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Jungle Cruise (Rory's Adventure Safari)

Harry

Harry

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Built by Alan Hawes, the ride debuted in July 1976. The ride operated until the end of 2001 where it was then later taken over by the construction and future ride which was Excalibur: A Dragon's Tale.

Many of the props and set from the Jungle Cruise is still there to this day and can be seen from the zoo.
 
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By the time I first rode the Jungle Cruise, it was at the end of its life, and was very, very different in style compared to how it originally existed. My memories of it are only vague, but I don't even believe the name of the ride was 'Jungle Cruise' when I went on it.
 
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Kam said:
By the time I first rode the Jungle Cruise, it was at the end of its life, and was very, very different in style compared to how it originally existed. My memories of it are only vague, but I don't even believe the name of the ride was 'Jungle Cruise' when I went on it.
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It was called Rory's Adventure Safari before it closed. Can't remember what year they changed the name
 
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Looking through YouTube today and I came across this fantastic footage from British Theme Park Archive from the Jungle Cruise. In the description, he said it was filmed in the late 90s, meaning this would have been what it was like before it was replaced with Excalibur: A Dragon’s Tale! Here is the link to the video:

On another note, could anyone who attended the auction last night tell me if any items from the Jungle Cruise or Excalibur were going under the hammer? I know some bits of both rides still stand/ did stand at the park, so it would be interesting if anything was given away.
 
AvalancheAttractionsUK said:
On another note, could anyone who attended the auction last night tell me if any items from the Jungle Cruise or Excalibur were going under the hammer? I know some bits of both rides still stand/ did stand at the park, so it would be interesting if anything was given away.
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There were four masks from the Jungle Cruise, I believe they were found in the indoor section of the ride - I managed to purchase one of these.
 
Dan said:
There were four masks from the Jungle Cruise, I believe they were found in the indoor section of the ride - I managed to purchase one of these.
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These masks started a bit of a mystery for me about the many versions of Jungle Cruise, could anyone here could shed light on it?

Drayton Manor said the masks were from the original 70s version of the attraction but this can't be true (it's hard to trace this stuff so I dont blame them). The moulds for those masks were made in 1980 for a parrot show at Meli Park, made by a studio called Sparks Associates. The Sparks moulds were bought into a later studio called Golding Leisure Design who then did Jungle Palladium and a lot more at Drayton Manor as you probably know.

I researched with people from studios over the years as well as dug up lots of old photos, which seems to show the Jungle Cruise was refitted by Golding sometime in the 80s (when it had a lot of the big scenery and animations based on Disney's Jungle Cruise). But those masks don't appear, they might have been from Jungle Palladium originally.

Some of this was then removed when it became Rory's Jungle Cruise in the 90s, the video above seems to show more had gone than anything added in this refit. The ending was also changed I think. Does anyone remember more?

You can also see a few re-used Jungle Palladium items in the video above like the big faces on the bank.

Just scanning some old photos of the Jungle Cruise to show as well.
 
Thank you for posting this really takes me back and I remember going the park at Easter and it was still been rethemed and painted. That Jeep on the front had a Gorilla in the back that would jump up and down.
Rory was above the queue line.
 
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