First off, let me CONFIRM that this is true, Living with the Land will lose its tour guides in the coming weeks. While I cannot reveal my sources, I can confirm it (you'll have to trust me on this one). Several people know this to be true, including managers, labor ops, schedulers, executives, Land cast members, etc. etc.
The change will drastically reduce the wait time, as staffing issues will no longer leave empty boats on the canal or force a situation where a lower number of boats is placed on the canal in the morning. The canal can hold up to 14 boats on it, with 10 being optimal for spacing (you dont want boats stacked together or else narration from one boat is heard on the next). However, in recent weeks/years, LWTL has been running 5-8 "live" boats (the rest tied up in boat storage). It takes major staffing to have so many tour guides, enough for breaks, dock positions, etc.
The plan is to run at least 10 boats on the canal now from open to close, with no boats going by empty. This will greatly increase the ride's capacity from its current levels (doubling it in the afternoons when running 5 or 6 "live" boats has been common.) Instead of a boat arriving on dock every 2 minutes, they will load and go approximately every minute.
Three recurring problems have always defeated this idea in the past, so I am mildly surprised it has finally happend. 1) Safety - like Pirates, Small World, and Mexico, this is a slow-moving boat ride with no restraints or doors. However, this is the only one of these boat rides with a walkable path by the boats almost the whole way (except the rainforest portion). Tour guides have been onboard in part to make sure no unruly guest/teenager jumped off the boat - it happens! The word is cameras will be installed in the dark portions of the ride, or perhaps just one camera/monitor a la spaceship earth. 2) Changing plants/greenhouse themes has kept the spiel ever-changing and hence no canned spiel. Future greenhouse and plant changes will be less drastic,and the spiel will feature "staple" items which never change (hydroponics, aeroponics, cacao, aquaculture, etc). 3) The trigger mechanism has historically been faulty. As another LWTL cast member noted, the current trigger mechanism used for the canned spiel in the dark portion of the ride has been inconsistent at best, often requiring the manual pushing by the CM to keep it on pace (example - sometimes the boat would move quicker through the rain forest and the spiel would not be finished before reaching the desert trigger point. Hence, the reflective strip in the desert did not trigger the spiel, and the desert narration would be heard in the farm scene unless the CM intervened.) I do not know if the same trigger mechanism will be used in the greenhouses, though I suspect not.
No word yet on who will get the honor of being the "voice" of the greenhouse tour spiel, but it is possible that the new voice will also re-voice the dark portion narration (this is not confirmed). However, no change/update is planned for the dark portion, save possible security camera installation.
Last interesting tidbit - the canal water moves slightly slower as more boats are added to the canal. By running 10 or more boats now, the duration of the ride will be extended marginally, perhaps up to one minute longer (cycle time around 13-14 minutes).
