Sunday, October 04, 2009

Sailing Through Sundays on The Jungle Cruise: Schweitzer Falls



Jokes seem to change all the time on the JC, but the ones about the back side of water, aka Schweitzer Falls, rarely seem to change. Here are some vintage views of this beloved area of the JC. Shot #1 is from December 1955, and #2 is April 1958.



An undated 1950’s view:



September 1961:



Daveland blog reader Thufer pointed out the difference in the amount of water pumped over Schweitzer Falls. Check out these recent images and compare:









And 2 from just last weekend:





Some Skippers have commented that the water change has killed the joke; others have argued that it makes the joke more funny as the water is more akin to “a trickle.” See more Disneyland Jungle Cruise photos at my website.

4 comments:

Major Pepperidge said...

I've been there when the falls were just a trickle. What the hell? I guess those big water pumps do use a lot of electricity, maybe they are saving money that way. But they have huge roaring falls over at DCA, so that doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. The waterfalls on the Matterhorn also seem like trickles compared to years ago...

TokyoMagic! said...

Hmmm, I've been on the Jungle Cruise several times recently and didn't even notice that....maybe because I usually go on it at night. Guess I need to do a daylight cruise. I like the little hut in that first pic....don't recall ever seeing that before.

Chiana_Chat said...

Me either, TokyoMagic. Don't suppose that hut's still there? Wow how the Jungle grew! I gather they had to totally rebuild the falls and to their credit did so, leaving the ride intact; it also seems to look more like the newer Indiana Jones-ish style compared to the darker orig. rockwork.

Yeah that's odd about the water flow. I don't know, are the low-flow times really to save moolah or water or...? It's so hard to figure them out. DCA is getting a billion dollar investment, which is probably a good idea if DCA must continue in current form. But meanwhile they can't get a PeopleMover going in Tomorrowland, Cascade Peak rotted and had to be bulldozed, the "Fort Wilderness" is a mess and so on at the real money-making park. Dunno what goes with 'em.

The really amazing thing of course about the billion dollar investment in DCA is that DCA isn't in China... ;)

TokyoMagic! said...

LOL, Chiana!

And so true about PeopleMover, Cascade Peak and Fort Wilderness at the real money making park....indeed, what goes?