Jungle Cruise Stars are the Skippers

[MrPeetrie]

The Jungle Cruise is one of our favorite attractions in the Magic Kingdom. My DD8 LOVES the ride. It's a must-see attraction for us each trip. But the ride itself is not the star. It's the Skippers and their witty puns and bad jokes. So I got to thinking: was that always the case?

When the ride was first developed, were the skippers intended to be the star of the Jungle Cruise? Or, have they "morphed" into the lead role because technology has passed up the ride? Just curious.

[Fangorn]

The original Jungle Cruise had a pre-recorded spiel with some of the same jokes as today. There was a problem though. Since the boats are free floating (although in a channel) keeping the soundtrack synced to the boat's location was problematic. The technology to sync a moving vehicle and the soundtrack didn't exist in 1955. The show loses something when the recording is talking about something that you passed 30 seconds ago. Hence the move to having the "skippers" do the spiel.

You can still find the original spiel around on the Internet. Listening to it is interesting, as you can tell where some of today's jokes originated. For instance, "the backside of water" is not in the orignial recording, and Schwitzer Falls is noted as being named for that famous explorer Dr. Albert Schwitzer, not Dr. Albert Falls.

Steve

[#1donaldfan]

I love the jungle cruise.....just for the bad jokes....love it at night the most !! :cool:

[ransam]

soneone told me that Robin Wiliams when he first started out was a tour guide on the jungle cruise but got removed because his rides were way too long w/ all his jokes.

[DVC2004]

Love it- so fun! We have to ride this each trip. My older son is destined to be a jungle cruise skipper some day. He knows the material and told one of the skippers the jokes - she started to hand over the PA/Mic to him. No, we said, you' ll never get it back from him. A fun memory for us and a must do attraction each trip.

[Fangorn]

My older son is destined to be a jungle cruise skipper some day.

You ARE familiar with Weird Al's "Skipper Dan", right?

:mickey:

Steve