Motor Boat Cruise
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Motor Boat Cruise | |
| Attraction Poster | |
| Disneyland | |
| Land | Fantasyland |
| Designer | WED Enterprises |
| Attraction type | Motor boat |
| Theme | 1957-1991 No particular theme. 1991-1993 themed after Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears |
| Opening date | 1957 |
| Closing date | 1993 (1991 Original version) |
| Vehicle type | Motor boat |
| Vehicle capacity | Unknown |
| Ticket Required | "B' |
| Replaced by | Unknown. 2/3rds of the track were destroyed and/or filled-in during the 2007 final construction of Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. The remaining section of the former ride remains an empty boat dock. |
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Motor Boat Cruise was an attraction at Disneyland in Anaheim, California.
[edit] History
Motor Boat Cruise opened in 1957 on the border between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. The waterways of the Motor Boat Cruise shared space with other attractions such the Viewliner train and bridges for Junior Autopia.
Major changes took place in 1959 the three attractions in the area. The Viewliner and its little railroad track were gone. Instead, the elevated beam of the new Disneyland Alweg Monorail curved gracefully overhead. The new Fantasyland Autopia and an expanded Tomorrowland Autopia replaced the Junior Autopia. And the lagoon which had once been home to the Phantom Boats (which opened in 1955 and closed forever in 1956) was turned into the crystal clear lagoon of the Submarine Voyage. But instead of joining the Viewliner and the Junior Autopia as mere memories, the Motor Boat Cruise survived.
In 1991, as part of the Disney Afternoon Avenue event, the Motor Boat Cruise became the Motor Boat Cruise to Gummi Glen. Plywood characters from Disney’s animated Gummi Bears television series made Gummi Berry juice along the waterway.
Although the Motor Boat Cruise survived the major 1959 project, it didn’t survive the January 1993 opening of Mickey’s Toontown hundreds of yards away. The word is that to control overall park operating expenses, the operating budget for the Motor Boat Cruise was reallocated to Mickey's Toontown. So in January 1993, the Motor Boat Cruise closed permanently. Its loading platform and landscaped grounds are now called Fantasia Gardens.
In 2001, an attraction considered by WDI to be the true successor to the Motor Boat Cruise, Aquatopia, opened at Tokyo DisneySea in Japan.
[edit] Current status
In 2007, the former Motor Boat Cruise waterways were drained during final construction of the neighboring attraction, Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. During this time, around 2/3rds of Motor Boat Cruise's former waterways were filled in with landscaping, creating more of a space buffer between the freshwater-based submarine lagoon, and the 'green system' water of Motor Boat Cruise's area. During this time, the former tracks that lay hidden beneath the green water were covered up or destroyed. In April of 2007, a new dam was built, and green water filled back into the area known as Fantasia Gardens (the former Motor Boat Cruise loading dock). It is expected that this old dock, as well as the last portion of surviving track around the dock, will also be destroyed (and filled in) whenever Disney decides on what to do with this considerable parcel of unused land.
