Failed AK ride?

[EpcoTim]

I vaguely remember this, but what was the ride, a boat ride at AK, that was not well liked at launch, and soon turned into an advertisement for Disneys failed radio/internet stuff before eventually falling to into history?

Also If Im insane, just let me know. Thanks. :animwink:

 

[SirNim]

yes...

READ ALL ABOUT IT HERE!

lol

http://www.wdwig.com/akdrb.htm

Everything you could possibly want to know about this attraction

 

[EpcoTim]

Thanks SirNim.

 

[nktek]

lol i know some people who opened that ride....

 

[EpcoTim]

Opened it? At least they didnt close it I guess.

 

[nktek]

both actually.... they were there when the ride/park opened and later when they finally shut it down.

 

[EpcoTim]

Originally posted by nktek
both actually.... they were there when the ride/park opened and later when they finally shut it down.

Coincidence or Sabotage?

 

[RandeB]

Originally posted by EpcoTim
I vaguely remember this, but what was the ride, a boat ride at AK, that was not well liked at launch, and soon turned into an advertisement for Disneys failed radio/internet stuff before eventually falling to into history?

Radio Disney's still around, isn't it?

 

[nktek]

Originally posted by EpcoTim
Coincidence or Sabotage?

lol good question I actually used to hear stories of them crashing the boats into random objects.

 

[careship]

Re: Re: Failed AK ride?

Originally posted by RandeB
Radio Disney's still around, isn't it?

Oh yeah Radio Disney is still around. We listen to here in Michigan it also is on both of the sateliitle radio networks. It is the greatest. My kids love it. We love it. They have some wonderful prizes all the time. I'm not sure where they broadcast from all the time, but usually I hear that they are in MGM.

 

[HebeJebe]

My Mom and brother were just there and said it is now a Character Greeting Spot. Pooh & Tigger were there.

 

[goofyguy]

Re: Re: Re: Failed AK ride?

Originally posted by careship
Oh yeah Radio Disney is still around. We listen to here in Michigan it also is on both of the sateliitle radio networks. It is the greatest. My kids love it. We love it. They have some wonderful prizes all the time. I'm not sure where they broadcast from all the time, but usually I hear that they are in MGM.

A little bit of a topic drift, but strangely enough many of Radio Disney's shows actually broadcast out of Dallas (although they do have remote studios at the parks). The offices of Radio Disney are in the ABC Radio Networks building here in Dallas. One of their higher-ups does some voicing work for my company (she used to be a radio personality here). She almost always gets to go to the premiers of new Disney movies, which, since she knows I'm such a big Disney fan, she taunts me with whenever possible.

 

[CTXRover]

Whether this means anything or not........but I visited AK last week and the boats were back at the docks. Each dock (the one near Asia and the other by Dinoland....both alongside Discovery River) had one boat each. They look like the old boats that once circled the river, but now have a completely new paint job. One big difference is that the "rusted" roofs of the boats are now painted bright green. The boats are now brightly colored like the buildings in Discovery Island instead of the "weathered" look they were given for the park's opening. They may just be props to serve as a backdrop for the character greets at the docks, or maybe they are considering using them again????

 

[MrPromey]

Originally posted by SirNim
yes...

READ ALL ABOUT IT HERE!

lol

http://www.wdwig.com/akdrb.htm

Everything you could possibly want to know about this attraction

You didn’t actually ride all the way around in the boats like that link would suggest. You got on at one location and had to get off at the other. They were intended for transportation pretty much from day one but none of the guests ever seemed to grasp this. I think that adding “water taxi” to the name was an attempt to help better describe what it actually was but clearly it didn’t work… The boats were a victim of inflated guest expectations – something that Disney did not create but given that the park had very little in the way of rides when it first opened (Dinosaur, the train and the safari tour were it) I guess people were expecting something more along the lines of Jungle Cruise. There were a few little things like an audio animatronic of a dinosaur in the water near Dino Land and some effects meant to preview the as of yet no-existent Beastly Kingdom but these were meant to add a bit of entertainment to a trip, not to actually constitute an e-ticket style attraction.

I rode the boats before the park was open (no wait and prior to the animal handlers) and found absolutely nothing wrong with them. They were more entertaining than the friendship boats in Epcot although the walk saved by their use was not as great and they were a lot more functional than TLTA since they actually transport you to somewhere other than where you started while also giving you a tour of various parts of the park the way TLTA sort of does with Tomorrow Land.

 

[Main Street USA]

Originally posted by MrPromey
You didn’t actually ride all the way around in the boats like that link would suggest.

I'm not sure on the date, but during our first visit to AK, in November of the year it opened, we took a ride in these boats and we allowed to go all the way around. We had to wait a good 45 minutes for them, too.

 

[MrPromey]

Originally posted by Main Street USA
I'm not sure on the date, but during our first visit to AK, in November of the year it opened, we took a ride in these boats and we allowed to go all the way around. We had to wait a good 45 minutes for them, too.

Did it make the stop at the second side for you to get off or did it just run in a continuous circle from where you got on? The only time I rode it (because I didn’t understand the line that apparently nobody else who had ridden it understood either) was before it opened and they were rather insistent that you get off and get back on if you wanted to go back around at that point even though there was no line… Now that I think about it, they made us do that the last time we wanted a round trip on the trolly in the MK – we were the only people on it both ways.

Letting you stay on wouldn’t have done anything to help the lines I don’t think. To me it would have the same affect of trying to get to the MK on the resort line at a peak time when the monorail is already full of guests from the other resorts going the same direction.

 

[Main Street USA]

Hmmm, I know I have some video I could check, but I'm nearly positive we stopped at a second dock along the way.

We boarded at the dock between Asia and Africa on the back side of the Tree of Life, and then headed clockwise around and back.

 

[www]

We rode these boats in the summer of 1998, the year AK opened. I'm sure it was a round trip, and that there was at least one other dock. The guide was very good, but the most common phrase was "there's where we saw (name of animal) but it isn't there right now." (I've got some videotape of this still.) The first year of AK the animals were still somewhat shy - even the Safari was a bit lacking in scenery (we went first thing in the morning too). I've been told many times it's better - and I can't wait to see it later this summer.

It was my impression that they were there for transportation to other sections, I guess mainly to be built later (like Asia and the never to be Beastly Kingdom). Why anyone would line up for them for an hour is puzzling. We only took them hoping to see some animals, but mainly to get out of the heat for a while. I don't remember thinking it was a major attraction.

 

[EpcoTim]

I thought the line was so long because they let monkeys drive the boats. Good thing I didnt wait in line i guess. Talk about disappointment.