Jungle Cruise (Magic Kingdom)

Jungle Cruise
Magic Kingdom
Land	Adventureland
Opening date	October 1, 1971
Maximum speed	2.18 mph (3.5 km/h)

The Jungle Cruise is an attraction located in Adventureland of Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.

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 no longer extends 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 that skippers wave to scare away animals that get in the way and to prevent the hippos from attacking the boat.

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.

Attraction Summary

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 heavily 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.

Ride

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 eats 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 encounters a pool of hippos. They are 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.

Boats

There are 15 vehicles, with a maximum of 10 in operation at any given time.

Current

• 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

• Kwango Kate (Retired in 2000)

Trivia

• The Sankuru Sadie is so far the only boat in the Magic Kingdom's fleet ever to have sunk, which sunk in 2004.