Two consecutive shots from August 1958 of the Disneyland Motor Boat Cruise. Brothers? Friends? Not sure...but it would appear that the one boy wants to take charge of the wheel. The lady in the boat on the left sums up this attraction for me. Looking off to her right, she seems thoroughly bored.
In shot two, the same little kid with the crew cut is really taking over. I bet he ended up running into another boat.
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7 comments:
I always liked boat rides as a kid. Even those carnival rides that just went around in a circle with the boats floating in a narrow trough (kind of like an aqua-merry go round). Loved it. I was a weird kid...
Looking at the giant boulders they just navigated past, I don't see how anyone could be bored on the Motorboat Cruise.
@Stu29573, did those little boats have two steering wheels, one for each rider? I remember some of the carnival rides doing that.
Would have solved the problems in today's pics, which are a lot of fun. Thank you Dave.
JG
I had forgotten the two steering wheels! And a bell! You gotta have a bell!
I loved that Disneyland had boats that WENT somewhere. Those carnival rides went in circles, and dark rides anywhere were concealed behind a facade, but the Mark Twain had its big river, the Jungle Cruise launched from the edge of a substantial jungle, and even the Motorboats puttered through a countryside shared with the Autopia. You saw them as you walked by; they were Real Places that you could ride through.
Radiator Springs Racers delivers that same feel, but without water.
@DBenson - couldn't agree more. Boats that went somewhere... away from civilization and back again.
@stu29573 and @JG - Wow... two steering wheels... totally forgot about that.
Finally, It appears that the track of the Santa Fe + Disneyland Viewliner, featured February 13, 2020, is in view of the bottom of the first photo.
Always your pal,
Amazon Belle
Boats/rides that seem to go somewhere - I completely agree! And yes, Matthew - I should have pointed out the Viewliner track! Duh!
The Mark Twain illusion of going somewhere was so complete that on my first voyage, I thought we'd landed in another part of the Park. Granted, I was two and a half years old, but that feeling of being on a real adventure still has a strong hold on my memory nearly 49 years later. That and being terrified of that awful storm we'd weathered in Pirates of the Caribbean.
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