What Ever Happened to These Animal Kingdom Attractions?

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Scott M

New Member
Original Poster
When my wife and I had first visited Animal Kingdom in 1999, we had noticed a rock formation in the shape of some sort of beast (dragon?) in the water from a bridge to (I believe) Camp Minnie Mickey. Every so often, sounds would eminate from this beast and it would "breathe" fire. In 2001 when we had visited, the rock formation beast was still there, however the sounds and fire were no longer operating. Does anyone know why? We have not returned since, so I do not know if it is back in operation.

Also, when Animal Kingdom had initially opened, there were boats of some type that had traveled around Discovery Island. The boat docks were still in place in 2001, yet no boats. Does anyone know what may have happened to this attraction?

Scott
 
Jerm

Jerm

Well-Known Member
The boats were a short lived attraction. The dragon head is still there but since the boats no longer go past it, it not longer does anything. The boats were supposed to be a way for guest to get "previews" of each of the lands... Beastly Kingdom (if you don't know what that was just search you will find all the info on here) had the dragon head, Africa had the gysers as you past the bridge, and Dinoland had a AA dino in the water playing. These were only around for a very short time along with the boats that would have a very long wait for a short trip. They re-tooled the boats a few times but nothing ever really worked out for them. So now the docks sit as meet-and-greets and if the boats come out they have a band or Mickey and the fab 5 on them to just put around.

J
 
SamatBCV

SamatBCV

Member
I've been by the rock beast a few times and never seen it go, so I think it is no longer in operation (although I never did see it in operation cause we only recently started going to Camp Minnie/Mickey.

The boats were shut down within a year or two after the park opened. I never went on those cause the lines were so long and it looked like they packed a ton of people in them (it looked like a rather miserable experience). Of course, now I wish I had gone just to see what was on it. Also, I figure it was nice that the ride siphoned off all those people from other attractions.
 
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darthjohnny

Active Member
I don't think there was even a dragon head. It was just smoke and fire. I miss those boats. They were supposed to have live animals on it eventually, like lemurs, parrots, and even skunks.
 
fillerup

fillerup

Well-Known Member
Jerm said:
and Dinoland had a AA dino in the water playing. .

J
Click to expand...

I rode these boats about four times and don't remember any sort of AA anywhere. Could have been I suppose - but I'd need to see a picture.

The queue was excrutiatingly long and stifling.

The ride itself was nice enough - not packed - but, as stated, veryshort.

The last couple times, there were in fact CMs aboard with animals. Once a cage full of very big spiders. The other a parrot and a snake - not together obviously.
 
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uglybug2005

New Member
The stone dragon head is/was a fountain. the fire and sound came from the cave that still exists just down the river. Originally (only during the preview, I think) there were charred suits of armor laying about near the cave.
 
Jerm

Jerm

Well-Known Member
fillerup said:
I rode these boats about four times and don't remember any sort of AA anywhere. Could have been I suppose - but I'd need to see a picture.
Click to expand...

Thank the maker for useless websites staying up forever. This is a web site from a lucky soul who got to visit DAK pre opening and some of his pictures of the River Cruse including the dino I knew was there (boy am I glad I found this so I knew i was not nuts)


http://home.sprynet.com/~zaretsky/drb.html

J
 
DigitalDisney

DigitalDisney

New Member
It's a shame that the boats never worked out. The worst part of the boat ride was that it only took you half way around the island. Why you couldn't take a complete lap is beyond me. Since people were waiting 60+ mins for the ride, clearly they wanted more than just transportation.

Maybe there's still hope. Since the waterways extend from one end of the park to the other, they could easily add a waterway and make a scenic jungle cruise / river safari out of it.

On a related note, it's amazing how much more vegetation there is in the park now. The park looks bare in the pics on that site. There are so many fewer trees that it doesn't even look like the same park to me.
 
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darthjohnny

Active Member
I don't remember there being long lines. But then again, the only time I went on it was during the preview weekend when the park first opened. :)
 
DisneySaint

DisneySaint

Well-Known Member
I waited like an hour and a half to get on that ride my first time to AK and it was one of the biggest wastes of time ever. All you did was circle the tree and listen to horrendus Radio Disney music and promotions.
 
CoffeeJedi

CoffeeJedi

Active Member
I remember those lines, back in 98. There wasn't a whole lot to DO that first summer at DAK, and they had a cast member standing out by the queue shouting "ladies and gentlemen, this boat is transportation ONLY, this boat is not like the Jungle Cruise or Pirates of the Carribean, it only goes around in the circle!"
it didn't have much effect, the lines were still long and people were ticked off
 
Tigger1988

Tigger1988

Well-Known Member
DisneyJoey said:
I waited like an hour and a half to get on that ride my first time to AK and it was one of the biggest wastes of time ever. All you did was circle the tree and listen to horrendus Radio Disney music and promotions.
Click to expand...

Thats one of the main reasons it closed, people were waiting upwards of 2 hours to ride it thinking it was an actual attraction (like JC), upon riding and finding out it was just a simple boat ride around the river, they complained.
 

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