Jungle Cruise (Disneyland)

The Jungle Cruise
Park	Disneyland
Land	Adventureland
Type	Jungle boat ride
Opening date	July 17, 1955 (Disneyland)

"For a true life adventure ride the JUNGLE RIVER"

—Original posters

The Jungle Cruise is an attraction located in Adventureland of Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom. It also appears in Hong Kong Disneyland as the Jungle River Cruise, and Tokyo Disneyland contains a significantly reworked version named Jungle Cruise: Wildlife Expeditions. The attraction is also the source of inspiration for the 2021 Jungle Cruise film.

In-universe history

Backstory

The Jungle Navigation Company was founded in the year 1911 by British colonist and jungle explorer Dr. Albert Falls. When Falls disappeared in 1928, the company was inherited by his granddaughter Alberta Falls. To prevent financial losses amid the Great Depression, in 1931, Alberta started the, "Jungle Cruise" tourism service to transport guests through the jungle's rivers of adventure, a series of mystic passageways which connect exotic locales across the globe.

However, in-addition to being morally questionable colonists, the Jungle Navigation Company is also highly negligent and incompetent. The ride takes place in the year 1938 after Alberta arranged for a V.I.P. group to take this tour aboard the Kwango Kate. However, their unlucky skipper Felix Pechman XIII wrecked the boat along the African veldt, causing the expedition to be lost. Guests represent patrons of the Jungle Cruise who depart from the Lost Delta of India and happen upon the lost expedition.

Former backstories

Jungle Cruise (Disneyland; 19XX-2021)

The attraction centered around the colonial Jungle Navigation Company, founded by Dr. Albert Falls in 1911 while headed by his granddaughter Alberta Falls. The attraction took place around the Summer of 1936, when the Jungle Navigation Company was working with the Lost Delta Archaeological Expedition in the Lost Delta of India. This was a highly publicized team lead by world-famous archaeologist Indiana Jones and his ally Sallah Mohammed Faisel el-Kahirto excavate the long lost Temple of the Forbidden Eye, an ancient temple home to the deity Mara. Guests represented clients of the Jungle Navigation Company during a time when tourists were flocking to the Lost Delta due to stories surrounding the temple and encouragement from British Colonial Affairs.

Development history

Creation

The Jungle Cruise was initially inspired by Disney's True-Life Adventures nature documentaries. The Jungle Cruise and, "True-Life Adventureland" (later renamed to Adventureland) were created side-by-side. Walt Disney originally wanted the Jungle Cruise to feature live animals though this was opted out for audio-animatronics.

The original incarnation of the Jungle Cruise was largely designed by imagineer Harper Goff who was greatly inspired by the 1951 romance-adventure film The African Queen. This film film followed the pairing Charlie Allnut and Rose Sayerfighting the German Empire in East-Africa from their titular tramp-steamer, The African Queen.

Updates

The original incarnation of the Jungle Cruise was oriented as a straight-forwards adventure with a relatively serious tone and special-effects by film-legend Bob Mattey and animal sculpts by one Chris Mueller. The attraction had a lush and specially designed jungle which was created by horticulturist Bill Evans. Starting in 1962, the Jungle Cruise more comedy-oriented scenes were designed for the Jungle Cruise by animator Marc Davis. Skippers would also take to improvising jokes to add a sense of unpredictability and additional fun to the attraction.

The Magic Kingdom's Jungle Cruise would open in 1971 with many of these comedic augmentations from opening-day. In 1977/1978, the family of rhinos was removed and replaced by gorillas ransacking the Congo Base Camp, likewise designed by Davis. Around 1978, the giant gorillas had their audio-animatronics repurposed as yetis in the rollercoaster Matterhorn Bobsleds. The African river which they occupied would be repurposed to represent the Amazon rainforest.

Disneyland's Jungle Cruise saw many large alterations in the 1990s due to the opening of the nearby Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye, an attraction based on the Indiana Jones film series which resulted in a more realistic, 1930s aesthetic. The boats were refurbished and replaced to fit this new aesthetic with the boats Magdalena Maiden and Mekong Maiden having decommissioned all-together. A new (later retconned) backstory known as the Skipper Survival Guide was created for cast-members to tie into the Indiana Jones films along with the added characters of Albert Awol and Nigel Greenwater in the ride queues. Another change made by this time involved the spiels of the skippers being completely scripted, not allowing for improv comedy and resulting in many of the ride's more infamously unfunny moments.

Around the time of Disney's Animal Kingdom's opening in 1998, the guns the skippers used would be taken out of the Magic Kingdom's Jungle Cruise. In 2000, the Magic Kingdom's Jungle Cruise removed a canopy structure due to safety reasons and overhauled the boats; the boat the Kwango Kate was decommissioned in this update. In March 2001, Disneyland would also have the guns taken out of its Jungle Cruise. The guns returned to both Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom versions in late 2004. In 2005, many other updates were made to the attraction including a swarm of man-eating piranhas attacking the boats.

2021 refurbishment

Due to the broadened cultural awareness of the time, the Jungle Cruise was one of many attractions accused of having racist depictions of characters, locations and situations, in this case, the headhunter tribe, pygmy camp, safari guides and most famously, Trader Sam and his cousin Chief Nah-mee. In 2021, the Jungle Cruise underwent a refurbishment which claimed to be oriented towards inclusivity.

With that, the Umbala village, pygmy camp, Trader Sam's Outpost, buddhist statues and original Lost Safari were all removed in this refurbishment along with the queue loops of Nigel Greenwater and Albert Awol being removed for the new storyline. The attraction reopened with a new storyline and heavy focus on the aforementioned self-referential humour while continuing to include British colonial elements and glamorize them in addition to continuing to negatively stereotype indigenous characters. Said refurbishment also involved heavy amounts of lore-dumped backstories for its newly integrated characters albeit with little-to-none of this backstory being featured on the actual attraction and some of said characters not even appearing anywhere in the attraction.

Summary

South-Asia

Lost Delta

The attraction begins in the Lost Delta of India on the outskirts of Adventureland where guests enter the boathouse of the Jungle Navigation Company. Throughout the queue are references to the lost V.I.P tour and its members: Skipper Felix Pechman XIII, Dr. Leonard Moss, Dr. Kon Chunosuke, Siobhan "Puffin" Murphy and Rosa Soto Dominguez. Guests listen to music played by the Global Broadcasting Service with announcements from one Skipper Missy. Also in the queue is a map of the Rivers of Adventure, showing the route which guests will take from the Lost Delta to the Irrawaddy, Ganges, Congo, Nile, Zambezi and Amazon rivers before taking an uncharted tributary back to the boathouse.

Guests embark on a tramp steamer on the docks of Adventureland where they are introduced to their skipper. The boats depart past the Jungle Navigation Company's docks and the cursed Temple of the Forbidden Eye.

Burma

before entering ruins along the Irrawaddy river in Burma, seemingly left by the Khmer Empire of modern Cambodia. In these ruins are animal statues and fierce animals such as an Indochinese tiger, crocodiles and cobras.

Cambodia

Following this, the boats enter an Indian elephant bathing pool in Cambodia where they find several Indian elephants such as, "Big Bertha" taking a shower and, "Squirt" who nearly drenches the boat.

Africa

Congo

Following this, the boats enter the Congo basin of Africa with the skipper making plans to dock at an upcoming base camp. However, this base camp is found to be abandoned due to a troop of gorillas having raided it. One gorilla fires a gun into the water near the boats, another puts tries on a pith helmet in a mirror, a parent plays with their baby, and another gorilla examines the barrel of a rifle. Continuing onwards, the boats find the gorilla, "Kejo the Silverback" frustrated, attempting to grab bananas from a nearby floating crate with little success.

African Veldt

The boats then find a fork in the river which intersects the Congo river with the Zambezi and the Nile. Here the boats happen upon Schweitzer Falls, named for JNC founder and world-famous explorer Dr. Albert Falls. The boats continue into the Nile where they pass by African bull elephants and find the African veldt. On the veldt are a multitude of animals including gnus, gazelles, giraffe, vulture and zebras looking upon a lion pride feasting upon a zebra carcass. Further along the veldt, the boats find the crew of the Kwango Kate chased up a tree by a black rhinoceros which prods at the rear of Skipper Felix while at the top of the tree, Puffin Murphy gleefully observes a tropical bird.

The skipper chooses to ignore finding the lost expedition due to it being too much paperwork to report. Moving on, they enter a hippo pool with the belongings of the expedition and sunken Kwango Kate. Some hippos charge at the boat before the skipper wards them off, either by gunshot, persuasion or yelling. Entering the Zambezi River, the lost boat the Mekong Maiden is located with a crew of chimpanzees. Along the shore, more chimpanzees vandalize the washed-up belongings of the Kate's passengers. After this, the skipper pilots the boat underneath of the 8th wonder of the world, "The Backside of Water" under Schweitzer Falls.

Amazon Rainforest

Following this, the boats enter the Amazon rainforest where petroglyphs and bone idols make warnings about the boats infringing on piranha territory during dry-season. Suddenly, a swarm of man-eating piranhas leap out of the water in an attempt to eat its passengers. The skipper manages to save the passengers and pass by Settler's Field which has some water-buffalo and a python in a tree. The skipper then takes the boats to the Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd. Lost & Found, now transformed into, "Trader Sam's Gift Shop!". In Sam's absence, the shop has become overrun by monkeys who snap photographs of the passing-by guests while Sam's pet elephant Ellie trumpets.

Polynesia & Return to Docks

The skippers navigate an uncharted tributary to return to the Lost Delta, passing through the river of a Polynesian isle in doing so. Painting on a wall advertises, "The Tropical Hideaway" as the sentient cockatoo Rosita sits on Jungle Navigation Company docks, singing and cracking jokes. Following this, the boats return to the delta and disembark.

Boats

• Amazon Belle
• Congo Queen
• Ganges Gal
• Hondo Hattie
• Irrawaddy Woman
• Kissimmee Kate
• Nile Princess
  • Comes equipped with a wheelchair lift.
• Orinoco Adventuress
• Suwannee Lady
• Ucayali Una
  • Comes equipped with a wheelchair lift.
• Yangtze Lotus
• Zambezi Miss

Decommissioned boats

• Magdalena Maiden
• Mekong Maiden

Overlays

Indiana Jones Summer of Hidden Mysteries

This refurbishment operated in 2008 to promote the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). Guests were given pamphlets explaining that world-renowned archaeologist Indiana Jones accidentally left artifacts from his adventures across the rivers and needed assistance in finding them. These artifacts included the crate containing the Ark of the Covenant at Kejo's rock, Dr. Henry Jones, Sr.'s umbrella on the veldt near the lost safari, Mola Ram's headdress in the possession of the Umbala Tribe, and a tablet depicting the Crystal Skull of Akator in the possession of Trader Sam.

Jingle Cruise

This was an annual overlay of the Jungle Cruise that ran until 2017. It involves Holiday decoration being scattered about the Jungle Cruise following an air-cargo mishap from the JNC.

Trivia

• There is a popular story that Walt was inspired to promote constantly changing the attractions of the Disney Parks by the Jungle Cruise. According to the story, he heard a young boy at Disneyland asking his mother if they could ride the Jungle Cruise again. The mother turned this request down as the two had already ridden the attraction. Due to this, Walt decided to constantly update the park attractions.

• There are various connections between the Jungle Cruise attraction and Jungle Cruise film.
  • In the film, connections to the ride include:
    • The sacred arrowhead was stolen by an expedition helmed by Dr. Albert Falls who is also identified as a member of the Royal Anthropological and Diverse Adventures Society.
    • Nilo Nemolato's pet cockatoo is Rosita.
    • Frank Wolff's business is the Jungle Navigation Company.
    • The Puka Michuna tribe is lead by a woman named Trader Sam who Frank makes up myths about her being a headhunting cannibal. It is unknown if her character is connected to that of Sam or Nah-mee but she does further reference the pair by being traded a top-hat by Lily Houghton

• In the attraction, connections to the film include:
  • In Disneyland, Frank and Lily's clothes are hung in the office of Alberta Falls at the boathouse. Their map to Lágrimas de Cristal is also framed on the wall and another hall has Lope de Aguirre's conquistador helmet.
  • For the film's premiere, one of Disneyland's Jungle Cruise's boats was turned into the La Quila.

Gallery

Outdated Disneyland map for the attraction