Walt Disney Imagineering sure has managed to make a lot of classics over the last 70 years. From Pirates of the Caribbean to Mystic Manor; Cars Land to Haunted Mansion; Indiana Jones Adventure to Tokyo DisneySea, you can see why fans tend to trust that Imagineers to get the job done.
But once in a while, there’s no question that Disney Parks simply get things wrong… disastrously wrong. And when a Disney attraction doesn’t stick, Imagineering fans don’t let it get swept under the rug. Today we’ve collected five infamous attractions that Imagineering fans hated. Whether they lasted a single year or decades, fans just never came around to accept these rides… and in fact, when these not-so-beloved rides finally closed, fans cheered! Were we right to root against these rides? Or were they better than Imagineering fans tend to remember? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below…
1. Enchanted Tiki Room: Under New Management
In the late ’90s and early 2000s, a whole lot changed very quickly at Disney Parks. The blockbuster, big-budget “Ride the Movies” era that had created The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Indiana Jones Adventure, Star Tours, and Splash Mountain was over. Now cost-conscious and eager to use the characters of the Disney Renaissance with as little budget as possible, Disney entered an era of rides equivalent to “straight-to-DVD” movies.
One of the most divisive was the Enchanted Tiki Room: Under New Management, retrofitting Walt Disney’s classic Tropical Serenade with wise-cracking Iago (from Aladdin) and the persnickety Zazu (from The Lion King). Immediately interrupting the classic “Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room” song, Iago now ridiculed the old-fashioned Tiki Birds, parodied songs from Aladdin, and generally infused slapstick, fart-joke humor into the attraction before being blasted to kingdom come by an angry, scary Tiki goddess.
Don’t misunderstand – for a generation of young Millennials, the cartoon-ified Tiki Room was the Tiki Room. Our in-depth history of the comical overlay saw “Under New Management” fans descend with comments about how much better the Iago & Zazu version was than the “boring, slow, old fashioned” original. But many Disney fans were relieved when the Enchanted Tiki Room: Under New Management caught on fire in January 2011, prompting Disney to at last retire the 13 year reimagining and restore the classic, Walt-approved show.
2. Rocket Rods
One of the surest ways to turn Disney fans against a project is to have it replace something they already love. And when that replacement turns out to be a major dud, it’s sure to draw some “we told you so” feedback.
That’s never been more true than in the case of the Rocket Rods. In theory, it was an interesting idea; that, in the midst of creating a New Tomorrowland for the 21st century, Disneyland would shutter its doting, leisurely, Space Age Lost Legend: The PeopleMover and repurpose its tracks for a high-speed, nimble, launched, aerodynamic thrill ride, weaving through the revitalized land.
Unfortunately, the Declassified Disaster: The Rocket Rods were a colossal failure. Unlike the massive capacity of the PeopleMover and its all-ages appeal, the five-passenger Rocket Rods were dismally low-capacity. To make matters worse, they hardly ever worked. Multi-hour queues would build for the ride as it constantly shut down and re-opened. Once on board, riders discovered that the free-wheeling thrill ride also had a major drawback: since the old PeopleMover’s turns weren’t banked, the cars needed to slow to a crawl for every turn in the track, wearing out tires, frazzling ride control systems, and generally cooling reception.
Schadenfreude flowed when the ride closed after just two years of operation, in September 2000. Signs promised that an extensive refurbishment would see the Rocket Rods return the following spring… but they never did. Problem is, neither did the PeopleMover. To this day, the old PeopleMover tracks winding through Tomorrowland are abandoned in plain sight… The lesson? Be careful what you wish for.
3. Superstar Limo
To take a tour through Disney’s California Adventure as it appeared in 2001 would leave most of us shocked… The brand new theme park across from Disneyland was supposed to turn the California park into an international, multi-day destination. Instead, the underbuilt, under-funded, and creatively starved California Adventure left locals avoiding the place altogether, and left Disney scrambling to figure out what to do next.
Though there wasn’t much to love about California Adventure, there was something that fans particularly hated. Located in the park’s barren Hollywood Pictures Backlot behind a flat facade resided the Declassified Disaster: Superstar Limo – a dark ride more fit for a beach boardwalk than for Disneyland. Riders boarded cartoon limousines where (via in-cab monitors) a cigar-smoking puppet agent instructed them to hit the road if they wanted to make it to the Hollywood premier of their own new starring picture.
What followed was a flat, blacklight tour of cartoon-style spoofs of L.A. neighborhoods populated by miniature, comic-stylized mechanical figures of Disney and ABC celebrities like Antonio Banderas, Melanie Griffith, Cher, and Whoopi Goldberg. Filled with in-jokes about Southern California’s hoity toity neighborhoods, the glow-in-the-dark ride was something of an embarrassment, embodying exactly what fans hated about the new park.
Believe it or not, Superstar Limo closed before the park’s first birthday. In other words, Disney’s own internal surveys must’ve found that California Adventure was stronger with no dark ride at all than with Superstar Limo. It wasn’t until 2006 that the resort-wide correction of Disneyland’s 50th finally repurposed the existing vehicles and track layout as Monsters Inc.: Mike & Sulley to the Rescue.
Fans may have hated Superstar Limo in life, but nowadays, saying you rode the short-lived failure is a real badge of honor. Even so, the biggest rides fans rallied against await on the last page…
4. Stitch’s Great Escape
The same era that saw Zazu and Iago join the Enchanted Tiki Room also coincided with another major problem for Disney Parks – the Lost Legend: Alien Encounter. Though now remembered as a cult classic, the multi-sensory, 1995 horror / special effects attraction had a major issue: it left families infuriated. Alien Encounter was a persistent problem whose tone was way out of scale with Magic Kingdom’s fairytale norms, and the edgy, “Ride the Movies” experiment left the park’s elementary audience quaking.
Luckily, 2002’s Lilo & Stitch offered just the solution. The film was a rare hit in the dry spell of Disney’s early-2000s animation slump, and Stitch himself became a breakout star for the company. (For most of the early 2000s, he joined the “Fab Five” alongside Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto on Disney merch!) It seemed like a match made in heaven. The hideous, carnivorous creature from Alien Encounter could swapped for Stitch, and with it, screams could become laughs, blood splatters could become Stitch spit, and alien breath could become chili dog burps.
The Declassified Disaster: Stitch’s Great Escape opened in November 2004… arguably, just as Stitch over-saturation left audiences tired of the mischievous alien. And though on paper it might’ve seemed like swapping one alien for another would be an even swap, Stitch’s Great Escape failed to find an audience. It was far too juvenile for teens and above, but still far too dark, claustrophobic, and frightening for anyone younger.
Reportedly, Disney’s internal evaluation suggested that guest satisfaction scores for the entire Magic Kingdom park were measurably higher on days when Stitch’s Great Escape was closed. Yet somehow, the attraction survived for over 13 years – far longer than the original Alien Encounter had existed to begin with. A running joke, the attraction wasn’t even “so bad it’s good.” It was just bad.
Stitch’s Great Escape switched to seasonal operation in 2016 – usually, a sign that a ride’s life is short. That seasonal status continued, with the ride operating on-and-off in busy periods. When crowds left after the New Year holidays in 2018, Stitch’s Great Escape shut down, too. But it didn’t re-open. Rumors ran rampant – especially when backstage photos seemed to capture the Stitch animatronic stripped for parts. It wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 that Disney finally fessed up that Stitch’s Great Escape would never re-open. Though rumors for what’s to become of the space have persisted, this is one fans were glad to see shuttered… and maybe, one that actually is better off as unused space than as Stitch’s Great Escape.
5. Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser
Disney has never tried anything quite like the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser… and for better or worse, they might never try anything quite like it again.
Plans for what would become the Galactic Starcruiser were initially announced at the D23 Expo in 2017. Allegedly the pet project of then-Chairman of Parks, Experiences, and Products, Bob Chapek, the Starcruiser sort of served as a climax of the “Living Lands” era started by the announcement of Universal’s Wizarding World a decade earlier. Like those fully immersive lands with their “in-universe” food, drink, and souvenirs, Galactic Starcruiser would invite guests to board the Halcyon, a luxury space-liner in the “Chandrila Lines” collection.
Something of a mix between an escape room, a cruise, and a theme park, the ultra-immersive experience became incarnate as a two-night, all-inclusive, totally-immersive “voyage” filled with entertainment, food, and experiences drawn from the Star Wars universe. That includes upscale alien meals accompanied by interstellar lounge singers, a full service bar (with unlimited Blue Milk on tap), training experiences on the starship’s bridge, live character interactions, app-based “missions,” interactive trainings on the ship’s bridge, Lightsaber training,, impromptu stunt shows, and an included visit to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Hollywood Studios, all wrapped in a two-day long, all-encompassing story.
Frankly, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser seemed to offer everything that had been promised for – but cut from – the Star Wars land back at Disney’s Hollywood Studios! So you’d think that fans would’ve been on its side… But then came the pricing.
Certainly given its all-inclusive nature, the “cruise-like” multi-day model, two nights of lodging, and one day’s admission to Hollywood Studios (with meals included), fans expected a voyage of the Starcruiser to be pricey… But few expected a two-night voyage to start at nearly $6,000. With incredibly limited capacity (only 100 cabins), the experience was highly personalized, but highly inaccessible. So much so that fans quickly turned on the concept, which reeked of Chapek’s love of ultra-premium upcharge experiences catered to one-percenters.
Now scrutinized as never before, every image and promotion from the Starcruiser was torn apart by fans online in the lead up to its opening. In fact, in the weeks before it made its debut, we asked our readers to lock in their answers as to whether Galactic Starcruiser would be a blockbuster or a bust, and overwhelmingly, fans hoped the experience would crash and burn. In some ways, that’s a shame… because those who did experience the Starcruiser called it a life-changing, industry-changing experience (even if they, too, said the price was simply too high to be sustained).
Unfair as it may be to the brilliant creatives, actors, and Cast Members who brought it to life, fans felt a little schadenfreude when, in June 2023, Disney made the shocking announcement that 18 months after its launch, the Starcruiser would be grounded. With the last voyages scheduled for September 2023, Chapek’s ultra-premium land-locked cruise was officially a bust – allegedly, a $300 million write-off for the company. We can hope that the best parts of the Galactic Starcruiser live on and that this doesn’t cool Disney’s interest in trying experimental new things… but we should also hope that they’ve learned the right lesson in what went wrong with the Starcruiser, because we hope fans never root for anything to fail quite like they did for this one…
