grab handle as well as magnetic entry and exit gates to reduce the likelihood of riders falling overboard.
Recapture the thrills that Rumba Rapids had to offer in our on ride POV below.
