How Was Your Skipper?

[Club Cooloholic]

Perhaps there is no other ride where the cast member is more important to the ride experience, than the Jungle Cruise and it's Skippers. I have had great ones that made the ride my favorite of the day, and ones that were so bad I can only assume they usually work the dole whip stand and are covering someone's shift.

 

[JIMINYCR]

This recent trip in Oct. we had a Skipper who was fantastic. He delivered his lines with great feeling and timing. Ive ridden the JC many times on various trips and he used quite a few lines that I had not heard before from other Skippers. At the end of the ride I made sure to hesitated debarking to let him know how much I appreciated the experience and his delivery that made it unique for me..

 

[Club Cooloholic]

This recent trip in Oct. we had a Skipper who was fantastic. He delivered his lines with great feeling and timing. Ive ridden the JC many times on various trips and he used quite a few lines that I had not heard before from other Skippers. At the end of the ride I made sure to hesitated debarking to let him know how much I appreciated the experience and his delivery that made it unique for me..

We did the Jingle Cruise over Thanksgiving week. Maybe she was tired, maybe it was a bad microphone, but we could barely understand what our Skipper was saying. Maybe she was a bit too much of a mumbler or again maybe it was a speaker/mic issue. What we could make out was not really great.

 

[Fox&Hound]

Our last trip we did the Jingle Cruise and we had a Jewish skipper, which of course is perfectly fine, but a lot of his jokes depended on your knowledge of Judiasm. While not Jewish, I know a lot about the faith and some of the terminology associated with it, so I got it, but the boat was mostly lost and no one laughed. It was extremely awkward.

 

[WorldExplorer]

Bad enough that it convinced us a long wait isn't worth the gamble of getting another bad one. My group is kind of soured on the ride.

Our last trip we did the Jingle Cruise and we had a Jewish skipper, which of course is perfectly fine, but a lot of his jokes depended on your knowledge of Judiasm. While not Jewish, I know a lot about the faith and some of the terminology associated with it, so I got it, but the boat was mostly lost and no one laughed. It was extremely awkward.

That's interesting, because I always get the same jokes to the point where I was under the impression that deviating from the script is looked down upon.

Does anyone know much improv opportunity the skippers are actually given?

 

[Club Cooloholic]

Bad enough that it convinced us a long wait isn't worth the gamble of getting another bad one. My group is kind of soured on the ride.



That's interesting, because I always get the same jokes to the point where I was under the impression that deviating from the script is looked down upon.

Does anyone know much improv opportunity the skippers are actually given?

Because the Jingle Cruise is a bit more of an altered script, maybe they have more opportunity to change it up.

 

[DisneyFanatic12]

Does anyone know much improv opportunity the skippers are actually given?

This would be very interesting to know! I’ve kind of always thought they had near full free will and just liked to stay “safe” with the jokes. With how little they seem to change it up sometimes, it would make sense if they aren’t given many opportunities to improv.

 

[Ayla]

It all depends on how well (or not) the audio system is working and whether or not the idiots on board shut up long enough to listen to what the Skipper is saying.

 

[larryz]

We did the Jingle Cruise over Thanksgiving week. Maybe she was tired, maybe it was a bad microphone, but we could barely understand what our Skipper was saying. Maybe she was a bit too much of a mumbler or again maybe it was a speaker/mic issue. What we could make out was not really great.

I think it would be hilarious if they'd fly a couple of the Tokyo JC skippers over and randomly drop them onto the ride, doing the whole spiel in Japanese...

 

[Chef Mickey]

I think it would be hilarious if they'd fly a couple of the Tokyo JC skippers over and randomly drop them onto the ride, doing the whole spiel in Japanese...

Would be far better than the current lineup.

 

[larryz]

A little Google Fu reveals they're hiring JC Skippers...

In Hong Kong. You gotta speak English, Mandarin and Cantonese, though...

 

[Fox&Hound]

I would be perfectly fine if they got rid of Jungle Cruise.

 

[AndyS2992]

Rode it twice at Disneyland recently and both times the Skippers sounded as if they would rather be anywhere else, no enthusiasm and sounded bored out of their minds. Plus exact same tired jokes on both. You’d think there would be multiple scripts for them to recite or pick and choose from.

 

[peter11435]

You’d think there would be multiple scripts for them to recite or pick and choose from.

There is

 

[Po'Rich]

I read that Robin Williams was once a skipper on Jungle Cruise. I would have loved to have seen that (even if it was well before he was famous). I wonder how much he was permitted to use his natural talent for improv.

 

[donaldtoo]

 

[JIMINYCR]

We did the Jingle Cruise over Thanksgiving week. Maybe she was tired, maybe it was a bad microphone, but we could barely understand what our Skipper was saying. Maybe she was a bit too much of a mumbler or again maybe it was a speaker/mic issue. What we could make out was not really great.

Oh over the years Ive also had bad Skippers and horrible sound so its crap shoot whether you get a good experience or not depending on the boat you load up on. You can't have all great CM's who are at the top of their game performing in a role. Some work at perfecting their role or are just natural actors.

 

[JoeCamel]

Oh over the years Ive also had bad Skippers and horrible sound so its crap shoot whether you get a good experience or not depending on the boat you load up on. You can't have all great CM's who are at the top of their game performing in a role. Some work at perfecting their role or are just natural actors.

I think it would go a long way if they had good sound on all the boats, seems a few skippers just stumble through if they know they won't be understood. That is not an unreachable goal but after all these years maybe they think crappy sound is authentic?

 

[JIMINYCR]

I think it would go a long way if they had good sound on all the boats, seems a few skippers just stumble through if they know they won't be understood. That is not an unreachable goal but after all these years maybe they think crappy sound is authentic?

An ideal Disney would be one that keeps up with replacement of non functioning elements in all their attractions.... but we all know that's long past happening.