Here at Theme Park Tourist, we’re always looking to see our favorite theme parks in new ways. That’s why we reported (and continuously update) a number of sometimes-surprising features that just may have you seeing Disney and Universal parks differently…
For Imagineering afficianados, we’ve broken down Disney and Universal parks by the numbers in two must-read features that are downright surprising: we ranked Disneyland, Disney World, and Universal Orlando’s parks by the number of certifiable “E-Ticket” anchor attractions each park offers (which do you think has the most? The least?) and, even more shockingly, broke it down to the sheer number of rides at each park… with some unexpected results…!
But today, in a nod to nostalgia, we’re going to change the lens once again by asking, How many Opening Day “Originals” does each park still have? Naturally, the longer a park lives, the less likely it is to retain classic rides from its opening… right? In our list below, we’ll go in order of each park’s opening, spelling out all the rides and attractions each has preserved from its Opening Day (noting attractions that have been notably changed, relocated, or modified over the years with an asterisk for good measure). So, which park do you think has the most of its opening-day rides left? And can you guess which park has none of its originals remaining?
1. Disneyland
OPENING: July 17, 1955 (65 years ago)
RIDES: 10
- Autopia*
- Disneyland Railroad*
- Jungle Cruise*
- King Arthur Carousel*
- Mad Tea Party*
- Main Street Vehicles
- Mark Twain Riverboat
- Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride*
- Peter Pan’s Flight*
- Snow White’s Scary Adventures*
ATTRACTIONS: 1
- Main Street Cinema
Given that Walt’s original Disneyland is more than six decades old, it’s a real feat that so many of its Opening Day attractions remain today (many modified or rebuilt, of course), including its three original Fantasyland dark rides. Astoundingly, if we were to expand our view by a year, we’d also see Casey Jr. Circus Train, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Rafts to Tom Sawyer Island, Storybook Land Canal Boats, and the Explorer Canoes that all also remain to this day.
In a sweet tribute to these Opening Day classics, one vehicle of each was painted gold for the park’s 50th Anniversary in 2005 – one gold Dumbo, one gold Autopia car, one gold pirate ship… The short-lived celebration was a sweet and nostalgic (but rare) time that Disney has intentionally highlighted rides remaining from 1955 – a nod to history we’d like to see more of!
For better or worse, Disneyland is a park steeped so heavily in history and nostalgia, most any attraction that’s graced its hallowed property is automatically elevated to a classic, giving designers little flexibility when it comes to replacing rides. Still, the survival of so many authentic “Walt Disney originals” makes Disneyland a treasured and beloved favorite with plenty of attractions and experiences that Disney World fans should be jealous of.
2. Magic Kingdom
OPENING: October 1, 1971 (49 years ago)
RIDES: 10
- Dumbo the Flying Elephant
- The Haunted Mansion
- “It’s a small world”
- Jungle Cruise
- Mad Tea Party
- Main Street Vehicles
- Peter Pan’s Flight
- Prince Charming’s Regal Carrousel
- Tomorrowland Speedway*
- Walt Disney World Railroad
ATTRACTIONS: 4
- Country Bear Jamboree*
- Hall of Presidents
- Swiss Family Treehouse
- Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room*
It’s really not surprising that Magic Kingdom contains as many classics as Disneyland. After all, Magic Kingdom’s Opening Day lineup was essentially a best-of-Disneyland-1969 showcase copied-and-pasted to Florida. Even then, there were infamous omissions (like Magic Kingdom opening without a Pirates of the Caribbean clone), but by the nature of borrowing from the tried-and-true classics Disneyland had developed in the fifteen years between parks, Magic Kingdom counts attractions like Enchanted Tiki Room, Haunted Mansion, and “small world” among its Opening Day lineup – attractions that were piecemeal brought to Disneyland years into the park’s running.
Like its older sister, Magic Kingdom is somewhat bound by nostalgia as Disney World’s “classic” fairytale park, but altogether the Florida parks are much less hampered by history. Without Disneyland’s highly local (and highly vocal) guests as its base, Magic Kingdom has closed its share of Opening Day attractions, chronicled in our Lost Legends: 20,000 Leagues, Snow White’s Scary Adventures, If You Had Wings, and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride features.
3. Epcot
OPENING: October 1, 1982 (38 years ago)
RIDES: 2
- Living with the Land*
- Spaceship Earth*
ATTRACTIONS: 2
- The American Adventure
- Impressions de France
Disney World fans know all too well that Epcot is a park in perpetual transition, with its pavilions continuously evolving and rewriting themselves. Still, it’s a bit astounding that, in its nearly-40-year history, Epcot has shed every single one of its fabled opening day rides… except two. And technically, both Living with the Land and Spaceship Earth have been subject to substantial re-writes and reimaginings over their lifetimes, culminating in an upcoming shift to the latter expected to be radical enough to remove it from this list.
Meanwhile, Epcot’s complex evolution has produced the very painful-to-read list of Lost Legends: Universe of Energy, Body Wars, Horizons, World of Motion, Journey into Imagination, Kitchen Kabaret, and The Living Seas; starring rides of its eventual ‘80s pavilion pinnacle before the park’s intellectual foundations began to crumble in the ‘90s.
2020 promises to be a year of hard work for Epcot, which should emerge out of its cocoon this decade with a fresh identity that embraces its optimistic ‘80s roots and a handful of new (character-focused) headlining attractions. Will the “new” Epcot’s “Re-Opening Day” lineup be better than its Opening Day originals? That’s a question fans will debate for a long time.
4. Disney’s Hollywood Studios
OPENING: May 1, 1989 (31 years ago)
RIDES: 0
ATTRACTIONS: 0
Not only did this movie-themed park lose its name and identity over the course of its lifetime, it also lost its original rides. Yep… The number of attractions left from Disney’s Hollywood Studios’ Opening Day? Zero.
That’s not surprising given that when the park opened, it was almost-unbelievably small (with only modern day Hollywood Blvd. and Echo Lake open to pedestrians) and only two rides – the Lost Legend: The Great Movie Ride (anchoring the park’s pedestrian-friendly half, dedicated to the romanticism of Hollywood) and the Declassified Disaster: The Backstage Studio Tour (meant to whisk guests into the “real, working” movie studio that never really worked). Since both are gone, that leaves… well… zero.
From the start, the tiny studio park was a hit, and its lack of attractions was a problem. That’s why, within just three years, Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, the Lost Legend: Star Tours, Muppet*Vision 3D, Beauty and the Beast – Live on Stage, and Voyage of the Little Mermaid all joined the park’s lineup. Incredibly (and somewhat embarrassingly?) they’re almost all still around, unchanged for three decades! But in a park that’s increasingly becoming Disney’s home to hot intellectual property, nothing’s sacred. Which brings us to…
5. Universal Studios Florida
OPENING: June 7, 1990 (30 years ago)
RIDES: 1
- E.T. Adventure
ATTRACTIONS: 1
- Animal Actors Live on Stage*
It’s no coincidence that both Disney and Universal’s ‘90s-flavored “studio” parks have shed nearly all their Opening Day attractions between them. Disney and Universal famously raced to see who could stake their studio park first. Universal’s property opened a year after Disney’s, albeit with quite a few more attractions.
Those Lost Legends: JAWS, Kongfrontation, and Earthquake (and soon after, Back to the Future: The Ride) were well-known, massively-scaled “creature feature” thrill rides that delighted (and terrified) a generation of Orlando guests. But the box office moves on, and by the New Millennium, the “oldies” those rides were based on were becoming increasingly unknown to the next generation of families.
In an effort to stay cool, Universal Studios Florida has famously squashed almost every Opening Day classic, including its famous tribute attractions to “Murder She Wrote” and Alfred Hitchcock, plus the Lost Legend: Nickelodeon Studios. The end result is that rides at this screen-heavy studio have lifetimes measured in seasons, not decades (an IP-focused strategy looking more and more familiar to Disney fans…) – see the park’s current line-up that includes Fast & Furious: Supercharged and Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon as experiences that are brand new and yet already feel… well… endangered.
6. Disney’s Animal Kingdom
OPENING: April 22, 1998 (22 years ago)
RIDES: 3
- Dinosaur*
- Kilimanjaro Safaris
- Wildlife Express
ATTRACTIONS: 3
- Festival of the Lion King*
- Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail
- “It’s Tough to be a Bug!”
When Disney’s Animal Kingdom opened in 1998, it was a stark (and seemingly intentional) rebuke to the “studio” era that had preceded it. Rather than a sparse backlot of mis-matched IPs and cop-out sound-stages, the park was larger than life in every way; an epic, ambitious, creative venture exploring humanity’s link to nature in photorealistic and hyper-detailed lands and animal habitats. But when it opened, it offered just four rides – two E-Tickets, and two whose primary purpose was transportation within the gargantuan park.
Three of those four – the Wildlife Express train, Kilimajaro Safaris, and the Lost Legend: Countdown to Extinction – still exist. (The ill-fated Discovery River Cruise folded when guests mistook it for a Jungle Cruise style adventure, waited in line, and then discovered it was merely a ferry across the park.) Other remaining Opening Day attractions include the Africa-set zoo exhibit, “It’s Tough to be a Bug,” and the Festival of the Lion King. In other words, though it doesn’t look like many Opening Day originals remain at Animal Kingdom, it’s just that the park didn’t have many rides or attractions to begin with.
7. Universal’s Islands of Adventure
OPENING: May 28, 1999 (21 years ago)
RIDES: 10
- The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man*
- Caro-Seuss-el
- Cat in the Hat
- Dr. Doom’s Fearfall
- Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls
- Incredible Hulk Coaster*
- Jurassic Park River Adventure
- One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
- Popeye & Bluto’s Bilge Rat Barges
- Pteranodon Flyers
ATTRACTIONS: 4
- Camp Jurassic
- If I Ran The Zoo…
- Jurassic Park Discovery Center
- Poseidon’s Fury*
The difference between remaining Opening Day originals at Universal Studios and its sister park is staggering. Sure, you might initially think it’s because Islands of Adventure is a much newer park than the Studios… but there are only 9 years between the respective openings of the two! There’s no secret here except that Islands of Adventure intentionally set out to do something different: to prove that Universal could rise above “studio backlot” themed parks of ever-changing IP. Instead, designers focused on creating a park of timeless characters and exotic, adventurous, and technicolor worlds based not on movies, but stories – a humongous difference.
As a result, the park’s lands are much more permanent. There are no “blank canvas” soundstages or wishy-washy, noncommittal themed lands like “New York” and “Hollywood.” Instead, the park’s attractions are deeply ingrained in its immersive, literary lands. And without the pressure of keeping the park stocked with box office blockbusters, its more evergreen stories – like Dr. Seuss, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Jurassic Park, Marvel superheroes, Greek gods, and Harry Potter – can relax a little, giving Universal Orlando some true classics that the Studio park would’ve ripped out long ago!
8. Disney California Adventure
OPENING: February 8, 2001 (19 years ago)
RIDES: 3
- Golden Zephyr
- Grizzly River Run
- Jumpin’ Jellyfish
ATTRACTIONS: 4
- Animation Academy
- Boudin Bakery Tour
- Redwood Creek Challenge Trail
- Sorcerer’s Workshop
Perhaps aside from Epcot, there’s no theme park on Earth to have undergone such a complete reimagining as Disney California Adventure. We chronicled the park’s unimaginable rebirth in a two-part feature – Disney’s California (Mis)Adventure: Part I and Part II – stepping through the unprecedented, all-at-once, $1.2 billion construction project that served as Disney Imagineering’s white flag of defeat for the park’s original style and substance.
To be fair, Disney California Adventure didn’t have many rides to begin with – one of the biggest complaints about the park. Several boardwalk-style flat rides and two roller coasters technically remain, but all have been heavily rethemed and redressed during the park’s waves of transformation; two of its distinctly-Californian hits – the Lost Legends: Soarin’ Over California and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, have strangely exited while Pixar and Marvel have moved in in big ways.
If Disney California Adventure were a person, it wouldn’t be old enough to buy alcohol or rent a car. Yet its phenomenally ambitious redesign (and the continuing evolution since) has left just three rides untouched – two carnival flat rides and a raft ride. Of course, it’s also the only Disney Park to ever have a second Grand Opening (in 2012)… and the list of rides surviving from that opening would be quite a bit longer.
