What's new
Wish to continue browsing our forums? Please take a few moments to register for a free account and get involved in the discussion!

Jungle Cruise (Rory's Adventure Safari)

Harry

Harry

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.
 
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.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dan
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.
Click to expand...
It was called Rory's Adventure Safari before it closed. Can't remember what year they changed the name
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dan
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.
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
Does anyone know of the timeline of this ride? I have some confusing material that seems to show at least 4 different versions of the ride before Excalibur came along. It seems to be:
Original version (possibly theming built in house)
80s revamp - not sure what changed exactly, the photos I have only show the previous version being stripped down.
1991 ish revamp, this version introduced probably the best known animations and scenery
1997 ish rename to "Rory's Jungle Cruise" but not sure how much the ride itself changed at this time
 
Euro Theme Park Archive said:
Does anyone know of the timeline of this ride? I have some confusing material that seems to show at least 4 different versions of the ride before Excalibur came along. It seems to be:
Original version (possibly theming built in house)
80s revamp - not sure what changed exactly, the photos I have only show the previous version being stripped down.
1991 ish revamp, this version introduced probably the best known animations and scenery
1997 ish rename to "Rory's Jungle Cruise" but not sure how much the ride itself changed at this time
Click to expand...

I remeber the 1997 revamp adding a more cartoon vibe to the ride, moving away from the more serious tone it had. They didn't change much, I think the singing animals that used to exist as you exited the tunnel, I think they were singing animals (behind an opening door) were new. Aswel as a few props here and there.

The indoor left side wall of the tunnel was painting with multi coloured palm trees. This wall and the painting still exists to this day behind some plywood. As it was just bored over and rendered by Famer Studios when Excalibur was built
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top