I recently chronicled the opening day disaster at Disneyland that the world now knows as Black Sunday. Not everything that happened that day was terrible, though. Many of the attractions Uncle Walt and his Imagineers built for the debut of Disneyland have stood the test of time. I’m not talking about the Main Street to New Orleans Square Railroad, either.
Only nine attractions from Disneyland’s 1955 opening day still exist in some form today. Sure, some of them are a bit basic to the point that even modern technology can’t add to their level of excitement, but even the worst of them is meritorious in its own way. There aren’t many 60-year-old theme park rides still in operation today. So, let’s evaluate the timeless quality of the nine surviving attractions from Black Sunday.
9. Mad Tea Party
Ah, the vomitorium. Disneyland’s Mad Tea Party is one of the most divisive ride experiences in the entire theme park industry. I’m squarely on the NEED MORE DRAMAMINE side of the debate. Think about it like this. If you’re sitting at home and your tea cup is spinning, something’s gone horribly awry. Why would building an entire theme park attraction out of this concept be a net positive?
The worst part of Mad Tea Party is when you get stuck with some crazed child who thinks spinning the wheel is their sacred duty. It’s the closest that anybody can get to blackout drunk at Disneyland sans a visit to Club 33. Frankly, this ride peaks during the narration. Every moment after that is agony. Just watch this video of someone “turning a little” and then try to tell me you don’t want to puke.
8. Mark Twain Riverboat
Image: Disney
Considering that the Mark Twain almost pulled a Titanic on opening day, it is borderline miraculous that the steamer is still in operation today. I can’t say that the attraction itself holds a lot of interest any longer as it did back then. One of the primary purposes of the riverboat in its earliest form was to show off the beauty and wonder of Disneyland, something that everyone starts to take for granted after multiple visits. Arguably its greatest purpose these days is to provide weary travelers with a few minutes of downtime, assuming they’re not prone to seasickness. Still, no ride at Disneyland was more important to proud Missouri native Walt Disney, which is reason enough to show plenty of respect for the Mark Twain Riverboat.
7. Storybook Land Canal Boats
Image: Disney
It’s never a good sign when you’ve ridden something, likely more than once, yet you only have strong memories if a date went well. It’s also a bad sign that when you’re on this ride, a train specifically designed for children passes you like you’re standing still.
Okay, a lot of that is harsh. I readily acknowledge that a Storybook boat ride is a wonderful way to spend a few minutes during a beautiful California day. This attraction displays impeccable recreations of fairytale wonderlands such as Agrabah from Aladdin and London Park from Peter Pan. Also, it’s also entertaining the moment your boat enters the toothy mouth of Monstro the Whale. Still, it’s a boat that moves slower than a curling rock. This is the rare Disneyland attraction that the world has passed by over time. Still, Disney has cleverly jazzed it up a bit by having the onboard narrator add some Jungle Cruise-esque dialogue to liven up the surprisingly long ride.
6. King Arthur Carrousel
Image: Disney
I appreciate the inconsistency of slagging the canal boats for their lackadaisical pace and then ranking an old-fashioned carousel ahead of them. Stay with me here. Not all carousels are created equal. The attention to detail on this Fantasyland attraction was always noteworthy, even when it debuted.
Over time, Disney Imagineers have shined it up even more, crafting something that’s legitimately in the conversation for most beautiful carousel in the world. Given that it’s at Disneyland, where kids have tossed around all kinds of body fluids while riding it, the design team’s obsession with quality is all the more commendable. I have a healthy respect for craftsmanship, which is something King Arthur Carrousel always possessed thanks to the tender ministrations of Arrow Development and Disney. The 21st century modifications have only improved it.
5. Autopia
Image: Disney
In the early days of Disneyland, Autopia stood as its own cottage industry. Multiple versions of the ride existed in Tomorrowland and Fantasyland. As impossible as this is to imagination today, the interstate highway system was planned rather than completed at the time of Autopia’s debut. Walt Disney wanted to show a future in which our children would crisscross the country in the cars of the future.
Alas, Autopia reflects one of Uncle Walt’s rare miscalculations. He didn’t intend for the attraction to involve any bumping to the point that early iterations of the cars didn’t include bumpers. The early years of Autopia involved a lot of downtime for wrecked vehicles in desperate need of service. Today, Autopia is a pale imitation of driving simulators kids can play on their tablets, but it’s still a joyous experience shared between parents and children. Watching your kid gleefully attempt to ram the car in front of them never gets old. It also explains why automobile insurance is a mega-billion dollar industry.
4. Snow White’s Scary Adventures
Image: Disney
It’s not like Disney didn’t try to warn people with the name. An entire generation of children was scarred by their interactions with the Evil Queen. I’ve always believed that Snow White’s Scary Adventure got a bad rap. Yes, the concept is a bit confusing to piece together, but once you realize that you’re Snow White, it should make perfect sense.
To Disneyland’s credit, they never watered-down the premise by dialing it back like Walt Disney World did. I don’t view the eventual closure of the ride there as coincidence. Still, Snow White’s Scary Adventures is fairly long in the tooth. I maintain that in 1995, it was the most innovative ride on this list. Today, it’s an intriguing curiosity that offers insight into the creativity of the original batch of Imagineers.
3. Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride
Image: Disney
Oddly, when I think of Disneyland, this is one of the first attractions to pop into my head. The dazzling colors on display provide the appropriate connective tissue to link Disneyland the theme park with Walt Disney Productions the animated filmmakers. It was a spectacular achievement in ride design for 1955. Riders truly feel as if they’re experiencing a goofy cartoon adventure. The inimitable style of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride is something that Disney is smart never to attempt on other attractions. For some reason, it only works for this. Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin is something of a spiritual successor, though.
2. Peter Pan’s Flight
Image: Disney
In my Behind the Ride write-up for this attraction, I noted that the Aerial Galleon aka the ride cart “perfectly mimics the sensation of flying over London.” I’m in awe of the fact that Imagineers developed such sophisticated ride technology more than 60 years ago. They deduced what they needed to build to bring the Darlings’ Neverland adventure to life. Unlike the Snow White problems above, it worked perfectly from day one. It’s one of the finest examples of Imagineer ingenuity.
People tend to take the experience for granted today since they’ve ridden the ride so many times. After all, the ride experience has changed little from your childhood until today. That’s a credit to the mechanics of Peter Pan’s Flight rather than a criticism, though. It’s the ultimate Disneyland example of, “It ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Instead, Disney has sagely chosen to accentuate the Neverland journey at the core of the ride. They work to improve the set pieces as well as the attraction queue. There’s no reason to adjust the Flight itself. That’s already perfect.
1. Jungle Cruise
Image: Disney
If you read the Murky History of the attraction, you already know that I’m a huge mark for Jungle Cruise. It’s the silliest thing Walt Disney tried to do with Adventureland, whether he was consciously aware of that fact or not. Originally intended as something similar to what Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom eventually became, the people involved with the planning of Jungle Cruise decided to have some fun with the premise. The result is a series of jokes involving giant horns and humans desperately trying to avert getting the point in the end.
Fans of the ride know it so well by this point that they can recite the dialogue as easily as the guide. For that matter, if you want to join them, PDF downloads of the official script are available online. While critics note that Jungle Cruise was already stale when Walt Disney was still alive, I maintain that nothing stands the test of time better than a wry sense of humor. The narration for Jungle Cruise will be just as entertaining to the children of the 22nd century as it was to those who first rode it on Black Sunday. Out of the nine rides that debuted that day, Jungle Cruise remains the most enduring and enjoyable.
