The Insanity will have to wait

Remember how terrifying Splash Mountain used to be?
Rides like that are for grandma now.

Verruckt, which means “insanity” in German, is the new waterslide at Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City – a ride that terrified even the deign team, who went down it when it was only half as high as it was going to be.

The real thing is 168 feet high, the highest waterslide in the world according to Guinness, and sends four people in a raft down a waterchute in a near free-fall that hits 65 miles an hour before thrusting you over a huge hump.

“As a climactic finish to what will no doubt, become known as a ‘bowel loosening’ attraction,” said one reporter.

That also appears to be the reason Verruckt’s scheduled opening Sunday was delayed for the third time.

In the initial testing, the raft became airborne. After that the park started running the tests at night to frustrate the TV helicopters.

But there’s no hiding what KMBC’s chopper saw in broad daylight last week, “Whatever adjustments they need to make aren’t minor. Look at this, they’ve totally dug up a lot of the concrete at the end of the ride. Pretty much, totally, disassembled the ride as well.”

In fact is appears as if everything after the initial drop is being rebuilt to make it a little less ‘Verruckt.’

But they can’t make it too tame because the competition is ruthless.

You’re going up against rides like Kingda Ka – the roller coaster that catapults you like a jet from an aircraft carrier. The Intimidatior, El Toro, Nitro – I don’t know how anyone can say today’s young people are soft – theme parks are turning them all into astronauts. Afraid of nothing.

Except maybe high-stakes testing.