Here is an article on what was originally planned for the Discovery River Boats
Okay. Quick show of hands. How many of you read that
great story that Mark Goldhaber wrote for MousePlanet last Wednesday? You know, the one where Mark interview former Imagineer Paul Torrigino about "Dragon Tower"? Where Paul revealed all this truly cool information about what Beastly Kingdom (AKA Disney's Animal Kingdom's oft-postponed expansion area. Which has -- over the years -- become the stuff of legends in Disneyana circles) 's signature attraction would have been like?
Well, as I was reading Mr. Goldhaber's most-excellent story, it got me thinking about DAK's early, early days. Back when this much maligned theme park actually had a "Coming Attraction" (of sorts) for "Dragon Tower." When guests who rode the Discovery River Ride had a far-too-close close encounter with a fire-breathing something-or-other. Which (not-so-co-incidentally) was located right at the water's edge in the part of the theme park where WDI eventually hoped to build Beastly Kingdom.
What's that you say? You don't remember DAK's Discovery River Ride attraction? These large, open air, 62 passenger vessels (similar to the "Friendships" launches that regularly cruise across Epcot's World Showcase lagoon) departed every ten minutes and took WDW guests on a leisurely cruise halfway around Discovery Island? Nowadays, most people don't recall this DAK attraction because the Discovery River boat ride -- in its original form, anyway -- only ran for the first six months that this theme park was open.
And why was that, kids? Well, this (sadly) was one of those moments where the Mouse promised a whole lot more than he could actually deliver. I mean, look at this description of the Discovery River ride from Aniaml Kingdom's pre-opening literature. It said that this DAK attraction would give WDW visitors .
"...a preview of the fascinating lands of Disney's Animal Kingdom. You'll depart from Safari Village and cruise past the foreboding Dragon Rocks, where fearsome bellows and gusts of real fire emanate from a rocky lair. Farther upriver, as steaming geysers erupt right beside your boat, you'll get a waterside view of Harambe just before you exit at Upcountry Landing near Africa. You may also depart from Upcountry Landing to complete your tour of Discovery River. You'll pass the shores of Asia, an exciting new land opening in early 1999. Then sail around giant animal sculptures that rise from the depths to spout water through the air. Be careful when you cruise by DinoLand, U.S.A. - you just may startle a 35-foot dinosaur feeding in the river!"
Now doesn't that sound like a fun ride? The problem is that - due to last minute budget cuts (not to mention creative compromises) - the Discovery River boat ride never quite delivered on most of the thrills that we promised here.
Take - for example - the very thing that I actually started today's article to talk about: Dragon Rocks. As originally designed, this section of the Discovery River boat ride was supposed to be sort of a teaser for the hopefully-soon-to-be-built Beastly Kingdom. And what better way would there be to get DAK visitors excited about someday getting the chance to see mythological creatures than to give an up-close encounter with a fire breathing dragon?
According to the Imagineers' initial plans for this area of the attraction, the sequence was supposed to play out something like this: After passing under the Oasis bridge, guests on board the Discovery River boat would have spied a rough rock cave right at the water's edge. Out in the river, ringing the mouth of the cave, there would have been this series of jousting lances sticking up out of the mud. Spiked on top of each of these lances would be the battered armor of some unfortunate knight who had battled the dragon and lost.
Anyway... Had WDI gotten all the money that they needed to do this particular piece of the Discovery River ride right, the sequence would have continued along these lines: As your boat slowly moved by the cave's mouth, a ferocious growl would have echoed out of the darkness. Then - as all of the tourists on board suddenly turned their attention toward the river bank -- the long neck and enormous head of a fire breathing dragon would come craning out of the cavern.
The repulsive reptile would have evilly eyeballed your vessel 'til the boat made it into the safety zone. Whereupon - after throwing open its mouth -- this nasty looking beast would have sent a huge plume of fire out across the water (supposedly meant to scorch all you folks riding in the boat) before retreating back into its cave .. To await the next boatload of Discovery River passengers that passed its way.
Sounds pretty cool, doesn't it? The best part is: WDI thought that it had come up with a pretty affordable way to pull off DAK's dragon effect. They were just going to re-use the molds that Imagineer Terri Hardin had created for Disneyland Paris' dragon (You know? That enormous Audio Animatromic figure that "sleeps" in La Taniere du Dragon under DLP's Le Chateau de la Belle au Bois Dormant). They'd recreate the front third of DLP's dragon, put it on a retractable rig that they'd build inside of that waterfront cave and - Presto Changeo! - Animal Kingdom's Discovery River boat ride would get one killer special effects sequence for this attraction at a basically bargain basement price.
The only problem was ... the money that the Imagineers needed to do DAK's dragon effect right ended up getting cut from the park's Phase One budget. It seems that Disney's accountants had radically under-estimated the amount of money that the Mouse would have to sink into Animal Kingdom's back-of-the-house areas (I.E. The animals' behind-the-scenes barns, the mostly out-of-sight safety features that keep the critters from getting out of their cages & eating the tourists, etc.). As a direct result, WDI was ordered to reduce the scope of most of DAK's in-park attractions.
For the Discovery River ride, this meant that the attraction would go from actually showing guests a full sized fire breathing dragon to merely suggesting that there was one hidden somewhere in that cave at water's edge. In the new scaled down version of this sequence -- as the boat floated by the cavern - WDW visitors would hear ferocious growls echoing out of the darkness. And - eventually after their vessel floated into the safety area - a ball of fire would come shooting out of the cave and roll across the water.
Mind you, I don't need to tell you folks that there's a big difference - entertainment-wise -- from actually seeing an enormous Audio Animatronic creature come out of a cave & breath fire at you and having it suggested that perhaps there might be a dragon somewhere in that cavern that you're just now floating by. Mind you, the Imagineers did the best they could with the money they had. But -- as one of my less refined Texas based pals would put it -- "That's a huge difference between chicken salad and chicken ____*t."
And -- as it turns out -- DAK guests didn't really have much of an appetite when it came to the chicken ____*t version of Dragon Rocks. This cheapo sequence was one of the main reasons people complained constantly about the park's Discovery River boat ride attraction. Of course, what didn't help matters was that the Audio Animatronic Aladar figure (The robotic version of that iguanodon that starred in Disney's Summer 2000 release, "Dinosaur" ) which was supposed to be the showpiece of the second half of the ride rarely worked as well. Which usually meant that - no matter which leg of the Discovery River Cruise guests rode on - they were usually disappointed.
Mind you, Disney did try to make a quick fix on the attraction. This involved putting a cast member aboard each vessel that would do this live animal demo as the boat cruised around Discovery Island. But -- instead of improving guests' impressions of the attraction -- this change only seemed to aggravate DAK visitors all the more. After all, it was already bad enough that you were stuck on a boat with little or no scenery to look at. But imagine being trapped on a vessel where - periodically -- some bored Disney employee would wander up to you & shove a small spider or lizard in your face. Again, this was not exactly what most tourists would call fun.
Eventually tiring of hearing all of those guests complaints about this DAK attraction, Disney opted to shut down the Discovery River boat ride in the fall of 1998. After several heated meetings about what could be done to affordably fix this unpopular attraction, the Mouse decided to go the synergistic route. Which is why - in early 1999 - Animal Kingdom relaunched its Discovery River boat ride with a whole new name and storyline: The Radio Disney Cruise.
This time around, the emphasis would be taken off of the uninspiring scenery that guests would be floating by. Instead, DAK visitors were supposed to be entertained by what they were hearing inside the boat. The gimmick for this new version of the attraction was that all the on-board audio was supposedly being provided by Just Plain Mark and Zippy, two Radio Disney DJs who were allegedly broadcasting from a booth hidden high up in the branches of the park's enormous Tree of Life.
This time around, guests were treated to a round trip journey around Discovery Island (Which -- by the way -- is what Disney decided to change DAK's Safari Village area's name to back in 1999. Why for ? Well, it seems that far too many guests were spending their mornings stumbling around the park's Safari Village, looking for a place to board the park's African safari attraction. WDW's operation staff hoped that - by renaming DAK's central shopping and dining area "Discovery Island" - they'd make it that much easier for tourists to finally find their way back out to Harambe. So far, this name change seems to be working just fine. Anyway...) as they listened to various pop tunes. Just Plain Mark and Zippy would occasionally interrupt the music and describe some point of interest that the boat was passing by.
Of course, at this point, Disney had pretty much totally backed off on the fire effect for the Dragon Rocks section of the Discovery River boat ride. What DAK visitors usually got now as their vessel floated by the cave was an unexplained growl or hiss. Which the guests couldn't really hear anyway, given the deafening level that the latest N'Sync or Britney Spears single was being played at via the boat's on-board audio system.
Given that this new version of the Discovery River attraction seemed to have little or no appeal to older theme park visitors, it's not all that surprising that the Mouse opted to permanently pull the plug on DAK's Radio Disney Cruise in the late summer of 2000. To my knowledge, WDI has now formally given up all hope of ever reviving this Disney's Animal Kingdom attraction. (Back in the fall of 2000, I actually heard a few rumors that WDW officials were supposedly toying with selling off DAK's Discovery River boats to the Oriental Land Company. The idea was that these distinctively decorated vessels would be shipped over to Japan, where they then would be used to ferry guests around the Tokyo Disneyland resort's newest theme park, Tokyo Disney Sea. But - since this WDW boats have yet to appear cruising around TDS' Mediterranean Harbor - I guess we have to assume that this proposed transaction eventually fell through.)
Anyhow ... Now that you know everything about DAK's late & not-so-lamented Discovery River attraction ... Well, not exactly everything. Someday remind me to tell you guys about all the other figures that the Imagineers had hoped to add to the Dragon Rocks section of this DAK ride once Beastly Kingdom finally got built. The Kracken that was supposed to attack your boat from underneath. The beautiful unicorn that guests were supposed to glimpse once their vessel floated past the enchanted glen. This particular section of the Discovery River boat attraction - at full build-out - would have really been something special to see. Too bad that it's probably not going to happen now.
