When Reality is Better Than Imagineering Art: Disneyland's Revamped Rivers of America

As all the excitement continues around Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge and its only opening day attraction, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, I thought it was time to take a look at the transformation of the Rivers of America. 

Disneyland fans were highly concerned when it was announced that  the Rivers of America was going under the knife in order to make room for Star Wars. The project was already hotly debated due to its location in "Walt's park" versus the catch all that has become Disney California Adventure. Concerns were valid. The end result was, quite fortunately, one of the most lovingly executed projects of Disneyland's recent years.

My photography skills do not do the transformation justice! As I rode both the Mark Twain Steamboat and then the Disneyland Railroad, I was impressed with what I found. It was even impressive from Tom Sawyer Island and even from the walking path that meanders around the river from Frontierland to New Orleans Square to Critter Country. From every angle, this project is a winner.

Boarding the Mark Twain Riverboat brings some of the best views possible. What used to be a long stretch of nothing much to see just around the river bend has become an area of interest. Newly discovered waterfalls crash just behind the elevated railroad track, and the long present Indian village seems to have come alive. You know that Galaxy's Edge is just beyond the additions, and yet it all flows together so seamlessly making that fact easy to forget. 

Naturally, with about 1/3 of the river shortened than it was at park opening in 1955, I expected the water journey to feel shortchanged. It was not a lesser experience in any way. The craft certainly moved not quite as fast as before, and the overall journey felt just right.

What has yet to be seen is how the voyage feels in the evening when the Galaxy outpost is lit up. How will a ride on the rails feel as it passes by the otherworldly glow? Should the Mark Twain ever make evening cruises again, will this ruin the mood?

I'm not a fan of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge going into Disneyland. That and Marvel should have been the basis of a 3rd park in Anaheim. But it's done. At least the transformation of the Rivers of America was lovingly accomplished- in my mind adding and not subtracting from a beautiful part of the Land.

(Art copyright The Walt Disney Company. Photographs by Mark Taft.)