Discovery River Boats

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Discovery River Boats

Locations, openings and status
Disney's Animal Kingdom April 22, 1998
Closed - August 21, 1999

Discovery River Boats was an attraction at Walt Disney World's Disney's Animal Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

1 Attraction facts
2 History
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Attraction facts

Grand opening: April 22, 1998
Closing date: August 21, 1999
Renamed:
- Discovery River Taxi (November, 1998)
- Radio Disney River Cruise (March 1999)
Ride Vehicals: Natural Gas powered boats
- The Darting Dragonfly
- Otter Nonsense
- Leaping Lizard
- Crocodile Belle
- Hasty Hippo

[edit] History

The boats originally docked at the Safari Village and in Asia. The boat from Safari Village was a non-stop trip that brought you up close to the Tree of Life. There were also other things to see like a Dinosaur in DinoLand U.S.A.. The captain would also walk the isles and point out other items on the trek. It was similar to the Jungle Cruise at the Magic Kingdom.

The ride had a lot of complaints from the beginning. The ride was slow and long and took a long time to load and unload the boats.

In 1999 the attraction was renamed Radio Disney River Cruise and played commentary from Radio Disney DJs Just Plain Mark and Zippy. They said that they were broadcasting from the top of the Tree of Life. The boats were all re-painted in new colors.

The ride closed in late 1999 but the docks are still in the park. The dock near the entrance is used for Character Greetings (the old entrance leads to the dock for the greetings) and the Asia dock's queue area is just a shaded area with seats, but the actual ramp to the dock itself is closed off. The old sign for the Riverboats in Asia now says Upcountry Landing.

Before the park opened, the cave area was home to a fire breathing dragon with burnt suits of armor outside of the cave.