Introduction

The only thing sure to happen in life are death, taxes, and sequels to popular things. The response to Skipper Stories, the first volume in this series, has been fantastic, thanks to everyone who bought a copy or came out to hear me give a talk about my favorite Disneyland attraction. When I was working on Skipper Stories I sometimes found it difficult to get people to sit down for an interview. My wife told me not to worry, that once the first book came out I would get flooded with people looking to share their stories.

She was right, as usual.

Calls, texts, emails, Facebook messages all came in fast. I had so many people to interview that I had to finally tell some that their interview would have to wait for another book. If I wanted to wait another year, this book would be the size of a telephone book, if anyone remembers what those are.

More Skipper Stories features interviews with more skippers than the first book. I would say about a third more, but I’m really bad at math, so let’s just say “more.” Another interesting thing is that most of the people I interviewed wanted to talk on the record. The few anonymous stories here are either from the interviews I did or from skippers I know who only had a story or two to share and wanted to keep their name out.

There is a bond between skippers no matter what era. I talked with skippers from the 1970s and it was like I had worked with them. I was honored to be invited to a reunion of skippers from Walt Disney World, and although their Jungle Cruise is different than the one in Disneyland, we had an instant bond.

Disney likes to focus on the stars, on Walt and the Imagineers who designed these great attractions. In doing so, they neglect the stories of the people who made the attractions run. At a ride like Peter Pan or Space Mountain, it is mostly pushing a button and letting the ride work its magic. However, at the Jungle Cruise it takes a skipper to make Walt’s vision of the attraction come to life. This book is part of my on-going effort to tell the stories of the people who literally put their blood, sweat, and tears into Disneyland everyday.

I kept them in their own words and occasionally unique syntax. Some of these chapters titles may sound familiar, but I used stories and told tales you didn’t see in the first book. Also, I didn’t take out all the swear words like I did in Skipper Stories, so you’ve been warned. It’s not bad, but still.

Those of you who work at the Jungle Cruises in Florida, Hong Kong, or Tokyo, you wonder where your book is? It’s coming.

But now that you’ve read the introduction, you’re ready to enter the crazy world of Disneyland’s World-Famous Jungle Cruise!