There are dozens of stunning theme parks all over the world, from the “roller coaster capital” of Cedar Point in Ohio to the visually stunning Tokyo DisneySea. For every theme park that has been constructed, though, half-a-dozen were designed but ultimately not built.
Here’s a rundown of 5 incredible theme park concepts that sadly never saw the light of day.
5. Disney’s America
First conceived in the early 1990s, Disney’s America was designed to celebrate this history of the US. Like Epcot at Walt Disney World, it would combine Disney’s creative flair with educational exhibits, and was to be located in Haymarket, Virginia. The concept was pushed hard by CEO Michael Eisner, who was prepared to spend hundreds of millions to make it a reality.
Disney’s Imagineers dreamed up a variety of themed lands for the park. This included Crossroads USA (a “village” designed to resemble a Civil War-era settlement), a Native American village, a Civil War fort and a replica of the Ellis Island building. Guests could chug around the entire park on a steam train, and enjoy the rides in the Coney Island-style State Fair area.
What went wrong? The project was canned in the face of local opposition in 1994. It was revived in 1997 as part of a plan to take over and reimagine Knott’s Berry Farm (close to Disneyland), but the Knott family refused to sell to Disney. Instead, the company incorporated many of the ideas put forward for Disney’s America into Disney California Adventure, which debuted in 2001.
4. The Battersea
John Broome, a millionaire property entrepreneur, turned Alton Towers into Britain’s first theme park in 1980. Flush with his success, he set his sights on creating a second major park elsewhere in the UK. Incredibly, he settled on building the park in and around Battersea Power Station, an iconic structure close to central London. If he could pull it off, the park would have a potential audience of millions of people within a short train ride from the site.
The Battersea, as the attraction was to be known, would boast a wide selection of rides, restaurants and shops spread across the building’s main gallery and two turbine halls. These would be connected by glass elevators, with a wall of water plunging down one side of the building. A balloon ride on the upper floor would be the main indoor attraction, while the area outside the power station would host a roller coaster and a rapids ride. Up to seven thousand visitors per hour were expected to arrive via a spectacular entrance colonnade. You can find out more about the Battersea theme park project here.
What went wrong? Broome wildly underestimated the cost of renovating the power station, which turned out to have no foundations and to contain tons of toxic Asbestos. Work stopped after just four month, but not before the roof was removed, leaving the building’s interior exposed to the elements for years.
3. DisneySea
Following the success of Walt Disney World, Disney was keen to transform Disneyland into a similar multi-day destination resort. The problem, though, was land – it didn’t have much of it to work with close to Disneyland. Instead, it proposed building a new resort in Long Beach, which it dubbed Port Disney and announced in 1990.
The headline park at the resort, DisneySea, would have feature a marine theme, and would have been accompanied by no fewer than 5 hotels, a cruise ship port, a marina and an evening entertainment area. Disney had already acquired the RMS Queen Mary (which would have become one of the hotels) and the Spruce Goose, which would have been incorporated into the new resort.
What went wrong? Disney thought that the EuroDisney project was a slam dunk. Instead, when it opened in 1992 it immediately began to haemorrhage money. CEO Michael Eisner lost his enthusiasm for the Port Disney project, and it was ultimately dropped.
2. Woburn Festival Park
Back in the 1980s, the Tussauds Group was looking to establish itself as the leading theme park operator in the UK. Backed by owner Pearson’s mega-bucks, it had already taken over Chessington Zoo and turned it into the exotic Chessington World of Adventures. By 1989, though, it was determined to overtake Alton Towers as the UK’s number one. After discussions with owner the Duke of Bedford, it decided to build a sprawling theme park in the grounds of the historic Woburn Abbey.
The Abbey was already home to Woburn Safari Park, where visitors could drive around large animal enclosures. This would be incorporated into the theme park’s design, although guests would now board “safari jeeps” for their journey. To help overcome issues around planning consent and noise restrictions, the rest of the theme park would be hidden away in the Abbey’s extensive woodlands. Duel, racing wooden roller coasters would be the main attraction, and guests would also be able to get soaked on a log flume and a rapids ride. Animals would feature in other attractions, such as the Jungle Queen boat ride.
What went wrong? Woburn Festival Park, as it was named, failed to gain planning approval from the local authorities, who were determined to preserve the “quiet atmosphere” of the area surrounding Woburn Abbey. Tussauds bought Alton Towers instead.
1. WestCOT
While it was planning Port Disney, Disney was considering an alternative approach for the Disneyland Resort. In the same year that it announced Port Disney, it also announced WestCOT, a West Coast version of the popular Epcot at Walt Disney World. It never intended to build both parks, but was instead playing the local authorities off against each other in a bid to secure incentives to build one park or the other.
Like Epcot, WestCOT was to be split into two main areas: Future World and World Showcase. Future World would host an enormous, 300-foot geodesic sphere inspired by Epcot’s Spaceship Earth. Inside would be the SpaceStation Earth attraction, while several other attractions based on those at Epcot were also planned. Unlike Epcot’s World Showcase, WestCOT’s version would not have featured pavilions inspired by individual countries. Instead, they were to be themed around regions, and would have hosted both rides and restaurants. An enormous boat ride, the World Cruise, would have passed through all of them .
What went wrong? Just as with Port Disney, a combination of financial constraints caused by the disastrous debut of EuroDisney and opposition from local residents led to the cancellation of WestCOT in 1995. Eventually, the much less ambitious Disney California Adventure was built on the site instead.
We may never get to visit any of these amazing theme parks, but at least we can enjoy them through concept artwork and designs. Many of the rides designed for these parks were installed elsewhere instead, so we can even enjoy a little piece of them for real!
