Things got a bit soggy for guests on a Jungle Cruise excursion at the Magic Kingdom today. A guest in the park posted photos of a Jungle Cruise boat with water past the seats and guests standing on whatever they could to keep dry on on the boat.
As I write this story, I can’t recall this happening with guests on board before, but it looks like everyone handled it with calm and there were no injuries beyond some wet shoes and pants.
From the pictures this appears to be the “Bomokandi Bertha” one of the boats with a lift built in to accommodate wheelchairs and other assistive devices.
Matthew Vince reported on his twitter account that the incident occurred around noon. “We went from floating to sunk in about a minute” Vince said. “Everyone was fine and we were rescued in about 20 minutes.”
The good news is the moat the Jungle Cruise boats float around in is not all that deep. It’s about 2.0-3.0 ft deep on average. That’s why it’s kept so murky, so guests can’t see how shallow it really is.
Guests were evacuated to nearby dry land, then transferred to a second boat, which, thankfully made it back to the docks without sinking.
Do these boats come with drains or plugs? Also we’re pretty sure this isn’t a promotion for the upcoming Jungle Cruise movie starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Emily Blunt, but who knows! We do wonder if the Jungle Cruise Skipper kept telling jokes as the boat sank into the water. Is that part of the spiel or just something you wonder about when you’re at home thinking of possible jokes for all situations!
Updates Below
Update: It does look like a Jungle Cruise boat sank in 2004. It was returned to service a few days later.
Update 2: We reached out to Disney for comment and were told they immediately engaged the Reedy Creek Fire Department to respond to the event and everyone was evacuated from the boat safely.
A Disney spokesperson said they worked with guests individually so they could enjoy the rest of the day in the parks. In the past during similar incidents this means replacement clothing, a fastpass or two, and a few other amenities.
Considering there were no injuries, this seems fair to us. Just think of the story you have to tell when you get home.
The attraction reopened later in the afternoon and was greeting guests with the usual dry wit and sunny humor the Jungle Cruise is known for.
A big thanks to Matthew Vince for giving us permission to use his photos on The Disney Blog. We’re sure this is a vacation he will never forget.
What is the strangest thing to ever happen to you at a Disney theme park?
Related: Disney’s Jungle Cruise movie official trailer released.
I’ve got a sinking feeling about this
I hope they get to the bottom of tnis
What y’all talking aboat?
I went with friends yesterday and we went to getting on the ride about 1:00 when we were turned away before the gate by Disney employees. We were told “The ride is Closed due to Raging Hippos!”.
My nieve girlfriend turned to me and said ” they have real animals in there?!
“Nope, they have real raging mechanical hippos” was my reply.
Strangest thing to happen to me at Disney was at Florida Hollywood Studios. Tower of Terror was getting close to shutting down for the night and I was the only one on the ride vehicle. It was a little scary, especially when the vehicle didn’t move for a while at the end and I thought I was going to be stuck there all night… by myself… in the Tower of Terror!
In 1959 on Grad Night the passengers got a little too in to it and capsized a boat trying to get away from that charging Hippo
My family got stuck on Splash Mountain and had to be rescued. This was Thanksgiving week of last year. Then went to Thunder Mtn got on and secured them that ride broke down and we had to get off. Also got in line and ready to get on Pirates and it shut down. Sadly this happen within an hour and was during magic hours.
My family and I were on splash mountain at the same exact time. Thanksgiving week of last year. Guess we were stuck on it the same time you were.That’s crazy!!!
Boy you did have bad luck. Our family was there that same week and didn’t have any issues!!!
I guess that skipper is all washed up.
The underside of water!
Well that sinks, I mean stinks. LOL!!
I had to once follow the yellow brick road on foot on the Great Movie Ride. And walk about half of the Wed-way once too.
Brace yourselves, folks. We’ll be making a water landing.
If you can’t swim, folks, just stand up and walk to shore.
For my high school graduation present, Mom tookme and my sister to Disneyland. We were 17. The ghoul from the haunted mansion ride rode on the outside of our doombuggy the entire ride. He kept asking us out and telling us when his shift was over. A few years later at disney world, on spring break from college,my sister got groped by an over zealous Goofy. Today he would be in jail, but back then he just ran away
What year was that??? Goofy scared the crap out of my son which was 4 at the time!!! And to this day my son which is 32 now still does not like Goofy?
”The attraction has already reopened and is serving guests with the usual dry wit and sunny humor”
Well…not DRY wit….
I’m glad someone noticed that :)
Just last night we were “evacuated” from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. The ride just stopped and the boats just kind of piled up. It was about a 30 minute ordeal without much incident. The staff handled it well on the inside of the ride ensuring that the guests got off the boat safely.
Did the guests get any of their $140 a day admission back?
NO REFUNDS, NEVER EVER
The natives finally got one!
That’s what they get for not shooting the charging hippos!!
When we were teens we got stuck in
H E double hockey sticks in Mr Toads Wild Ride. We had to walk out & let me just say it was rather warm in there.??
oh buoy, what a ferrytale ending.
I got on the Indiana Jones ride with my kids at Disneyland in Anaheim. This was years ago when they were still teenagers. We were directly in front of the big boulder that looks like it’s going to roll down on you, then suddenly the ride froze! I thought it was part of the act just to scare us. But then they turned on all the lights and had us evacuate. We had to walk our way out through the whole ride with the lights on so we could see, but that ruined all the fun because their props looked so fake in the light! Bummer! They didn’t do anything to compensate us! There was no Fast Pass back then!
When I was in high school, a friend and I got stuck on Pirates of the Carribean for about an hour. It never stopped completely but was running extremely slowly. It was interesting because we got a really good look at all of the items surrounding us and saw things we never noticed on previous trips through the ride. Years later, I was on the Alice in Wonderland ride with one of my kids. It stopped completely and after a little while, a cast member led us out through the “backstage” area and through a door that led back into the park. Also interesting. Another time, the Skyway was having problems and they eventually shut it down for a little while until it was repaired a short time later. But those are the only unusual incidents I ever saw in all of the many times I visited Disneyland while we lived in California.
I have done a walk-off from the top of Grizzly River Run ( after they drained all the water out of the ride ) Also, I have ridden Star Tours solo with no other people in the ride, after someone got sick right before my turn and they missed me waiting on the side, so the cast member put me through alone.
In 1958 my sisters and I got stuck by the honking flower in the Alice in Wonderland ride in Disneyland. When it was fixed we waved at our parents and got to ride around again without using a coupon. I think it was a “C” ride. ??
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