Disney Dreams continued...
The Jungle Cruise
I don’t remember much from that day of introductions and dialogue with the Disney recruiter. Mainly, it wasn’t just “my” interview, as we were placed into groups of three for our conversations with the representative. I also recall that I hardly had the chance to speak due to a very talkative student in our threesome. By the end of the exchange, I thought I hadn’t gotten the job at all, given the limited opportunity to respond to their questions. However, when the acceptance letters arrived weeks later, I had received an offer.
To this day, I’m unsure how it all worked out. Maybe my resume and cover letter had said enough. Or maybe they felt I matched the Disney image well enough and was sufficiently clean cut to join their ranks for a summer. It seemed to be general knowledge at the time that Disney preferred short haired, clean shaven, and neatly dressed employees. Whatever the final determinants, I felt like I’d won the Superbowl and I was going to Disney World!
Orlando is hot and humid during the summer. I remember struggling early to get a clean shave using an electric razor against my already moist face. The first week entailed hours of orientation to Disney’s history and heritage in general and standard operating procedure for our assigned locations and roles in particular. I had listed Attractions Host as my first preference and was in awe when I realized I’d been chosen to be a boat captain - a “Skipper” - on the Jungle Cruise.
The Jungle Cruise was one of my most favorite attractions in the Magic Kingdom, and apparently one of Mr. Disney’s as well. Our training as Skippers was fairly intensive. We learned how to handle the boats (even though they were on tracks and we didn’t really have to steer them), interact with guests, and master safety protocols as well as an eight-minute official and sometime unofficial spiel that accompanied the cruise. The narration, although more informative and documentary styled in its early days, had morphed into more of an entertaining and humorous talk with numerous jokes and puns throughout. Said by one former Jungle Cruise Skipper, “The best Skippers are outgoing, lively, funny, and a bit goofy.”1 This was an unexpected opportunity for me to unearth some of those inherent qualities I’d buried, at least within this fanciful new role.
Following training, I soon felt at ease and energized at the helm of the replica tramp steamers with names like Amazon Annie, Congo Connie, and Nile Nellie. It’s ironic to me now recognizing that all of the boats had female names even as the attraction allowed only male Skippers for decades, even for a number of years after my term. I’d heard, unofficially, that the Jungle Cruise was developed out of Walt Disney’s personal travels and experiences filming his True-Life Adventure Series in many different parts of the world. Word was, he’d never witnessed a female boat pilot in real life and was committed to sustaining this theme in the attraction itself.
Speaking of themes, Disney insisted that all cast members remain in character at all times in front of guests. Additionally, different themed areas and lands of the Magic Kingdom were required to maintain equal and seamless coherence in architectural design, landscaping, choice of background music, etc. It was also intended that because Disney World was a place based on fantasy and imagination, it should keep the maintenance and operations of the park out of sight and “backstage” as much as possible so as not to distract from the consistent experience of the guest. For these purposes, large tunnels, called utilidors (short for utility and corridors), were constructed under the Magic Kingdom. Or more correctly, the Magic Kingdom was constructed on top of the tunnels as in reality they are not underground.
I’d heard of these secret corridors for years and had always been mystified as a child catching a glimpse of costumed characters and cast members magically appearing and disappearing from doors that led to stairwells that descended into the tunnels below. I later confirmed this for myself through my own experience as I snuck past one of these mystical doors and stole a glance of the fabled stairs leading down. Sure enough, as a cast member, these fantastical tunnels and stairways were a means for us to get into our costumes, grab some food before our shift, and find our way out of sight of Disney guests to our assigned locations. I never really tired of the novelty of entering the main tunnel entrance under Fantasyland dressed in my everyday clothes and soon popping up and out into Adventureland adorned as a Jungle Boat Skipper.
*Thanks for reading and/or listening. Continue to next post Disney Dreams Continued. To read from the beginning please go to Why I'm Writing. Now please gather all your belongings, watch your step, and exit to the rear of the boat. If you enjoyed today’s cruise my name is Jason and this has been the world famous Jungle Cruise. If not, my name is Dopey and you’ve been on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.
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