Although ride closures are a common occurrence, the wide swath of closures that Disney fans saw in Orlando this past year are of particular importance. 2014’s closures collectively point to a company that is actively working behind the scenes to roll out several huge new developments, expansions, and renovations that will have significant chunks of Disney World looking spiffy and new by the end of the decade.
It’s the ending of an era at the 43-year-old resort, and here are the five attraction closures that most clearly signal the changing of the guard.
5. The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow
Location: Mickey Avenue, Hollywood Studios
Original opening date: December 6, 2012
Closure date: November 7, 2014
On the one hand, the closing of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow is nothing shocking; Disney has had a series of movie tie-in walk-through attractions here that have all lasted for only two or three years (before Jack Sparrow, there were two Journey into Narnia exhibits dedicated to – you guessed it – the first two Chronicles of Narnia films).
On the other hand, the Pirates of the Caribbean version felt like something that was deliberately designed to be a little more longer-lived, despite the fact that the fourth entry in that cinematic franchise, On Stranger Tides, released a year-and-a-half before it opened, and the fifth, Dead Men Tell No Tales, won’t see the light of day until 2017. A lot more detail was put into the attraction’s singular room, including a surprisingly lifelike Johnny Depp in holographic form, and it was meant to be a “first-person experience” (in Disney’s words) rather than the more mundane makings-of that ran in the space before it.
Still, the movie world marches ever on, and room must be made for the next round of in-park marketing – that is, if Walt Disney Imagineering plans on maintaining the status quo here, an assumption that must be increasingly questioned, given all the other closures that have rocked Hollywood Studios this year and which will leave the park wide open for a sweeping remake (or two).
4. The American Idol Experience
Location: Echo Lake, Hollywood Studios
Original opening date: February 14, 2009
Closure date: August 30, 2014
The American Idol experience presented an attempt at broaching relatively new theme park ground: the cultivation and utilization of actual park guests as the stars of a production (something which Universal tried four years earlier – also with mixed results – with Fear Factor Live at Universal Studios Florida). It also resulted in an otherwise empty building (its previous occupant was Doug Live!, which departed in the distant year of 2001) actually being used for an attraction – something of particular importance for a park that has been habitually lambasted for not having enough of them.
There are two major strikes against the American Idol Experience, however, resulting not only in its ultimate cancellation, but in that cancellation arriving six months earlier than what was initially announced. First and foremost, American Idol is no longer the ratings powerhouse that it once was even just a few short years ago (a similar occurrence that has also long since afflicted Fear Factor Live, incidentally).
Secondly – and, perhaps, much more importantly in the long run – the show is sitting on real estate that has taken on an entirely new level of importance ever since Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012. With only so much room to work with in installing Star Wars Land, and with Star Tours: The Adventures Continue already located just down the road a little in Echo Lake, the American Idol Experience’s fate was sealed long before Paula, Simon, and Randy left its television counterpart.
3. Studio Backlot Tour
Location: Streets of America, Hollywood Studios
Original opening date: May 1, 1989
Closure date: September 28, 2014
Back when Hollywood Studios first opened – and back when it was called Disney-MGM Studios – the subject of filmmaking was the very essence of the park, rather than a fast-and-loose premise for a jumble of various (and varying) attractions to be assembled around.
The Studio Backlot Tour was, arguably, the centerpiece of this, taking guests on a lengthy and in-depth ride through various film production scenarios, including special effects and props. It wasn’t inherently thrilling, and it rapidly became out-of-date once DVDs and their bevy of behind-the-scenes special features came onto the scene, negating the need for a film school for tourists.
Taken in this light, it’s nothing short of amazing that the Backlot Tour has managed to survive until just this year, particularly when considering just how many other attractions have been fashioned by chipping away at little bits and pieces of its former real estate: Lights, Motor, Action! Extreme Stunt Show, the Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow, Walt Disney: One Man’s Dream, and, most especially for most guests, Toy Story Midway Mania.
Of course, now that nearly all of the back section of the park has been cleared for a brand-new development, the sky’s the limit for what Imagineering can put in there. It’s been suggested for quite a long time now that Cars Land, which has proven to be such a phenomenal success – both in terms of its commercial appeal and theming immersiveness – at California Adventure, will be making its way to Hollywood Studios. Given just how much space has instantly been cleared up, and given its proximity to Pixar Place, it’s hard to see how it’s not something Pixar-related, whether it’s a ported version of Cars Land or something entirely new.
(It’s also hard to see how such an expansion wouldn’t make Hollywood Studios’s attendance skyrocket and its relevance to the disenfranchised Disney faithful explode.)
2. Maelstrom
Location: World Showcase, Epcot
Original opening date: July 5, 1988
Closure date: October 6, 2014
Of all the myriad attraction closures at Disney World this year, the one that has easily gotten the most press – and courted the biggest amount of controversy, as well – was Maelstrom at Epcot’s Norway Pavilion.
Its extended lifespan (Disney fans are nothing if not highly nostalgic) and the very nature of its ride experience (though a traditional [read: not thrilling] Disney dark ride, it was the only attraction to offer a bit of oomph at World Showcase for an extremely long time) account for a good portion of the large outcry against Maelstrom’s being shuttered, but the other main reason has nothing to do with the attraction and everything to do with its replacement: Frozen.
The nascent Frozen franchise is no stranger to Disney World (or, even, Epcot, for that matter), but its seasonal shows and meet-‘n-greet lineups have been either timed exclusives or, well, character meet-n’-greets – the exact opposite of a permanent, multi-million dollar ride. Having a little slice of Arendelle taking its place at Epcot, then, is a major deal.
And it’s majorly offensive to guests on either side of the Frozen divide: to many Epcot fans, it’s because of wedging a fictitious kingdom alongside the very-much-real countries of World Showcase; for Frozen enthusiasts, it’s due to their favorite property being saddled with a reskinned version of Maelstrom instead of being given a built-from-the-ground-up ride just for them.
While it’s hard to conceive of Arendelle taking over all of the Norway Pavilion – just as Star Wars Land will be claiming most, if not all, of Echo Lake at Hollywood Studios – it’s still amazing to see how more and more of Disney World stalwarts are being devoted to the recent animated film, including, most recently, Cinderella Castle (as part of the Frozen Holiday Wish show at Magic Kingdom).
1. Sorcerer’s Hat
Location: Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood Studios
Original installation date: September 28, 2001
Removal date: January 2015
Yes, this is the least substantive closure at all of Walt Disney World due to the simple fact that, well, the Sorcerer’s Hat isn’t an attraction of any kind. Its meaning and the power of its removal, however, comes from its being the icon of Hollywood Studios (just as Cinderella Castle is for Magic Kingdom and Spaceship Earth is for Epcot); the ramifications here may be purely symbolic, but they’re also the most revealing of where Disney’s head is at now and where it’s looking to move in the (very near) future.
Despite the long-standing rumors of both (or either?) Star Wars and Cars Lands arriving at Hollywood Studios, and despite the continued discussion by top Disney executives of just how important bringing in Star Wars rides to the resort is, it is the toppling of one icon and the installation of another that is the most unequivocal in demonstrating just how thoroughly the company is looking to remake the park’s image and refurbish its general disposition – it was the Earful Tower’s replacement by the Sorcerer’s Hat over a decade ago that signaled a less filmmaking-intensive and more character/intellectual property-centered focus, after all.
We may not know what, if anything, will be Hollywood Studios’s central weenie (as Walt himself called them) for quite some time. If the latest batch of rumors is to be believed, actually, it might even be unveiled alongside (yet another) new name for the theme park…
