There are plenty of fan-favorite attractions that have come and gone from Disney Parks. In fact, our Lost Legends series was compiled just for super-fans to dig into the histories of beloved closed classics… But sometimes, even Imagineering can make a mistake… a big one. No, we’re not talking about regrettable rides like Stitch’s Great Escape, Superstar Limo, or Journey into YOUR Imagination.
We’re talking about giant eyesores, sorry icons, and big bad decisions that we just can’t believe happened to begin with. Check out these eight massive features that we’re glad to have seen removed in our lifetime.
1. The Sorcerer’s Hat
Image: Disney
Park: Hollywood Studios
Lifetime: 2001 – 2015 (14 years)
When you step into Disney’s Hollywood Studios, you find yourself transported to another place and time: the historic Golden Age of Hollywood, looking down a streetscape of neon signs and elegant art deco towers, populated by the classic cars and madcap characters who might’ve called Tinseltown home. With all the magic Disney can muster, you’ve truly stepped back to the heyday of Hollywood. And residing at the end of this idealized and lived-in Hollywood Blvd. is… a 120-foot tall, giant, blue, pointed sorcerer’s hat and stylized mouse ears being held up in a tilt by a giant Mickey hand.
The Sorcerer’s Hat (based on Fantasia‘s “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” segment) was built in 2001, centralizing Disney’s celebration of “100 Years of Magic” – the year’s promotion around what would’ve been Walt Disney’s 100th birthday. Stepping under the hat’s brim, though, you’d just find yourself in an open-air pin-trading shop. Paired with the Epcot “Icon Tower” built the year before, it means that 2000 and 2001 were an odd time when two of Disney World’s four park icons were briefly overshadowed by giant Mickey hands and accessories! And like the “Icon Tower,” the Hat way outlived the “celebration” it was meant to promote.
Image: Disney
Most curious of all, though, is that the hat was built directly in front of a camera-ready park icon: a recreation of Hollywood’s legendary Chinese Theater, which has stood at the end of Hollywood Blvd. since the park’s 1989 opening, housing the Lost Legend: The Great Movie Ride!
What happened: The Sorcerer’s Hat was removed in early 2015, restoring Hollywood Blvd.’s view toward the Chinese Theater.
2. The Sun Wheel
Image: Theme Park Tourist
Park: Disney California Adventure
Lifetime: 2001 – 2009 (7 years)
When Disneyland’s second gate opened in 2001, early word from visiting guests was that the new gate wasn’t worth spending a day at. We explored why in our in-depth Declassified Disaster: Disney California Adventure feature, but one of the biggest offenders? The park’s ride collection. Woefully short on things to do, most of the park’s modest ride count was relegated to Paradise Pier – a land meant to recreate California’s seaside boardwalks (the very ones Walt designed Disneyland as an alternative to… Oops!). Even then, fans were quick to point out that those rides were “off-the-shelf” carnival rides (like yo-yo swings, a drop tower, a parachute tower, and a launched steel roller coaster), not “Disney-quality” attractions.
Looming over them all was the Sun Wheel, a 160-foot Ferris wheel with a brass, ’70s-inspired smiling sunshine at its center. The Sun Wheel was symptomatic of the issues with Paradise Pier and all of California Adventure. Set in no particular time and place, but looking like a decades-old ride in a modern boardwalk, the off-the-shelf ride lacked character… literally.
Image: Disney
What happened: As part of the park’s billion-dollar redesign, Paradise Pier’s timeline was reset to the 1910s, with classic, pie-eyed versions of Disney characters scattered about. The Sun Wheel became Mickey’s Fun Wheel, complete with a new lighting package to complement the World of Color nighttime show taking place in the lagoon at its base.
But Mickey’s Fun Wheel is gone, too. Well… kind of. In 2018, the a second round of facelifts swept through the land, renaming it Pixar Pier. Mickey’s Fun Wheel became the Pixar Pal-a-Round with each gondola adorned with vinyl stickers of a famous Pixar pair. However, pie-eyed Mickey still remains on the front of the wheel.
3. The Epcot “Icon Tower”
Image: Disney
Park: Epcot
Lifetime: 1999 – 2007 (8 years)
When Disney set out to build their own, permanent World’s Fair, they made sure it included a visual icon – a role filled in real World’s Fairs of yesteryear by the Eiffel Tower, Unisphere, and Space Needle to name just a few. The glowing, white, elegantly symmetrical geodesic sphere of Spaceship Earth isn’t just the central landmark of Epcot; it’s one of the most instantly-recognizable architectural features in the country. Chances are, most Americans could identify the “golf ball” as belonging to Epcot, even if they’ve never experienced the spectacular dark ride it contains.
But eager to reenergize the park on the doorstep of the 21st century, Disney christened Epcot as Disney World’s resident festival park, and home to the Millennium Celebration. A 257-foot tall tower was affixed to the 180-foot tall sphere with Mickey’s outstretched arm, a giant magic wand emitting a glittering “2000” high above, and “pixie dust” settled onto the sphere. It’s not that anything was particularly awful about the tower in isolation – but affixed to an iconic, classic, and elegant architectural marvel?
What happened: After the Millennium Celebration, the “2000” was replaced with the word “Epcot” – something akin to a neon sign over Cinderella Castle reading “Magic Kingdom.” Mercifully, the awkward sign was gone by Epcot’s 25th anniversary celebration in 2007.
4. Golden Space Mountain
Image: Alan Huffman, via yesterland.com
Park: Disneyland
Lifetime: 1998 – 2003 (5 years)
Imagine if you stepped into Disneyland or Magic Kingdom tomorrow only to find that the castle had been repainted yellow. That’s the approximate experience that befell guests to Disneyland when, in 1998, the Modern Marvel: Space Mountain briefly swapped paint jobs with C-3PO.
The truth is that by the mid-90s, it was well past time for Disneyland to recieve a “New Tomorrowland.” Half of the land’s attractions had shuttered, and the rest were looking woefully outdated. (The land hadn’t recieved a facelift since 1967.) But the timing was all wrong. The recent opening of Disneyland Paris had sunk Disney’s finances, and then-CEO Michael Eisner grew wary of large-scale, high-budget projects. Enter our in-depth Declassified Disaster: Rocket Rods and New Tomorrowland ’98 feature that traces what happened in detail.
In short, a vastly reduced budget forced Imagineers to borrow the European-influenced “fantasy” future they’d devised for Disneyland Paris and import it to Anaheim. Maybe that would’ve worked if Disneyland got the Jules Verne inspired Lost Legend: Space Mountain – De la Terre a la Lune. But with practically no money to do it right, Disneyland’s Space Age Tomorrowland was simply repainted in dull coppers and golds, giving a vaguely “natural,” retro-future look on the outside, but with its attractions all still ’70s science inspired on the inside.
What happened: Tomorrowland was gradually returned to white, blue, and silver beginning in 2005 as a commemoration of Disneyland’s 50th anniversary.
5. Leave a Legacy
Image: Disney
Park: Epcot
Lifetime: 1999 – 2019 (20 years)
Long ago, stepping into Epcot was like walking into an oasis of palm trees, flower beds, and fountains set before the iconic Spaceship Earth. That’s long gone – for now! – thanks to “Leave a Legacy,” another remnant of Epcot’s Millennium Celebration. Now, stepping into Epcot, you’re surrounded in brownish, granite monoliths – not unlike the material and colors of tombstones. And like markers you’d see at a graveyard, these massive granite walls (ranging from 3 to 19 feet tall) have etched portraits. But these aren’t the deceased – they’re guests who wanted to commemorate their attendance at the Millennium Celebration!
If you had a photo of you ($35) or you and a friend ($38) etched on stainless steel, you might make a habit of visiting it each time you come to Epcot. And since Disney sold 550,000 of the 700,000 available tiles, that’s a reality for quite a few people. But for everyone else, the entry walk through the Leave a Legacy monoliths is somewhat cold and unfriendly. At least Disney Legend John Hench (original designer of Spaceship Earth) designed the forms so that they appear to “cradle” the geodesic sphere when viewed from a central point. Think of what an outside designers might’ve done!
Image: Disney
What happened: Guests purchasing a tile recieved paperwork noting that Disney could relocate the “image and/or sculpture” anywhere within Walt Disney World at any time, and that they could be removed permanently after 20 years. With the last tiles sold in 2007, that seemed to indicate that “Leave a Legacy” would remain until at least 2027, and since some of the monoliths weigh 50,000 pounds, probably longer. But in 2019, as part of Disney’s ongoing reimagining of Epcot, it was announced that the original, garden entry plaza would be restored. True to their word, Disney will keep the Leave a Legacy monoliths… but move them to outside of Epcot’s front gates. That process started in May 2019.
6. California Post Card
Image: Disney
Park: Disney California Adventure
Lifetime: 2001 – 2011 (10 years)
Disneyland’s entrance is a turn-of-the-century red brick train station set high on a hill, with classic, wrought-iron gates around the plaza leading to it. In 2001, the new Disney’s California Adventure park was built on Disneyland’s former parking lot, with their entrances facing each other across a plaza. But while Disneyland’s quaint entrance was understated, historic, and fanciful, the new Disney’s California Adventure was built with an “MTV attitude,” and showed it right away.
The park’s entrance wa made of multiple layers – giant letters that read C-A-L-I-F-O-R-N-I-A, soaring concrete walls embedded with the world’s largest tile mosaics flanking the entry gates, a squashed-and-stretched cartoon intepretation of the Golden Gate Bridge, and a metallic, stylized “sun” with twisting rays beyond. The idea was that, when viewed from the center, these layers lined up to create a giant “post card” that guests could step directly into. It wasn’t a bad idea. The problem was that guests arrive from the extreme sides. What’s more, the bright, overexaggerated, comic book architecture was one of the things guests didn’t like about the new park.
What happened: As part of California Adventure’s billion-dollar redo from 2007 – 2012, the post card entry and the land it was made of – “Sunshine Plaza” – were demolished. In its place rose Buena Vista Street, a 1920s Los Angeles boulevard that’s a perfect complement to Main Street. The park’s entrance was restylized using the same art deco teal Pan Pacific towers that serve as the entrance to Hollywood Studios, but they make even more sense in Anaheim. The CALIFORNIA letters were donated to Cal Expo, where they serve as iconic entrance features.
7. DisneyQuest
Image: Disney
Location: Disney Springs
Lifetime: 1998 – 2017 (19 years)
When Downtown Disney’s glowing West Side ’90s playground opened, one of its icons was one of the most mysterious attractions Disney’s ever designed… a giant, asymmetrical teal cube looming over Downtown Disney simply reading “DisneyQuest.” A generation of Disney Parks guests longed to know what was within this enigmatic structure. The answer? Part arcade, part funhouse, part technological showplace, all Disney.
We took the full tour in our Declassified Disaster: DisneyQuest feature. The long and short is that DisneyQuest was Disney’s attempt to break into regional entertainment, with ambitions to open “interactive indoor theme parks” in the downtowns of major cities across the country and globe. Imagine Charlotte, Columbus, San Fransisco, Austin, Chicago, and Philadelpha each having massive DisneyQuest buildings appear in their respective downtowns, luring locals and tourists alike…
And inside the two realized locations (Orlando and Chicago), DisneyQuest was astounding… for about two years. Apparently having learned approximately nothing from “the Tomorrowland Problem,” DisneyQuests were built on cutting-edge technology like virtual reality that were still in their infancies… just a few years before iPhones, HD TVs, and household Wifi would jump-start an exponential growth of technology. And DisneyQuest couldn’t keep up without major, continuous investment that Disney was never going to provide.
What happened: The Chicago location folded in 2001 (after just two years). But that was merciful compared to the Orlando location, which fared worse because it stayed open for 16 more years without an update. When it finally closed in 2017, the technology inside was nothing short of an embarassment and the whole place reeked of ’90s design. It was practically robbery that Disney charged an admission fee to get in.
Image: Disney / NBA
That said, its replacement – a completely new build called “The NBA Experience” – charges just as much as DisneyQuest did, and simply features an arcade and “Instagrammable” moments. At least DisneyQuest was nostalgic and had “so bad it’s good” retro-appeal.
8. Castle Cake
Image: Disney
Park: Magic Kingdom
Lifetime: 1996 – 1997 (15 months)
Anyone who loves Disney Parks knows that Disney Parks love celebrations. In fact, most of the things on this list have been “limited time” overlays or additions meant to tie in to Disney’s ever-changing seasonal and annual promotions. But the biggest of all must be the infamous “castle cake.” “Baked” to celebrate Disney World’s (and thus Magic Kingdom’s) 25th anniversary, the 185-foot tall Cinderella Castle was entirely transformed with 400 gallons of bright pink paint, inflatable icing, gumdrops, sprinkles, lollipops, and giant cupcake toppers.
What happened: Unlike some of the other overlays on this list, the “castle cake” wasn’t just a frustration for Disney Parks fans who care about sightlines, architecture, and history. It was a major frustration for many guests from around the world! Think about it: visitors to Disneyland are largely local or regional, which is why the Californian parks often host holiday overlays like Haunted Mansion Holiday, “it’s a small world” Holiday, Guardians of the Galaxy: Monsters After Dark, and the Jingle Cruise; why Disneyland switches fireworks shows every few months; and why adding seasonal and promotional elements to Sleeping Beauty Castle or the Carthay Circle Theater are welcome.
But Walt Disney World guests are largely tourists who visit once every few years, or even once in a lifetime, so they want to see the Haunted Mansion, no matter the season! Likewise, disguising the resort’s most identifiable icon probably led to more than a few complaints. Insiders even say that couples raced to postpone or cancel their Disney proposals and costly wedding ceremonies thanks to the glowing sugar castle. So the “castle cake” wasn’t just memorable for Disney Parks fans… it also taught Imagineers that any promotional changes made to Cinderella Castle that followed would need to be tasteful, minimal, and (more importantly) not-too-invasive.
Image: Disney
Like all of Disney’s “year-long” celebrations, this one lasted past the 12-month park. But luckily, the “castle cake” was only around for 15 months before being stripped of its sickly sugar ornamentation and restored to a glowing white and gray paint scheme (which has since been replaced with a slightly warmer tan).
