With news breaking of a Jungle Cruise boat sinking at the Magic Kingdom, social media has blown up in memes and comments regarding the incident. Up until today, guests had seen the backside of water, but on today’s cruise, they got to see the underside of water. Given that the incident has gone viral, Disney has released an official statement regarding the sinking of a Jungle Cruise boat earlier today.
According to Laughing Place, a Disney spokesperson responded with the following statement regarding the incident:
“A boat took on some water. Reedy Creek Fire Department responded immediately to this event. Everyone got out of the boat safely. We worked with guests individually so that they could enjoy the rest of their day in the park. The attraction has reopened.”
The Bomokandi Bertha sank at approximately 12:30 PM, causing the ride to be shut down. The incident caused an interruption of 105 minutes, just enough time to unload the soaking passengers and tow away the sinking boat. The only other reported boat sinking for the Jungle Cruise was back in 2004, when the Sankuru Sadie sank after taking too much water, but was quickly returned to service.
Additional photos of the emergency unloading process were sent to us by a guest on a nearby boat. Guests had to be aided off the sinking vessel and onto dry land by Cast Members (and even other guests.) Everyone on the boat had to be evacuated onto the heavily vegetated, on-stage “jungle” part of the attraction due to their distance from the boat dock.
Do note that the boat affected is one of the two boats for the attraction that is equipped with wheelchair lifts, meaning until this boat is repaired, guests in wheelchairs looking to transfer onto the Jungle Cruise may see some longer waits.
Were you on one of these boats aboard the Jungle Cruise? Will this incident impact your likelihood of riding it in the future, or further cement your love for the classic attraction? Let us know in the comments.
The Company is all yours Chapek
This is what happens when Disneyland gets stingy on how much people should pay to get in to Disneyland. They don’t take care of their stuff they’re just greedy. How can Family of 4 go to Disneyland On a tight budget. Paying for food and other activities it’s so expensive in the park. And they don’t recommend you bringing in your food. What is a family of 4 to do? it’s a big discussion but no one is opening up their mouth because they love Disneyland so much. But Disneyland and Walt Disney really need to think about how much a family should pay to get in because it’s too damn expensive for a big family to get in side.
I mean now that Disney owns part of Titanic I guess it was only a matter of hours before Chapek shoved the IP in SOMEWHERE!
I absolutely have every intention of riding the Jungle Cruise next time I’m back at Disney World. Things break but from what I’ve seen, Disney is always quick to fix the problem and take care of the guests.
Love your “underside of water” joke! You should apply to be a boat captain on the ride. What an experience, although I’m sure it would be more pleasant during the summer when it is hot. I’m glad no one was hurt and I hope no one tries to “creat” an injury out of this if there really is no injury.
So I was actually sad I wasn’t on the boat as it went down! What a story those people have! I am sure Disney went above and beyond to make the rest of the stay wonderful
But it didn’t actually sink. In fact the boats can’t sink so long as the guide wheel underneath is still attached. So saying the boat sank is a bit of a stretch.
So the skipper finally got to be the swimming instructor.
I wish I was on this boat! I want to get evac from all the rides!
Welcome to Bob Chapek’s Disney everyone!
I’m still planning on riding this attraction during my April trip, as well as ride the Skyliner, which also had problems.
I was not on the attraction however this will not stop me from going on The Jungle Cruise.
Would not stop me at all. Would love to be able to tell people I was on the boat that sunk!
Glad that everyone made it off the boat safely! We weren’t fortunate enough to be at Disney today, but this won’t prevent us from enjoying the Jungle Cruise again on our next visit to the World. It’s a “must do” for us every trip!
I’ll be there next week! Can’t wait to ride the ride!
This absolutely will not impact my decision to ride this attraction in the future. It was a weird unfortunate quirk.
I was not on the boat, but I would ride again in a heartbeat…
“Instructions on how to dock a half sunken boat will be given this Tuesday morning at loading dock number one. Due to reasons that are more than obvious, these maneuvers will not be open to the public.”
Favorite ride in the park. I can only imagine that the possibility of sinking will make the boat skipper’s spiel that much more entertaining.
Were there any wheelchair users on the boat at the time? That must have been pretty scary…
They should have had one of the captains write the response, tbh
As a former Disney Cast Member, I am fully aware of the importance of listening to the safety spiel of keeping your hands out of the water. I guess the guests were very fortunate enough to not have any encounters with Florida’s real life critters.
Unlike the Rivers of America, the Jungle Cruise is a closed waterway. That being said it still may be possible for a gator to crawl into it over land, but that is likely a very low probability. Check Google Earth. Next time when walking around the Rivers of America, look for the wildlife signs posted about alligators.
Never stop riding. This is my favorite ride.