Walt Disney believed that his parks would never be complete so long as there was imagination left in the world. That didn’t just apply to new additions. Walt reportedly would walk through Disneyland Park telling Cast Members to “plus it!” What he meant was that there are always changes – big and small – that could drastically improve an attraction for guests.
Of course, Disney doesn’t always get it right. That’s why we chronicled 6 of Disney’s Worst Attempts to “Plus” a Ride in its own countdown feature, seeing what happens when changes go too far and crush classics.
The good news is, more often than not small plusses go a long way in reinvigorating aging attractions. So here, we’ve collected ten of the best examples of “plussing” existing Disney Parks rides through changes – usually the big kind, but not always – that resonate with guests. These “plussed” attractions have followed Walt’s original suggestion stay fresh and advanced for a new generation and beyond. Which of these very special improvements do you think have made a noticeable difference on the ride? Most of the entries include a link to a YouTube video demonstrating the change. No worries – clicking those links will open the video in a new tab.
10. “it’s a small world”
Location: Disneyland
The Plus: Disney characters camouflaged into “small world” settings
Video: Character Highlights from the ride
This one’s controversial, and some probably argue that this belongs on the list of the worst “plussing” to occur in Disney Parks. “it’s a small world” at Disneyland was closed throughout almost all of 2008 as the ride’s 1964 infrastructure was updated and improved, and along the way, Disney decided to do something that ruffled lots of feathers in the fan community: they added Disney characters to the ride.
So now, while sailing through China, you might notice Mulan and Mushu as “small world” dolls along the banks of the flume. Pinocchio is in Italy; Aladdin and Jasmine fly overhead in the Middle East; Cinderella is in France; even Ariel, Flounder, Nemo, and Dory can be spotted in the South Seas room. In all, 37 Disney character figures were added to the ride – all of them matching the general style of small world dolls. They’re not exactly hidden. In fact, they’re pretty front-and-center in each room. Fans argued that the dolls defeated the purpose of the ride (which is supposed to tell a story of international unity) and instead made it a game of seek-and-find.
We understand the controversy and certainly don’t think that the ride needed the added characters to be relevant, classic, or enjoyable. But what’s done is done, and Disneyland’s version of the ride now has a little something extra to help children engage with the ride. All-in-all, worse things could’ve happened, and this “plussing” is a good one to come in at number ten on our list.
9. Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye
Location: Disneyland
The Plus: Mara comes to life as never before
Video: The “old” Mara vs. the new Mara projection effects
Indiana Jones Adventure never had any trouble pulling in crowds. The wild, off-roading dark ride through a cursed ancient temple was one of Disney’s darkest and most intense rides from its opening in 1995. On the ride, guests are ushered into one of three ancient chambers where they receive the gift of Timeless Youth, Early Riches, or Visions of the Future… that is, unless they look into the dark and corroded eye of the temple god, Mara.
Entering the Chamber of Destiny where their treasure awaits, guests can spot a 15-foot-tall carving of Mara on the back wall of the chamber. When they (inevitably) looked into the statue’s eyes, they would blow fog and turn a menacing deep red as his voice echoed. Scary enough, but Disney didn’t let the attraction age prematurely.
In August 2013, as one of their first installations of the now-famous texture-mapped projection technology, Mara was outfitted with a new effect: the god opens his eyes as guests enter the chamber. Upon seeing riders, his eyes narrow. What’s even better is that Mara’s reaction is personalized to each of the ride’s three ‘pathways.’ In the Fountain of Youth room, his face cracks and ages (see video link above). In the Treasure room, it rusts; and if Visions of the Future were destined to riders, his third eye crackles with lightning and his eyes glow red. Best of all, Disney surprised riders by installing the change overnight, with no announcement, no fanfare, and no refurbishment closure.
8. Fantasy Faire
Location: Disneyland
The Plus: A sort of New Fantasyland that defied fans’ low expectations and outrage
Disney Parks fans can be incredibly protective of the park and aggressively battle any proposed changes. That’s especially true at Disneyland – the only park Walt himself ever stepped foot in – where nooks and crannies remaining from Walt’s time are increasingly more rare. Such is the case of Carnation Gardens, a tiny plaza tucked to the side of Sleeping Beauty Castle. The wide plaza contained a striped red and white tent where swing dancing was commonplace on the weekends.
Fans reacted with outrage and disgust at the idea that Carnation Gardens would be renovated and absorbed into Fantasyland, taking on the land’s European exteriors and a Disney Princess-centric style. Even Disney’s promise that swing dancing would continue to be a staple of the area did little to quell the anger.
Then, the area opened. Charming to a fault, as detailed as Magic Kingdom’s New Fantasyland, and with wonderful allusions to Pinocchio and Hunchback of Notre Dame, Fantasy Faire is everything Disney fans didn’t know they wanted. As promised, the dancing tent returned – dressed now as a medieval Vaudeville theatre. It features incredible, unique, humorous adaptations of Disney animated films by day… and yes, swing dancing by night.
7. Big Thunder Mountain & Space Mountain
Location: Disneyland
The Plus: 21st century effects give classic coasters a brand new draw
Videos: Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain’s new finale
Occasionally, Disney undertakes the behemoth task of completely re-building their rides from scratch. Such is the case with these two Disneyland mountain peaks.
Space Mountain was closed for a complete rebuild before the park’s 50th anniversary. The ride was closed for two years as it was re-built piece by piece with new trains and effects. Maybe coolest of all, when the ride re-opened in 2005, it was filled with 21st century special effects and on-board audio that syncs up to the ride experience. After riding Space Mountain with perfectly synchronized music (see video link above), it’s hard to imagine riding around in the dark without anything to listen to. All those upgrades also allow the ride to become Space Mountain: Ghost Galaxy every Halloween (where an intergalactic ghoul cases the train through the cosmos with legitimately scary effects and music) and the popular Star Wars themed Hyperspace Mountain in the interim.
Then, in 2012, Big Thunder Mountain was closed for a similarly large-scale refurbishment, re-built from scratch. After more than a year, it re-opened in March 2014 with a very cool addition: an explosive finale (see video link above) using the same projected texture-mapping technology as Indiana Jones Adventure. The ride’s final lift hill is now alight (literally) with explosive smoke cannons, raining sparks, and more.
Both Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain’s respective “plussing” at Disneyland shows that a little bit can go a long way in making a coaster from the 1970s a must-ride that feels brand-new.
6. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Location: Disney’s Hollywood Studios
The Plus: The Tower is put in control and the results are staggering
Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney’s Hollywood Studios has gone through a number of re-programming efforts over its lifetime. The current configuration is the fourth – referred to as “Tower 4” by fans – and is almost certainly the best one yet. While the Tower of Terror rides in Tokyo, Paris, and California all followed a simple prescribed drop profile that’s the same every time, the original Tower of Terror in Orlando carries the slogan, “Never the Same Fear Twice.”
While it’s not totally randomized as some people think, Orlando’s tower does have four pre-determined ride programs that an on-ride computer randomly selects from during the ride. Each of the four possible programs has at least one “full-length” drop from the height of the tower, so you’re guaranteed a thrill.
Why the other Towers haven’t received “randomized” sequencing is anyone’s guess, but for now, it’s yet another reason Orlando’s version of the ride is clearly the best version in the world. It also inspires the eerie tagline “The Tower is in Control.” That it is.
5. Disney California Adventure
Image: Disney
Location: Disney California Adventure at Disneyland Resort
The Plus: A new foundational identity that recasts everything else in a new light
It may sound wild to suggest that an entire park can be “plussed,” but rest-assured, the “plussing” of Disney California Adventure Park did not happen overnight.
When the park opened in 2001, Disney’s lofty expectations for the “hip, edgy” park with an “MTV attitude” quickly fizzled. At Disneyland, guests would travel to historic, reverent, idealized lands of nostalgic Americana mixed with fantasy and romance. Just steps away at Disney’s California Adventure, they’d find a plywood Hollywood set of Hollywood, a cold, open plaza of concrete and corrugated steel, or a modern beach boardwalk of carnival freak posters and off-the-shelf carnival rides. The resort’s intensely-loyal, generations-long audience of Southern Californians balked at the low-budget, cartoon park that intentionally styled itself as a “spoof” of modern California.
And worse, California Adventure wasn’t just a fly-by-night box office failure that would eventually disappear. It was permanent, which made it a permanent scar on Disneyland… unless executives got serious. They did, with a 5-year, $1.2 billion reconstruction effort that literally tore each themed land to the rivets and rebuilt them in the style of Disneyland – historic, reverent, idealized lands. The incredible transformation injected Disney character, storytelling, and a park-wide Californian continuity, uniting the themed lands into one majestic narrative. You can catch up on the full, in-depth story of the most ambitiously grand redesign Disney’s ever deployed in its own in-depth feature, Disaster Files: Disney’s California Adventure.
…And you can see that careful Californian story and detail disintegrate as Disney took a creative wrecking ball to the park’s Lost Legend: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror just a few years later. The towering pueblo-deco lost Hollywood Tower Hotel transformed into a gaudy, garish sci-fi superhero warehouse / prison / power plant visible from each of the park’s themed lands. But don’t worry – Imagineers assure us that it’s only the first step in giving the park a new Marvel land modeled on New York City! …Wait. …Huh?! Ah well… for at least few years, California Adventure got to be a creative companion to Disneyland, and it was nice while it lasted.
4. The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure
Location: Disney California Adventure and Magic Kingdom
The Plus: A few small changes add up to a very significant difference
Video: The “Old Lighting” vs. the “Plussed Lighting”
Since the film’s premier in 1989, fans have been clamoring (no pun intended) for a theme park attraction based on The Little Mermaid. The beloved film kicked off the Disney Renaissance and is a renowned piece of animation in its own right. When the film’s Platinum Edition DVD was released, the bonus features included a CGI conceptual ride-through of a dark ride designed around the film, probably for Disneyland Paris. While it never came to be, it signaled that Disney understood and was looking into the idea of a Little Mermaid ride.
A ride finally did come to fruition thanks to Disney California Adventure’s billion-dollar rebuild, when Ariel’s Undersea Adventure opened in June 2011 inside a 1910s aquarium on Paradise Pier. The dark ride immediately earned negative feedback from fans who found it charmless. They cited some (admittedly awkward) animatronics, abrupt pacing, and very unusual lighting that didn’t look at all like a classic Disney dark ride’s signature blacklight glow, much less like you were actually Under The Sea. Instead, the ride’s main room was lit in orange and green with literal spotlights and disco balls pointed at shiny, plastic fish animatronics.
Astoundingly, Disney appeared to listen and react, closing the ride for a little at a time as small changes improved the experience. (One day, if we’re lucky, all evidence of the “ice cream hair” will be lost to time.) Finally, in March 2014, it closed for two full months, during which time the ride was overhauled. New figures filled the empty corners and small changes to the animatronics did at least a little bit of good. But most impressively, the ride’s signature “Under The Sea” scene was redressed in blacklight, giving it the classic, glowing, signature look of a Disney dark ride. The figures glow and the now blue-and-purple rooms looks much more watery while the lowered lights disguise the lighting fixtures that were so apparent before. Magic Kingdom’s ride got the same facelift in March 2015, though both versions still lack a real finale.
3. Spaceship Earth
Location: Epcot
The Plus: Keeping up with the times is a good look for Epcot’s thesis ride
Epcot was always meant to represent a living showcase of modern technology and stories. Unfortunately, time seems to be slowly and ironically conquering a park that’s meant to bring progress to life. Luckily, at least a few rides have been salvaged from the creep of time. The park’s signature attraction has to be Spaceship Earth, the epic 15-minute dark ride through the park’s icon of the same name.
Technology has absolutely flown forward since the park’s opening in 1982, and if Spaceship Earth were still running on that era’s technology, it would be a shame indeed. Instead, Disney has consciously kept that attraction very updated. The ride’s most recent update – its fourth major overhaul – was in 2008 with new scenes, lighting, costumes, score, and narration via Dame Judi Dench that all give the ride a very current and modern style.
It’s fitting that a ride originally meant to be the park’s Communication Pavilion has been consistently “plussed” to stay current. Especially as the world presses bravely into the 21st century, ideas of communication, interconnectedness, and the global neighborhood are more important now than ever before.
2. Star Tours: The Adventures Continue
Location: Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios
The Plus: A complete overhaul gives a fan favorite ride unlimited new potential
When Star Tours opened in Disneyland’s Tomorrowland in 1987, it represented the future. Sincerely. First, it used unprecedented flight-training simulator technology in an entertainment role for the first time. Second, it represented Michael Eisner’s thesis statement: that movies could be great springboards for rides in Disney Parks, and that those movies did not necessarily have to be Disney movies! Disney Parks fanatics will want to check out our in-depth Lost Legends: Star Tours feature that dives behind-the-scenes into the creation of the original and the way it altered the course of the parks forever.
The ride became a staple of Disney Parks and remained that way well into the 2000s as classic as ever. But by 2010, the ride was beginning to show its age. As parks began to use crystal clear HD 3D technologies, the tired grainy film of Star Tours was looking antiquated, and repeat rides were rarer and rarer. Disney saw its chance. In one of the most epic “plusses” of any park, Star Tours was rebuilt as Star Tours: The Adventures Continue.
Technically a “prequel,” set before the original ride, Star Tours now has a few changes. Very little feels different in the queue (except from fun cameos by stars from the original ride) but once you board your Star Speeder, things will be different. Literally. The ride has 54 different combinations that send you to different planets on each and every ride, so you’re unlikely to ever get the exact same ride twice in one vacation. And of course, the ride is in ultra-clear 3D. Now, Star Tours is again a game-changer that outpaces any of the competition’s simulator rides, and just that quickly, a heavy-duty “plussing” brought the ride into the future.
1. Test Track
Location: Epcot
The Plus: An entirely new aesthetic creates an unprecedented ride experience
Test Track at Epcot has always been a fan favorite. Originally, the ride cast guests as living “crash test dummies” in a GM testing plant. The ideas was that aboard newly-built cars, guests were put through the paces just like a real new prototype might be: slaloming between cones, testing anti-lock brakes, passing over rough terrain, and accelerating along hairpin turns. Even though it was mostly fun, it was somewhat informative to get a sense of what a real car is put through to test its features and durability. The final test saw the car accelerate toward an impact barrier (the kind you see on car commercials where the vehicle crashes and the airbags go off) only to have the barrier separate like an elevator door at the last second as the car launched into an outdoor speed-testing portion. The tour was also narrated by two GM employees who described each test before it began.
To pull off the “testing facility” illusion, the ride was decked out in orange traffic cones, overhead spotlights, traffic lights, plywood trees, and traffic signs that all fit the style very well. But entering into the new decade, it wasn’t enough. In ten years, things had changed and a new look was much trendier than the clunky industrial testing facility. So Test Track was reborn.
The ride re-opened in December 2012 in a form that’s entirely unrecognizable. Now a sleek, modern showcase of Chevrolet designs, the heart of Test Track is its interactivity. Now, guests get to use computer kiosks in line to design their own vehicle, starting with a silhouette line. As they do, they’re encouraged to consider balancing Capability, Efficiency, Responsiveness, and Power by choosing features that create any kind of vehicle they can imagine.
Then, riders use their park ticket or MagicBand to bring their concept vehicle along with them, scanning it just as they enter into the ride vehicle – now a “SimCar.” The ride itself might as well be themed to TRON as the SimCar traverses a digital landscape, enduring many of the same tests as in the original ride, but now cast as simulations in a glowing, sleek computer world. As the ride passes through the four testing zones of Capability, Efficiency, Responsiveness and Power – each marked by different neon-colored landscape – the results of your own personally designed vehicle are shown for each of the tests. If you designed a monster truck with massive wheels, you’ll score very well in Power, but you might have the lowest score of anyone in your car in Efficiency. We love both the “old” and new Test Tracks so much that we told the complete story of the ride’s origin, opening, and evolution in its own full feature, Lost Legends: TEST TRACK.
Totally unrecognizable apart from its layout and vehicles, the new Test Track is sincerely the best modern evidence of Disney’s “plussing” in motion. Like all attractions, some dislike the new style. But by adding interactivity to the process and some real artistry to the ride, Test Track is entirely fresh for a new generation. And man is it cool.
