22 Things We Learned About the Jungle Cruise Ride When Watching ‘Behind-the-Attraction’ on Disney+

The Jungle Cruise is one of the most popular attractions in Magic Kingdom.

The same goes for the attraction in Disneyland — both versions of the ride consistently have high wait times. Clearly, this ride has a LOT of fans, but even some of Disney’s BIGGEST fans might not know all the fun Jungle Cruise facts we’re about to share, courtesy of our new favorite show, Behind The Attraction, on Disney+.

We watched Behind The Attraction on Disney+ and learned SO MUCH about the history of Disney and the iconic Jungle Cruise ride. For example, to start creating the ride, Imagineers studied Bambi to appreciate animals and their unique characteristics and watched documentaries, like True Life Adventures, to learn about animals.

The African Queen was another film that inspired the ride. It is a 1951 film that takes place in East Africa during WWl. And in the recent Jungle Cruise film, released in 2021, there are actually lots of nods to The African Queen (including outfits) you won’t catch unless you’ve seen the film.

So why was Jungle Cruise created in the first place? Well, Imagineers wanted to create an experience for people who couldn’t travel the world, so Disney would bring the world to them.

Jungle Cruise was an opening day attraction in Disneyland, and even early plans for the park included a water/boat ride. Harper Goff, an American artist and musician who also contributed immensely to Disney, actually used a stick to trace out the shape of the ride.

Imagineers started building Jungle Cruise early to take advantage of an extra growing season for all the trees. They wanted to save as many trees as they could, but a colorblind bulldozer driver accidentally dozed ALL the trees, which were marked with red and green, to indicate which would stay and which would go.

So Walt went around trying to buy trees from anyone and everyone, including an area where workers were building a new interstate, and (convientely) tearing down trees!

Do you know about The Dominguez Palm? The story goes that the Canary Island date palm tree had a sweet connection to a Disney Legend named Ron Dominguez; the tree was a wedding gift to his grandparents! The Dominguez family agreed to sell their property to Disney as long as the tree would be kept. The Dominguez Palm has been moved several times before ultimately ending up in the queue line of Jungle Cruise. You can still see it today!

Some orange trees were actually planted upside down because their roots looked exotic! And did you know Walt originally wanted real animals on the ride? It was ultimately decided that sleeping animals are boring, so they went with animatronics, and movie special effects workers were recruited to make the animals on the ride!

We’ve got more! The color of the water on the ride was specially chosen to hide mechanics below the surface. There’s actually a special mixing station for the dye that turns the water green! And when the park was first open, Walt couldn’t sleep in his apartment the first night because the jungle was right behind it and was VERY loud!

When Walt rode the ride, he rode it at a record pace thanks to a nervous skipper, so they added clocks to the boats to keep time so it was a consistent show every time. Now, they use landmarks to time their spiels, and there’s an underwater track with an automated system controlling the boat.

This one may be the most surprising of all — did you know Jungle Cruise was originally designed to be serious and include official facts? It was described as dry, informational, and educational instead of silly and fun! Walt overheard a mother skipping the ride because she’d done it before, which inspired Walt to see how he could update it. Marc Davis brought humor to the ride and added funny scenes and realism to the animals.

Disney added more elephants and other elements to the ride so that there was plenty to see and discover every visit. And you know those Skippers with their witty jokes? Well, Skippers aren’t allowed to ad-lib! There’s a script, like a menu with options of jokes to use. Each Skipper uses the same jokes but with different ways of delivering them, which makes them sound different! However, if they don’t do the backside of water joke — guests will probably tell them they forgot! It’s a classic joke!

And you know how you see Trader Sam’s stand in the ride? It’s a nod to the original ride in 1955!

And our last two fun facts? Tokyo Disney’s Jungle Cruise is the first to run in a clockwise direction, and the creation of Disney’s Animal Kingdom was the large-scale realization of what Walt was envisioning for the original Jungle Cruise ride. But now, instead of one ride, there’s a whole park!

Whew! There you have it — we hope you enjoyed all the rapid-fire fun facts we learned about the Jungle Cruise! As always, stay tuned to AllEars for all the latest Disney news.

Read reviews of the Jungle Cruise to see just how beloved it is!

What’s your favorite joke to hear on Jungle Cruise? Tell us in the comments!

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