Disneyland sure is wasting no time while they're closed. It was just announced today that The Jungle Cruise, an original opening day attraction, will be the next to undergo a large refurb and update. There have been updates and changes before (let's not forget that the skippers didn't even tell jokes in the original version of the ride), but this is going to be a big one with new story elements and two new scenes.
The Jungle Cruise Skippers themselves will now be a part of the entire story, as your cruise finds evidence of another cruise that has gone awry. You'll find the Skipper and passengers as new animatronics along the way, as well as evidence of what happened to their boat (spoiler alert from the picture at the beginning of this post, it looks like chimps have taken over!).
What I love most about this change is that one of the Imagineers leading this attraction enhancement is a former Jungle Cruise skipper himself. Watch his video below, his love for the classic ride really shows and makes me feel like we're in good hands! And I don't know about all of you, but I am VERY excited for the new, wonderful, terrible, slightly funny, slightly groan-worthy jokes that will come along with this change.
We don't have a great idea yet of what current scenes on the ride will be removed to make way for the updates. Obviously, the rhino scene is just being changed. I'm wondering if the Jeep scene will be changed to the new boat scene since its the same basic idea, or if they'll choose to replace some other, maybe outdated, spots that could use a little love. Either way, I can't wait to see what they'll do! Bring on the fresh ideas while keeping the classic ideas we love!
The refurb will be happening in Walt Disney World as well. No word yet how long the ride will have to be closed there while they install the update.
