Jungle Cruise

**The** **Jungle Cruise** is a classic Disney Parks attraction, consistently located in Adventureland. The attraction and its spin-offs have various connections to the *Tower of Terror* though follows a much different tone; focusing on campiness, self-referential humour and glamorizations of racism and colonialism.

## History

### Backstory

The *Jungle Navigation Company* was a British colonial transport company founded in 1911 by wealthy British colonial explorer, Dr. Albert Falls. The company largely operated out of the, "Rivers of Adventure", a mystic waterway which connects jungle rivers across the globe and that Falls charted in 1891 and which skipper Frank Wolff later charted following 1916. Following Falls' mysterious disappearance in 1928, the JNC was inherited by his granddaughter, Alberta Falls who in 1931 founded, "Jungle Cruise" tours to combat the Great Depression. Under Alberta's reign, the colonial enterprise expanded while also being infamous for corruption, negligence, incompetence and massive casualties.

The attraction itself takes place in 1938, during the time of a V.I.P. Jungle Navigation Company riverboat tour having gone missing on the Rivers of Adventure. Guests represent tourists recruiting the Jungle Navigation Company's tourism services where they encounter wild animals, dangerous waters, flooded ruins of the Khmer empire, the lost safari, missing Jungle Navigation Company boats, and thieving company employee, "Trader Sam".

## Tower of Terror connections

### Tower of Terror

Many Jungle Cruise attractions and spin-offs have connections to the lore of Tower of Terror, partly as characters Dr. Kon Chonosuke and Dr. Albert Falls were both members of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers, the same colonial secret-society as Harrison Hightower III.

#### Jungle Cruise

Crates for, "Hightower Industries" can be found in the Jungle Navigation Company's river bases in the American parks. These were added during a 2021 refurbishment. On the Global Broadcasting Service, the announcer, "Skipper Missy" brings up tours of the Hotel Hightower. A mural in the Hotel Hightower features an Easter Island chieftain, seemingly visually inspired by the Jungle Cruise's Chief Nah-mee. There is a souvenir banner from the *S.S. Columbia* hung in the Jungle Cruise's Amazon rainforest base, over the door for their, "Banana Troop" members.

#### Skipper Canteen

In the menus are *Shiriki Noodle Salad*, described as having been served at the Hotel Hightower the night Hightower went missing. A certificate from the August 19 of 1921 is for Dr. Albert Falls', " *Hightower Spirit of Adventure Award*", signed by Captain Mary Oceaneer. Various books in the canteen library are written by Harrison Hightower III including, "*MINE!*", "*Treasures of the Animal Kingdom*" and, "*Everest Expedition: Search for the Yeti*", the latter of which connects Tower of Terror to the story of *Expedition Everest* in tribute to their shared connection to imagineer Joe Rohde.

#### Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar

In Trader Sam's Polynesian bar is a portrait of his alleged grandfather, Billamongawonga AKA, "Trader Bill". With the portrait is a letter from the November 6 of 1912, sent to Sam by Vanessa Capshaw of the *New York City Preservation Society* who identify having recovered the portrait from the Hotel Hightower due to Bill having been the, "Right hand man" of Harrison Hightower III.

#### Tropical Hideaway

On a wall outside of the Enchanted Tiki Room is a wall of oars belonging to the Society of Explorers and Adventurers. One of these oars has a plaque which reads, "*H. Hightower, Yangtze River, 1872*".

### Other connections

#### Expedition Everest

A post-card to Alberta Falls from Captain Mary Oceaneer mentions her sending members of S.E.A. to the Forbidden Mountain and Anandapur on an expedition to locate Dr. Albert Falls. As previously stated, the Skipper Canteen contains a book by Harrison Hightower III titled *Everest Expedition: Search for the Yeti* and a book called *Scaling the Matterhorn* which references Expedition Everest's inspiration, Matterhorn Bobsleds. Over the aforementioned Banana Troop door, there is a souvenir banner for *Anandapur*.

#### Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: BREAKOUT!

The Skipper Canteen also contains a book by Star Lord who appears in *Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: BREAKOUT!* which replaced the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror in Disney California Adventure. The canteen also has a book written by L.C. Clench from *ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter* who has a signed invoice to the Collector in the fortress, multiple books written by Professor Tom Morrow from *Rocket to the Moon* whose severed robotic head is in the Collector's possession, and mention of the canteen being attended by Figment from *Journey Into Imagination* who appears in a tank as part of the Tivan Collection.

#### Haunted Mansion

In the Jungle Navigation Company's Amazon River Base is a vial labelled, "*Prof. Plump's Miracle Tonic for Everlasting Life*", seemingly referencing the Hitchhiking Ghost Phineas who is often identified as a snake-oil salesman named Prof. Phineas Plump. The Goliath spiders in Shir Lee's Temple also used to appear in the Haunted Mansion and a member of the lost safari shared his face mould with the mansion's caretaker, resulting in skippers sometimes identifying them as distant cousins.

Two books in the library allude to the Haunted Mansion. These books are *Ghosts of New Orleans* by Scholtz while the other is, *Tales of the Supernatural* by Gracey with the latter of the two referencing Master Gracey and the Gracey family.

#### Magic of Disney Animation

In Minnie Mouse's dressing room was the poster for a fictional Disney film titled, "The Jungle Cruise". This film starred Mickey and Minnie Mouse alongside skippers of the Jungle Navigation Company and Trader Sam while also crediting the Jungle Navigation Company as helping them shoot in Zanzibar and Calcutta. The fictional Jungle Cruise film was also referenced as premiering in the Theatre of the Stars, a location on Sunset Boulevard in *Disney's Hollywood Studios*.

## Trivia

* Both the Jungle Cruise and the backstory for the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror are set in the late 1930s.
* Songs by Duke Ellington play in the queue. Other historic figures shared between properties include: Walt Disney, Shirley Temple Black, and Theodore Roosevelt. The Congo Basin, Hollywood and New York City are all real-world locations shared between properties.
* One of the characters in the Jungle Cruise is named Rosa Soto Dominguez as a partial tribute to the Dominguez family that owned the property which became Disneyland. Incidentally, there is a, "Mr. Dominguez" referenced as running the Los Filez Five & Dime on Buena Vista Street.

## External links

* *Jungle Cruise (attraction)* on the Jungle Cruise wiki

## References

1. ↑ http://ksean.com/blog/tower-of-terror-easter-island-mural/
2. ↑ https://allears.net/2023/08/23/25-things-you-didnt-know-about-jungle-cruise-in-disney-world/
3. ↑ https://disneylandmaps.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/vol-1-iss-4.pdf