Jungle
Cruise
The Jungle Cruise is a family
favorite. We enjoy the classic jokes and the beautiful attention to detail on
this great ride. One great little known souvenir can be found at this
attraction at Disneyland in California. Just ask a Cast Member at the ride for
a map of the ride and you can take it home for free.
The Jungle Cruise is an attraction located in Adventureland at many Disney Parks, including Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, and Tokyo Disneyland. At Hong Kong Disneyland, the attraction
is named Jungle River Cruise. Disneyland
Paris is the only Magic
Kingdom-style Disney park that does not have the Jungle Cruise in its
attraction roster.
The attraction simulates a riverboat cruise down several major rivers of Asia, Africa and South America. Park
guests board replica tramp
steamers and are taken on a
voyage past many different Audio-Animatronic jungle animals. The tour is led by a
live Disney cast member delivering
a humorous scripted narration.
Inspiration and design
Sources of
inspiration for the attraction include a 1955 True-Life Adventure about a pride of lions, and
the film The African Queen. Imagineer Harper Goff referenced
the African Queenfrequently in his ideas; even his designs of the
ride vehicles were inspired by the steamer used in the film.[2] The
project was placed on the schedule to open with the July 17, 1955 debut of
Disneyland.
When plans began to develop, Bill
Evans, the Imagineer responsible for landscaping Disneyland and most of Walt
Disney World, faced the daunting task of creating a convincing jungle on
a limited budget. Aside from importing many actual tropical plants, he made
wide use of "character plants" which, while not necessarily exotic,
could give the appearance of exoticism in context. In a particularly well-known
trick, he uprooted local orange trees and
"replanted" them upside-down, growing vines on the exposed roots.
Disney controls the clarity of the water (known as "turbidity") in
order to obscure from guest's view the boat's guidance system and undesirable
items like perches and mechanized platforms of the bathing elephants and
hippos. Initially, the clean water was dyed brown but after a few years the
colorant was changed to a green hue and in recent years a bluish-green has been
used. The water of the Jungle Cruise is approximately 5 feet deep and is part
of the Park's 'dark' water system which circulates southward from the northern
end of Frontierland's Rivers of America, through Fantasyland and creates the
moat of Sleeping Beauty's castle. The water's journey continues flowing past
Frontierland's entrance and into Adventureland where it meanders alongside the
Tiki Room before entering the Jungle Cruise beside the ride's exit. The water
returns to the south end of the Rivers of America via a 37" diameter
underground pipe near Tarzan's Treehouse. Originally, the Jungle Cruise
waterway was 1,640 feet in length before being slightly shortened and re-routed
in 1994.
Although Goff and Evans can be
credited with the creation and initial design of the ride, Marc Davis,
recognized for his work on venerable attractions such as the Haunted
Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean, added his own style to the ride
in later versions and Disneyland updates. The "Indian Elephant Bathing
Pool" and "Rhinoceros Chasing Explorers up a Pole" were among
his contributions.
Effect on Walt Disney
In a popular story
recounted by Jeff Lange, a writer for weblogging site Jim Hill Media, an
experience at the Jungle Cruise helped bolster Walt Disney's obsession with the concept of 'plussing', or continuous
improvement. The story claims that Walt overheard a mother visiting Disneyland
telling her child that since they had been on the ride the last time they
visited the park, they didn't need to ride it again. In horror, he put his
Imagineers to work designing upgrades to the ride. Many similar variations of
this story exist.
Disneyland
The attraction was in
the opening day roster of the park, and has remained open and largely unchanged
in theme and story since then. The original plan was to use real animals, but
the animals would have been sleeping during the day. Aside from
alterations and maintenance changes, four completely new show scenes have been
added to date. In 1994 the river channel was rerouted to make way for the queue
buildings and entrance courtyard of the Indiana Jones Adventure.
While the current version and
most previous instances have made use of a comedic spiel, filled with
intentionally bad puns, the original intent of the ride was to provide a
realistic, believable voyage through the world's jungles. Until 1962, the
original spiel had no jokes and sounded much like the narration of a
nature documentary.
Attraction summary
The queue and station
are themed as the headquarters and boathouse of a River Expedition Company,
located in a (presumably British) colony of the 1930s. The queuing
area is cluttered with appropriate props, such as pinned insects, an old
radio on top of a bookshelf, and a chessboard with miniature animals
and decorated shotgun shells replacing the pieces. The extended queue
winds upstairs, underneath an Audio-Animatronic hornbill, and then
downstairs again. Big band music from the 1930s plays overhead, punctuated
by jungle-related news bulletins, helping to reinforce the setting and
threading together the show scenes and boat.
Once aboard the boats, guests are
introduced to their skipper and they head into the jungle, allegedly
never to return. The first rivers simulated are the Irrawaddy and Mekong rivers,
representing tropical Southeast Asia. The boats sail through a dense
rainforest inhabited by large butterflies and a pair of toucans and then glide
precariously under the first of a pair of stone arches severely damaged by an
earthquake centuries ago. These are part of the ruins of an ancient Cambodian
city where just a crumbling temple and shrine have managed to avoid tumbling
into the river. Here passengers see a Bengal Tiger, giant spiders, king
cobras and mugger crocodiles. Passing a statue of the
elephant-headed Hindu deity Ganesha, the boats pass under the
second arch and enter the Sacred Indian Elephant Bathing Pool. Here a large
herd of Indian elephants frolic and squirt water at the passing vessels.
The theme transitions
to the rivers of
Africa, and riders see a family of baboons, and a safari camp
that has been overrun by gorillas, (that look simailar to gorillas that
overran the camp in Disney's Tarzan). The boats narrowly avoid the
dramatic waterfall, Schweitzer Falls, and turn down Africa's Nile river
where they pass between two African Elephants, and large termite mounds.
A tableau of the African Veldt follows, showing zebras, wildebeest, giraffes,
and gazelles watching a pride of lions feasting on a zebra
beneath a rocky outcropping. Beyond the lion's den, an angry rhinoceros has
chased a safari party up a tree. Antelope and hyenas watch
from nearby. The skipper then pilots the boat into the Congo river disturbing a
pod of hippos that signal their intent to attack the boat.
Armed with a gun filled with blanks, the skipper fires into the air to frighten
them away.
Drums and chanting are heard as
the boats come to headhunter country. The vehicles pass a native
village before sailing into an ambush by natives wielding spears, the
sound effects for which are usually provided by the skipper.
The boats now pass behind Schweitzer
Falls (referred to as "the Backside of Water") to enter the Amazon
River. Skeletal animal remains and warning signs featuring pictures of
dagger-toothed fish forewarn the next show scene, where the boats encounter a
swarm of leaping piranha. The guests then pass a pool of water
buffalo, and meet shrunken head dealer Trader Sam ("who will
trade you two of his heads for one of yours") before returning to the
dock.
Major changes
·
1957 - Addition of rainforest, pair of menacing gorillas, native
war party and dancing natives. Trader Sam begins offering his "... two for
one deal"
·
1961 - Original two-story boathouse removed; open waterway between
Jungle Cruise and Rivers of America filled in to create space for Tree House
·
1962 - Construction of Indian elephant pool and African veldt
scenes (sans figures)
·
1963 - African elephants re-positioned on the Nile river section;
removal of two original lions and pair of 'charging' rhinos
·
1964 - Addition of Indian elephants to bathing pool, African veldt
animals, and trapped safari figures
·
1976 - Addition and enhancement of several scenes: crocodiles
snapping at hornbill, Bengal tiger and cobras added to Cambodian ruins, safari
camp overrun by gorillas, gorilla battling crocodile, baboons on termite
mounds, lions feasting on zebra moved into new rock outcropping/den, python
threatening water buffalo calf replacing gorillas threatening from the banks
·
1993 - Boats repainted and "weathered" in anticipation
of Indiana Jones attraction
·
1994 - Addition of new two-story boathouse queue;
attraction re-themed for 1930's era to support the coming "Indiana Jones
Adventure," rerouting of river to accommodate the "Indiana Jones
Adventure"
·
1997 - Replacement of the original ride vehicles
·
2005 - Various replacements and reconstructions including complete
replacement of Schweitzer Falls; addition of piranhas; updates to safari camp
scene including 'exploding' gasoline drums
·
2010 - After 55 years of growth and care Disneyland's man-made
jungle is declared "real" and complete with its own ecosystem.
Description of
specific changes
The baboons at the
safari camp previously sat on the African termite mounds. A total of six lions
have been removed since opening day: one that growled when the African Veldt
was added, two lionesses from the Veldt that were fighting over a bloody strand
of zebra meat, a lion and a lioness that each had a zebra leg in their mouth,
and a dead lion hanging on a spit over a fire in
the native village. Also removed from the Veldt were African wild dogs barking
at the pride.
Boats
There are 12
vehicles, with a maximum of 9 in operation at any given time. The boats in 1955
were painted as clean, idealized replicas, but have since been given a more
realistic theming reflecting the grunge and wear of actual watercraft due to
the addition of Indiana
Jones Adventure and its ruggedness.
Names in use:
·
Amazon Belle
·
Congo Queen
(gold-painted for 50th anniversary)
·
Ganges Gal
·
Hondo Hattie
·
Irrawaddy Woman
·
Kissimmee Kate
·
Nile Princess
·
Orinoco Adventuress
·
Suwannee Lady
·
Ucayali Una
(Wheelchair equipped)
·
Yangtze Lotus
·
Zambezi Miss
Names decommissioned in 1997:
·
Magdalena Maiden
·
Mekong Maiden
Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland
Attraction summary
The skipper
introduces himself or herself, and begins to take the boat full of guests down
the tropical rivers of the world. The ride starts out in the Amazon River,
where the passengers encounter butterflies with one-foot wingspans, or as the
skipper might say, twelve inches. The boat then passes Inspiration Falls, which
transitions into the Congo River in Africa.
The skipper explains
that there is a Pygmy welcoming party waiting for them, but when the boat
arrives at the beach, the canoes are empty, and the place deserted. The skipper
wonders what scared off the Pygmies, and they soon discover that it was a giant
python. The boat then passes a camp that has been raided by gorillas, which
transitions the cruise into the Nile River.
After encountering
two elephants, the boat passes along the African Veldt, where numerous African
animals watch a pride of lions eat their kill. The boat then passes a lost
safari group that has been chased up a pole by an angry rhinoceros and are now
trapped. The group then passes by another waterfall, Schweitzer Falls, and
heads past the remains of a plane crash. The boat then encounters a pool
of hippos, about to charge the boat until the skipper scares them
off. Ominous drums are heard as the group enters headhunter territory. Natives
are seen dancing near the boat and guests soon find themselves in an ambush.
They escape and proceed into the Mekong River.
They enter a temple
which has been destroyed by an earthquake. Inside, baboons, cobras, and a tiger
can be found. After they exit, they come across an elephant bathing pool where
numerous elephants are relaxing in the water. The boat narrowly avoids being
sprayed by water from one of the elephants. The cruise concludes after passing
Trader Sam, the head salesman of the jungle, who offers two shrunken heads for
one of the passengers.
Magic Kingdom
The Walt Disney World
Jungle Cruise is set as a depression era British outpost on the Amazon river,
operated by the fictional company, The Jungle Navigation Co., whose
advertisement poster is painted on the wall near the exit of the attraction. Albert Awol's broadcast is
different than that of Disneyland's, being ride specific. Also unlike
Disneyland, the queue never extended to a second level. The skippers at the
Magic Kingdom no longer carry revolvers loaded with blanks. These real guns
have been replaced with realistic props.
Near the Hippo Pool, a piece of a
downed airplane can be seen along the shoreline. This is the back half of
the Lockheed Model 12 Electra Junior found at The Great Movie
Ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios in the Casablanca scene.
Each variety of plant
throughout the attraction was carefully selected by landscape architect Bill
Evans to ensure that the foliage would be able to endure Florida's unique
climate: hot summers and relatively cool winters. The most difficult aspect of
this was making sure these plants had the appropriate look and feel of traditional
tropical plants in the equatorial jungle.
Queue
The queue of the
Jungle Cruise is heavily themed with period artifacts, tools, gear, photos and
more. It is intended to resemble an outpost where an exploration of the jungle
rivers may be booked. It is divided into four main sections which may be opened
or closed in sequence to accommodate crowd fluctuation. The queue was designed
to wind about extensively so that guests may see all of the different artifacts
in the queue. The most notable section of the queue is the office of Albert
Awol.
Boats
There are 15
vehicles, with a maximum of 10 in operation at any given time.
Current boats
·
Amazon Annie
·
Bomokandi Bertha
(Wheelchair lift equipped)
·
Congo Connie
·
Ganges Gertie
·
Irrawaddy Irma
·
Mongala Millie
·
Nile Nellie
·
Orinoco Ida
·
Rutshuru Ruby
·
Sankuru Sadie
·
Senegal Sal
·
Ucyali Lolly
·
Volta Val
·
Wamba Wanda
(Wheelchair lift equipped)
·
Zambesi Zelda
Retired boats
·
Kwango Kate (Retired in 2000)
Tokyo Disneyland
The Magic Kingdom and
Tokyo Disneyland attractions are very similar to each other, with the exception
of a few minor differences. While the boats in the Magic Kingdom's attraction
travel counter-clockwise, the boats at Tokyo Disneyland travel in a clockwise
direction.
In Tokyo Disneyland,
the station and surrounding area are themed to a more upscale African city, as
opposed to an isolated jungle outpost. This version shares a station building
with the park's steam
train ride, Western River Railroad. The
spiels in Tokyo Disneyland are delivered in Japanese and skippers bow to the
audience after each joke.
Boats
There are 13 vehicles, with a maximum
of 12 in operation at any given time.
All boat names, except Orinoco Ida,
are alliterations.
·
Amazon Annie
·
Congo Connie
·
Ganges Gertie
·
Irrawaddy Irma
·
Kwango Kate
·
Nile Nelly
·
Orinoco Ida
·
Rutshuru Ruby
·
Sankuru Sadie
·
Senegal Sal
·
Volta Val
·
Wamba Wanda
·
Zambezi Zelda
Disneyland Paris
Disneyland Paris does not have any Jungle Cruise attraction, due to the cold
temperature and weather of northern France. Because many copies of the original
Jungle Cruise attractions exist in other French theme parks, French guests
might be used to the experience and not find it exciting. An indoor jeep ride called Jungle Expedition was
originally planned at the opening of the park, but was cancelled due to
financial difficulties.
Hong Kong Disneyland
The shape of Hong
Kong Disneyland's route is significantly different compared to the others, and
circumnavigates Tarzan's
Treehouse. A grand finale is included with a battle
between angry fire and water gods. Three languages are regularly available:
Cantonese, English, and Mandarin. Each language has a separate queue, allowing
visitors to experience the journey in their preferred language.
Attraction summary
The queue takes place
in a small boathouse less elaborate then the boathouses found at the other
parks. After winding through the queue, guests board one of the boats and meet
their skipper who speaks either English, Cantonese, or Mandarin, to accompany
the park's guests who speak many different languages themselves.
The boats then depart
and head down the river, past Tarzan's Treehouse where the skipper tells guests
to wave goodbye to the guests traversing the treehouse, for they will never see
them again. The boats then drift past a mother Indian elephant and her calf
playing in the water, followed by another elephant showering in a waterfall. A
large bull Indian elephant emerges from the water squirting a plume of water at
the boats with the guests narrowly avoiding the free shower.
The vessels then
drift down a narrow stream past ancient Cambodian ruins which have been claimed
by the jungle. Giant spiders and king cobras watch the boats as they move on.
Up ahead several crocodiles are seen resting on a small beach, while a school
of hungry piranha are jumping in the hopes of attacking the guests. The boats
escape into Africa and they pass a large safari camp where several curious
gorillas have discovered clothes, guns, hammocks, and books, as the
"Trashing the Camp" song from Tarzan plays on a
nearby 1930s radio. The African Veldt comes into view where antelope, giraffes,
zebras, and African elephants stare at the boats. The vessels then drift into a
small pool where a pod of hippos try to tip the boat. Several feet ahead a
rhino is seen chasing a safari group up a tree while several hyenas look on
laughing.
Skulls and cloth
impaled on broken bamboo sticks appears as tribal drums and horns fill the air.
The skipper tells guests that they have entered head hunter country and must
quietly sneak by. The boats slowly pass through the main village where several
upright shields rest in the tall grass. A native notices the boats and all the
shields now revealed to have head hunters behind them begin firing spears and
poison darts at the boats as they narrowly escape into a rocky canyon. In the
rocky canyon, the boats stop near two unusual rock formations that look like
faces, revealed by the skipper to be the fire god and the water god who
constantly feud over their differences. The fire god sets the river ablaze
while the water god vomits a water bomb, causing the flames to die and the
whole canyon to become a cloud of steam. The boats escape the canyon and pass a
baby elephant before returning to the boathouse.
Major changes
·
2006 - Piranha Attack and Trapped Safari scenes added, enhancement
of Gorilla Camp, African Veldt, and Headhunter's Territory
·
2007 - Temporary scene added during the "Pirate
Takeover" summer event (from May to August)
Boats
There are 9 vehicles, with a maximum of
8 in operation at any given time.
·
Amazon Annie
·
Congo Queen (Wheelchair accessible)
·
Ganges Gal
·
Irrawaddy Irma
·
Lijiang Lady
·
Mekong Maiden
·
Nile Nellie
·
Yangzi Ying Ying
·
Zambezi Zelda
Albert Awol
Albert Awol is a fictional
Jungle Cruise boat captain and disc jockey for the
Disney Broadcasting Company. Considered the "Voice of the Jungle", he
broadcasts everything from news, to quizzes, reminders, weather, etc. on the
DBC (Disney Broadcast Company). He also serves as a period disc jockey for the
station, filling the airwaves with music from the 1930s depression era.
Albert Awol was added in 1991 to the
Jungle Cruise during a refurbishment:
"Standing in the Jungle Cruise
queue was a somber affair prior to the aforementioned 1991 rehab; once guests
crossed the threshold they were faced with a series of twists and turns that
led past bare walls, their fellow guests and occasional glimpses of the river.
There was no background music at that time either, so if the queue was full it
promised a fair amount of shuffling drudgery. Of course DL's Jungle Cruise
queue is now closer to the full embodiment of how cool a ride's waiting space
can be, but Florida's 1991 upgrade did include queue music interspersed with
radio commentary by Albert AWOL, 'the voice of the jungle.' A considerable
array of visual enhancements were also made at that same time, from a series of
new destination-based wall murals to the artifact-laden 'office' in the center
of the queue."
Albert's broadcast is
projected not just over the Jungle Cruise queuing area, but over Adventureland as a whole, setting the time period. In Disneyland,
Albert is replaced by "Jungle Radio." Various air personalities
comment on the environment, the luminaries who are in the area (including
references to the designers of the attraction - Harper Goff, Bob Mattey, Winston
Hibler [True-Life Adventure films, upon which Jungle Cruise is based]). The
music is a good deal slower in pace and tempo than the tracks used at Walt
Disney World. The music was previously linked with the outdoor speakers at the
Temple of the Forbidden Eye (Indiana Jones Adventure), however, two separate
tracks of material with similar tone and some songs now exist. The Jungle Radio
at Disneyland does connect the setting with the nearby Indiana Jones
attraction, and ties in announcements that reference Indiana Jones, and the
temple in which the ride is set.
In popular culture
· There was a tribute
to the ride in 2005 on an episode of the podcast The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd,
as well as a Strong Bad E-mail entitled "theme park".
· In the sing along songs
video Disneyland Fun during "Following the Leader", Jungle
Cruise made an appearance.
· Jungle Cruise was parodied
as Timon and Pumbaa's Virtual Safari on The Lion King Special
Edition.
· A stand up comedy show featuring
only Jungle Cruise Skippers, called The Skipper Stand Up Show, has been
doing shows in Fullerton, California since May 2006.
· "Weird Al" Yankovic wrote
and recorded a song titled "Skipper Dan" about a failed actor who
ended up as a guide on a Jungle Cruise-type ride. The song is included on his
2009 digital Internet Leaks EP and his 2011 album, Alpocalypse.
· Disney's "Fab Five"
characters, cruise boat and the "River Expedition Company" boathouse
were incorporated into an original painting and limited edition print offering
by artist Randy Souders entitled "Jungle Cruise" created
for the 1999 Official Disneyana Convention at Disneyland.
Soundtrack
A studio recorded soundtrack of
the Jungle Cruise was release in 1968 by Disneyland Records included
as the B side of the album Walt Disney Presents The Enchanted
Tiki Room and the Adventurous Jungle Cruise (ST-3966). The Jungle
Cruise attraction has always featured narration by a live Disney cast member;
for the release the narration was provided by Thurl Ravenscroft. This soundtrack was also used in Disneyland television
features as early as 1964.
Film adaptation
The Jungle Cruise is an
announced Disney motion
picture loosely inspired by the theme park attraction of the
same name.
The film, originally scheduled for release in 2007,
has experienced various delays and changes. Shooting of the film, originally
scheduled for 2006, was postponed. Moreover, the original screenplay by
Josh Goldstein and John Norville was reportedly rewritten by Al Gough and Miles
Millar.
The film follows a group's riverboat journey
through a jungle in search of a cure. Further details have not been
forthcoming, apart from confirmation that the film is set in the twentieth
century.
It has been announced that Toy Story stars Tom
Hanks and Tim Allen will star in the film.
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