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Wilde About Texas: Tubing around an endless river
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Cooling off at a water park may seem like the best place to spend a hot summer day, but imagine it without having to wait in long lines.
At first glance "The Falls" may seem like just another float down a lazy river.
With no end, it’s billed as the world's longest water park ride.
"After you ride all 3,600 feet of white water rapids and waterfalls, unlike our other rides where you have to get back out of the water to walk back up the hill, we do that for you. You just stay seated in your tube and we actually carry you up, what we call a giant AquaVeyer, to the beginning of the ride where you can do it over and over again," Schlitterbahn spokesperson Jeffery Siebert said.
Jeff Henry has water slides in his blood. He said “The Falls” is the future of water park entertainment.
"It came from 45 years of working on the rivers here in New Braunfels and wanting to create and replicate the perfect experience of an endless ride," Henry said.
The ride is endless, but it has several exits and entrances. It’s something the park calls "transportainment." The man-made river actually connects different areas of the park by water.
"They love it because every ride is different. It's so cool because the white water rapids, the water falls, the waves that are part of it. It really is unlike anything that we've done before," Siebert said.
“The Falls” includes several new pools and some lodging options that will put guests just a few feet from the water.
"You are in the water as long as you want to be," Siebert said.
“The Falls” and “Tubenbach” represent the New Braunfels park's largest expansion in more than a decade.