Disney announced a few days ago that work on Jungle Cruise’s Walt Disney World makeover would begin while the ride was still in operation. We are now seeing our first major change to the ride at Walt Disney World, with Trader Sam completely removed from the attraction’s final scene.
Sam, the jungle’s “head” salesman, and all his related props are gone from the rock where he once stood.
Here’s what Trader Sam looked like in his iconic outfit.
Our Jungle Cruise skipper did not acknowledge his absence.
Watch a video of our cruise sans Sam below.
We assume that Trader Sam will not be returning to the Jungle Cruise, though Disney did announce that the two bars named for him will remain. The ride’s makeover is one of many initiatives promote diversity and remove culturally insensitive imagery from the parks. When completed, this new version of the Jungle Cruise will have a fresh storyline featuring characters such as Alberta Falls (granddaughter to Albert Falls). The makeover will not feature any tie-ins to the upcoming Jungle Cruise film.
There is no released timeline for the Jungle Cruise refurbishment. It seems changes will be happening gradually over the course of 2021, with the new version of the ride being completed for “The World’s Most Magical Celebration.” Keep checking WDWNT as we continue to check in on progress made to the Jungle Cruise.
Oh come on, Disney needs to grow a corporate backbone.
Oh come on, Frank W needs to grow some cultural competency. These jokes are out of date, and the business is smart to keep up with the times. Feel free to start your own theme park devoted to imagery of the past of you think there’s a market.
Well, there is a market because when you look at Magic Kingdom which according to some, is filled with alleged racist character depictions, yet that park is the most visited theme park on earth and the rides in question like Jungle Cruise, like Splash Mountain still have millions of people riding those rides each year. If they were really genuinely offensive, then people wouldn’t ride them. But they aren’t racist. We just unfortunately have people that are miserable enough to wake up each day and look for reasons to be offended about something. It’s sickening. The overly sensitive people band together and ruin attractions like these that have been super popular for decades.
And if you’re talking about dated stuff and things being offensive, who was the person giving the green light for these movies and attractions to be released that are supposedly, allegedly racist? Mr. Walt Disney himself. But they still call it Walt Disney World don’t they.
You said it right Chris
Settle down snowflake. If a made up character hurts your feelings or makes you uncomfortable then maybe take a good look it the mirror because you are the problem, not Trader Sam.
So true!!
Yo imagine getting offended over a robot you snowflake
Haha ,Zach just got taken behind the woodshed.
I’d go!!
I think everyone wants to be offered. It’s just a ride. All this is just too much. I’m sick of people being offended by everything it’s terrible. Should I be offended bt the BET ? Where is the WET? It’s going reverse why can’t all lives matter??? Come on stop shoving it down in our face enough!!
Come on!!!!!!!!!!!
It was literally there last night wow
There goes Disney catering to the head shrinking community! Didn’t know they were so vocal. Hopefully they are consulted on how they’d like to be represented going forward. Too bad Rhode is gone, he’d go live with them for a year to understand their culture and see where they are headed for the future.
Seriously, I get not selling women so while it fit the original narrative, I get why Disney changed Pirates. This seems short sighted by a Disney corporate culture that aims to please a small fraction of the Disney going population, less than 2% I’d imagine. They just merchandised this character in the Main Attraction series in December and themed two incredibly successful tiki bars, but now he is offensive.
They said the Splash characters voices were offensive so they have to go, and yes I know their source material but they have no connection to that within the story of the ride. The story of the ride is about Rackety Racoon and moonshine exploding a dam and flooding the place. If you’d never heard of SotS then you’d never know and think these are original characters. Regardless, the current state of the company and how things are being re-imagined is going to result in just a bunch of mediocre rides rather than iconic attractions. Still gonna go, still gonna be an AP so this is just useless ramblings but I just like to have a voice and I think WDWNT gives us that chance.
Very well said. I think it is a great point to mention that, most people would not have any qualms with the Splash Mountain attraction, if they had never known about SotS.
I’m an old white guy who doesn’t have a problem with removing Trader Sam. I just hope they replace him with something good.
I bet that’s where the butterflies and chimps will go.
Oh bother,,, please put Disney back to sleep!
Instead of just sitting around complaining and doing nothing, why don’t head to magic kingdom and lodge a damn complaint!
Unless you are part of the permanent victim class, they don’t seem to care
I still don’t get how Trader Sam was culturally insensitive. There are many cultures that have or do practice cannibalism. It’s not associated with a person’s skin color and I don’t think Sam made it look like people of a certain skin color is a head hunter. They might as well re-do the entire Gran Fiesta in EPCOT since a lot of the animatronics are in sarapes, sandals and sombreros. Not many Mexicans dress like this so isn’t that portrayal culturally insensitive. Let’s not even get into Small World. Leprechauns, can can girls, belly dancers! When will this end???
Disney gets more woke daily. Honestly been many times and truly didnt pay attention too much too trader sam. Most people who ride dont take the ride that seriously except stick in the muds
If you give a mouse a cookie …
I would say Small World is likely being “Re-imagined for our future enjoyment” currently. Its a shame that something at the time was a great achievement of a female imagineer may be lost for cultural sensitivity. I will say, I never want someone to feel affected by a Disney attraction but I think surveys would certainly help gauge the actually guest response. While the change to Splash is applauded, I can’t help but wonder is it applauded by the people in Bob Iger’s country clubs and charity events or the general theme park attending audience? When this does “end” I would guess the Disney Theme parks will have lost the charm that made them special and unique. I mean that in the sense that changes can/should be made but the current creative personnel don’t seem to understand Walt Disney and what made this thing we love timeless.
It won’t. That’s the point. There’s an endless stream of potential outrage.
Head shrinking is historical fact, not fiction. I personally support any updates, but hope we can still have a sense of history on those attractions that warrant it.
Half of me comes from a culture with head hunting, head shrinking, etc. I personally don’t care because I was raised in the States, but I do know how upset the family members who did see it were because of how there were heads stolen from them and sold without them receiving any money for them. Not sure if they would have been okay with the trading of the heads if they got a profit from it. Never asked.
Don’t worry they are coming for that too
The woke (politically correct on drugs) want to erase history and invent a new history. A new false narrative. It won’t stop. What they are doing now will become wrong a few years from now. They ruin people’s lives and livelihoods and pat themselves on the back.
Ok boomer
Just because your not offended and don’t understand what’s offensive does not invalidate those who are. Boomers are so I sensitive and racist. Hence why they clamp on to racist nostalgia. Your family was mad when they had to let their slaves go too, bet they rather kill people then set them free because nostalgia
Amen! The pirates in pirates of the Caribbean are all white should I be offered????
Don’t forget to get rid of any mention of Wayne Szalinski. Stereotypical sitcom representation of the white stupid husband. Oooh, maybe the fact he has a Polish last name has something to do with it? (eyeroll)
Disney caving to the outrage-mob.. Again.
Maybe it’s only gone temporarily so the shrunken heads can have masks added??
I just came by to see boomers crying about a private company’s choice to update its own intellectual property. I wasn’t disappointed. If you don’t like it, start your own theme park or stop giving disney your money. We both know you won’t do either one.
You really don’t get it
The allure of the Disney rides, especially those in Magic Kindgom and Disneyland, are nostalgia. Disney is slowly removing all of the things that people were nostalgic about. Eventually it will be a hollow shell of its former self, powered by leftist surveyed group think, absent of any charm or personality that once stood. This is the beginning of the end.
Any way you slice it or dice it, won’t make everyone happy.
Did people really complain about this? I always thought (as a former skipper) that was a HUGE staple that set the ride apart from any other attraction which made people want to experience it. If you can’t laugh at something that is supposed to be funny, maybe the problem doesn’t lie within the attraction or delivery at all, maybe the problem lies within the person that feels offended by an animatronic and a harmless joke that was pointed at a fictional character that has zero feelings.
I’m with Doug. The world changes. I know some Pacific Islanders who’ve never liked Trader Sam, going back to the earliest days of the Jungle Cruise. It’s not for me to tell them what’s right or wrong – it’s for me to listen and appreciate what is being said.
I’m confused as to why people think they have an argument to not remove it. Disney is centered around kids. They need to keep that in mind with their displays. How is it okay for a man to be holding another persons head with another head dangling from his necklace? By all means, if the park was just for adults than I could see an argument.
My first visit to Disney? I was 32. I’m now 57 and enjoy going now more than ever. Yes it is centered around children, but if there’s not fun for the adults, the parents won’t want to take their kids. And it’s been 50 years…and just now it’s offensive??
No, it’s not “just now” offensive. To some, it’s been offensive for 50 years, but everyone else was oblivious to their concerns until recently. If there were complaints, they usually fell on deaf ears, and after a while, those who took offense began to feel that it was a futile endeavor to “fight city hall,” so to speak. You need only observe the reactions of people in this comment thread to get a small idea of what people were up against if they dared complain about something they deemed insensitive. If you constantly feel like a minority voice whose complaints have no chance of making headway with powers-that-be, then you learn to live with something that makes you silently cringe, or else you stop visiting. Just because you personally hadn’t heard about outrage over something before now, it doesn’t mean the outrage never existed.
Totally ridiculous. Boycott Disney since they are caving into a bunch of whiney far left liberals. It’s history stop trying to erase it.
Boycott a company because your mad at their choices of respecting how cultures feel about representation. Didn’t realize this character was so important to you. A little thing gets you to boycott, I think you are the snowflake
I agree me and my family have gone to Disney World multiple times. Now we don’t go since the mask mandate has gotten ridiculous. Also the removal of fire works so yeah Disney isn’t Disney anymore. Walt Disney would be ashamed on what his film company has become. Last time I went was like right before the lockdown. I didn’t know the last time I rode Splash Mountain would be the last time I will ride it. I didn’t know the last time I saw trader Sam would be the last time I will see him. Hey go woke go broke.
Please stay home. You snowflakes boycott and the lines are shorter for us! I fo not care abt Trader Sam, but I don’t want racist crap on rides. We can do better for our kids than outdated imagery. Glad Sam will not be totally forgotten, tho! The replacement will be way better than a single guy standing there! Much better!
This is honestly very surprising. I didn’t know Disney will do this. It is not surprising they are redoing Splash Mountain though. Jungle Cruise is one of my favorite rides at WDW. Trader Sam isn’t really my favorite part of the ride but he is one of the most iconic things from the ride. The way things are going Walt Disney World should really be Woke Disney World.
We just need to white (or other, non-offensive color) wash everything around since people these days are so set on rewriting as much as they can either because they want to erase history that offends them, cartoons they don’t enjoy, and just about anything they can pin some “offends me” pin on. Let’s all just put blinders on because by the time these people are done they’re won’t be any remnants left.
Meanwhile, over in Animal Kingdom, Disney had to put in Pandora where they have had to Culturally Appropriate a fictional culture with humans “Celebrating” Navi culture with eerily Native American style drum circles and nature worship. Oh and let’s not forget all the earthlings who wish you “Bright Suns” at Black Spire Outpost. Like they are actually from a Galaxy Far Far Away. Puhlease. Somebody needs to speak up for all these Aliens who are being misrepresented.
As a person of European decent… I dont see why people are crying over the removal of this animatronic. How many people really had paintings, figurines, etc of Trader Sam? Yall need to stop being so sensitive and get with the times. Disney is evolving and bringing many great things to us and future generations. The one thing I think most people should be upset about is that the BBQ buffet never came back. That’s a true Disney atrocity.
More corporate cancel culture, expect more from stupid corporate America, while the rest of the World laughs at us
Did they move him to his bar at the Polynesian Village or are they changing the name of the bar as well? The Trader Sam bar sells a lot of merchandise.
RIP Trader Sam you will be missed.
Im just still trying to figure out what is racist about Sam. If some small nuance has to be explained why it’s racist, it probably isn’t. At this rate there will be no more blacktop roads because it would considers racist driving on them.
Are you crazy or just sick. You people and corporations,sponsors are lacking any type of back bone. We have become a sick nation. Maybe time people boycott Disney and all their franchise.
I assume Splash Mountain is next
Yes Disney announced that last year. Splash Mountain is going to become a Princess and the Frog themed ride.
All humor must be extracted from all attractions, lest somebody not appreciate the joke and have conniptions. Effing humorless scolds.
Does this mean Trader Sams tiki bar will be renamed too?
I would like to see Han Solo in carbonite instead
Pathetic Disney don’t change rides for a hand full of do gooders if they don’t like it stay off the ride.
I was just thinking maybe Disney should remove dearth Vader as he is black so that also must be offensive. Hurry Disney remove anything like that omg hurry. Ok I just threw up in my mouth.