Probably the coolest part of riding the Jungle Cruise at Hong Kong Disneyland is that it is the version of the ride that is closest to the actual jungle and not actually very cool. Heat and humidity add an authenticity to the ride that could be almost a little scary. Luckily, in addition to the tongue-in-cheek cheeseball scripts that the Jungle Boat skippers use, some of the details of the ride lift the mood just enough to keep the ride light and goofy as intended.
The first thing that you’ll notice as you enter the line-up is that they have separate lines for English, Cantonese, and Mandarin which is important because taking the ride in a language you don’t understand might actually be pretty terrifying. Don’t be mistaken, though, as you hop aboard an English language boat because even with my ear for Chinese I always struggle to understand more than 70 or 80 percent of what the heavily accented skippers say. Fortunately I have most of the jokes memorized! Your mileage may vary.
The other thing that you’ll notice is that everything still seems just a little too clean. Maybe that’s on purpose or maybe that’s what the original Anaheim Jungle Cruise looked like in 1961, but I really think that the ride needs just a little more fading and grime before it can truly pay homage to the original.
Click on the bonus pictures below to enlarge.
That is very cool about the ride, I didn’t know they had separate lines for the different languages. Very cool, can’t wait to visit over there !!
My all time favorite ride! When I grow up I’m going to be the Jungle Boat Captain and now of course I have to ask-do they have the 8th Wonder of the World in Hong Kong too? Your pictures totally made me feel as though I was cruising along the Nile!
Hmmmmm. I’m drawing a blank on that. Perhaps they only have the front side of water. I’ll be on the lookout for that next time I’m there!
I wondered about the languages! Smart! Great pictures- thanks for sharing!
I love this ride!
Great post! I love that you now have a section on your site filled with Magic. It’s so interesting to read your insight into the attractions and see your fabulous photos. Thanks so much for sharing and for joining in the Disney WW Blog Hop today!!
Thanks! I’ll keep trying and now I have a place where I can put some of my more obscure and silly stuff! Thanks for hosting and visiting!
Hope to get there – one day. Thanks for the pix!
Gorgeous photos and loved learning about how the ride works in Hong Kong. Thank you for sharing 🙂
Great shots! It’s so interesting to see the parks I will likely never get to visit in person. Thanks for posting!
Thanks! There are a lot more pictures and stories from Hong Kong and Tokyo so stay tuned!
Great pictures! Thanks for sharing! It’s neat that they offer 3 different languages on this attaction.
Having grown up with the American parks I’m used to English and Spanish (Permanecer sentados por favor!) so hearing English, Cantonese, and Mandarin in Hong Kong took a little getting used to. In Tokyo earlier this month the only part of the announcements that I understood was arigato gozaimasu (Japanese for thank you very much).
How cool!! Beautiful pictures and I just love seeing the far away (from me) Disney parks. 🙂
I’m still going through all my pictures from Tokyo Disneyland and I’ll start posting them soon. I’ve already posted some pictures of the cool shuttle buses that they use to get guests from the Hotel to the monorail station. http://thelands.averagetraveller.com/tokyo-disney-resort-cruiser-shuttle-bus-photos/88/
Love your photos Ryan, they are fabulous! Tarzan’s Treehouse is particularly cool. That would be a great update to WDW’s Jungle Cruise 🙂
Suz
Welcome back! I like this whole new Disney section of your blog. This jungle cruise ride looks more open too. But, that tree house is pretty awesome.
Thanks! I think it makes sense to keep the Disney stuff over here. Otherwise Average Traveller would turn into a Disney blog that also happens to have the occasional non-Disney post! 😉
Thanks for sharing these pictures! Maybe someday I’ll get out there to see it in person, but for now I’ll have to live vicariously through other bloggers. That treehouse looks incredible!
This looks awesome! It’s so cool to me to see the little differences between the parks!
I would love to go there someday! But the language barrier does scare me a bit, but not enough to keep me away! Very cool that the weather there helps to the ride.