Someone has to know...

[MickeysEars]

So, the river at Animal Kingdom has line cues but ever since our first trip in 2000 there has never been a boat ride or anything like that. Today we caugt an episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch on ABC Family. We were supposing that they tapped an episode the year the park opened to help promote the new park. Anyhow, they mentioned that they were going on the River Boat Ride, and then showed them getting OFF the River Boats. (there is a question here...) So why is there no river boat ride when there clearly are cues for the river?
Anyone know?

[BronxTigger]

I think this was discontinued. That's all I know...sorry.

[FormerCastMember]

i maybe able to shed some light on the situation and please feel free to add or correct any details that i am providing...my family and i were visiting WDW in 1998 and were invited to participate in the soft opening of Disney's Animal Kingdom

So of course we did and enjoyed every minute of it...and if my memory serves me correctly..and it usually does when it comes to WDW the river running throughout the park and around the Tree of Life was a ride at one point in time, because i remember riding it.

Again this is if memory serves me right, but i do remember that at the end of CTX (Countdown to Extinction), now known as Dinosaur we were instructed or it was suggested that we ride the river boats to see the Iguanadon that we had brought back with us in the Time Rover.

I distinctly remember a quiet lazy river type attraction similar to the Jungle Cruise but near the end of the ride there was an AA of a dinosaur playing in the river.

Oh and another thing with regards to this river...there have been rumors that on the bridge in Camp Minnie-Mickey you can see a cave...and rumor has it that the cave is home to a dragon and at certain intervals you can see eyes and flames shoot out of the cave...and this is supposed to be a reference to the infamous "Beastly Kingdom" aspect that was replaced by Camp Minnie-Mickey

[Clotho]

"Radio Disney River Cruise aka Discovery River Taxi aka Discovery RiverBoat Ride aka Discovery River Boats were short-lived at Animal Kingdom. In fact, they were the first attraction, if you could call it that, to be closed.

Discovery River Boats Loading Zone When the park intially opened, the River Boats provided a short cruise through the waterways of Animal Kingdom. I had heard that once Asia opened, the boats would be a means of transportation from one part of the park to the other (similar to the boats in Epcot's World Showcase). I thought this was a super idea and wonder why it never happened..."

[DizneyRox]

The wait times were just too long for what you got. I heard it was supposed to be transportation, a ride, etc. Fact is, it was lame and the excessive wait times just served to irritate guests. Many would complain to guest relations (at which point the line for guest relations were probably as long at the river boats).

There were several "attractions" along the way. The Dinosaur was in the area around Dinoland. I don't think you can see the area the dino was in from anywhere right now. There used to be a fire breating dragon in a cave, that can be seen from the bridge over to Camp Minnie Mickey. Around Africa, the gysers used to erupt as well. I haven't seen anything happening over there.

If you take the insane wait times out of the mix, it wasn't really all that bad.

[faline]

I remember going on this ride on one occasion. It didn't operate very long before it was shut down. The ride was pleasant.

[BMan62]

The boat still makes the rounds, though. In February, when DW and I were down, we were crossing the bridge from EE to FN:TM and the boat was coming down the river with Mickey and Minnie and, if I remember correctly, Pluto on it.

[Ian]

The boat still makes the rounds, though. In February, when DW and I were down, we were crossing the bridge from EE to FN:TM and the boat was coming down the river with Mickey and Minnie and, if I remember correctly, Pluto on it.I was just going to post the same thing ... we saw the boat when we were down in May.

I was actually surprised, because I didn't think they ran anymore.

[jkj1224]

The riverboats were discontinued not long after the park opened because the lines were very long and the ride although cute did not hold the attention of guests, I remember they stopped it and tried to bring it back a couple of times but eventually decided it wasn't worth it. They use the line as a character meet n greet now, and the boat itself as an entertainment barge for mickey and friends to cruise by.