The unfortunate truth is that not every ride lasts forever. That said, most last longer than these ones! Every year, attractions come and go for various reasons. Aging technology, outdated stories, lost sponsorships, low ridership… sometimes, the reason is abundantly clear. Other times, we’re not even sure why an attraction left in the first place.
The attractions we’ve listed here have all disappeared completely or changed so drastically as to become unrecognizable. Maybe for a few, that’s a good thing. But with such short lifespans, you might not even remember a few of these. In some cases, more time was spent designing and building them than guests spent actually riding with them! Do you have memories of any of these short-lived attractions? Or were your vacations just a little too far apart to see them in action?
1. Flying Saucers
Location: Disneyland Park
Lifetime: August 6, 1961 – August 5, 1966 (5 years)
Replaced By: Space Mountain
A Tomorrowland attraction that couldn’t stand the test of time, the Flying Saucers were at least entirely unique. Riders sat in one-person saucers. As the ride cycle began, hundreds of valves in the ride’s field would begin emitting air. This would cause the saucers to “levitate” just over the ground, floating on a cushion of air not unlike a puck on an air hockey table. As riders leaned, the saucer would respond by zooming off in the desired direction.
At the end of the ride cycle, a massive arm would sweep across the “hockey table,” corralling the fourteen saucers against a path for riders to disembark. The movement of the arm would consequently have released fourteen other saucers that had been on an opposite bank where riders had just boarded. The ingenious mechanism was brilliant, but the ride still handled only 14 riders at a time. Coupled with its extreme cost to operate and its heavy maintenance needs, the ride simply didn’t earn a spot in New Tomorrowland in 1967. The Tomorrowland Stage replaced it. Today, Space Mountain occupies the spot.
Disney did make an attempt to pay homage to the retired concept with a new ride more than 50 years later. Unfortunately, it lasted even less time, and you’ll find it further down our list…
2. Rocket Rods
Location: Disneyland Park
Lifetime: May 22, 1998 – September 25, 2000 (2.5 years, intermittent)
Replaced By: Nothing
Disneyland’s Tomorrowland was looking pretty tired by the mid ‘90s. The Carousel Theatre had been vacant since 1987 (since its animatronic cast was “borrowed” by Splash Mountain), Captain EO was looking pretty dated in the Magic Eye Theatre, and Mission to Mars hadn’t been open for years. Worst of all, the sleek overhead highway of Walt’s PeopleMover had been motionless since 1995, a closure we chronicled in its own in-depth Lost Legends: Walt’s Tomorrowland feature. A change was needed.
In 1998, New Tomorrowland re-opened, cast in bronze and gold in an (ultimately doomed) recreation of Disneyland Paris’ more romanticized, European Discoveryland concept. Most of the “new” attractions for New Tomorrowland were recycled from Walt Disney World, but the most egregious was the land’s only headliner: The Rocket Rods had taken over the PeopleMover tracks overhead. A very preliminary version of the technology later perfected on Epcot’s Test Track, the powered vehicles accelerated through Tomorrowland at high speeds, tackling the twisting and turning PeopleMover track in a fraction of the time.
Problem is, they didn’t work. Budget cuts had left the PeopleMover track unchanged. That meant unbanked turns that required the Rods to screech to a halt at every twist in the convoluted track. Tires wore down weekly and were replaced constantly. What’s worse, the start-stop of each car frazzled computer systems, which constantly E-stopped the ride for hours at a time. The ride closed in mid-2000 with signs proclaiming a grand return in 2001. It never happened. The vehicles were scrapped. Literally, used as scrap. The Rocket Rods are easily recognized as one of the most infamously flubbed and failed attractions of all time.
Today, the empty track of the PeopleMover still curves its way throughout Tomorrowland as a forgotten testament to Walt’s concept of a World on the Move. At this point, ADA requirements make a return of the Peoplemover more or less impossible, though fans can find a similar ride still in operation at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom.
3. Superstar Limo
Location: Disney California Adventure
Lifetime: February 8, 2001 – January 11, 2002 (11 months)
Replaced By: Monsters Inc. Mike and Sulley to the Rescue
When Disney California Adventure opened in 2001, the park was almost immediately declared a loss by Disney Parks fans, who would rather have kept Disneyland’s parking lot than have the low-budget second gate. So disliked was the original park that it earned a must-read in-depth feature in our Designing Disaster series, where we walked through every ailing avenue. The original California Adventure committed many sins, not the least of which being its modern, “edgy,” distinctly-90s style that spoofed Californian culture rather than celebrating its reverent and romanticized history. A modern, circus-freak boardwalk with off-the-shelf carnival rides was a stark contrast to Disneyland Park’s idealized settings.
The worst offender was the park’s Hollywood Pictures Backlot land, inexplicably themed to a flat, façade-filled studio-style recreation of modern Hollywood (despite the real Hollywood being an hour away). Filled with tacky, modern puns and more restaurants than rides, Hollywood Pictures Backlot was a groaner. Its “starring” ride was the intolerable Superstar Limo, a comic-book style ride through the neighborhoods of Los Angeles passing horrific “small world” style dolls that looked like ABC soap opera celebrities and C-list Hollywood names like Whoopi Goldberg and Regis Philbin. Filled with in-jokes that only Los Angeles’ elite would care to understand, the ride was said to be a personal favorite of then-CEO Michael Eisner.
The self-referential mess of a ride was so poorly done, it didn’t seem possible that Disney could’ve allowed it. The ride lasted almost a whole year before it closed. There weren’t even any plans for a replacement. Superstar Limo had been the park’s only dark ride (compared to Disneyland’s dozen) and still the park was simply stronger without it. No replacement necessary. Talk about one of the worst failures in park history! In 2006, the infrastructure was re-used for a very nice family dark ride themed to Disney-Pixar’s Monsters Inc., and the land it’s in has taken great strides, including a re-branding as a vintage 1940s Hollywoodland during the park’s 2012 re-opening.
4. Poseidon’s Fury
Location: Universal’s Islands of Adventure
Lifetime: May 1999 – summer 2000 (1 year)
Replaced By: Poseison’s Fury (completely different version)
When Universal’s Islands of Adventure opened in 1999, it rightfully called itself “the most technology advanced theme park on Earth.” One huge piece of that title was thanks to Poseidon’s Fury, a walkthrough guided dark ride into the bowels of a dark and ancient temple dedicated to the Greek god of the seas. Narrated and guided by an old man named The Keeper, guests were told of an ancient battle between the kind Zeus and his power-hungry merman brother Poseidon. That’s when Poseidon awakens, sealing guests inside the temple and forcing them further into his grasp.
The only path is a waterlogged bridge through a spinning vortex leading into the massive city of Atlantis. There, the Keeper reveals that’s he’s been Zeus all along, disappearing in an instant and re-appearing on a water screen to battle the evil Poseidon. The climax, of course, is a special-effects-soaked show pitting fireballs and water alongside mist screens and collapsing rocks.
What Happened: Then, just a year into its run, things changed. Poseidon’s Fury was closed. After a brief period of closure, it re-opened with a new script, new effects, and new story with almost nothing in common with the original Poseidon’s Fury. Now set in the 1930s and given an Indiana-Jones-esque overlay, the attraction pairs guests with Taylor, a hapless intern of the Global Discovery Group currently excavating the temple. Here, Poseidon is the good guy, combating an ancient nemesis named (brace yourself) Lord Darkenon. The physical structure of the building remains the same, as do most of the key special effects (with one glaring change that rewrites the finale). Instead of the computer-generated hero and villain of the original, Poseidon and Darkenon appear in the finale thanks to Spandex-clad humans against a green screen.
Why? We don’t know. Few others seem to have any idea, either, and fans often blindly wish for the return of the more mythological original. According to Gary Goddard (the famed designer behind the new version), the original tested poorly with crowds (and particularly families) who found that it lacked action, that the Keeper was unconvincing (clearly a twenty-something heavily costumed to resemble an old man) and that the attraction had a nearly incomprehensible story. On a shoestring budget and forced to reuse as much of the original as possible, Mr. Goddard’s changes are as good as can be expected. The original show didn’t run long enough to be seen by many people, but video evidence can help the rest of us. If you’re hankering for more, take a look at the iconic collapsed Poseidon statue outside the temple or the bronze statue holding the marquee for the Treasures of Poseidon gift shop: it’s the original, animated merman, back when Poseidon was the bad guy.
5. Discovery River Boats
Location: Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Lifetime: April 22, 1998 – August 21, 1999 (16 months)
Replaced By: Nothing
If you’ve been to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, you probably have one very specific memory of the place: walking. The park is huge… among the largest amusement parks in the world at over 500 acres. When the park opened, it had a way to cut down on walking time: The Discovery River Boats. Circling Discovery Island (the park’s central land, with the Tree of Life), the Discovery River Boats had stops in Safari Village (later renamed Discovery Island since too many folks were looking there for Kilimanjaro Safaris) and in Asia.
Problem is, Animal Kingdom was very, very, very short on rides (it had only three when it opened) and Discovery River Boats sure sounded like a fourth! Folks queued for long periods to board the simple transportation ride. While it offered a “sneak peak” of the park’s lands (a triceratops animatronic drinking from the river on the banks of Dinoland, a fire-breathing cave on the shores of Camp Minnie-Mickey, etc), it was not intended to be an attraction on the Jungle Cruise scale despite the similar name and boats.
What Happened: A few months after the park opened, it was renamed the Discovery River Taxi to emphasize its transportive purpose. In March 1999, it was again renamed, this time as the Radio Disney River Cruise. In an odd example of synergy, Radio Disney DJs Just Plain Mark and Zippy claimed to be broadcasting from the branches of the Tree of Life (huh?). The ride’s path was also modified to return to the dock it departed from (so no more transportation) as Radio Disney songs played. By August, the boats had closed altogether. Their docks are still visible and accessible, being used as meet-and-greet locations.
6. Sinbad’s Seven Voyages
Location: Tokyo DisneySea
Lifetime: 2001 – 2005 (4 years)
Replaced By: Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage
When Tokyo DisneySea opened, it represented the next evolution of theme parks. Arguably, it’s still the best example of a theme park in the entire world. One of its themed “ports” is the gorgeous Arabian Coast. Loosely tied to Aladdin, the port is filled with unbelievable Middle Eastern castles and Arabesque domes. Just outside the city, though, is an old crumbling stone fortress, home to Sinbad’s Seven Voyages. The boat ride resembles “it’s a small world” in many ways, from its slow-moving flume to its doll-sized Audio Animatronics. But below the surface, the two couldn’t be more different. Sinbad told the story of the famed sailor / adventurer and his legendary exploits across the globe. And even if the Audio Animatronics were “small world” sized, the advanced figures are capable of unthinkable fluidity and dexterity, earning a position in our must-read countdown of the Best Animatronics on Earth!
Problem is, the ride was legitimately quite scary.
First, Sinbad encountered sinister green-skinned mermaids luring sailors to their doom against sharp rocks. Then he bumped into a massive whale hellbent on devouring Sinbad and his crew. The river then flowed past Sinbad’s encounter with an evil giant dangling the crew over guests’ boats to drop them. In the most horrifying scene of all, the boat flowed through a canyon populated with dozens of animatronic monkeys with dead black eyes, all shrieking and baring their fangs as they shook spears at riders with that unparalleled and startling fluidity and expression. The whole thing was pretty intense for a family boat ride, and perhaps one of the darker toned dark rides Disney had ever created.
What Happened: Thinking quickly, Tokyo Disney management set out to re-imagine the ride. Retitled Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage, the ride now sent guests through a charming storybook retelling Sinbad’s voyages from a distinctly lighter perspective. The sirens became beautiful helpful mermaids pointing the way; the whale gained a smile and eyelashes, carrying Sinbad and crew across the sea. The giant became a friend released from a cage by Sinbad thanks to a magical feather. Instead of threatening to kill the crew, the giant instead plays a humungous mandolin. The horrifying monkeys – while still innately pretty scary – now shake maracas instead of spears and offer riders bananas instead of poison dart guns.
Even more brilliantly, famed Disney songwriter Alan Menken was brought in to develop a theme song called “Compass of your Heart” (which is incredible). In “small world” style, the song repeats endlessly along the ride, sung by the mermaids, giant, Sinbad, and everyone else. And, the pièce de résistance, Sinbad was given a charming little pet tiger named Chandu to accompany him on his adventures. The itty bitty kitten is visible hiding in every scene, meowing along to the song and becoming a veritable icon of Tokyo Disney Resort. And just like that, the dark and scary Sinbad ride was given a new lease on life, by all accounts better than its first incarnation. What else can you expect from Tokyo Disney? You can view a video of the original ride here and the lighter Storybook Voyage here.
7. Triceratops Encounter
Location: Universal’s Islands of Adventure
Lifetime: 1999 – 2003; summer 2010 (4 years)
Replaced By: Nothing
Another testament to Universal’s Islands of Adventure’s technological prowess was the Triceratops Encounter, a stunning and cutting edge 21st century walkthrough that added tremendous layers of realism to the Jurassic Park Island. The attraction sent guests along a jungle path and to the park’s veterinary clinic where they could get a glimpse of the technology needed to care for these humungous creatures.
The real stunning moment, though, was when guests were invited to visit one of the triceratops currently resting at the facility. A group would be taken in to visit with Cera, Topper, or Chris as a Jurassic Park veterinarian explained the care and health of the animals. The animatronic dinosaurs would blink, breathe, sneeze, and even urinate. Guests chosen to approach the animals would find that they reacted to touch and sound with startling realism.
Triceratops Encounter was not a headlining E-ticket, but it was an impressive walk-through that really extended the realism of the world and extended the experience. As it is, the entire Jurassic Park Island has one single attraction. The rest is just jungle. Even if it makes for great atmosphere, the notion that an interactive and engaging walkthrough is rusting away in the woods is unfortunate and (to be very honest) leaves Jurassic Park with a lot of dead space. Triceratops Encounter was a nice balance to the River Adventure, and it’s a shame it’s gone.
What Happened: Since the attraction’s closure, designers from Universal Creative (Universal’s version of Imagineering) have spoken openly about the attraction stating that – quite frankly – the attraction simply didn’t live up to its own hype. While interesting, the attraction didn’t inspire the “wow” reaction they’d hoped for, perhaps in part because the animatronics were too realistic. They were meant to look tired, sluggish, and under heavy sedation, which certainly doesn’t make for the most engaging interaction. But even for guests who suspended their disbelief long enough to enjoy, Triceratops Encounter was a “one and done,” not worth revisiting on a second trip to Universal.
Triceratops Encounter closed after a few years at the park. After 7 years of being dark, it briefly re-opened in summer 2010 under the name Triceratops Discovery Trail to absorb summer crowds attending the brand new Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It closed as summer faded, and is once again overgrown with plants. The three animatronics and the extensive walkthrough and queue still exist in the jungle, just waiting to be flipped back on. Odd!
8. Sylvester McMonkey McBean’s Very Unusual Driving Machines
Location: Universal’s Islands of Adventure
Lifetime: Never Opened
Replaced By: High In The Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride
It isn’t too often that an advertised ride just completely fails to open. Such is the case, though, with the Very Unusual Driving Machines at Islands of Adventure’s Seuss Landing. The attraction was meant to send guests puttering around in sky-high carts weaving along twisted tracks in the sky. Sort of a mix of classic antique car rides, bumper cars, and Disney’s Peoplemover, the ride would’ve seen zany carts bumping into each other as riders controlled the speed of their nimble vehicles.
What Happened: The opening was postponed when it failed to open with the park (allegedly for safety issues, probably involving evacuation routes along the raised track). Universal eventually set the opening as “summer 2001,” but no such luck. The ride’s manufacturer went bankrupt, and Universal postponed the opening indefinitely in 2002. In 2006, the ride was re-built with new track sections and new trains that chug along at constant speed for an aerial tour of the Island with a hint of the tale of the Sneeches snuck in. Sylvester McMonkey was left behind as the ride was renamed The High In the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride.
9. Journey into YOUR Imagination
Image: Disney
Location: Epcot
Lifetime: October 1, 1999 – October 8, 2001 (2 years)
Replaced By: Journey Into Imagination With Figment
When Epcot opened, the concept behind it was admirably concise and brilliant – eight pavilions, each focused on a single topic and containing multiple attractions, shows, restaurants, or exhibits focused on that topic. The Imagination pavilion, for example, contained the incredible Journey Into Imagination dark ride where guests joined the enigmatic inventor Dreamfinder and his friendly purple dragon Figment on a literal trip through the arts and sciences of imagination. The original ride is often regarded as one of the best dark rides ever created, and earned its own in-depth feature… Lost Legends: Journey into Imagination.
What Happened: As the new millennium neared, designers went back to the drawing board to update the pavilion. Honey, I Shrunk The Audience was playing in the pavilion’s 3D theatre, so Imagineers decided to redesign the dark ride to match the Imagination Institute setting and theme of the film. The result was a brand new ride titled Journey Into YOUR Imagination. Dreamfinder, Figment, and their signature song (a Sherman Brothers ditty called “One Little Spark”) were reduced to mere hidden cameos while the ride became a tour of the cold, sterile Imagination Institute Labs guided by Eric Idle’s kooky Dr. Channing. As well, the dark ride’s track was physically cut and rerouted, shortening the ride from 11 minutes to 6 minutes. Fans reacted in outrage at the loss of the Tony Baxter original and the elimination of characters that had become icons of Epcot.
The ride didn’t last long in this ill-fated incarnation. It closed after just two years and re-opened as a third completely new version called Journey Into Imagination With Figment in June 2002, keeping the Imagination Institute and Dr. Channing story but re-inserting a more mischievous version of Figment throughout. The half-hearted re-do hasn’t calmed fans’ immense dislike of the new ride. It’s still open today and it continues to limp along in this third incarnation until something more permanent can take place.
10. Luigi’s Flying Tires
Location: Disney California Adventure
Lifetime: June 15, 2012 – January 11, 2015 (2.5 years)
Replaced By: Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters
Remember the Flying Saucers of Tomorrowland? Principal Creative Advisor of Walt Disney Imagineering John Lasseter did! Always enchanted by the floating hockey puck attraction, Lasseter saw a chance to revive the technology with 21st century precision in Cars Land at Disney California Adventure (based on the film by Pixar, where he’s the Chief Creative Officer). Luigi’s Flying Tired opened with Cars Land on June 15, 2012.
If the Flying Saucer’s two fatal flaws were capacity and upkeep, Lasseter had a plan to remedy at least the former: now, each Flying Tire would carry two or three passengers. The unfortunate trade-off was that the much-heavier vehicles float incredibly slowly on their air cushions. A joystick originally intended to help steer was found to be more or less useless given the bulky Tires’ slow motion dance and physically removed. Even if the ride could hold more guests per cycle, it was still a slow loader and a capacity nightmare in one of the most-visited parks in the world. Giant inflatable beach balls were added during the ride’s testing and stuck around for a bit, but they increased the ride’s loading time and irritated parents who didn’t see the fun in being struck by massive beach balls. Put simply, for as much as Luigi’s Flying Tires succeeded in resurrecting the Flying Saucers old ride system, it brought its own new frustrations. Disney could’ve let it stick around as a mildly-successful family ride, but decided to go back to the drawing board…
What Happened: True to rumors, Luigi’s closed forever in January, 2015. In its place parked Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters, where riders board Fiat cars that spin, drive, reverse, dance around one another, and accelerate around a festive family reunion for Luigi’s family. The ride uses the same Location Positioning System behind Tokyo DisneySea’s Aquatopia, meaning that the cars are not on a track of any kind. Instead, they circle each other, line up and perform line-dances, spin, swirl, and dance in perfect choreography. In short, the Roadsters have everything the Flying Tires lacked: bright kinetic colors, a zany and hidden technology, and an experience that’s as fun to watch as it is to ride. Seriously!
11. Jaws
Location: Universal Studios Florida
Lifetime: June 7, 1990 – August 1990 (2 months)
Replaced By: Jaws (completely new version)
Universal Studios Hollywood – a real, working film studio – always had a Studio Tram Tour as its highlight. The multi-hour attraction whisks guests through live film sets and past recreations of favorite scenes from Jaws, King Kong, and Earthquake – The Big One. Universal planned to duplicate the Tram Tour success with a second studio park in Florida… That is, until they heard that Disney was hurriedly constructing their own movie studio / theme park with a headlining tram tour as a preemptive strike. Thinking quickly, Universal split their tram tour into separate rides, producing a full, stand-alone ride for Earthquake, King Kong, and Jaws.
What Happened: Jaws – technologically similar to Disney’s Jungle Cruise – opened with the park in June 1990. It didn’t stay open. The ride was plagued with downtime and crushing breakdowns that evacuated the ride almost daily. After just two months, Universal closed the ride and sued the company behind it. Four new companies collaborated to re-build the ride from the ground up, including new technology, new scenes, and new effects. The new Jaws re-opened in a grand ceremony in Spring 1993 – three years after the ride had carried its first passengers. The Jaws most of us knew was quite different from the the original, short-lived version.
One particularly intense scene in the original saw Jaws bite onto the boat and swim forward, turning the boat 180-degrees (via a hidden turntable). The finale involved the on-board skipper launching a grenade into the shark’s open mouth as it exploded. Neither scene worked reliably, and the new version of the ride replaced them with the exploding gas dock and the electrical barge, respectively. You can see both scenes in this rare video of the original ride, which shows just how surprisingly complex the original animatronics were.
Memories?
A lot can change in a short bit of time. Some of these rides were so short-lived, they’re barely even remembered. Did you get lucky enough to see any of these attractions before they disappeared into the foggy memory banks of mystery? We want to hear all about your experience in the comments below, and be sure to let us know of any other attractions that seemingly disappeared as quickly and mysteriously as they appeared.
