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- Thunder Mesa Riverboat Landing
Thunder Mesa Riverboat Landing
Secure all cargo, all passengers aboard!
The Thunder Mesa gold rush brought an elegant riverboat landing and two majestic riverboats, Mark Twain and Molly Brown, navigating the Rivers of the Far West.
As you circle Big Thunder Mountain and Wilderness Island, look out for cascading waterfalls, beautiful wildlife, smuggler's caves and erupting geysers! Wave a quick hello to Old Joe as he fishes, before your grand old-timer steams past Phantom Manor and back to the riverboat landing.
- Don't miss this!
Old-fashioned riverboat cruise around the Rivers of the Far West.
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Opening Date
12th April 1992
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Attraction Type
Riverboat cruise
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Duration
15 minutes
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Capacity
390 Passengers per cruise
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Category
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Wait Time
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Suitablility
- Children 3-7
- Children 8-12
- Young Adults
- Adults
- Seniors
Trivia
- Mark Twain at Disneyland Paris is a near exact replica of the Disneyland original, built especially for the park by Walt Disney Imagineering with the help of Parisian boat builders. Both boats are actually built to a 5/8 scale, although this isn't consistent throughout the design. A third Mark Twain can be found in Westernland at Tokyo Disneyland, whilst Magic Kingdom in Florida has a different riverboat with a single funnel, named Liberty Belle. Named after the famous American author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, who became a steamboat pilot himself after studying 3,200 miles of the Mississippi for more than two years, the Mark Twain measures 34 metres long by 11 metres wide.
- Molly Brown on the other hand is entirely unique to Disneyland Paris, designed and built exclusively for the park to add extra capacity to the rivers right from day one. Whereas the Rivers of America in California has the Sailing Ship Columbia as a second key vessel, such a boat would have looked out of place in Euro Disneyland's more distinctly gold rush-era Frontierland. And so, almost 40 years on, the Imagineers sought to produce a partner for the stern-wheeler Mark Twain. One key difference is that Molly Brown is a side-wheeler riverboat, having two huge paddle wheels incorporated into each side of its body, and remains the only riverboat to be propelled in this fashion at any of the Disney parks. Named after the "unsinkable" Molly Brown, who survived the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, the boat is based on those which navigated the Sacramento river in northern California during the gold rush.
- A riverboat ride has been an essential element of the Disneyland experience right from the start and, along with the railroad, was one of the first attractions to appear on initial concept maps for the "Mickey Mouse Park" which was to have been built near the Disney studio lot in Burbank, California. When those plans grew into the Disneyland park eventually built in Anaheim in 1955, Walt Disney ended up funding much of the original Mark Twain's construction out of his own pocket as funds fell short, even mortgaging his holiday home to see the boat completed.
Mark Twain's two motors are capable of pumping out 1,600 kilograms of steam per hour, used to turn the 4.6 metre high paddle wheel at its rear
Tips
- The landing stage at Thunder Mesa Riverboat Landing is split into two waiting areas. At very busy times, when one fills up, guests are directed into the second area to wait for the next boat. Although waiting times are generally short, you can minimise your wait on the landing by keeping an eye on the amount of people already queueing and returning only when you see the riverboat in sight, arriving back at the dock.
- Although park maps have long shown both the Mark Twain and Molly Brown plying the waters at once, it is a rare sight to see both in operation at the same time — usually only on the busiest of Summer days, when neither boat is being refurbished. Often, the boats take it in turns to operate services over several months whilst one remains in the dry dock for servicing.
