The poor Discovery Riverboats of AK. My brother was an original boat driver that helped open Animal Kingdom. They changed a lot from not having animal trainers on board to having them, to only go half way around the river to going all the way around. They also stopped the fire breathing rock thing and other changes happened at the beginning. Then they repainted them and gave the CM's different costumes and called them something like Radio Disney boats. Then they vanished.
I thought the boats were gone before 9/11 as far as I can remember, they sure didn't last long that's for sure. My brother only worked through the summer of 98, so I don't know why they closed, but I did hear that they got a lot of guest complaints due to the long wait for such a boring ride (since you didn't really see many animals on it). Also I don't think Eisner liked them.
I wish they did bring them back and would clean up the river. It looks sad without them going around the river and when I was there last summer the river was getting over grown with algae and plants.
Does anyone actually know the reason that the boat ride at AK was closed down? Way back in the beginning, we rode on it a couple of times, and on about our 4th trip there, it was closed. When we asked the CMs at various places around the park, we got the answer that eisner did not like it and had it shut down, and that the interactives along the boats route {the fire breathing dragon in the cave, for instance} were also not working properly. I realize that CMs do not always have the answers, so does anyone actually know what happened to the ride? And what happened to the boats? And I am not really looking for a discussion on CMs and what they say and how they lie, etc., etc. I was just wondering if anybody actually knows what happened. 
Thanks for the info. Another question arises, though. You say it was closed as a budget cut after 9/11, but I seem to recall the last time we saw it running,{it was sporadic, as I recall} was not all that long after AK opened, maybe 1999 or early 2000. I don't remember it running the later part of 2000 or early 2001 at all. I could be wrong, and since you work there, you must know. And just one more question, were these boats still backstage up until recentley when they decided on Expedition Everest? And what actually became of them? Are they being used somewhere else, or were they scraped? Thanks again for the info. 
