“Everyone turn around and wave goodbye to the folks back on the dock … they may never see you again. But then again, you probably never saw them before, either.” This is just one of the wonderfully bad jokes you’ll hear on the World Famous Jungle Cruise at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom.
I have to be honest - up until my recent trip, I had only ridden this once and thought it was a tad on the boring side. It’s a 10-minute ride through a jungle river with animatronics. The “skippers” of the boats keep you entertained with jokes throughout the ride.
That’s where my original problem with the ride happened - the jokes. I must have gotten a skipper that just wasn’t into it that day because I didn’t even chuckle once. But consistently, wait times are high for this ride and I have several clients that put it in their top 3 at Magic Kingdom!
So I decided I’d better give it another shot. I’m so glad I did! I laughed out loud many times and was truly disappointed for the ride to end. I ended up riding it several times one day and laughed each and every time. Although the skippers give the same basic speech on the tour, they ad-lib quite a bit. And yes, it’s corny but in a really fun way.
The lines do get long so I’d definitely recommend FastPass. This attraction is outdoors and the queue, while covered, can get very uncomfortable on a warm day. I wouldn’t use this one as one of your 3 pre-booked FastPasses, but as soon as you use your third one, snag one for this.
At Christmas, the attraction is transformed into the Jingle Cruise. Join the homesick skippers as they set out on a holly, jolly journey packed with shenanigans. The boathouse and beyond are decked out with merry décor that’s been mailed to the skippers or that they've created themselves. They’re even unwrapping a few holiday jokes to help everyone get in the spirit.
The murky water passengers sail through is dyed brown, dark green, or muddy blue. The coloring serves two purposes: It provides a more realistic portrayal of swampy waters, of course, but it also conceals the fact that the cruise ships are on a track in a pool that’s less than four feet deep in most areas.
Legend has it that the Jungle Cruise is what inspired Walt Disney to decide that his parks would never be complete. Walt was strolling through Disneyland when he heard a young boy asking his mom to take him on the Jungle Cruise. The mother replied something to the effect of, “No, we did that last time we were here.” Hearing that, Walt decided he had to keep changing and improving things in order to keep guests coming back.
It’s a 10-minute, 10,000-mile journey that you won't soon forget! Call me and let’s get you headed to the Jungle!! It’s always free to use my trip booking and planning services!!!