jungle cruise

A True-Life Jungle Cruise with National Geographic: The Amazon River

By Justin Arthur and the National Geographic Image Collection

In celebration of the “gnu” excitement coming to the Jungle Cruise attractions at Disneyland Park and Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World this summer, along with the Disney’s Jungle Cruise, now in theaters and on Disney+ Premiere Access, D23 is teaming up with the National Geographic Image Collection to explore some of the real-life rivers that have inspired Adventureland over the years! If you missed our adventures on the Mekong, Congo, and Nile Rivers, be sure to check them out!

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An intrepid skipper takes guests on a crash course Jungle Cruise at Disneyland, 1960.
Photo from the Walt Disney Archives Collection.

The final leg of our photo safari takes us to the Amazon River, South America’s mightiest river and home to one of the most diverse ecological systems on the planet. In Adventureland, this river snakes past butterflies, biting piranhas, and howling monkeys. The Amazon also provides the thrilling backdrop for Jungle Cruise, now in theaters and available with Premiere Access on Disney+!

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Don’t let it get a crush on you. A slithering python eyes guests on Jungle Cruise at Walt Disney World, 1971.
Photo from the Walt Disney Archives Collection.

The National Geographic Image Collection archives began in 1919 as an illustration library, and contains over 64.5 million still images dating back to the 1860s. The Image Collection is carefully preserved, curated, and digitized, with amazing photos from the pages of National Geographic magazine constantly added, making it one of the most significant photo collections in the world. D23 is pleased to partner with the expert team at the Image Collection to offer a glimpse into this vast archive and celebrate the Jungle Cruise!

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A furr-midable jaguar prowls along a trail, Tiputini Biodiversity Station, Yasuni National Park, Ecuador, 2012.
Photo by Steve Winter/National Geographic Image Collection.

The most powerful river in the world, the real-world Amazon carries four times the volume of water than any other river. Flowing 4,000 miles from high in the Andes Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean, its basin stretches through Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Brazil. The Amazon is the world’s largest rainforest, critical to the control of the entire Earth’s climate, producing 20% of the world’s oxygen. The destruction of this habitat has increasingly degraded the health of this ecosystem, and conservation groups are working hard to protect it. This enigmatic river has long captured the imaginations of explorers from around the world, winding into countless tributaries, some of which remain uncharted. The Amazon is home to hundreds of thousands of plants and insects, along with captivating creatures like capybaras, piranhas, sloths, jaguars, and river dolphins.

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Providing us some inspiration to go… deeper and deeper into the jungle, a rainforest stream trickles through Yasuni National Park, Ecuador, 2012.
Photo by Steve Winter/National Geographic Image Collection.
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A squirrel monkey does a “banana split” in the Tiputini Biodiversity Station, Yasuni National Park, Ecuador, 2012.
Photo by Tim Laman/National Geographic Image Collection.
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This butterfly was spotted in Tiputini Biodiversity Station, Yasuni National Park, Ecuador, 2012.
Photo by Tim Laman/National Geographic Image Collection.
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The view from a tower in the Museu da Amazônia reserve offers soaring views of the rainforest, Manaus, Brazil, 2017.
Photo by Kirsten Luce/National Geographic Image Collection.
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Indigenous people have called the Amazon home for thousands of years, like these locals paddling across the Rio Negro, Anavilhanas, Brazil, 1980.
Photo by James P. Blair/National Geographic Image Collection.
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“I wonder what happened to Rosita?” Scarlet macaws in the Tiputini Biodiversity Station, Yasuni National Park, Ecuador, 2012.
Photo by Tim Laman/National Geographic Image Collection.
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A fig tree with giant buttresses takes root in Tiputini Biodiversity Station, Yasuni National Park, Ecuador, 2012.
Photo by Tim Laman/National Geographic Image Collection.
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A red howler goes about his monkey business in Tiputini Biodiversity Station, Yasuni National Park, Ecuador, 2012.
Photo by Tim Laman/National Geographic Image Collection.
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Aerial view of the Amazonian jungle on a flight from La Paz to Rurrenabaque, 2014.
Photo by Matthieu Paley/National Geographic Image Collection.
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A long-horned beetle grubs about in the Adolfo Ducke Reserve, Manaus, Brazil, 2014.
Photo by Anand Varma/National Geographic Image Collection.
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The 200-person Huni Kuin community of Santa Rey, Peru, 2017.
Photo by Charlie Hamilton James/National Geographic Image Collection.
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“This fine-feathered friend is a jolly toucan.” A white-throated toucan is perched above Anangu Creek in Yasuni National Park, Ecuador, 2012.
Photo by Tim Laman/National Geographic Image Collection.
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The Yuruá River, a southern tributary of the Amazon, meanders near the Peru-Brazil border, 2017.
Photo by Charlie Hamilton James/National Geographic Image Collection.

Thanks for joining our true-life Jungle Cruise on the Amazon River, and we hope you’ve found our world-wide journey with National Geographic to be Ama-zin. All right, now please stand up and exit the boat. If you don’t, I promise I’ll go around again and tell some really bad jokes.