Fun Facts

See Adventureland from space.

There are other hidden characters here
Each of the scenes in the Jungle Cruise attraction is taken from the True-Life Adventure Film Series that Walt Disney produced in the early 1960's.
There are two islands on the Jungle Cruise nicknamed "Catalina" and "Manhattan".
REPORTED: DrGallegos 20 OCT 97
The unofficial mascot of the Jungle Cruise is "Trader Sam".
REPORTED: DrGallegos 20 OCT 97
CONFIRMED: anon 09 FEB 98
It appears that Trader Sam has been removed from the Jungle Cruise. I was there last Saturday, and he was definitely not.
UPDATE: Russell 23 JUL 00
The band performs on the small stage across from Pirates unlike Disneyland where they play on the second floor.
The second floor of the Jungle queue building was designed simply to make the building look bigger and is used for minimal storage. No one goes upstairs unlike at Disneyland.
In the new Jungle cruise fastpass area, there are several inside jokes. The machines are made to look like crates. One is addressed to "Trader Sam's Cranial Curios, London, England", and one is addressed to Evans Exotic Plants, Anehiem, CA". Several of the items in the storage cage are addressed to various characters at the Explorers' Club (at Pleasure Island).
REPORTED: Safari Steve: Jungle Skipper 20 DEC 99
The "live cargo holding area" has a sign mentioning an animal trainer named Wathel (this is Wathel Rogers, the Imagineer best known from a tombstone at the Haunted Mansion {who rode to glory on a fender}).
REPORTED: Safari Steve: Jungle Skipper 20 DEC 99
My sister said that at one time, Chevy Chase and Steve Martin were both skippers for the Jungle Cruise. Some of those guests must have had a pretty entertaining show. . . especially since Jungle Cruise is the only ride where cast members ad lib it.
REPORTED: Paige Rossetti 11 SEP 97
It was actually Robin Williams and Steve Martin who were past skippers.... Long before they were famous. This fact is included in the training material a new skipper recieves upon arival to the Jungle. It's also noteworthy to mention that Michael Fay, the kid "cainned" in Singapore for vandalism, was a skipper briefly. I worked with him.
UPDATED: Dave 16 SEP 97
CONFIRMED: anon 09 FEB 98
Steve Martin was never a Disneyland skipper. I was under this assumption until I met Steve Martin and asked him and he set me straight. Disappointing because I thought I was following in his footsteps.
UPDATE: anon 03 AUG 99
Walt Disney wanted the Jungle Cruise to have real animals but was not able to figure out how to implement it.
REPORTED: Adrian Ofman 06 AUG 97
CONFIRMED: anon 09 FEB 98
When you first start out there are two water falls at the second falls there is a stone covered in a vine or moss like material just when you pass the stone and you look at it it looks like a cursive Disney D my wife saw this too and we rode the ride twice to make sure it was there.
REPORTED: James 11 JUN 00
For anyone who may have been on the Jungle Cruise the Summer of 2001, you may remember the very dramatic Skipper Kenny and his pet snake Fluffy. Well, Kenny has left, but Fluffy is alive and well! Fluffy has sinced moved back into the temple with the rest of the cobras. The discerning eye can find Fluffy wraped around a vase in the back left corner of the Monkey God/ Cobra scene in the temple. Be sure to waive HI as you pass!
REPORTED: Skipper B 17 AUG 01
Actually, Fluffy is being move around by those zany Skippers. You never can tell just where she might be found next. In what has seem to become a hip game amongst skippers, Fluffy is regularly moved around the Jungle, to keep both keen guests and fun-loving skippers on their toes. Last week, Fluffy was spotted on a rock in the elephant pool near squeeze play. I believe now he is just at the exit to the temple. Keep in mind, Fluffy is never garunteed to be anywhere for very long.
UPDATE: anon B 10 SEP 01
Fluffy is in the little stone grotto just after the Gorilla Camp.
CONFIRMED: Skipper B 21 JAN 02
At the native uprising when the headhunters attack, you'll hear them say "oookalaoalak! Ookalokaloka!" Then one shouts very distinctly "I love disco!"
REPORTED: anon 10 NOV 99
Those swingin' natives and their disco music... Oh well... Btw, the first words uttered during the native ambush are "Shaka-la-la-la-la, Shaka-la-la-la-la!"
CONFIRMED: Safari Steve: Jungle Skipper 17 NOV 99
At the end of the ride, there are crates stacked to the boat's starboard side. One has the name "Emmer Imports" painted on it. Greg Emmer took over as Vice President of the Magic Kingdom after Bill Sullivan retired. (Pardon me if the job title is not exactly correct).
REPORTED: stuart bowers 13 MAR 95
CONFIRMED: Dan Amrich 24 SEP 95
CONFIRMED: Deborah Peters 24 FEB 97
CONFIRMED: Freddy Zanfardino 18 JUL 97
CONFIRMED: anon 09 FEB 98
CONFIRMED: Tom and Renée Shaw 27 FEB 99
Aren't those wacky, off the cuff Boat Drivers great!.... It's a script folks.
REPORTED: Michael Littell 04 OCT 95
Those crazy skippers are wonderful on the Jungle Cruise! All the bad jokes come from the script, I guarantee! MAM - jungle skipper extraordinare!
CONFIRMED: Molly Ann Murdock 21 DEC 96
Just a quick note from a current Jungle Cruise skipper. Although you are correct in stating that there is a "Jungle Cruise Script"; the day any one of us actually uses it, is the day The Jungle dies. The only time you might hear us do a "Standard Operating Procedure" (SOP) spiel, is when a supervisor is on our boat!!
UPDATE: anon 21 FEB 97
The Jungle Cruise does have a standard spiel with several variations, which was prepared by the imagineers. Most skippers typically create their own as they learn. My spiel changes all the time. It depends on many factors. (i.e. crew makeup, weather, time of day). I was trained and learned the SOP spiel about 1 year ago and use only 3 lines from it now. There is also a rumor of the Jungle Cruise closing when the Animal Kingdom opens. Its only a rumor. We are going to have a facelift real soon, starting with new boats in about 6 months. The boats are going to look like the Disneyland JC boats. For a great cruise, go to the "dock box" located near the unload area and ask if Skipper Jeff or Skipper "Chicken Mike" or Skipper Mark or Skipper Carley or Skipper Zack or Skipper Dawn or Skipper Andrew are there. Then, when you get to the front or the line ask to ride one of their boats. Have two or three picked out in advance, cause they aren't always in a boat. BTW there are about 40 skippers that work there. More than any other attraction in all of Disney World.
UPDATE: ChiefNamme 19 MAY 97
CONFIRMED: anon 09 FEB 98
The spiel is now strictly SOP. There are many new skippers. All the ones mentioned here on the web page do not work there any more, except Nathen, so there is no one to teach the the non SOP spiel.
UPDATE: anon 27 MAY 99
SOP offers several different variations on the same speil. This is to make sure that every guest gets a consistent experience. We are allowed to change a few words or phrases every now and then, but many skippers follow SOP all of the time.
UPDATE: anon 02 JUL 99
Yes, all skippers are taught the standard spiel. Only the ones that have been there for a short while actually use it... There are a few that have been working there for a few years (on and off) that still pretty much do their own thing. This JC Update has been brought to you by air... yes, air... it's everywhere you want to be.
UPDATE: anon 22 AUG 99
The temple hidden Mickey made of plates, as well as the Gorilla Camp pots & pans is always changing. Because they were placed by ambitious Skippers and are not "official" they are sometimes removed by management and/or other skippers. Soon after they are discovered missing (usually within a week) one brave soul or another will replace the three circles. This constant tug o' war accounts for discrepencies in position and existence. Personally, I think that any hidden Mickey the cast can make without defacing company property is a good one.
CONFIRMED: anon 05 OCT 99
Right next to the Hidden Mickey that is now virtually impossible to see from the boat at the right side of Inspiration Falls is a semi-hidden set of stairs leading up to above the falls (which is mush easier to see than the Mickey).
REPORTED: anon 12 SEP 01
The Disneyland boats run on a guide rail. The Disney World boats run in a concrete trough. It's better from a skipper's point of view to work at Disneyland. The boats derail there, (causing the ride to shut down) but the boats at Disney World rarely break down.
REPORTED: Jungle Cruise Skipper Nathan N 30 OCT 98
Sure the boats are harder to derail (ok, impossible) but that doesn't mean they don't break down. Take it from an old skipper, there are numerous ways to burn an engine out and make the ride go down. A break down is very rarely unintentional. Also, the spiel is unfortunatly almost always straight SOP. Management did a good job of cleaning out non-SOPers. But, fortunatly, there are some great skippers out there who will always make their own jokes, and may God bless them.
CONFIRMED: anon 21 OCT 00
At Disney World the skippers on the jungle Cruise used to partake in an activity known as Temple diving, this is were the skippers run behind the scenes and climb up onto the top of the temple and wait for unsuspecting boat to come along and then they would dive bomb onto the roof of the boat, scaring all passagers and the skipper on board. Then once in side the temple they would jump off the roof and exit through the emergency exit located inside the temple.This doesnt take place any more though due to changing to the new boats and the lack off space on the roof to land on.
REPORTED: Damian 03 MAY 01
The road seen from the Jungle Cruise leads from the West Parking Garage (which is behind the Car Barn, Fire Station, City Hall, and Bank) out towards the railroad tracks. There it branches into two seperate roads one which leads to the Carribbean Plaza and another which leads to the Production Center behind the Pirates of the Carribbean. When the road branches - one part goes over the railroad tracks or is on the same elevation and one road goes under the tracks. Both of these roads are visable from the Railroad from Main Street to Frontierland. This road is called Caribbean Way and it continues from the Production Center up behind Splash Mountain and to Floridian Way.
REPORTED: Kenneth Klingensmith 30 DEC 96
CONFIRMED: anon 09 FEB 98
Cast Member, Levi, placed the Hidden Mickey made up of the three gold plates.
REPORTED: Tom and Renée Shaw 28 DEC 97
CONFIRMED: anon 09 FEB 98
Jungle Cruise and Mansion's cast make their own hidden Mickey's just ask.
CONFIRMED: anon 12 JUN 98
I encountered several spiel variations, the best being Skipper Carley's (a guy), Skipper Lisa's, Skipper Dave's, Skipper Luciano's, Skipper Nathen's.
REPORTED: anon 09 FEB 98
Jungle cruise and Mansion's cast make their own hidden Mickey's just ask.
CONFIRMED: anon 12 JUN 98
Near the end of the Jungle Cruise there is a head hunter who is named "Trader Sam." Well, as I've been told by a former Jungle Cruise cast member, the head hunter is actually as we may say, "anatomically correct!" Anyone know about this?
REPORTED: anon 06 NOV 98
If you fall into the water at the Jungle Cruise, it is reccommended that you receive a tetanus shot. This is simply a safety precaution because of all of the fertilizers and pesticides used near the water of the "Rivers of the World"(mostly because the ROTW are self contained and do not get changed often). The Rivers of America, however, are connected via canal to the Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake. Guests can swim in the water at Bay Lake, so a shot is probably not necessary if one falls into the Rivers of America. Also, the only time a shot is required for falling into the Jungle Cruise water is if your head goes all the way under, Known to Skippers as "full submersion".
REPORTED: Safari Steve: Jungle Skipper 06 NOV 99
The Magic Kingdom Jungle Cruise Boat names are:
1. Wamba Wanda
2. Orinoco Ida
3. Nile Nellie
4. Mongala Millie
5. Irawaddy Irma
6. Bomokandi Bertha
7. Zambezi Zelda
8. Volta Val
9. Senegal Sal
10. Amazon Annie
11. Sankuru Sadie
12. Congo Connie
13. Ganges Gertie
14. Kwango Kate
15. Ucyali Lolly
The first two boats to be replaced with new boats of the same name were the Bomokandi Bertha and the Zambezi Zelda.
REPORTED: Safari Steve: Jungle Skipper 30 OCT 99
Since the Jungle received new boats, there is no longer a Kate. They ran out of money in the budget. And rare is the day that you will see the Zelda (constantly broken) or the Bertha (the wheelchair boat) churning the waters. A fun side note, the boats at Shrunken Ned's were designed for BOTH the old and new boats, so only minor changes would be needed for the changeover (the front bumper).
UPDATE: Skipper B 17 AUG 01
There was a reference to the Jungle Cruise in the movie "Tarzan". When the gorillas begin shoving Clayton around and inspecting his personal belongings, one of them grabs his shotgun and sits back, peering into the barrels, exactly like the gorilla at the ransacked camp on the ride.
REPORTED: Kellee Richards 04 SEP 00

Jungle Cruise

Facts	Figure
Ride Type	Guide Trough Motorized Boats
Designer	WED
Year	October 1971
Ride Time	about 10 minutes (varies)
Cycle Time	11 min 35 sec
Dispatch Time	58 sec
Speed	slow
Engines	Old boats- Chevy Chevette 4 cyl 60 hp. New Boats- Mazda 6 cyl
Length	2,000 feet
Depth	Typical - 3.5-4 ft. Hippo pool - 6.5 ft. Guide trough - 6 ft
Water Capacity	1,750,000 gallons of water. takes 14-24 hours to fill
Guest Capacity	31 guests per old boat, 1,650 guests per hour (10 boat operation)

Where to next?

Go on to Fun Facts of Pirates of the Caribbean,
Go back to the Fun Facts of the Magic Kingdom,
Go back to the Spacecoast Hidden Mickeys Home Page,
Submit a new or confirm a Hidden Mickey or secret located at Walt Disney World,
or just send me EMail.