Mark Twain Riverboat

Cruise back in time on an authentic steam-powered paddlewheel riverboat. Mark Twain Riverboat is a 14-minute sightseeing voyage aboard a recreation of the glorious 19th-century riverboats that carried people and cargo up and down the mighty Mississippi.

The Mark Twain

Journey back to the days when traveling was as much about elegance and romance as it was about transportation. Board the gleaming white, 4-level, 105-foot-long vessel. You are free to walk around the decks to inspect the 400-passenger, 5/8th-scale ship and admire its meticulously detailed craftsmanship. Several chairs are available in the box of the first deck.

The 28-foot-tall Mark Twain has 4 levels (from bottom to top):

• Main Deck
• Promenade Deck
• Texas Deck
• Pilothouse

Only the pilothouse is off limits to passengers. Check out the Victorian lounge on the Promenade Deck or the captain's quarters on the Texas Deck.

The Name

Walt Disney named the Mark Twain after the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. One of America's greatest writers and Walt's personal hero, Clemens was a riverboat pilot as a young man. That experience inspired his pen name: "mark twain" is a riverboat term that means a vessel is at a safe depth.

The Rivers of America

The Mark Twain takes you in a full circle around Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island. Along the banks of the Rivers of America, you'll see many intriguing sights and sounds across 3 different lands — including the backwoods of Frontierland, the wrought-iron railings of New Orleans Square and the peak of Chick-A-Pin Hill towering over Critter Country.

Also along the river's edge, sharp-eyed explorers can observe:

• The rustic cabin of a frontier settler
• An idyllic Native American village
• Busy beavers at work on a dam
• A moose enjoying a leisurely lunch
• An ominous mansion lurking in the shadows
• A skunk staring down raccoons
• Mountain lions relaxing in the sun
• An osprey guarding it's nest
• The Disneyland Railroad train steaming into the wilderness

The Mark Twain follows the same path as the Sailing Ship Columbia and the Davy Crockett's Explorer Canoes.