Jungle Cruise Banana Troop
The Jungle Cruise Banana Troop is one of those blink-and-you-miss-it details that makes the Jungle Cruise queue at Magic Kingdom worth slowing down for. Over the years, Disney and the Imagineers have refreshed the attraction and layered the standby line with playful signage, inside jokes, and little story breadcrumbs that most guests stroll right past on their way to the boats. On a recent trip, I started looking more closely and found several queue details that deserve a spotlight, especially the crew-themed doors and recruitment-style posters that hint at a larger world just beyond the dock. Here are a few of my favorite finds.
First up is the Banana Troop door, which is barely viewable on the right side of the photo above.
Banana Troop Crew
There are several doors that were added to the queue of the Jungle Cruise that reference Jungle Cruise crews (gets confusing if you say it out loud three times…). The first one up is the Banana Troop.
This door reminds me of the door to a summer camp cabin. Did you catch the numbers?
5571
Obviously, this is a reference to 1955 and 1971. Need I say more?
To the right of the door is a recruitment poster for the Banana Troop.
Funny Side Up
Enlist in the Banana Troop!
In the logo, it says: Jungle Navigation Co. LTD. Established 1911. The numbers 5571 make up the body of the gorilla.
The text to the right of the poster says, “We’ve got a peel!” I’m not sure if it was designed intentionally by the imagineers or due to the guests in the queue, but at first glance, it does read, “We’ve got a pee!” There are also some great historical images this might have other hidden references to imagineers or skippers.
Jungle Cruise First Joke
A framed handwritten note shares the first joke for the Banana Troop on the Jungle Cruise.
OUR FIRST JOKE
Here is the giraffe, the only
animal in the jungle that looks
DOWN upon the others!
—Skipper Winston
Anyone know the backstory of this joke?
The imagineers are developing a fully-fledged backstory based on the Society of Explores and Adventurers (SEA), which continues throughout the Jungle Cruise queue and in the Skipper Canteen. There are other SEA references in other areas of Walt Disney World, as well. This is a paradigm shift, of sorts; instead of honoring former imagineers, they are creating fictional details that help tell a larger story. Any thoughts on this change?
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