Imagineers are known for creating some of the greatest theme park attractions in the
world.
Almost every attraction they come up with is an instant hit.
But even Disney can’t get it right every time.
Whether it’s because of budget cuts, management interference or simply a concept that doesn't
prove quite as great in reality as it did on paper, Disney has produced some attractions
that performed disastrously.
Many of these attractions were short-lived while others stand in place.
Today we’re going to talk about 5 of these disastrous attractions.
Discovery River Boats
Discovery River Boats was one of Animal Kingdom’s opening day attractions.
This ride was designed as a type of transportation around the park that took guests from Safari
Village to Asia.
But it was also supposed to serve another purpose.
You see, in 1995 Disney announced Animal Kingdom, and with this announcement, they advertised
all types of animals, including some mythological animals like dragons an unicorns.
This was because a land called Beastly Kingdom was supposed to be built in the park.
If you want to know more about Beastly Kingdom check out this video!
The problem was that Beastly Kingdom was postponed and later canceled.
So Imagineers had to justify the mythological creatures they had announced.
How would they do this?
Well, they would have a dragon, a unicorn, and a Kraken among other animals in the Discovery
River Boats ride.
This sounds cool and all, but in the end, there was only money enough to build the dragon.
The dragon was supposed to be built kind of like the awesome dragon that lives under the
Disneyland Paris castle, but Michael Eisner decided that he wanted to advertise the Dinosaur
movie so he took the money that was meant for the dragon and decided to build an enormous
Aladdar animatronic!
That gave Imagineers jus couple of thousand dollars to build a dragon.
Imagineers did all they could with the tiny budget they were given and came up with a
somewhat dinky cave at the water’s edge.
As the boats went by, a ferocious roar would echo out of the cave, followed by a burst
of flaming propane.
These effects hinted that there was a dragon somewhere deep back inside that cave ... but
guests never really got a glimpse of the thing.
Of course, guests were pretty unimpressed with what they saw along Discovery River once
Animal Kingdom opened.
People were kind of hoping for an experience similar to the Magic Kingdom's Jungle Cruise
and of course, this was nothing like it.
after waiting in line for over an hour to board the boats, they were furious to find
that there was virtually nothing to see along the water during their five-minute journey.
After six months, the boats were renamed as the Discovery River Taxis, emphasizing that
they were intended to provide transportation and nothing else.
Then, by 1999 the attraction was once again renamed, this time as the Radio Disney River
Cruises, with the boats being repainted in bright colors and Radio Disney music piped
in.
It proved to be just as unpopular, and the ride was closed for good.
The Mickey Mouse Club Circus
Just after Disneyland opened in 1955, Walt wanted to have a circus inside the park.
He had always loved the circus and thought it was a great idea to have a circus tied
into the new Mickey Mouse Club television show.
So the Mickey Mouse Club Circus was created.
The show started with a parade that went down Main Street featuring animals, clowns, and
even the Mouseketeers!
Then it came to two huge circus tents being set up on the edge of Fantasyland.
There, two 75-minute performances took place every day.
The show also had acrobats, aerialists, wild animals, and the Mouseketeers.
But this circus was a mess, with animals escaping from the tent and fighting inside their cages,
including an incident in which a black panther bit the paw off of another animal in front
of a live audience.
Performers misbehaving between shows where they would gamble, drink, walk around in various
states of undress and curse strongly and often even with the young Mouseketeers nearby.
And there was also very little interest from guests.
People went to see Disneyland, not a circus.
The circus stayed as long as it did because Walt really wanted it there, but Imagineers
had a hard time running it and making the effort of trying to keep it under Disney standards.
So after a while, the circus was closed down.
Superstar Limo
This complete mess deserves its own video and we promise it’s coming in the future.
But for now, we’ll talk a little bit about it.
When California Adventure was being built, it was on a pretty small budget.
And the bizarre nightmare called “superstar limo” was the perfect example of the struggles
that came with the park.
You can watch our California Adventure video to learn more about it.
This attraction was a dark ride that took riders through a cartoony rendition of Hollywood
in purple "stretch limo" vehicles.
A variety of celebrities appeared in animated form, with the storyline revolving around
riders becoming "Hollywood's newest celebrity".
A stereotypical Hollywood talent agent named Swifty La Rue further appeared infrequently
on small in-seat video screens, reminding the riders not to be late to their movie premiere.
The celebrity figures in the ride were stylized and caricatured.
Though they had moving arms and heads, none of Disney's human-like Audio-Animatronicstechnologies
were used in the attraction.
So they looked pretty creepy.
Of course, the ride received lots of criticism from guests and media alike and it was shut
down less than a year after it was opened.
The ride was eventually replaced in 2006 by Monsters, Inc.
Mike and Sulley to the Rescue. you can actually see that many of the animatronics were reused
when the ride was changed!
Journey into Your Imagination
Journey into Imagination was one of the most popular attractions in Epcot.
It operated from 1983–1998.
But after its closure, it was changed and became Journey into YOUR imagination.
This version of the ride received so much criticism from the public that it only survived
for two years before it was itself replaced.
It was themed around 3-D movie Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, which was also hosted in the
same pavilion, and saw guests passing through numerous areas of the fictitious Imagination
Institute.
where they would be test subjects for the new invention, the Imagination Scanner.
Dr. Nigel Channing, played by Eric Idle, hosted this version.
The ride began with guests going through the scanner and saying that the riders have no
imagination.
Then Channing decides to send us through the numerous labs throughout the Institute including
Sound, Illusion, Color, Gravity, and Connections.
Each room had special effects like the sound of a train coming closer, stars forming constellations
and an upside down house.
But Fans of the original ride were furious.
Their favorite Epcot icon Figment made really small cameos in the ride, as for Dreamfinder,
he was gone completely!
Guests demanded their return!
Because of this, the attraction closed on October 8, 2001, and again, went through another
renovation.
It reopened the following year as Journey into Imagination with Figment, its current
incarnation.
Figment received a much larger role this time around, appearing in every single show scene.
The famous theme tune of the original ride, One Little Spark, was also back.
But fans were just as critical of the new version.
You just can’t beat the original.
Rocket Rods Rods
In the 1990s, Disney planned to open Tomorrowland 2055.
This Tomorrowland would be set in Disneyland’s 100th birthday and things would have changed
a lot.
It would be changed into an intergalactic alien spaceport.
But, things didn’t go as planned for this project and it was canceled.
If you want to learn more about it check out our Tomorrowland 2055 video!
After the project was canceled it became New Tomorrowland which was an underwhelming overhaul
compared to what Tomorrowland 2055 would have been.
One of the new rides that came with the New Tomorrowland was “Rocket Rods.”
Imagineers took the People Mover and tried to change it into a new thrill ride that promised
to complete in three minutes the course that took the People mover 16 minutes.
The problem was that the budget for this ride didn’t allow them to change the tracks of
the people mover and the current tracks were not prepared for the high speed and energy
that the Rocket Rods needed, so the ride had to slow down at every turn and then speed
up again and this resulted in a ride that was broken down more than it was functional.
Just a little over a month after its grand opening, Rocket Rods was closed for refurbishment
due to mechanical problems.
It opened again after three months.
Guests were critical of this ride of course because the lines were long and the ride was
definitely not worth it.
Rocket Rods closed again on September 25, 2000, for a supposed refurbishment that would
last about 6 months but there was no work being done during this time.
And in April 2001 it was announced that Rocket Rods would not open again.
What rides do you think we missed?
Are there any fans of the rides we mentioned?
Let us know in the comments!
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Thank you so much and see you next week!