The Jungle Cruise in Disneyland and Walt Disney World is a classic when it comes to theme
park attractions.
Introduced in 1955, the ride takes guests on a tour through various famous rivers from
around the world.
As is typical through the magic of imagineering, Disney is able to whisk you around the globe
in just a couple of minutes.
But what I want to know is: How long would the Jungle Cruise really take?
To jump right to the point, taking that Jungle Cruise boat on a real life tour of the rivers
from the attraction would take thirty-five and a half weeks… or twenty-eight and a
half weeks… or around two years… or two and a half years.
You see, the answer changes depending on how you measure it, and interestingly enough,
the answer changes depending on which Jungle Cruise we’re talking about.
While both versions of the attraction feature segments dedicated to the Congo River, the
Nile River, and the Mekong River, the 4th river is different depending on the park.
Disneyland takes guests through the Irrawaddy River of Myanmar, and the Disney World version
brings guests to the Amazon river.
Now some online sources put the average speed of the Jungle Cruise boats at around two to
two-and-a-half miles per hour.
To find my own number I used the average duration of a Jungle Cruise adventure, about 9 minutes
and 45 seconds, and the approximate length of the Jungle Cruise journey, around 2000
feet, to get an approximate average speed of 2.3 miles per hour or 3.7 kilometers per hour.
Looking at the Disneyland version first, we’ve got the Irrawaddy River at 1,350 miles long,
the Mekong River at 2,700 miles, the Congo River at 2,900 miles long, and last but definitely
not least the Nile River at a whopping 4,100 miles long.
That’s a total of just over 11,000 miles or 17,783 kilometers.
At a steady non-stop 2.3 miles per hour that journey would take 4,804 hours, or 200 days
or twenty-eight and a half weeks.
For the Disney World version you just have to swap out the Irrawaddy for the Amazon river,
which is around 4,000 miles long.
That brings the total to 13,700 miles or 22,000 kilometers.
At the same speeds that would take just shy of 6000 hours, or 248 days, or about 35 and
a half weeks.
Now, this all assumes that the boat can run 24/7 without stopping to refuel or eat or rest.
If we change that from non-stop sailing to 14-hour long days, then suddenly that Disneyland
trip goes from 200 days to 343 days and the Disney World trip jumps from 248 days to 425 days.
This also assumes that like the Jungle Cruise attraction at the Disney parks, all four rivers are magically
stitched together into one.
But what if we assume the rivers aren’t connected and we have to also travel from river to river?
For the Disneyland path, traveling from the Mekong to the Irrawaddy, the Irrawaddy to
the Nile, and then the Nile to the Congo would require about 13,800 additional miles, or
22.2 thousand kilometers, of non stop travel.
On that little Jungle Cruise boat that would amount to an extra 250 days.
As for the Disney World rivers, the extra travel would amount to about 17,500 extra
miles or 28.1 thousand kilometers.
It’s significantly longer since getting to the Amazon river would require crossing the Atlantic.
That’s an additional 317 days of non-stop travel.
Of course, if we look at the cruise this way, we also have to consider that after traversing
a river we would have to turn right around and head all the way out to move onto the next river.
So aside from the starting river and ending river, we would have to travel the length
of each river twice.
So in total, for the Disneyland rivers, traveling the length of the Congo and Mekong once, the
lengths of the Nile and Irrawaddy twice, and then traveling between each of the rivers,
working 14 hour days, and then boating non-stop between the rivers, you’d be looking at
a Jungle Cruise of 763 days, or just a little over two years.
Imagine being on a full Jungle Cruise boat for that long.
I can already smell it.
For Disney World that trip would come out to 959 days or over two and a half years.
Now the real question is, would the skipper have two and a half years worth of jokes?