Opening date 1957 Riders per vehicle 3 or 4 | Status Closed Attraction type Motor boat Opened 1957 Designer Walt Disney Imagineering | |
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Closing date 1993 (1991 Original version) Theme Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears Similar Rocket Jets, Viewliner Train of Tomorrow, Flying Saucers, Skyway, Golden Horseshoe Saloon | ||
Motor Boat Cruise was an attraction at Disneyland in Anaheim, California.
Contents
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.
The design of the boats appears very similar to those illustrated in a "Boat Ride Apparatus" patent filed by Edgar A. Morgan and Karl W. Bacon, of Arrow Development. Arrow Development was involved in the design of many attractions at Disneyland between 1953 and 1973.
Major changes took place in 1959 the three attractions in the area. The Viewliner and its railroad track were gone. Instead, the elevated beam of the new Disneyland Alweg Monorail curved overhead. The new Fantasyland Autopia and an expanded Tomorrowland Autopia replaced the Junior Autopia. The lagoon which had once been home to the Phantom Boats (which opened in 1955 and closed forever in 1956) was turned into the lagoon of the Submarine Voyage. The Motor Boat cruise remained.
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.
In January 1993, the Motor Boat Cruise closed permanently, as its operating budget was needed for the nearby Mickey's Toontown. Its loading platform and landscaped grounds are now called Fantasia Gardens. For a time in the mid-1990s this was a smoking area in the park.
In 2001, an attraction considered by WDI to be the true successor to the Motor Boat Cruise, Aquatopia, opened at Tokyo DisneySea in Japan.
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 2/3 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 (shared with the castle moat, Jungle Cruise, Rivers of America, and Storybook Land canals). During this time, the former tracks that lay hidden beneath the green water were covered up or destroyed. In April 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 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. The Motor Boat Cruise's old dock was repurposed into a waterside dining area for the neighboring Edelweiss Snacks, and is used as one of many locations to hand out candy during Mickey's Halloween Party.
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