Boat Ride Explained – Theme Park Definition

A boat ride carries guests through the show in a flume of water, usually guided by an underwater track or by the channel walls themselves. Water buys two things a track cannot: capacity, because long boats load quickly and run close together, and quiet, because there is no drive mechanism under the guest to be heard over the show. It is why the format dominates the biggest, longest-running dark rides in the world.

Almost every classic falls into this category: Pirates of the Caribbean, "it’s a small world", Efteling’s Fata Morgana and Europa-Park’s Pirates in Batavia. Shanghai Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean goes further still, putting the boats on a trackless magnetic drive so they can rotate and move sideways.