Thunder Mesa Riverboat Landing
| Thunder Mesa Riverboat Landing | |
|---|---|
| Park | Disneyland Park (Paris) |
| Land / area | Frontierland |
| Type | Riverboat cruise |
| Opened | April 12, 1992 |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering |
| Height req. | None |
| Status | Operating |
Thunder Mesa Riverboat Landing is the riverboat attraction of Frontierland at Disneyland Park (Paris) at Disneyland Paris. From a wooden landing on the Rivers of the Far West, paddle steamers carry guests on a cruise around the island that holds Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, past the sights of the fictional mining town of Thunder Mesa. It opened with the park on April 12, 1992, and Paris is distinctive among the Disney parks for having had two riverboats rather than one.[1]
History
Every castle park with a frontier land has put a riverboat on its river, following the Mark Twain at the original Disneyland. Paris built two boats for its larger river, which loops a full island rather than passing along one bank. The Mark Twain is a sternwheeler, modelled on Anaheim's original boat. Her partner, the Molly Brown, named for the Titanic survivor Margaret "Molly" Brown, is a sidewheeler — the only sidewheel riverboat in any Disney park. Each boat carried its own recorded narration, presented as a conversation between the captain and the boat's namesake character.
Operating two ageing steamboats proved demanding, and the Molly Brown gave the park a serious incident on May 16, 2005, when her engine overheated at the far end of the river. There was no visible fire, but smoke damaged the ship and her engines and left her immobile; her guests were ferried ashore by the River Rogue Keelboats, the smaller boats that then also worked the river. She was out of service for many months, moved to dry dock that September, and did not complete her first long refurbishment until late April 2007, while the Mark Twain covered the landing.
That was not the end of her troubles. The Molly Brown was effectively rebuilt again from 2010, and was rededicated at the landing on March 25, 2011, with a new English-language narration replacing her earlier French one, in a ceremony led by the resort's ambassadors. The landing stage itself was then rebuilt over the winter of 2011–12. The Mark Twain has not operated since 2011 and has spent most of the time since in dry dock, leaving the rebuilt Molly Brown as the river's sole working boat — the pattern that continues today, with references to the Mark Twain since removed from the resort's websites.[2]
Experience
Guests board at the landing in the heart of Frontierland's Thunder Mesa town, beneath Phantom Manor on its hill, and the boat sets off on a circuit of the Rivers of the Far West. There is no track-side show in the American sense; the scenery is Frontierland itself, seen from the water and tied together by the recorded commentary, which points out the sights of Thunder Mesa as the boat passes them.
The route circles the Big Thunder Mountain island at close quarters, giving the clearest view in the park of the mine train racing through its tunnels and over its trestles. Beyond the island the narration picks out Wilderness Island and Smuggler's Cove, a snoring fisherman on the bank, geysers presented as a reminder of Yellowstone, and exposed dinosaur remains along the shore. The keelboats that once shared the river brought guests closer still to the island, but they no longer operate in regular service, and the riverboat cruise is now the only way to make the circuit.
It is one of the park's gentlest attractions: a seated, open-deck cruise of the whole Frontierland river system, and the single best vantage point for understanding how Paris Frontierland is laid out as one town, one river and one interlocking story.
See also
- Phantom Manor
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
- Disneyland Park (Paris)
- Disneyland Paris
- Mark Twain Riverboat
- Liberty Belle Riverboat