Jungle Cruise
| Jungle Cruise | |
|---|---|
Jungle Cruise at Disneyland
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| Disneyland | |
| Area | Adventureland |
| Status | Operating |
| Opening date | July 17, 1955 |
| Magic Kingdom | |
| Area | Adventureland |
| Coordinates | 33°48′41″N 117°55′12″W / 33.8114°N 117.9201°W |
| Status | Operating |
| Opening date | October 1, 1971 |
| Tokyo Disneyland | |
| Area | Adventureland |
| Status | Operating |
| Opening date | April 15, 1983 |
| Replaced by | Jungle Cruise: Wildlife Expeditions |
| Hong Kong Disneyland | |
| Area | Adventureland |
| Status | Operating |
| Opening date | September 12, 2005 |
| General statistics | |
| Type | Boat ride |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering |
| Duration | 7 minutes |
 FastPass+ available |
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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 and Shanghai Disneyland are the only Magic Kingdom-style Disney parks that do not have the Jungle Cruise in their attraction rosters.
The attraction simulates a riverboat cruise down several major rivers of Asia, Africa and South America. Park guests board replica tramp steamers from a 1930s British explorers' lodge 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 narration. This narration is based on a written and practiced script, but generally is largely delivered ad-lib.
Sources of inspiration for the attraction include a 1955 True-Life Adventure, "The African Lion," about a pride of lions, and the film The African Queen. Imagineer Harper Goff referenced the African Queen frequently in his ideas; even his designs of the ride vehicles were inspired by the steamer used in the film. 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 guests' 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 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 1,920 feet in length before being slightly shortened and re-routed in 1994.
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Wikipedia