Motor Boat Cruise
Encyclopedia
Motor Boat Cruise was an attraction at Disneyland in Anaheim, California
Anaheim, California
Anaheim is a city in Orange County, California. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was about 365,463, making it the most populated city in Orange County, the 10th most-populated city in California, and ranked 54th in the United States...

.

History

Motor Boat Cruise opened in 1957 on the border between Fantasyland
Fantasyland
Fantasyland is one of the "themed lands" at the many Magic Kingdom-style parks run by The Walt Disney Company around the world. Each Fantasyland has a castle as well as several gentle rides themed after Disney movies...

 and Tomorrowland
Tomorrowland
- Tomorrowland 1955–1967 :The first Tomorrowland opened at Disneyland on July 18, 1955, with only several of its planned attractions open, due to budget cuts. The construction of the park was rushed, so Tomorrowland was the last land to be finished. It became something of a corporate showcase,...

. The waterways of the Motor Boat Cruise shared space with other attractions such the Viewliner train and bridges for Junior Autopia
Autopia
Autopia is a Disneyland attraction, in which patrons steer specially designed cars through an enclosed track. Versions of Autopia exist at Anaheim, California, Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallée, France, and at Hong Kong Disneyland on Lantau Island, Hong Kong...

.

Major changes took place in 1959 the three attractions in the area. The Viewliner and its little railroad track were gone. Instead, the elevated beam of the new Disneyland Alweg Monorail curved gracefully overhead. The new Fantasyland Autopia and an expanded Tomorrowland Autopia replaced the Junior Autopia. And the lagoon which had once been home to the Phantom Boats (which opened in 1955 and closed forever in 1956) was turned into the crystal clear lagoon of the Submarine Voyage. But instead of joining the Viewliner and the Junior Autopia as mere memories, the Motor Boat Cruise survived.

In 1991, as part of the Disney Afternoon Avenue event, the Motor Boat Cruise became the Motor Boat Cruise to Gummi Glen. Plywood characters from Disney’s animated Gummi Bears television series made Gummi Berry juice along the waterway.

Although the Motor Boat Cruise survived the major 1959 project, it didn’t survive the January 1993 opening of Mickey’s Toontown hundreds of yards away. The word is that to control overall park operating expenses, the operating budget for the Motor Boat Cruise was reallocated to Mickey's Toontown. So in January 1993, the Motor Boat Cruise closed permanently. Its loading platform and landscaped grounds are now called Fantasia Gardens.

In 2001, an attraction considered by WDI to be the true successor to the Motor Boat Cruise, Aquatopia
Aquatopia
Aquatopia is an attraction at Tokyo DisneySea theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort in Chiba, Japan. Located in the Port Discovery area of the park, it is notable as being the second of only two attractions in the world to use a new trackless ride system designed by Walt Disney Imagineering.It is...

, opened at Tokyo DisneySea
Tokyo DisneySea
is a 176-acre theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort located in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, just outside Tokyo. It opened on September 4, 2001. It is owned by The Oriental Land Company, which licenses the theme from The Walt Disney Company. Tokyo DisneySea attracted an estimated 12 million visitors in...

 in Japan.

Current status

In 2007, the former Motor Boat Cruise waterways were drained during final construction of the neighboring attraction, Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage
Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage
Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage is an attraction located in the Tomorrowland area of Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California, which opened on June 11, 2007...

. During this time, around 2/3 of Motor Boat Cruise's former waterways were filled in with landscaping, creating more of a space buffer between the freshwater-based submarine lagoon, and the 'green system' water of Motor Boat Cruise's area. During this time, the former tracks that lay hidden beneath the green water were covered up or destroyed. In April 2007, a new dam was built, and green water filled back into the area known as Fantasia Gardens (the former Motor Boat Cruise loading dock). It is expected that this old dock, as well as the last portion of surviving track around the dock, will also be destroyed (and filled in) whenever Disney decides on what to do with this considerable parcel of unused land.
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