Changes

And you may ask yourself, Wait, what happened to their boat? And we find out that the front of the boat has been beached upon these rocks. We wanted to put something here that feels like Marc Davis had a hand in it, that has a bit of humor in it. And we wanted the animals to have the last laugh. So you’ll see that the family of chimpanzees has moved in. And we don’t currently have chimps on this attraction—all of these amazing animals have been brought to life through the years on the Jungle Cruise and yet we’ve never had chimpanzees. The family of chimpanzees jumps on the wreckage of the boat and they are almost making fun of us. One is wearing the skipper’s hat and is on the microphone. The mother chimp has opened up all the maps and it looks like she’s reading them. A little chimp has gotten into the wildlife painter’s supplies and has made a mess with paint everywhere. It’s the animals really getting the last laugh in this cute scene—these silly explorers really came in and invaded their world <ref> https://d23.com/enhancements-coming-to-the-jungle-cruise/ </ref>.}}

Subsequent to the announcement, the first major change came to the Jungle Cruise on April 5, 2021, when the Trader Sam figure was removed from the ride <ref> https://wdwnt.com/2021/04/photos-trader-sam-removed-from-jungle-cruise-at-walt-disney-world/ </ref>. Although still unfinished, a new scene depicting Trader Sam's Gift Shop is expected to debut in 2021. Concept art for the upcoming scene shows that Trader Sam has turned the Jungle Navigation Company's Lost and Found into his own gift shop <ref> https://attractionsmagazine.com/trader-sam-animatronic-jungle-cruise-replaced-with-trader-sams-gift-shop/ </ref>. Unfortunately for Sam, while he is out in the jungle looking for inventory a group of monkeys appears to have raided his shop.