At Disney’s Magic Kingdom park, guests can embark on an exotic river adventure, passing through some of the world’s best known tropical waterways, where animatronic elephants, lions, hostile natives, and a menacing hippo await your arrival.

The famous Jungle Cruise attraction was one of the first rides to be added to the park back in 1971 and will be celebrating its 50th birthday in 2021! This ride however is actually much older, as it first opened at Disneyland California in 1955 and is also located at four Disney theme parks around the world.

Jungle Cruise has transformed over the years and since 2013 it has been given a magical makeover every Christmas season.

Tis’ the Season for Jingle Cruise

With a Christmas makeover, comes a Christmas name! Jingle Cruise is wonderful ride to get you in the festive spirit, as well as bringing some holiday cheer to the skippers who work on the boats and can get homesick during the holidays.

The festivities begin as soon as you enter the queue at the colonial outpost, with old fashioned Christmas decorations from the 1930s and lots of little details to look out for, keeping guests entertained whilst waiting to board a boat. You’ll also hear some Christmas music from the jazz era, which all ties in with the overall theme of the Jungle Cruise attraction.

During the Christmas season all of the boats are given a festive name too, including names such as "Jingle Belle” and "Kissimmee Under the Mistletoe". You can look out for these when in the queue.

Guests are welcomed onto the boats by the skippers, who like to tell jokes throughout the journey. For the Christmas season they wear their Christmas hats and swap their jokes for corny festive jokes, keeping it fun for the whole family.

Each of the jungle scenes you cruise past have also been transformed for the Christmas season, featuring Christmas trees, Santa hats, and lots of lights! The changing scenery will get you into the Christmas spirit and as you approach each one look out for how merry (or silly) they have become with the festivities.

The History of Jungle Cruise

Did you know that Jungle Cruise wasn’t always funny? When the ride first opened at Disneyland California in 1955, Jungle Cruise skippers educated guests, rather than entertained. Over the years however, skippers grew bored of the standard script and started to adapt it, finding that guests liked a joke or two included in the journey.

Walt’s original plan for the ride was to use live animals too, although the imagineers talked him out of the idea, as they realised that the animals would likely sleep during the day.

Imagineers then not only had the task of creating animatronic animals, but also creating a convincing jungle on a limited budget. They imported tropical plants, which were carefully selected for the attraction, and placed these among “character plants”.

Jungle Cruise Film

In line with the ride’s 50th anniversary, a Jungle Cruise film is also set to be released next year, which was inspired by the theme park attraction. The film will star Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt, following them on a riverboat journey through a jungle filled with dangerous animals and reptiles, but with a supernatural element.

Jungle Cruise is a wonderful Walt Disney World ride not to be missed throughout the whole year. What do you prefer? Jungle or Jingle?