The only thing that stays the same… is change.
Year after year, classic theme park attractions simply flicker out of existence, replaced with new stories, fresh characters, and cutting-edge rides. It’s sad to say goodbye… So what if we told you that for some Disney and Universal classics, you don’t have to… yet? The attractions we’ve selected today might seem like they’re gone for good… but actually, they can still be found if you know where to look! These rides are “Survivors,” outlasting expansion and remaining to this day! Will they survive the decade? We’ll just have to wait and find out…
Given that each of these attractions has disappeared from a Disney or Universal park, we’ll including a link in each to an in-depth Legend Library feature telling the full story of the attraction’s development, lifetime, and closure…! If you want to dig deep into Disney and Universal design history, make the jump to each of those features for the surprising connections and behind-the-scenes stories that bring the parks to life…
1. T2-3D
Last place: Universal Studios Japan
Removed From: Universal Studios Florida and Universal Studios Hollywood
Say what you will about Universal, but one thing is certain: they certainly aren’t shy about aggressively updating their theme parks. In fact, many accuse Universal of acting a little too quickly to cut attractions – no matter how beloved – the second a hotter intellectual property hits the box office. On the other hand, it’s easy to see how a Universal Studios devoted entirely to flicks of the ’70s and ’80s might lack a certain cultural resonance for young people today, though.
Such is likely the case with the Lost Legend: T2-3D: Battle Across Time. Quite literally an in-canon mini-sequel to 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgement Day (including the return of director James Cameron and the film’s cast including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton), T2-3D was unlike anything seen before: a fusion of live-action stunt show, 3D film, animatronics, special effects, actors, and more. Somehow improving with age (probably because its “dystopian” tech is literally all real today), the $24 million show was a fan favorite up until its closure.
In Hollywood, the attraction closed in 2012 so that its massive showspace could be repurposed into double-capacity theaters for Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem (with twice the throughput of Florida’s, which has repurposed the Nicktoon Blast simulator). Universal Studios Florida’s closed in 2018 to make way for a Universal-owned property – The Bourne Stuntacular. Though it’s absolutely jaw-dropping in its own right, fans still mourn the loss of T2-3D… Of course, to see it, they need only book a plane ticket for Osaka! The attraction can still be found there in the park’s New York section (where Florida tourists would expect to find Race Through New York).
2. Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride
Last Place: Disneyland Park
Removed From: Magic Kingdom
It’s true that Disneyland is not a museum, but the park has done a pretty stunning job of salvaging fan-favorite attractions that could just as easily have disappeared! For example, the park’s Fantasyland still packs in five classic dark rides, including the Opening Day Original, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Based on “The Wind in the Willows” half of the 1949 post-War package film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, the wacky dark ride sends guests rumbling through Toad Hall in jalopies, experiencing Mr. Toad’s “motormania” as he crashed through London’s wharfs, pubs, and town squares. The ride also memorably ends… with guests being struck by a train and coming to Hell, surrounded by red demons with pitchforks.
Basically, the fact that Disneyland’s Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride exists at all – much less that it has been persevered for nearly 70 years – is a testament to how sacred Disneyland is. While we’re certain Imagineers have been tasked with at least considering turning the space into a Tangled or Frozen dark ride, little Mr. Toad continues to buzz around town, now practically an icon of Disneyland’s commitment to the classics.
The ride was one of many that were intentionally upsized for Magic Kingdom, opening in 1971 with two separate-yet-intertwined routes processing twice as many guests per day! We even took a ride through the making of Magic Kingdom’s version in our Lost Legends: Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride feature. However, the double-sized space was too great an opportunity to pass up in the ’90s, when a certain profitable Pooh Bear was pressed to build a ride and an accompanying gift shop. At least the amphibious hero lives on at Disneyland – a ride fit for a bucket list!
3. E.T. Adventure
Last Place: Universal Studios Florida
Removed From: Universal Studios Hollywood, Universal Studios Japan
E.T. Adventure opened at 1990 at Universal Studios Florida – one of the park’s many collaborations with the film’s director, Steven Spielberg. The suspended dark ride sees guests climb aboard “bicycles” for a journey to return E.T. to his dying homeworld, the Green Planet. A “sequel” of sorts of the 1982 film, E.T.’s planet, and its colorful inhabitants were created specifically for the ride. After the successful opening in Florida, a second E.T. Adventure opened at Universal Studios Hollywood in 1991. A third E.T. Adventure opened alongside Universal Studios Japan in 2001.
Just two years after Japan’s opened, the closures began. The Californian version of the ride was gutted so that its soundstage could be converted into a West Coast version of the Modern Marvel: Revenge of the Mummy. (Hollywood’s ride is much different from Florida’s, largely because it had be downsized to fit into the E.T. Adventure building that was much smaller than Florida’s vacated Lost Legend: Kongfrontation). In Japan, E.T. Adventure closed after just eight years. In 2009, it became Space Fantasy: The Ride, an original spinning coaster you’ve got to see to believe, and just the kind of ride we’d like to see Universal Orlando consider.
The result is that just one E.T. Adventure remains – the original at Universal Studios Florida. In fact, it’s the only Opening Day Original left at the park… Given that the ride sits in a very large showbuilding right on the edge of the park’s very tired KidZone (which is largely seen as an obvious expansion pad), it’s worth keeping your fingers crossed that E.T. Adventure sticks around… and maybe savoring your next ride just in case…
4. Submarine Voyage
Last Place: Disneyland
Removed From: Magic Kingdom
Disneyland’s Submarine Voyage opened in 1959 as one of three brand new rides to debut in Tomorrowland on the same day, each designated the first-ever “E-Tickets.” The incredible attraction sent 38-passenger subs sailing through the crystal clear waters of Tomorrowland on a research mission, passing through progressively-“deeper” ecosystems like coral reefs, ship graveyards, and lost cities. When Magic Kingdom opened in 1971, submarines weren’t quite the stuff of “tomorrow” anymore, so the ride was cleverly relocated to Fantasyland with a new, literary spin – the Lost Legend: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Submarine Voyage. Both Submarine Voyage rides closed in the ’90s, when the financial downfall of Disneyland Paris doomed the high-cost, low-capacity attractions. And that, it seemed, would be that…
In 2005, a major shakeup on Disney leadership and the management of Disneyland Resort saw a major shift in thinking. As part of the park’s 50th Anniversary celebration, Disneyland announced that their submarines would return… now just attached to a high-earning box office property! The Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage opened in 2007. It seems a little silly that such a groundbreaking, showstopping ride system is essentially just used to shuttle guests past underwater screens with cartoon characters, but nonetheless, the survival of a Walt-original ride system is pretty commendable!
Even the surviving Submarine Voyage has some major hurdles to its long-term survival though… For one, the ride is still very costly to operate relative to a pretty low hourly capacity. It’s also somewhat problematic in drought-ridden Southern California. And probably most problematically, the ride is huge – quite literally, one of the largest showbuildings in any theme park – meaning that closing this one ride could essentially add an entire land to cramped, landlocked Disneyland… Gulp.
Given how much is leveled against the ride, it’s really no surprise that fans expected the COVID-19 pandemic to be the death knell of the Submarine Voyage. Its cramped quarters and recycled air could very well have been the last nail in the coffin. And indeed, even when the parks re-opened from a 14-month closure, the Submarine Voyage did not return… Shockingly, though, construction walls added around the lagoon in July 2021 promised the subs would “Resurface” that winter. It seems to be another Hail Mary save for the subs at Disneyland… but we’d still say it’s worth riding while you can.
5. Snow White’s Scary Adventures
Last Place: Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris
Removed From: Disneyland and Magic Kingdom
The story of the Lost Legend: Snow White’s Scary Adventures is quite a tome, mostly because there have been no less than seven distinct versions of the four Snow White rides around the globe, ranking on the “Scariness” scale from mild to practically terrifying. By the mid-90s, however, all four installations of the Snow White dark ride in Anaheim, Orlando, Tokyo, and Paris were approximately the same in scenes and tone – the ride many Millennials knew and loved (or feared) with a pretty strong emphasis on the Evil Queen and very little in the way of a “Happily ever after…”.
Magic Kingdom’s famously closed in 2012 as part of the park’s New Fantasyland. Its physical space was converted into a Disney Princess meet-and-greet facility, while its spirit and story transferred to the nearby Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Meanwhile, Disneyland’s version of the ride – like Mr. Toad, an Opening Day Original – was rebuilt from scratch in 1983 (when “Scary” was added to its name). It closed in January 2020 for a reimagining meant to officially soften the ride’s scariness. The ride re-opened on April 30, 2021 as “Snow White’s Enchanted Wish.” We explored what changed in a special feature, but basically, the ride still has its scary moments (including the best of the Witch’s scenes), just in a much more balanced retelling of the tale.
Of the three remaining Snow White dark rides, none have “Scary” in the name, but both Tokyo and Paris’ versions of the ride are pretty much what you’d remember from Magic Kingdom or Disneyland in the ’90s – the last chances to see the fright-focused versions of the dark ride.
6. JAWS
Last Place: Universal Studios Japan
Removed From: Universal Studios Florida
The Lost Legend: JAWS is just one of those rides that is forever engrained in the minds of those who experienced it. A demented take on the Jungle Cruise, the attraction sent guests on jolly skipper tours of the waterways of Amity Island, only to be continuously terrorized by animatronic sharks bursting out of the water! Absolutely anxiety-inducing and yet joyfully fun, JAWS was the kind of ride that develops a cult following… So much so that it’s hard to believe it’s gone.
The Amity area and the Jaws ride closed in early 2012 at Universal Studios Florida, becoming the London waterfront and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley. Unlike some of Universal’s more questionable ride swaps (and some of those “flavor-of-the-week” IPs), there’s no denying that Diagon Alley is a worthy replacement for Jaws (and contains a number of Jaws Easter eggs, too). But the idea that Jaws is just… gone? It’s kind of weird…
And luckily, it’s also wrong. Believe it or not, Jaws remains in action at Universal Studios Japan, complete with an Amity village area. Sure, the ride’s Skipper speaks Japanese… But frankly, the Japanese guests’ enthusiastic reactions on the ride need no translation. Point is, Jaws may be gone from Universal Studios Florida, but you can still face the great white head on in Osaka. We should note, though, that the ride is wedged up against Hogsmeade, perhaps offering a great expansion pad for a Japanese version of Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure…
7. Sky Ride
Last Place: Walt Disney World
Removed From: Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, and Tokyo Disneyland
Though it’s hard to imagine it today, when the Lost Legend: The Skyway opened at Disneyland in 1956, it was the first of its kind on the continent. Ever the futurist, Walt Disney imagined the efficient aerial ropeway as a genuine model of how people might commute in the future, with Disneyland’s ride as a mere prototype to one day be made real. Skyways were part of the 1971 and 1983 respective openings of Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland, even if by then, it was probably clear that the suspended buckets had been too closely associated with amusement parks to be taken seriously in cities.
Between 1994 and 1998, all three Disney Parks Skyways closed. In an era marked by attraction closures and project cancellations, the staffing-intensive rides with aging infrastructure were easy prey. Besides, it’s unlikely that the Skyways would’ve survived to today… After all, the ride’s illusion-shattering views of bleak, sunbaked rooftops and air conditioning units were “grandfathered in” to fans’ acceptability, but probably wouldn’t fare well in the era of immersive “Living Lands.”
The irony is that decades after they were dismissed from Disney Parks, the Skyway system made a surprise comeback…! Just as Walt had once imagined, the aerial ropeway became a legitimate transportation system for a real city… in this case, Lake Buena Vista. The Disney Skyliner opened in 2019, connecting four Disney resort hotels with Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. A massive success, fans eagerly await extensions to the intra-resort system, which already feels like a much more malleable 21st century alternative to the Monorail.
8. Carousel of Progress
Last Place: Magic Kingdom
Removed From: New York World’s Fair and Disneyland
Originally developed for the 1964 – 65 New York World’s Fair, the Modern Marvel: Carousel of Progress was quite literally one-of-a-kind – featuring absolutely groundbreaking, unthinkable, never-before-seen human Audio-Animatronics technology. Financed by General Electric (and merely one part of their Progressland pavilion at the Fair), the attraction followed one American family through the ages to see how technology (and more specifically, General Electric home appliances) promised “A Great, Big, Beautiful Tomorrow.”
Unlike many of the attractions on this list, there’s only one Carousel of Progress. After the Fair’s closure, the attraction was relocated to a custom-built revolving theater in 1967’s New Tomorrowland. But as the story goes, General Electric suspected that Disneyland’s regional draw meant that the show often played to diminishing crowds and repeat viewers – not worth their advertising and sponsorship dollars. When Walt Disney World opened, they requested that the show be relocated there, where international crowds and global attention would see GE’s message spread further.
With just a few frightening interruptions and ominous switches to the dreaded “Seasonal” status, Carousel of Progress continues to play today at Walt Disney World, even bestowed with the high honor of having “Walt Disney’s” as a prefix. Even if the attraction is badly in need of a facelift (or maybe even a more overt reimagining), its survival is important – Walt Disney allegedly called the attraction his personal favorite, and decreed that it should never cease operation. Here’s hoping!
9. PeopleMover
Last Place: Magic Kingdom
Removed From: Disneyland
Opened alongside Carousel of Progress as part of Walt’s “World on the Move” in 1967, the Lost Legend: The PeopleMover was a gentle component of Disneyland for decades. Envisioned by Walt as a sincere prototype of what efficient, urban mass transit of the future could hold, the sleek aerial highway whisked along the second story of the land, darting in and out of show buildings, through wooded parks, and over the bubbling lagoon of the Submarine Voyage.
When Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland came online in 1975, it contained a PeopleMover too – albeit, one using a different propulsion technology and a modified layout and experience. Even though the Californian and Floridian versions of the ride differ in their mechanics, they represented two of the highest capacity attractions ever designed.
Ultimately, Disneyland’s version of the ride closed forever in 1995 to be converted into the infamous Declassified Disaster: The Rocket Rods – a failed, drag-race-inspired, high-speed alternative that barely lasted two minutes, or two years. The result is that the PeopleMover is one of the rides that can only be found at Magic Kingdom. Every time the nearly-fifty-year-old ride closes for multi-month refurbishments or experiences unplanned maintenance, fans fear that Disney will finally give up on the ride… But perhaps because it’s the last, Walt Disney World’s version of the ride has been elevated to practical sainthood among Disney Parks fans, and makes the pilgrimage to Florida worthwhile even for the most devoted Disneyland enthusiasts.
